Israel Update 3/16/08

QUICK READING LIST
- Israel’s Winemaking Revolution, Stacy Perman, Business Week, 1/16/08: http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jan2008/sb20080116_186026.htm?chan=smallbiz_smallbiz+index+page_top+small+business+stories
- Gazan hearts saved in Israel as conflict rages on, ReliefWeb, 1/17/08: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/RMOI-7B2R9Z?OpenDocument
- See also: Save a Child’s Heart: http://www.saveachildsheart.com/home1.html
- U.N. could take lessons from Rambo, Bridget Johnson, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 1/29/08: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/349190_johnsonnline30.html
- Rocketing Towards War, Richard Cohen, Washington Post, 2/19/08: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/18/AR2008021801539.html
“In Europe and elsewhere, where activists are just plain dizzy from their own moral virtue, Israel is denounced for inflicting suffering on Gaza. But the protesters say nothing about the Qassams raining from the sky -- sometimes as many as 40 a day.”
- See also: The Sderot Calculus: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120398961080492299.html
- France Eyes New Israeli Ties, Jamey Keaten, AP, 3/11/08: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j0oWxr9M6MoGVDkADL6DscuS1lAAD8VBC5M00

NEWS: MASSACRE AT JERUSALEM YESHIVA
Last week, an Arab resident of East Jerusalem entered a Jewish school of religious education and murdered 8 students while they studied Bible in the library. Watch this moving, but graphic, video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I4O0WSvevs&eurl=http://apps.facebook.com/superwall/view.php?src=se&id=803149936&owner_id=121729
- Contrast that one with this video of Palestinians celebrating the massacre: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMxPUzEBWDU. Even if you don’t understand Hebrew, the images of thousands of Palestinians cheering, handing out candy, and flashing victory signs should be repulse you.
- (See also: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204546440616&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull)

SUPPORT THE TROOPS: SEND GIFTS
In honor of the upcoming Purim holiday, send “mishloach manot” gift packages to Israeli soldiers! Learn more: http://www.myownisrael.com/manot.php

QUOTE OF THE DAY: REJECTING JEWISH SOVEREIGNTY
PLO Executive Committee member Yasser Abed Rabbo: "It is only a Zionist party that deals with Israel as a Jewish state, and we did not request to be a member of the international Zionism movement."
Veteran Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that the Palestinians would never formally recognize Israel as the Jewish state: "Israel can define itself however it sees fit; and if it wishes to call itself a Jewish state, so be it. But the Palestinians will never acknowledge Israel's Jewish identity."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1195036610009&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
Erekat stated further: "There is no country in the world where religious and national identities are intertwined.”
http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Diplomacy/12344.htm

Really? How about England, where Queen Elizabeth “is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and ... she appoints archbishops, bishops and deans of cathedrals on the advice of the Prime Minister"? (http://www.cofe.anglican.org/about/cofeorg/)
How about the Basic Law in Erekat’s own Palestinian Authority? Article 4 bluntly states: “Islam is the official religion in Palestine.” http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/world/palestbasic.htm
(Credit to Daniel Gordis for these sources: http://www.danielgordis.org/Site/Site_Dispatches.asp)

WEBSITE: PANORAMIC ISRAEL
Click on this link to view some unbelievable panoramic views of Jerusalem: http://www.israguide.com/panoramic.asp

RESOURCE: LEGALITY OF ISRAEL’S ACTIONS
Read this background paper on the legality, under international principles, of Israel’s self-defense actions in responding to Palestinian rocket-fire: http://www.mfa.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/A1D75D9F-ED9E-4203-A024-AF8398997029/0/GazaProportionality.pdf
- See also: http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/new/Special_Report_Gaza_-_Israel_Responds_to_Hamass_Escalation.asp