[img]2698|right|Shachar||no_popup[/img]Dateline Jerusalem – Yesterday was relatively quiet, people out and about, their lives once again on track. Yet every ambulance siren, every door- slamming makes us jumpy. Such a pleasure to walk around, to enjoy the beauty of Israel, the blue skies, the palm trees, the scent of fruit trees, the unique, colorful palette of flowers and plants in bloom. What a great feeling, to shower without worrying about the sirens going off.
Wherever I went yesterday the conversation focused on the ending of the cease-fire this morning. Israel allegedly agreed to an extension but Hamas did not. Hamas was saying they were ready to step up the fight against Israel at 8 this morning. I guess it takes three days to build more rockets, missiles, mortars. The world sides with Hamas, choosing terror over democracy.
Just prior to the cease-fire, Hamas television told Palestinians to dress up like Jews and execute suicide bombings. Fatah television also called for suicide bombings. Their idea of dressing up like Jews means to look like ultra-religious Jews with long beards, long black coats and black hats. As we know, the terrorists exited the tunnels into Israel dressed in Israeli army uniforms.
Everything is a ruse with them. Allegedly the ante will be upped during the next round.
What Is This ‘Palestine’?
The world is obviously confused when it comes to “Palestine,” a word coined by the Romans in an attempt to minimize Jewish connection to the land of Israel in the second century of the Common Era after they destroyed the Second Holy Temple. The Hebrew word “peleshet,” which appears more than 250 times in the Jewish Tanach (an acronym for the Torah, Prophets and Writings), describes the inhabitants of the area northeast of Egypt (the Land of Israel), the English word being “Philistines.” The Philistines were Aegean and more closely related to Greeks and had no ethnic, linguistic or historical connection with Arabs. Under the Ottoman Empire from the 16th to early 20th century, the Ottomans and Arabs did not even call it Palestine. They referred to the Land of Israel as “southern Syria.” Only after World War I, when the British Mandate took over from the Ottomans, was the area called the British Mandate of Palestine. Until Israel's independence in 1948, only the Jews, not the Arabs, of the area were called Palestinians. The word for Palestine does not even appear in the Koran, just as Jerusalem does not appear in the Koran, either.
I remember when one of my children brought a “Palestinian” to speak to a class in high school. The speaker was actually a religious Jew born before Israel became a state. He showed the class his passport that proved he was born in Palestine. What a shock it was for the teacher and for the class.
Did You Know?
Adding to the confusion, a friend sent me interesting facts about Israeli leaders and so called Palestinian leaders. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was born in 1949 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Other Israeli Prime Ministers were born in the British Mandate of Palestine, such as Ehud Barak in 1942, Ariel Sharon in 1928, Ehud Olmert in 1945, Itzhak Rabin in 1922. Israeli Presidents Itzhak Navon, in 1921, and Ezer Weizman, in 1924, both were born in the British Mandate of Palestine.
On the other hand, the birth places of “Palestinian” leaders may surprise you. Yasser Arafat was born in 1929 in Cairo. Saeb Erekat was born in 1955 in Jordan and has Jordanian citizenship. Faisal Abdel Qader Al-Husseini was born in 1949 in Bagdad, Iraq. Sari Nusseibeh, was born in 1949 in Damascus, Syria. Mahmoud Al-Zahar was born in 1945 in Cairo. Makes you wonder who the real Palestinians are. The answer is the Jordanians.
And now for a miracle that took place on Tisha B'Av. Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva, Israel, where most of the wounded Israeli soldiers were taken, had an unprecedented number of babies born on Tisha B'Av. The usual average is 35 babies. On this Tisha B'Av, however, the number was 68. This broke all records in Israeli history for number of babies born at one hospital. Interestingly, this number equals the total of Israeli soldiers and civilians who have died in the Gaza war. It is curious also because Jewish sages teach us that Moshiach (the Messiah) will be born on Tisha B'Av.
Were They False Alarms?
After a scare on Wednesday day when sirens went off in Southern Israel mid-day and Israeli jets took to the skies for 45 minutes, everyone thought the cease-fire ceased. More Code Red Sirens on Wednesday night. Both were allegedly false alarms. Seems strange that every siren since the cease-fire was a false alarm. Some believe Israel won't budge from the cease-fire even if there were real alerts.
Many residents of Southern Israel who fled to the north, especially those who live not far from Gaza, are afraid to return to their homes because of the tunnel threat. They have lived with rockets for the last nine years. The idea of a terrorist tunneling into their dining room or their children's schools is more than they can handle. Because not all of the tunnels were destroyed, it remains a viable threat.
The Israeli cabinet was advised that to pursue a purging of terror from Gaza would take five years, hundreds of soldiers' lives, and billions of dollars. What does that mean to those of us living in Israel? It means every day we will wonder how much Hamas has re-built its terror tunnel network, what kind of sophisticated weapons it was able to purchase and/or receive, and how soon will they infiltrate us or launch long range rockets at our civilian population.
It was obvious that Hamas lured Israel into a ground war to see and test our reaction. Allegedly they still have tens of thousands of rockets, missiles, and mortars to launch at Israel. Now that the border crossings will be open, albeit under the supervision of Abbas and Fatah, which is like no supervision at all since they formed a unified government with Hamas, the ability to re-arm and attack Israel any time in the near future is also a viable scenario.
Although foreign journalists are confirming, with reports and photos, Israel's version of the events that took place in Gaza, and the U.N. was provided a copy of a captured Hamas Combat Manual, explaining the benefits of human shields, the U.N. still is going after Israel for war crimes. Should we be surprised when hatred of Jews and of Israel is the main curriculum in U.N. (UNRWA) schools in Gaza? Their textbooks emphasize armed struggle and war. So much for U.N. neutrality.
Even Saudi Arabia and Iran have criticized Hamas for using its women and children as human shields. One of Iran's government members, an advisor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Hamas should have allowed the civilians of Gaza to hide in the tunnels where they would have been safe. I think that is a great idea. Sounds safer than my apartment stairwell. He also admitted that Iran supplied Hamas with the rockets and missiles and the knowledge of how to produce them.
L'hitraot. Shachar