Targeting Civilians

Gaza continues to send rocket after rocket to Israel. Yesterday they counted 50 rockets in one day.

Does anyone care?

My friend in Ashkelon, worked late last night for the city, convincing people that they are ready to protect their citizens with an early warning system and shelters.

Ashkelon is the oldest and largest Mediterranean seaport in Israel, 8 miles north of the Gaza Strip (about the same distance from Ramallah to Jerusalem).
It was first mentioned in Egyptian writings from the 19th century. One of the 5 cities conquered by the Philistines, along with Gath, Gaza, Ekron und Ashdod. (Josh.13:3,1 Sam.6:17) Samson went down from Timnah to Ashkelon (Judges 14:19) The population in 2005 was 117,000, making it today the 8th largest city in Israel. In 2005 the world's largest water desalination plant opened at Ashkelon.

It is not the first time that Ashkelon has been under rocket attack.
Hamas has rockets with a range of 22 kilometers. These rockets are able to hit Ashkelon from the heart of Gaza. - The Qassam rocket (also Kassam) is a simple steel rocket filled with explosives, produced by Hamas. Although they are sometimes erroneously referred to as missiles, they are free-flight artillery rockets lacking any guidance system. Qassams are sometimes referred to as "homemade" or "primitive", but critics dispute this, maintaining that they require "both expertise and dedicated locations to manufacture," and that "these rockets are manufactured in industrial areas by the Palestinians themselves".

The Katyusha was originally a World War II-era Soviet rocket. A rocket is a missile on a smaller scale and with a smaller quantity of explosive material. Like the missile, a rocket consists of a warhead containing the explosive material, a body containing the fuel powering the rocket's flight, and a tail in which the engine is located, which also stabilizes the rocket during its flight. Rockets can be launched by operators who are near the rocket launcher when it is fired, or by means of a delayed timer (which doesn't require an operator being near the position when it is fired). The devices are easy to move and to conceal, and can be assembled on the back of a vehicle in order to make it quicker to move them to the launch site and take them away after firing.

Yesterday a total of 24 people are hospitalized, mostly for shock, after eight long-range Grad rockets hit the coastal city of Ashkelon. According to Arutz Sheva, the Katyusha-like rockets were fired in several waves in the mid-afternoon hours. Two rockets slammed directly into residential homes, and shock victims were treated at the sites. One rocket landed at the northern entrance to town, and marks the longest-range hit to date. Later in the day, eight more Kassam rockets were fired into Israel; four of them landed north and east of Gaza, and four landed in Ashkelon.- On Wednesday, Roni Yihye, 47, a father of four, was killed by a Kassam rocket in Sapir College Wednesday. He was from Moshav Bitcha, a moshav (agricultural community) located near Ofakim.

I hear Palestinians complain about Israelis targeting their civilians. But when we read the news, we find out that they removed specific terrorists in surgical operations. They have it backwards because the Palestinian rockets are the ones that are purposely fired at civilian populations and therefore always targeting civilians.

Shalom - Lilo

3 in 4 US Mosques preach anti-Western Extremism

HOMELAND INSECURITY

Study: 3 in 4 U.S. mosques preach anti-West extremism

Secret survey exposes widespread radicalism
Posted: February 23, 20089:51 pm Eastern© 2008 WorldNetDaily
An undercover survey of more than 100 mosques and Islamic schools in America has exposed widespread radicalism, including the alarming finding that 3 in 4 Islamic centers are hotbeds of anti-Western extremism, WND has learned.
The Mapping Sharia in America Project, sponsored by the Washington-based Center for Security Policy, has trained former counterintelligence and counterterrorism agents from the FBI, CIA and U.S. military, who are skilled in Arabic and Urdu, to conduct undercover reconnaissance at some 2,300 mosques and Islamic centers and schools across the country.
"So far of 100 mapped, 75 should be on a watchlist," an official familiar with the project said.
Many of the Islamic centers are operating under the auspices of the Saudi Arabian government and U.S. front groups for the radical Muslim Brotherhood based in Egypt.
Frank Gaffney, a former Pentagon official who runs the Center for Security Policy, says the results of the survey have not yet been published. But he confirmed that "the vast majority" are inciting insurrection and jihad through sermons by Saudi-trained imams and anti-Western literature, videos and textbooks.

The project, headed by David Yerushalmi, a lawyer and expert on sharia law, has finished collecting data from the first cohort of 102 mosques and schools. Preliminary findings indicate that almost 80 percent of the group exhibit a high level of sharia-compliance and jihadi threat, including:
Ultra-orthodox worship in which women are separated from men in the prayer hall and must enter the mosque from a separate, usually back, entrance; and are required to wear hijabs.
Sermons that preach women are inferior to men and can be beaten for disobedience; that non-Muslims, particularly Jews, are infidels and inferior to Muslims; that jihad or support of jihad is not only a Muslim's duty but the noblest way, and suicide bombers and other so-called "martyrs" are worthy of the highest praise; and that an Islamic caliphate should one day encompass the U.S.
Solicitation of financial support for jihad.
Bookstores that sell books, CDs and DVDs promoting jihad and glorifying martyrdom.
Though not all mosques in America are radicalized, many have tended to serve as safe havens and meeting points for Islamic terrorist groups. Experts say there are at least 40 episodes of extremists and terrorists being connected to mosques in the past decade alone.
Some of the 9/11 hijackers, in fact, received aid and counsel from one of the largest mosques in the Washington, D.C., area. Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center is one of the mosques indentified by undercover investigators as a hive of terrorist activity and other extremism.
It was founded and is currently run by leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. Imams there preach what is called "jihad qital," which means physical jihad, and incite violence and hatred against the U.S.
Dar al-Hijrah's ultimate goal, investigators say, is to turn the U.S. into an Islamic state governed by sharia law.
Another D.C.-area mosque, the ADAMS Center, was founded and financed by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and has been one of the top distributors of Wahhabist anti-Semitic and anti-Christian dogma.
Even with such radical mosques operating in its backyard, the U.S. government has not undertaken its own systematic investigation of U.S. mosques.
In contrast, European Union security officials are analyzing member-state mosques, examining the training and funding sources of imams, in a large-scale project.
Some U.S. lawmakers want the U.S. to conduct its own investigation.
"We have too many mosques in this country," said Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y. "There are too many people who are sympathetic to radical Islam. We should be looking at them more carefully."

From http://www.jihadinamerica.com:

Terrorists Among Us:

Jihad In America Jihad in America, a PBS documentary first aired nationwide in 1994, was produced by investigative reporter Steven Emerson after the first bombing of the World Trade Towers in 1993. The documentary was recently updated following terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001.
In making this groundbreaking documentary, Emerson was the first American journalist to document in chilling video the militant Islamic support networks and terrorist groups secretly operating on American soil. Counter-terrorism officials from the National Security Council, Justice Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have acknowledged that Emerson's documentary demonstrated that he had more reliable and accurate information about the secret terrorist networks on American soil than the US Government . Emerson was successful in infiltrating key conferences and rallies with hidden cameras in an effort to track down the people responsible for supporting and abetting terrorist activities on U.S. soil. At these events, and on this film, these extremists state their chilling intentions in their own words.
The film, then and now, has brought the attention of the U.S. government authorities to the network of Islamic extremists in the United States that promote a culture of hatred, arrange for training in bomb-making and target practice, raise funds for militant groups in the Middle East, and in some cases, support terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. The film tracks down and shows interviews with a network of Islamic extremists in New York, Boston, New Jersey, Texas, California, Florida and Kansas, detailing their hatred and violent intentions against all Americans, including Christians, moderate Muslims and Jews in the United States.
Emerson emphasizes throughout the one-hour documentary that the majority of Muslims in the United States do not support terrorist activities. He also says that Islam, as a faith, condemns such acts of terrorism. Emerson also notes, that the Islamic extremists who promote and carry out Jihad, are as a great a threat to moderate Muslims as they are to Christians, Jews and all American citizens.
The video is an educational call to action for the American public, to provide U.S. law enforcement authorities with the tools they need to deal with this real threat to the American way of life. By educating the public, the film suggests that effective preventative measures can then be taken. Suggestions by counter-terrorism experts throughout the video help us understand the scope of the threat and what needs to be done to protect U.S. citizens, while at the same time preserving civil liberties.
Description: Information the CIA and FBI never told the public is revealed and why the FBI is restricted in what it may lawfully do.
The New York Times called the film, "A wake-up call that Middle Eastern terrorism is a very real threat to the United States."
The film tracks down a network of Islamic Extremists among us in New York, Boston, New Jersey, Texas, California, Oregon, Florida and Kansas, detailing their hatred and violent intentions against Christians, moderate Muslims and Jews in the United States.
Listen to Islamic radicals, telling their followers to carry out Jihad on U.S. soil.
See the fund raising structure in America that supports terrorists and the legitimization of radical Islamic groups, hiding behind "charitable" fronts.
The video is an educational call to action for the American public, to provide U.S. law enforcement authorities with the tools they need to deal with this real threat to the American way of life.
The Islamic Extremists who promote and carry out Jihad, are a threat to moderate Muslims as they are to Christians, Jews and to all American citizens.

Resisting Islamic Law

by Daniel PipesJerusalem PostFebruary 21, 2008


Westerners opposed to the application of the Islamic law (the Shari‘a) watch with dismay as it goes from strength to strength in their countries – harems increasingly accepted, a church leader endorsing Islamic law, a judge referring to the Koran, clandestine Muslim courts meting out justice. What can be done to stop the progress of this medieval legal system so deeply at odds with modern life, one that oppresses women and turns non-Muslims into second-class citizens?


A first step is for Westerners to mount a united front against the Shari‘a. Facing near-unanimous hostility, Islamists back down. For one example, note the retreat last week by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in a dispute concerning guide dogs used by the blind.


Muslims traditionally consider dogs impure animals to be avoided, creating an aversion that becomes problematic when Muslim store-owners or taxi drivers deny service to blind Westerners relying on service dogs. I have collected fifteen such cases on my weblog, at "Muslim Taxi Drivers vs. Seeing-Eye Dogs": five from the United States (New Orleans, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Brooksville, Fl.; Everett, Wash.); four from Canada (Vancouver, twice in Edmonton, Fort McMurray, Alberta); three from the United Kingdom (Cambridge, twice in London); two from Australia (Melbourne, Sydney); and one from Norway (Oslo).
News accounts quote Muslim cabbies rudely rejecting blind would-be passengers, yelling at them, "No dog, No dog, Get out, get out"; "Get that dog out of here"; and "No dogs, no dogs." The blind find themselves rejected, humiliated, abandoned, insulted, or even injured, left in the rain, dropped in the middle of nowhere, made late for an appointment, or caused to miss a flight.



Australian Human Rights Commissioner Graeme Innes and his guide dog. Innes is often denied service by taxi drivers.Islamist organizations initially responded to this problem by supporting anti-canine cabbies. The Muslim Association of Canada pointed out how Muslims generally regard dog saliva as unclean. CAIR on one occasion echoed this assertion, claiming that "the saliva of dogs invalidates the ritual purity needed for prayer." On another, the head of CAIR, Nihad Awad, declared that "People from the Middle East especially … have been indoctrinated with a kind of fear of dogs" and justified a driver rejecting a guide dog on the grounds that he "has a genuine fear and he acted in good faith. He acted in accordance with his religious beliefs."

However, when the police and the courts are called in, the legal rights of the blind to their basic needs and their dignity almost always trump the Muslim dislike for dogs. The Muslim proprietor or driver invariably finds himself admonished, fined, re-educated, warned, or even jailed. The judge who found a cabby's behavior to be "a total disgrace" spoke for many.


CAIR, realizing that its approach had failed in the courts of both law and of public opinion, suddenly and nimbly switched sides. In a cynical maneuver, for example, it organized 300 cabbies in Minneapolis to provide free rides for participants at a National Federation of the Blind conference. (Unconvinced by this obvious ploy, a federation official responded: "We really are uncomfortable … with the offer of getting free rides. We don't think that solves anything. We believe the cabdrivers need to realize that the law says they will not turn down a blind person.") And, finally, last week, the Canadian office of CAIR issued a statement urging Muslims to accommodate blind taxi passengers, quoting a board member that "Islam allows for dogs to be used by the visually impaired."
CAIR's capitulation contains an important lesson: When Westerners broadly agree on rejecting a specific Islamic law or tradition and unite against it, Western Islamists must adjust to the majority's will. Guide dogs for the blind represent just one of many such consensus issues; others tend to involve women, such as husbands beating wives, the burqa head coverings, female genital mutilation, and "honor" killings. Western unity can also compel Islamists to denounce their preferred positions in areas such as slavery and Shar‘i-compliant finances.


Other Islam-derived practices do not (yet) exist in the West but do prevail in the Muslim world. These include punishing a woman for being raped, exploiting children as suicide bombers, and executing offenders for such crimes as converting out of Islam, adultery, having a child out of wedlock, or witchcraft. Western solidarity can win concessions in these areas too.


If Westerners stick together, the Shari‘a is doomed. If we do not, we are doomed.

A Question from the Front Lines

As the sun peeks over the snowcapped hills of Samaria, the red-roofed homes of Shiloh begin to glow. We’ve just spent the night protecting these Jews from the hostile Arab villages surrounding them, and despite the freezing wind whipping at our exhausted bodies, there is nothing we would rather be doing.
Serving in the first Jewish army in almost two millennia, one can’t help feeling a part of Jewish destiny. Before departing for our nightly mission, we gathered with weapons slung over our shoulders to pray ma’ariv (the evening prayers), and while these prayers are no different than those whispered by our fathers and grandfathers before us, we say them with a spirit that has been lost for ages. We are living a Judaism stripped of the fear, distortions and complexes that resulted from living in strange lands, at the mercy of the merciless. It’s the Judaism that God originally intended, “to teach you the statutes and ordinances that you should do in the Land which you go over to possess” (Deut. 4). Not an exile Judaism, but a biblical Judaism.
For almost 2,000 years, Jews would read the stories of Joshua, Samson, Gideon and King David; feeling disconnected from these biblical heroes -­ lion-hearted men who walked with God while protecting their homeland. How could a Polish Jew, gaunt and pale, trembling at the thought of yet another pogrom, identify with David, a psalm-composing warrior king?
Today, as Israel faces tens of millions who seek our annihilation, we read David’s psalms with helmets on, and feel for the first time as if the king’s words are our own. “All the nations surround me; in the name of God, I cut them down.” Instead of cowering in fear, the Jews of Israel once again stand proud.

While we were scattered among the nations, without a country of our own, all the laws of government and statehood, which are an inseparable part of God’s Torah, were regarded as irrelevant. All the concepts of people and nationhood, of leaders and wars, of normal, natural life were filed away. Today with every 18-year-old serving in the army, the laws of war, celebrating the Sabbath in times of combat, and all other issues of Jewish statehood are being revitalized. Finally, Judaism is returning to its true status, not only as a religion but as a nation. New dimensions of Torah and godliness are being revealed every day.
The Jewish dream is being realized: “To be a free people in our land” (from the Israeli national anthem). Every Jew serving in the Israeli army, no matter what background or religious view, is a fulfillment of that dream. Although there are many pious and observant people in the exile, every soldier in the IDF is on the front lines of Jewish destiny, and that collective national bond can only be experienced in the Land of Israel.
On guard duty last night, we had a conversation with a soldier named Shachar. He has long hair, a few earrings, and is scheduled for another session of meditation in India when our service is over. After a heated debate about the political situation in Israel, a debate which lasted as long as our two-hour patrol, Shachar concluded with an idea that has changed us. He said: “No matter who is here doing reserve duty -­ religious, non-religious, left, right or center ­- all of us are ready to give our lives for the Jewish people and the Jewish state, and that is a unity and a love you can¹t find anywhere else.”The State of Israel and the army which protects her has forced us, as a nation, to reassess what constitutes the true spirit of Judaism. The question we must ask ourselves is whether a kippa-wearing, Sabbath-observing Jew in New York is indeed more religious than a “secular” tattooed Tel Avivian who is ready to give his life defending the Jewish People and the Land of Israel.

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Banana Miracle

Tamar Yonah wrote in a blog that she was sent this email by a friend of hers, who actually knows the son of the person who saw this:”A completely secular Banana farmer decided he would keep Shmita according to G-D’s biblical instructions.”

Shmitah is the seventh or sabbatical year of the agricultural cycle, mandated by the Torah for the Land of Israel. During Shmitah, the land is left to lay fallow and all agricultural activity—including plowing, planting, pruning and harvesting—is forbidden by Torah law. Other cultivation techniques—such as watering, fertilizing, weeding, spraying, trimming and mowing—may be performed as a preventative measure only, not to improve the growth of trees or plants. Additionally, any fruits which grow of their own accord are deemed hefker (ownerless) and may be picked by anyone. A variety of laws also apply to the sale, consumption and disposal of Shmitah produce. The Book of Leviticus promises bountiful harvests to those who observe the shmitah and makes observance a test of religious faith.

Now, Israel has suffered a significant cold spell over the past two to three weeks. Bananas don’t like cold. When you put your bananas in your refrigerator, they turn brown. When growing bananas get hit with frost, they turn brown and become rock-solid hard.

Tamar continues: “The hero of our story, Gibor Koach the banana farmer, began to receive calls from his neighbor farmers, who have orchards bordering his, complaining bitterly that their entire banana crop had been destroyed by the frost. He decided it was time to inspect the damage up close, no matter how painful it may be.

He drove up close to Tiberius to inspect his orchard, as well as those of his neighboring farmers. As he passed from one orchard to another, he was overwhelmed by the damage. Not a single fruit had survived, no tree was spared. His neighbors took quite a beating. All the bananas were brown, hard as a rock.

He could only imagine how bad his trees must have gotten it.
Yet when he finally got to his orchard, he was awestruck! ALL of his bananas were yellow and green. It’s as if his orchard was not part of this parcel of land. His orchard bordered those of his neighbors, but not a single tree of his was struck by the frost. It’s as if a protective wall kept the damage away. At first he thought he was imagining it, and as he rushed from one section of his orchard to another, the realization that more than the farmer keeps the Shmitah, the Shmitah keeps the farmer hit home.

He immediately called his contacts at Keren HaShviis and yelled into the phone, “Karah Nes, Karah Nes!” ( A miracle happened, a miracle happened!)”
A miraculous modern-day manifestation of “V’Tzivisi Es HaBracha”.
There is no way to explain this other than that HaKodesh Baruch Hu keeps His promises. He says keep Shmitah, and I’ll take care of you. He sure does!”
Think about this the next time you eat a banana!

Why Are Most Of My Blogs About Israel?

Hello everyone.

I just found this dashboard because a friend of mine is using it for his blogs.

It looked inviting and user friendly, and I decided to give it a try.

You will find that most of my blogs are about Israel. Why? Because the eyes of the whole world seem to be focused on that tiny sliver of land in the Middle East.

The Bible predicted that Israel would lie in waste and desolation for two- thousand years, until it would be made to bloom again!

It is a nation that survived in dispersal! The prophets predicted that they would return and that they would be strong again! Even their Hebrew language didn't die!

For thousands of years people have been fascinated with predictions of the end of the world. Many prophecies leave us in no doubt that increasingly cataclysmic events will occur before G-D's direct intervention in human affairs.

Are we living in the time of the end? - Israel is G-D's billboard to the world. It is His sign of impending events. - Israel is the key. History proclaims its past. Headlines proclaims its present. Prophecy proclaims its future.

You can either read your bible or your news paper. It makes no difference. G-D's road map for Israel and the rest of the world is right on time.

Shavua tov - Lilo