Fancy Restaurants And Olympic-Size Pools

Fancy restaurants and Olympic-size pools: What the media won’t report about Gaza


Special to the National Post May 25, 2010

By Tom Gross



In recent days, the international media, particularly in Europe and

the Mideast, has been full of stories about “activist boats sailing to

Gaza carrying desperately-needed humanitarian aid and building

materials.”



The BBC World Service even led its world news broadcasts with this

story at one point over the weekend. (The BBC yesterday boasted that

its global news audience has now risen to 220 million persons a week,

making it by far the biggest news broadcaster in the world.)



Indeed the BBC and other prominent Western media regularly lead their

viewers and readers astray with accounts of a non-existent “mass

humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.



What they won’t tell you about are the fancy new restaurants and

swimming pools of Gaza, or about the wind surfing competitions on Gaza

beaches, or the Strip’s crowded shops and markets. Many Palestinians

in the West Bank and Gaza live a middle class (and in some cases an

upper class) lifestyle that western journalists refuse to report on

because it doesn’t fit with the simplistic story they were sent to

write.



Here, courtesy of the Palestinian Ma’an news agency, is a report on

Gaza’s new Olympic-sized swimming pool . (Most Israeli towns don’t

have Olympic-size swimming pools. One wonders how an area that claims

to be starved of water and building materials and depends on

humanitarian aid builds an Olympic size swimming pool and creates a

luxury lifestyle for some while others are forced to live in abject

poverty as political pawn refugees?)



If you pop into the Roots Club in Gaza, according to the Lonely Planet

guidebook, you can “dine on steak au poivre and chicken cordon bleu”.



The restaurant’s website in Arabic gives a window into middle class

dining and the lifestyle of Hamas officials in Gaza. And here it is in

English, for all the journalists, UN types and NGO staff who regularly

frequent this and other nice Gaza restaurants (but don’t tell their

readers about them).



And here is a promotional video of the club restaurant. In case anyone

doubts the authenticity of this video, I just called the club in Gaza

City and had a nice chat with the manager who proudly confirmed

business is booming and many Palestinians and international guests are

dining there.



In a piece for The Wall Street Journal last year, I documented the

“after effects” of a previous “emergency Gaza boat flotilla,” when the

arrivals were seen afterwards purchasing souvenirs in well-stocked

shops. (You can also scroll down here for more pictures of Gaza’s

“impoverished” shops.)



But the mainstream liberal international media won’t report on any of

this. Playing the manipulative game of the BBC is easy: if we had

their vast taxpayer funded resources, we too could produce reports

about parts of London, Manchester and Glasgow and make it look as

though there is a humanitarian catastrophe throughout the UK. We could

produce the same effect by selectively filming seedy parts of Paris

and Rome and New York and Los Angeles too.



Of course there is poverty in Gaza. There is poverty in parts of

Israel too. (When was the last time a foreign journalist based in

Israel left the pampered lounge bars and restaurants of the King David

and American Colony hotels in Jerusalem and went to check out the

slum-like areas of southern Tel Aviv? Or the hard-hit Negev towns of

Netivot or Rahat?)



But the way that many prominent Western news media are deliberately

misleading global audiences and systematically creating the false

impression that people are somehow starving in Gaza, and that it is

all Israel’s fault, can only serve to increase hatred for the Jewish

state ­ which one suspects was the goal of many of the editors and

reporters involved in the first place.



Tom Gross is a former Middle East correspondent for the London Sunday

Telegraph and the New York Daily News.

Obama Advisor Calls Jerusalem Al-Kuds

Oh my goodness, just when I thought I had heard it all, it gets worse.

I read in the Israel National News, that John Brennan, Obama's Chief Adviser on Counterterrorism for Homeland Security, was speaking to a Muslim audience at New York University in February, at a forum co-hosted by the White House and the Islamic Center at New York University." Brennan first told a story in Arabic, evoking laughter and concluding with, “Don’t tell the folks who don’t speak Arabic what I said.” – That’s the same thing Yasser Arafat used to do, tell Americans in English something completely different than his own people in Arabic.

John Brennan continued then, actually calling the city of Jerusalem by the name Muslims use to refer to it - the Arabic name "Al-Quds." - Really? Has that guy ever read the Bible?

Jerusalem is mentioned many hundreds of times in the Jewish Bible, while Jerusalem isn't mentioned in Islam's "Koran" at all. How ignorant is this guy who is advising the Office of Homeland Security? Are you feeling safe when this office secures your homeland?

The history of Jerusalem only goes back to the 4th millennium BCE, making it one of the oldest cities in the world. Jerusalem is the holiest city in Judaism and has been the spiritual center of the Jewish people since c. 1000 BCE, when David, the King of Israel, first established it as the capital of the united Kingdom of Israel, and his son Solomon commissioned the building of the First Temple in that city.

“These comments by John Brennan are as outrageous as they are deeply troubling,” ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “No one refers to Jerusalem in the English language as Al-Quds, unless they have a specific political, anti-Israel agenda - in this case, pandering to Israel’s enemies, who will draw comfort from the use of the term Al-Quds by a senior U.S. government official.”

But wait, it gets even better. John Brennan also praised Saudi Arabian religious tolerance, when everyone knows that religious freedom in that country is virtually non-existent. The Saudi Government does not provide legal recognition or protection for freedom of religion, and it is severely restricted in practice. Moreover, any preaching and public practice of non-Muslim religions is prohibited.

Who hired this guy to fill that position in the government?

Listen for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wglrLBqYxQ

Change Is Coming

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The Middle East has always had its conflicts and many wars have broken out in that region. Why should another one change the world? While the situation in the Middle East is generally unstable, it could move the world into a disaster zone this summer or fall.

Whenever Israel (the "epicenter") is involved, we should pay attention. We must "understand the times" from a biblical perspective.

Dark storm clouds are on the horizon in the Middle East.

A legion of nations is scheming to wipe out Israel. These nations include Iran, Syria, Russia, and the Hezbollah which operates in Lebanon. The Iranians are working with Syria and Hezbollah and are planning to stop Israel's expected pre-emptive move against Iran.

Many sources think that the chaos will begin in a few weeks to a few months. It is all based on the fact that Iran is now set to go with her nukes and most of them are pointed at Israel.

Obama, for the first time since taking office 14 months ago, is sending military reinforcements to the Persian Gulf.

A few weeks ago a Soviet sub was seen docked in Beirut, Lebanon, flying the Iranian flag. Workers on the sub seemed to be wearing masks, suggesting that they were unloading chemical weapons of mass destruction.

Hezbollah’s offensive plan includes chemically armed SCUD missiles with a 450 km range, preemptive strikes on Israeli air fields, and a wave of tunnel attacks that cross from Lebanon into Israel. There are some 60,000 rockets and missiles hiding in houses, orchards, and miscellaneous buildings in Lebanon. Some of these are advanced scuds which have the capability to hit every city in Israel. The intention is to rein terror on Israel with maximum damage. – My husband had a dream a while ago, in which he saw the sky blackened from missiles coming from Lebanon towards Tel Aviv.

Israel has a superior air-force, and Israel's jets and airstrips are therefore a target of the enemy. Hezbollah and other participants in this forthcoming battle want to make it impossible for Israel to strike anyone by air. They think, chemical weapons of mass destruction and thousands of scud missiles should neutralize Israel's fighter jets.

In the meantime Israel has been giving out gas masks -- a procedure that has become all too frequent --, and the IDF is preparing for mass evacuations from high-risk zones - such as Tel Aviv, in case of Hezbollah missile strike.

The enemy is stocking up on young people who will joyfully place themselves in positions where they can self-detonate with maximum damage. They will likely use the tunnels as well. Don’t forget they consider themselves "martyrs." They want to die for Allah. According to Islam they will reach their paradise and meet 72 virgins.

This kind of an attack will force Israel to strike back with ferocity. If chemical weapons are dumped on her, she will have to use her own weapons of mass destruction. We see the makings of a disaster in the Middle East on the horizon, and the fall-out will be felt around the world.

Jews won’t be safe anywhere. A friend of Israel may not be either. Don't expect any help or comfort from the White House or State Department. Israel is their sacrificial lamb.

Israel will be on her own -- except for G-D. - This is good because He won't let her down. The Almighty has a covenant with Israel that is repeated throughout the Bible. A prominent passage is Genesis 17:6-8. HaShem is not just a covenant maker -- He is a covenant keeper!

Meanwhile many here in the West are still asleep. At best they give a gigantic yawn because the issues are far away from home. People are struggling with their own problems and feel they cannot take on more catastrophes. So they watch a movie, go to the mall and play golf on the weekend, - hoping that nothing “rocks their boat”! - They don’t want to come out from under their denial blanket.

But the coming Middle East war will shake up the world.

The biggest weapon being used by Satan is ignorance. Most people have not a clue as to the historical issues surrounding Middle East conflicts. Most of them do not know that the term "Palestinian" was never used before the mid-1960s when Yasser Arafat coined the term.

Yes, - I know - , Lilo wrote another unpleasant blog. But I feel I have to warn you about what is about to happen.

The change that is coming is not what Obama promised during his campaign, it is the one G-D promised in the Bible for the end-times._

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The Choice Is Yours

Last week PA negotiator Saeb Erekat criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for mentioning the Jewish people's historic tie to Jerusalem as described in the Bible. He found Bibi’s biblical reference “distasteful” and accused the prime minister of “using religion” to “incite hatred and fear”.


That is exactly the problem with the whole world today. They find what G-D said in the Bible “distasteful”.


Netanyahu simply said that the Bible refers to Jerusalem and Zion 850 times.


The Almighty chose a country and a people for His own, to set an example for the rest of the world. He also clearly explained His “road-map” for Israel from the start, even in the first book of the Bible. – You see - the course is fixed - is happening and is about to happen. G-D's Prophetic Word is moving upon us and can’t be stopped! Actually, we have been out of time…for a long time, for about the last 2000 years.


Netanyahu - at first - did not say how many times Jerusalem is mentioned in the writings of other faiths, but after he was challenged by an Israeli Arab MK, he said that Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Koran at all.


G-D’s roadmap for Israel is right on time and its course is fixed - as it was for Israel in the days of the prophets. When something is so clearly and repeatedly declared in the scriptures, we need to wake up and prepare for what is coming.


The greatest miracle anyone has ever witnessed was the re-gathering of Israel after 2000 years amongst the nations of the world. This miracle also set the stage for G-D's end-time prophecies to be fulfilled. – Have you noticed that all prophecies are always related to what happens in Israel?


Sometimes it’s not so easy to read the signs. Perhaps the reading part is not so hard, but accepting a life-altering radical shift -- that is the difficulty. How many Jews in Europe in the 1930’s saw the signs, heard the reports, but didn’t leave because they just could not get their minds around what was taking place?


Today Europe is openly anti-Israel. Seemingly overnight, the American administration has caught up with the spirit over Europe.


It’s that simple. If we are not lining up with God’s heart and mind on this very central and defining issue, we are at odds with Him. We either submit our life to the G-D of Israel, the creator of heaven and earth, or we are on a collision course with him. - How can we know his will? It’s written in the Bible. All we have to do is – read it!


Do you see what is happening around the world? - Islam is running rampant in Europe. The President of the United States has Islamic roots along with a trail of radical leftwing associations and activities going back decades.


If one is not for Israel as G-D is, where does that leave us with God? If we are 95% okay with what G-D says and thinks, where does that leave us with God? Is there any such thing as a partial surrender? Can we accept His Word in part? - There are too many people who think they can simply pick and choose what they like, and forget about the other part. – Yet, all throughout the Bible, G-D always demanded total surrender.

The absence of Israel in the heart of people lies at the root of the presence of Islam in the nations. Islam goes where Israel is rejected. Like it or not, the rejection of Israel is the acceptance of Islam.

The US and the nations of the EU seek to force Israel into an agreement with an entity that does not accept its right to exist and is actively seeking Israel’s destruction. Consequently, the US and the nations in the EU find themselves inhabited and led by the very same spirit they have tried to force upon Israel, - a blinding, and demonic darkness.


While the nations talk of sanctions, Iran continues to declare the destruction of Israel and increase its nuclear program. And while the United States refused to approve any major Israeli weapons requests, it approved more than $10 billion worth of arms sales to Arab League states, including Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. As the White House continues to pressure Israel to give up its traditional lands of Judea and Samaria and to make East Jerusalem the national capital to the Palestinian Authority, Russia and North Korea are arming Iran and its puppet state Syria with weapons of mass destruction. And so, Russia is helping the prophetic warnings of coming destruction along. – Weapons are never sold for a peaceful purpose!


There are many who do not believe the (Zechariah 12:3) prophecy that all who burden themselves with the battle for the control of Jerusalem, will "hurt themselves”. Just look at America--on the brink of financial ruin due to politicians spending money they don't have; Islamic terrorists attacking from within; natural and manmade disasters cost trillions. Yet, America's leadership continues to race headstrong into the prophetic warnings of destruction.


We must simply make a choice. Are we standing with Israel and believing what G-D said, or are we joining the unbelieving world opposing the will of Almighty? – There is no right or left, there is only right or wrong! There is either truth or deception.


“If it seems bad to you to serve Adonai, then choose today whom you are going to serve!....As for me and my household, we will serve Adonai.” (Y’hoshua 24:15)


Shalom – Lilo

Jihad at Times Sqare

We’ve all heard it, - Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen, who had recently returned from a five-month trip to his native Pakistan, was arrested at a New York airport on charges that he drove a bomb-laden SUV meant to cause a fireball in Times Square, federal authorities said.

Shahzad was on board a Dubai-bound flight at Kennedy Airport when FBI agents and New York Police Department detectives took him into custody late Monday, law enforcement officials said. The airport in Dubai is the Middle East's busiest and a major transit point for passengers traveling between the West and much of Asia, particularly India and Pakistan.

The SUV was parked on Saturday night on a busy midtown Manhattan Street near the offices of Viacom Inc., which owns Comedy Central. The network recently aired an episode of the animated show "South Park" that the group Revolution Muslim had complained insulted the Prophet Muhammad by depicting him in a bear costume....

Whose prophet? – Oh no, - NOT another act of Jihad! Did you read that word in the news paper? Did you hear it on TV? - Not once, by anyone in the Obama administration, are the words "Muslim" or "Islam" connected with "terrorism".

The explosive device inside the had cheap-looking alarm clocks connected to a 16-ounce can filled with fireworks, which were apparently intended to detonate gas cans and set propane tanks afire in a chain reaction "to cause mayhem, to create casualties," police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

A metal rifle cabinet placed in the SUV's cargo area was packed with fertilizer, but NYPD bomb experts believe it was not a type volatile enough to explode like the ammonium nitrate grade fertilizer used in previous terrorist bombings. – Good, that he chose the wrong fertilizer!

Police said the SUV bomb could have produced "a significant fireball" and sprayed shrapnel with enough force to kill pedestrians and knock out windows.

A vendor alerted a police officer to the parked SUV, which was smoking. Times Square, clogged with tourists on a warm evening, was shut down for 10 hours. A bomb squad dismantled the explosive device, and no one was hurt.

"It's clear," he said, "that the intent behind this terrorist act was to kill Americans."

More than a dozen people with American citizenship or residency, like Shahzad, have been accused in the past two years of supporting or carrying out terrorism attempts on U.S. soil, cases that illustrate the threat of violent extremism from within the U.S.

Among them are Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, a U.S.-born Army psychiatrist of Palestinian descent, charged with fatally shooting 13 people last year at Fort Hood, Texas; Najibullah Zazi, a Denver-area airport shuttle driver who pleaded guilty in February in a plot to bomb New York subways; and a Pennsylvania woman who authorities say became radicalized online as "Jihad Jane" and plotted to kill a Swedish artist whose work offended Muslims.

After authorities pulled Shahzad off the plane, he admitted he was behind the crude Times Square car bomb, officials said. He also claimed to have been trained at a terror camp in Pakistan's lawless tribal region of Waziristan, according to court documents. That raised increased concern that the bombing was an international terror plot.

According to an official who spoke to The Associated Press Shahzad, the son of a former top Pakistani air force officer came to the United States in late 1998 on a student visa. He took classes at the now-defunct Southeastern University in Washington, D.C., and then enrolled at the University of Bridgeport, where he received a bachelor's degree in computer applications and information systems in 2000.

That’s how they come into this country. They study at our universities, and during their free time they train for Jihad.

The car bomb in Times Square was an attempted Islamic jihad attack. It wasn’t the work of a lonely extremist or a tea party member.

 How do we know? Because Faisal Shahzad attended a Jihad training camp in Pakistan. He just recently spent five months in that country, including some time in Peshawar, a center of Al-Qaeda and Taliban activity. A Pakistani Taliban group claimed responsibility for the attack -- a claim that American authorities immediately dismissed, but which came to the surface when Shahzad's Pakistani connections were revealed.