I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted, but it's all been for a good cause. I have taken another trip to the US for work since I last posted, returning this past Thursday afternoon.
Oh yes, and a Freilichen (Happy) Purim to those of you who celebrate the holiday today, which is just about everyone outside Jerusalem and a couple of other cities.
On March 13, 1997, Jordanian Army Cpl. Ahmed Daqamseh opened fire on a
group of 7th and 8th grade girls from Beit Shemesh’s Feurst School. The girls were on a
class trip to Naharayim in the Jordan Valley, visiting the “Island of
Peace,” a joint Israeli-Jordanian tourist resort under Jordanian rule.
Seven of the girls were murdered. The massacre would have been worse if Daqamseh's weapons had not jammed. Daqamseh complained that the girls who died were disturbing his prayers.
Daqamseh was sentenced to life in prison, which is a de facto 25-year
sentence in Jordan.
Israel had signed a peace treaty with Jordan's King Hussein in 1994. At the time of the massacre, Hussein actually came to Beit Shemesh to visit the mourning families.
But since Hussein's death in 1999, Jordanians have become increasingly uncomfortable holding Daqamseh - who many Jordanians regard as a hero - in prison.
His lawyer, Hussein Mjali, praised Daqamseh in a video released in 2009. In 2011, Mjali became Jordan's
Justice Minister, and the next week joined a demonstration calling for
Daqamseh's release, sparking outrage in Israel.
In 2013, 110 of the 120 members of Jordan's parliament signed a petition calling for Daqamseh's release.
Relatives said Ahmad Daqamseh was back at his home in the village of Idivir in northern Jordan.
A Jordanian military spokesman, Amer Sartawi, said Daqamseh was released early Sunday, after serving 20 years in prison.
...
Daqamseh said a month ago he was very happy and thankful to all his supporters who urged his release. He had been moved to a prison wing with better conditions after spending most of his term in isolation.
Jordanian military sources said Daqamseh was released shortly after midnight, on Sunday. Several people gathered at his home to celebrate his freedom.
Family members said Daqamseh was supposed to have been freed on Monday, the 13th, but the authorities decided to release him during the night to try and minimize the celebrations.
In 2004, Daqamseh told a Jordanian weekly that he had no regret for his actions.
In an interview Daqamseh gave in 2004 to
Jordanian weekly a-Shahed, he expressed pride in his actions and said
that "if I could return to that moment, I'd behave exactly the same way.
Every day that passes, I grow stronger in the belief that what I did
was my duty."
60 years after a terrorist murder and Israel's Gettysburg address
Moadim l'Simcha.
It's just a few minutes until the holiday starts again, and then I will be offline until Saturday night.
60 years ago today (on the secular calendar), a young security guard at Kibbutz Nachal Oz on the Gaza border was murdered by Arab terrorists (Wikipedia and the Times of Israel notwithstanding, there were no Arabs who were known as 'Palestinians' in 1956). Roi Rotberg HY"D (May God Avenge his blood) had moved to Nachal Oz from Tel Aviv. He was eulogized by the IDF Chief of Staff, Moshe Dayan, in what Wikipedia calls Israel's Gettysburg Address.
In 1956, IsraeliChief of StaffMoshe Dayan gave a eulogy for a Roi Rotberg, a kibbutz security officer killed near the Gaza Strip,[1]
calling upon Israel to search its soul and probe the national mindset.
Dayan's eulogy is considered one of the most influential speeches in
Israeli history,[2] and has the importance in Israeli collective memory that the Gettysburg Address has in American memory.
Nahal Oz
became a kibbutz in 1953 and was frequently in conflict with Arabs who
crossed the nearby armistice line from Gaza to reap crops and conduct
petty theft.[3]
The previous few months had been relatively quiet on the Israel's
borders with Egypt and Gaza, but escalated with several cross-border
shootings in early April.[3] On April 4, three Israeli soldiers were killed by Egyptian forces on the Gaza border.[3] Israel responded the next day by shelling the center of Gaza City, killing 58 Egyptian and Palestinian civilians as well as 4 Egyptian soldiers.[3] Egypt responded by resuming fedayeen attacks across the border, killing 14 Israelis during the period 11–17 April.[3][4]
Rotberg, the Nahal Oz security officer,[3][5][6][7] was regularly involved in chasing off infiltrators, sometimes using lethal force.[3]
On 29 April 1956 he was caught in a prepared ambush; Arab harvest
workers began to reap wheat in the kibbutz's fields in a spot where
Rotberg would see them, he did, but as he rode toward them to chase them
off others emerged from hiding to attack.[3][8] He was shot off his horse, beaten and shot again, then his body was dragged into Gaza.[3] According to Jean-Pierre Filiu, Rotberg's attackers included, "an Egyptian policeman" and "a Palestinian farmer."[9] The body was returned on the same afternoon, badly mutilated, after United Nations intervention.[3][10][11]
Yes, even in 1956, before there was an 'occupation,' Arab terrorists mutilated his body.
Today's Times of Israel includes a translation of Dayan's speech by Mitch Ginsburg. There is a lot here with which one could disagree (Dayan demonstrates far too much sympathy for the Arabs, and we know historically that he did not follow through to reach the conclusions he should have reached). But I have no time to discuss that right now. I'm just throwing it out there for you to think about.
Yesterday with
daybreak, Roi was murdered. The quiet of a spring morning blinded him,
and he did not see the stalkers of his soul on the furrow. Let us not
hurl blame at the murderers. Why should we complain of their hatred for
us? Eight years have they sat in the refugee camps of Gaza, and seen,
with their own eyes, how we have made a homeland of the soil and the
villages where they and their forebears once dwelt.
Not from the Arabs
of Gaza must we demand the blood of Roi, but from ourselves. How our
eyes are closed to the reality of our fate, unwilling to see the destiny
of our generation in its full cruelty. Have we forgotten that this
small band of youths, settled in Nahal Oz, carries on its shoulders the
heavy gates of Gaza, beyond which hundreds of thousands of eyes and arms
huddle together and pray for the onset of our weakness so that they may
tear us to pieces — has this been forgotten? For we know that if the
hope of our destruction is to perish, we must be, morning and evening,
armed and ready.
A generation of
settlement are we, and without the steel helmet and the maw of the
cannon we shall not plant a tree, nor build a house. Our children shall
not have lives to live if we do not dig shelters; and without the barbed
wire fence and the machine gun, we shall not pave a path nor drill for
water. The millions of Jews, annihilated without a land, peer out at us
from the ashes of Israeli history and command us to settle and rebuild a
land for our people. But beyond the furrow that marks the border, lies a
surging sea of hatred and vengeance, yearning for the day that the
tranquility blunts our alertness, for the day that we heed the
ambassadors of conspiring hypocrisy, who call for us to lay down our
arms.
It is to us that
the blood of Roi calls from his shredded body. Although we have vowed a
thousand vows that our blood will never again be shed in vain —
yesterday we were once again seduced, brought to listen, to believe. Our
reckoning with ourselves, we shall make today. We mustn’t flinch from
the hatred that accompanies and fills the lives of hundreds of thousands
of Arabs, who live around us and are waiting for the moment when their
hands may claim our blood. We mustn’t avert our eyes, lest our hands be
weakened. That is the decree of our generation. That is the choice of
our lives — to be willing and armed, strong and unyielding, lest the
sword be knocked from our fists, and our lives severed.
Roi Rotberg, the
thin blond lad who left Tel Aviv in order to build his home alongside
the gates of Gaza, to serve as our wall. Roi — the light in his heart
blinded his eyes and he saw not the flash of the blade. The longing for
peace deafened his ears and he heard not the sound of the coiled
murderers. The gates of Gaza were too heavy for his shoulders, and they
crushed him.
There's more here. Chag Sameyach and Shabbat Shalom. See you on Saturday night!
It must have been the 'occupation': First Jewish victim of Arab terror was murdered in 1873
The Ministry of Defense reports that the first Jewish victim of Arab terrorism in Israel was Talmudic scholar Aharon Herhsler HY"D (May God Avenge his blood), who was murdered by Arab terrorists in Jerusalem in January or February 1873.
According to an account of his life provided by the official
governmental site for terror victims, Hershler was a haredi yeshiva
student who studied devotedly.
He was born in Hungary in 1850 to a prominent rabbi, Rabbi Yosef
Shmuel Hershler, who served in the rabbinate of the city of Szabad.
After immigrating to Israel, the rabbi was among the heads of the
Ungarin Kolel, a Hungarian yeshiva in Jerusalem.
The Hershler family lived in Mishkenot Shananim, the first Jewish neighborhood built outside of the Old City walls.
The records note that in 1872 there were ample rains, meaning the
Jews were not forced to buy water from the Arab residents of Shiloach
(Silwan in Arabic). In response, the Arab residents evidently decided to
target the Jews, breaking into their homes and robbing them.
Several Arabs broke into the Hershler home on January 1, at which
point Aharon got up from his Torah studies to confront them, managing to
scare them out of the house and proceeding to chase them.
The Arab terrorists, evidently fearing they would be identified,
callously opened fire on Hershler, shooting 12 bullets into his body. He
was brought to the hospital, where he died of his wounds four days
later after great suffering.
Hershler left behind a bereaved wife and daughter, along with his grieving parents and siblings.
Does anyone actually believe that if we give them a 'state' they will stop trying to murder us?
Initial reports of a shooting attack by Arab terrorists on the Israeli border with Sinai came in just before 2 p.m. on Wednesday.
According to the report, several terrorists opened fire on Israeli cars from Egyptian territory.The targeted region was in the area of Nitzana in the Negev desert, located right on the Egyptian border.
Israeli security and rescue forces have arrived on the scene.
Israel Radio is describing the situation as 'under control,' but the roads in the area are closed. One of the vehicles in question was a school bus transporting children.
A resident of the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights was
shot in a suspected terrorist attack as he stood near to the border
with Syria Saturday.
The 19-year-old man, said he clearly heard a gun fire before being
hit in the foot by a bullet, apparently fired from the Syrian side of
the border.
The victim was admitted to hospital in light-to-moderate condition.
The IDF and local police have launched an investigation into the
incident, saying that at this point they are unaware of any unusual
incidents along the northern border.
It may be a terrorist attack, but no one seems to be saying (or maybe even to know) which side did it. Hmmm.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued a veiled threat to export terrorism to Europe if the Europeans provide arms to the Syrian rebels.
"If the Europeans deliver weapons, the backyard of Europe will become
terrorist and Europe will pay the price for it," he said in an advance
extract of an interview due to be published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Tuesday.
He also warned that delivering arms would result in the export of "terrorism" to Europe.
In his first comments since the United States announced on Thursday
that they would be supplying military aid to rebels fighting for his
overthrow, Assad said: "Terrorists will gain experience in combat and
return with extremist ideologies."
Assad's comments came as Western leaders met at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland on Monday.
Given that the Europeans are afraid to designate Hezbullah a terrorist organization, they're probably quaking in their boots (literally - no sarcasm intended) over Assad.
Here's LATMA's song of the week - the Language of the Arab Man. I had to watch this with the sound off so you can all let me know how the music is. Aren't subtitles great?
A heavily armed terrorist cell from the Sinai Peninsula opened fire
on IDF soldiers on the Israeli - Egyptian border on Friday, killing one
soldier and injuring a second, before the gunmen were killed in return
fire.
Shots were fired at IDF Artillery Corps soldiers from a
distance of 100 meters. One soldier sustained a bullet wound to the head
and was killed immediately, IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai
said. The soldier has not yet been named.
The Artillery Corps force instantly returned fire, shooting dead one terrorist.
As
the gun-battle raged, reinforcements from the Karkal (Wildcat) battlion
- a combat unit made up of male and female soldiers - quickly arrived
on the scene, and stormed the gunmen. The battalion, which had been in
the area to look out for illegal African migrants, engaged the
terrorists and killed the remaining two attackers.
In the heavy
exchanges of fire, a suicide bomb belt around one of the terrorists went
off. Shrapnel from that blast lightly injured a soldier from the
Artillery Corps. He was taken to the Soroka Medical Center in
Be'ersheba, where doctors operated on him.
...
IDF sappers recovered a large number of firearms and explosives from
the terrorists ater the incident, including and RPD machine gun, a
rocket propelled grenade, Kalashnikov guns, ammunition, grenades, and
personal equipment. The terrorists were dressed in civilian clothing.
The
attack occurred along a 17 kilometer stretch of the border where the
fence has not yet been completed, in the Har Harif area.
"We don't believe this was a kidnapping attempt. There are no terrorists in Israeli territory," Mordechai added.
Highway 10 along the Egyptian border was shut down Thursday night - apparently due to intelligence about this attack.
Israel's Army Radio reported on Sunday morning that three Arabs poisoned a Jewish family in an attempt to murder them. No, this didn't happen in Judea or Samaria. In fact, two of the three Arabs involved are 'Israeli Arabs.' And it happened in Raanana, a town that is within the green line (proximate to that eight mile strip between Tulkarm and the coast) and which, by the way, has lots of 'Anglo' residents.
The Lerner family returned to their home in Raanana and discovered their home was robbed. The family called the police, and while the police were there, the father, Eyal Lerner began to become very sick. Very quickly, other family members became sick too, as well as one of the volunteer policemen that was on the scene, for a total of 4 sick people.
Eyal Lerner was in a coma for 24 hours and in the hospital for at least a week.
The police announced today that the robbers not only robbed the house, but as part of a nationalist attack also poisoned the drinks and food in the house in the hope of killing the Jewish family. The police are not releasing the name of the poison at this point, but they brought the poison with them specifically for that purpose.
...
One of the Israeli Arabs, Hassab Addel Rachim, had been hired by Lerner as a contractor to do some construction work on Lerner’s new apartment. Lerner says there were no financial or other disputes between the two beforehand.
Read it all. And if you're an Israel, please don't hire Arabs to work in your home.
Have the Egyptians finally decided that enough is enough? Egyptian airstrikes killed 20 terrorists in Sinai on Wednesday, in the largest Egyptian airstrike in Sinai since the Yom Kippur war.
The air strikes on positions in the town of Sheikh Zouaid followed the deaths of 16 border guards last Sunday in an attack blamed partly on Palestinian terrorists.
Witnesses in Sheikh Zouaid, about 10 km (six miles) from Gaza, said they saw two military jets and heard sounds of explosions. Other witnesses in a nearby area said they saw three cars hit.
The strikes followed clashes between armed men and security forces at several security checkpoints in the Sinai region.
Armed men opened fire on several checkpoints in el-Arish and in the nearby town of Rafah on the border with Israel, according to a Reuters reporter and state media.
...
In reaction to Sunday's attacks, Egypt began to seal off smuggling tunnels into the Gaza Strip, a security source said.
A Reuters reporter in Rafah said heavy equipment was brought to the Egyptian side of the tunnels, which are used to smuggle people to and from Gaza as well as scarce food and fuel for the small territory's population.
Israel Radio reports that the Egyptian army has also carried out ground attacks, and that it is being assisted by members of the local population who are identifying the terrorists.
Protesters call for expulsion of Israeli ambassador
'Tens' (Israel Radio implied a larger number) of protesters demonstrated outside the residence of Israel's ambassador to Egypt in Cairo on Monday night, calling for the ambassador to be expelled in light of Sunday's terror attack along the border between Israel, Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
Tens of protesters gathered by the Israeli ambassador’s house in the posh Maadi district on Monday night calling on the Egyptian government to cut off relations with Tel Aviv.
While the assailants behind the attack that took the lives of sixteen Egyptian soldiers and injured another seven remain unknown, some Egyptians have pointed the fingers at the Israeli state.
“It’s definitely Israel who is behind it; we demand the termination of any political relations with Israel,” said Ahmed El-Toni who referred to himself as an “independent activist” and was one of the protesters.
El-Toni also criticised the president for failing to take an action against the culprits in response to the attack till now.
Protests against Israel in Cairo are not a novel event.
...
Mohamed Bakhati, another protester who took part in both Monday’s demonstration and last September’s, told Ahram Online that escalation at the moment was not an option as the ambassador himself is not in Egypt.
"However, we’re giving a chance to president Morsi till after Ramadan; if retribution for those who died wasn’t reached we will go back to the streets.”
This is rich: Hamas slams Egypt for 'collective punishment'
Sorry for the extra light posting on Monday - we made a Bar Mitzva celebration for son # 3 child # 6 on Monday night, which also happened to be Mrs. Carl's and my 31st anniversary.
In light of Sunday's attack on an Egyptian military post, Egypt has re-closed its border with Gaza at Rafah. The 'Palestinians' are whining that it's 'collective punishment.' Sound familiar?
Egypt's decision to shut the Rafah border crossing in the aftermath of the attack drew sharp criticism from Palestinians.
Musa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official, described the decision as "collective punishment." He vehemently denied that some of the terrorists had emerged from the Gaza Strip.
Hamas and other Palestinian groups, meanwhile, dismissed claims about the involvement of terrorists from the Gaza Strip in the attack, which resulted in the deaths of 16 Egyptian soldiers.
Hamas deployed hundreds of policemen along the border with Egypt to prevent terrorists from infiltrating into the Gaza Strip from Sinai, announced Gamal al-Jarrah, a top Hamas security commander.
Maybe they ought to be looking to prevent terrorists from infiltrating into Sinai from the Gaza Strip too....
He said that the Hamas government has also issued orders to close down all the underground tunnels along the border and to do their utmost to help reveal the identity of the terrorists.
On Monday, an IDF spokesman told Israel Radio that the Egyptians could stop the smuggling and the terror attacks if they wanted to - it's a question of priorities. But the idea of Hamas actually doing something to stop terrorism is a farce.
A spokesman for the Hamas government claimed the attack was an Israeli "attempt to tamper with Egyptian security and drive a wedge between the Egyptians and the residents of the Gaza Strip."
Of course.... And they're not the only ones blaming Israel. Read the whole thing.
The way things work in Sinai, the best bet is some independent Bedouin tribe trying to settle a score that has nothing to do with Israel... and maybe not with Hamas either.
His brother Abdulhakim said on Sunday that Megrahi's health had deteriorated quickly and he died at home in Tripoli.
He told the AFP news agency that Megrahi died at 13:00 local time (11:00 GMT).
The BBC's Rana Jawad, who is outside Megrahi's home in Tripoli, says family members are making preparations to receive guests paying their condolences.
Last month, Megrahi's son said his father had been taken to hospital for blood transfusions.
...
There have been calls for him to be returned to jail in the UK or tried in the US.
But shortly after they toppled Colonel Gaddafi, Libyan rebel leaders said they would not extradite Megrahi or any other Libyan.
Our correspondent says that since the fall of Gaddafi, more Libyans are expressing the view that whatever happened at Lockerbie was bigger than just Megrahi, and he may have been used as a scapegoat by the regime.
In his last interview, filmed in December 2011, Megrahi said: "I am an innocent man. I am about to die and I ask now to be left in peace with my family."
He had previously claimed he would release new information about the atrocity but little new has emerged.
Megrahi had rarely been seen since his return to Tripoli, but he was spotted on Libyan television at what appeared to be a pro-government rally in July 2011.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said the public appearance confirmed that a "great mistake" was made in releasing him from jail.
In November 1980, IDF soldier Avi Bromberg was kidnapped and murdered near the Nahal training base in northern Israel. His body was thrown on the roadside. His kidnappers, who were Israeli Arabs from the village of 'Arah, were apprehended, tried and convicted.
As best I can tell, there were three 'Israeli Arabs' convicted of Bromberg's murder. One, Sami Younis, who was sentenced to life imprisonment (or perhaps, like the other two, death which was commuted), was released as part of the terrorists for Gilad exchange in October.
On Saturday night in Ararah, there was a rally for the two remaining murderers, demanding that they too be freed. Their families think 30 years is enough time in jail for murder. I am willing to agree if they bring Avi Bromberg back to life, compensate him for his pain and suffering and compensate his family for his being missing from their lives for the last 31+ years.
In 1983, Arara residents Maher and Kareem Younis were arrested and confessed to Bromberg's murder. Both were sentenced to death – a verdict later commuted to life imprisonment.
During the rally relatives of Maher and Kareem Younis leveled harsh criticism at Hamas, saying the Islamist group has "given up" on Arab-Israeli prisoners. "Hamas did not make an effort to free our imprisoned sons," Maher's mother said. "They (Hamas leaders) are living in palaces at the expense of our prisoners. They should know that Palestine is strong because of us."
Arab Knesset Member Jamal Zahalka (Balad) said the Arab-Israeli inmates should have been included in the prisoner exchange deal that secured Gilad Shalit's release from Hamas captivity. "I think 30 years in jail is enough. On the one hand the government says (the prisoners) are not Palestinian, so they should not be released under any (agreement), but on the other hand (the government) tells them they are not Israeli either.
It's a pity the death sentences weren't carried out in 1983. Perhaps they can be carried out now.
Israel's Supreme Court has turned down appeals against the release of 25 Egyptian terrorists from Israeli jails, and the 25 will be exchanged on Thursday morning for American-Israeli anarchist Ilan Grapel.
The two Israelis who negotiated Grapel's release with the Egyptians – Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's envoy Yitzhak Molcho and Kadima MK and former deputy Shin Bet head Yisrael Hasson – are scheduled to fly Thursday afternoon to Cairo with Grapel's mother to retrieve him.
Grapel is expected to land at Ben-Gurion Airport at about 5 p.m., and then drive to Jerusalem for a brief meeting with Netanyahu.
A spokesman for the Israel Prisons Service said that the Egyptian prisoners, who were gathered together at the Beersheba prison on Wednesday, will be taken to the Taba border crossing with Egypt most likely Thursday afternoon.
All of the Egyptian prisoners, according to information supplied by the Israel Prisons Service, are serving time for criminal – rather than terrorist-related – offenses. The group of prisoners also includes three minors.
Most of these people are accused of drug or weapons running. How weapons running is not a 'security-related offense' is beyond comprehension. And drug running is the way that terror is financed.
But we are giving up 25 terrorists for an anarchist who went to Egypt on his own and who has barely lived in Israel. The US is much smarter. They are giving up nothing.
Where were you ten years ago this Sunday when Arab Muslim terrorists brought down New York's World Trade Center? If you are a 'Palestinian,' you might have been in the streets celebrating.
CNN finds Lockerbie bomber 'comatose and near death'
CNN reports that it has found Lockerbie bomber Abdelbasset Megrahi in Tripoli, Libya, but that the mass murderer's family claims that he is 'comatose and near death.'
The cancer-stricken former Libyan intelligence officer may be the last man alive who knows precisely who in the Libya government authorized the 1989 bombing which killed 270 people, CNN noted.
Sarah Honig reports that last week's terror attacks in Eilat brought back memories of another terror attack that took place at Maaleh Akrabim on March 17, 1954.
What just transpired on the way to Eilat is chillingly reminiscent of the bloodshed of March 17, 1954 – long before Israel’s 1967 victory and subsequent denunciations of so-called occupation.
Egged bus No. 1383 was winding its way up back to Tel Aviv from Eilat, where the passengers had taken part in Eilat’s fifth birthday celebrations. They marked the anniversary of the closing phase of the War of Independence, when the makeshift ink flag was hoisted over what would become the country’s southernmost point. The bus was decorated with a banner: “Egged’s salutations to the Negev pioneers.”
One of the two drivers along for the trip, Ephraim “Fiska” Furstenberg, had brought his wife Hannah and children Haim, nine, and Miri, five, with him. Baby Tzippi was left with relatives. Fiska dreamt of moving the family to Eilat and becoming the first Egged cooperative member to take up residence in the haunting wilderness of that outlying embryo township.
But different plans were hatched by the Fedayeen – the moniker adopted in those days by predecessors of today’s Fatah, Hamas and their assorted offshoots.
It means “self-sacrificers,” which calls to mind the Shahids (martyrs) and suicide bombers of the current vogue.
On the single old route to Eilat in those days, approximately 100 kilometers south of Beersheba, the scorpions struck. Twelve Fedayeen ambushed the bus, ironically at a spot called Ma’aleh Akrabim – Scorpions’ Pass.
They first aimed at the duty driver, Kalman Esroni, who in his last seconds of life managed to prevent the vehicle from tumbling over the cliff. After spraying the bus with intense gunfire, they boarded it and finished off everyone there, or so they assumed. They proceeded to verify the 11 kills, mutilate the corpses and steal everything in sight. They tossed Hannah out of the bullet-riddled bus and hacked off her fingers, because they couldn’t otherwise remove her wedding band.
Unbeknownst to them, Haim and Miri remained alive behind the rear seat – Miri underneath the body of a soldier who threw himself over the child to shield her. Haim raised his head and asked: “Did they go?” But the sound of the boy’s voice betrayed him. The gunmen returned and took callous aim, directly at his head.
Miri, who remained hidden, was spared. Haim took over 32 years to die. He was left in an irreversible vegetative state and lingered on until September 4, 1986.
The attackers’ tracks led to the Jordanian border, but the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan/Israel Mixed Armistice Commission (HJK/IMAC) couldn’t bring itself even to lightly rap Jordan’s knuckles. No surprise here.
Meanwhile, equally unsurprisingly, inside Israel another surreal debate raged about whether to retaliate or, in the words of then-premier Moshe Sharett, “underscore the qualitative moral difference between us and our heartless enemies” (not that foreigners were much impressed – even before we were demonized as imperialist ogres).
One of the worst moments of the last years of Muammar Gadhafi's reign was the return to Libya of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbasset al-Megrahi.
Al-Megrahi was released from prison on 'compassionate' grounds by Scotland. Those compassionate grounds turned out to have more to do with British oil interests than with how much time al-Megrahi had left to live. Al-Megrahi, who allegedly had less than three months left, is still alive two years later, and appeared on television with Gadhafi at a rally last month.
Here's US Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) in December 2010, talking about the false pretenses that led to al-Megrahi's release.
A US Congressional inquiry into the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbasset al-Megrahi says there was strong political pressure on the Scottish government to free him.
It also casts doubt on the competence of the doctors who examined Megrahi.
"Commercial and economic considerations trumped... our global fight against terrorism," said Senator Bob Menendez.
...
The senators' report states that Scottish authorities examining the former Libyan intelligence officer relied on "false" and "flawed" medical prognosis that may have been influenced by a doctor hired by the Libyan government.
Mr Menendez, along with three other senators, launched the investigation after officials from Scotland, the UK and BP did not testify at a Senate foreign relations committee hearing, he was scheduled to chair in July.
"This was a case in which commercial and economic considerations trumped the message of our global fight against terrorism," said Mr Menendez.
He added: "We have to make it impossible that anything like this injustice takes place again."
Mr Menendez is set to unveil the report - Justice Undone: The Release of the Lockerbie Bomber - at a news conference in Washington on Tuesday.
There's a different video at that link which I could not embed. But here's a Scottish video that discusses the story.
Let's go to the videotape.
Today, with Gadhafi having been deposed, Michael Rubin says it's time to put Megrahi back where he belongs.
Well, Megrahi is still alive, in a wheelchair but well enough to have been shown on Libyan television attending a pro-Qaddafi rally just last month. If Obama was sincere in his regret [of Megrahi's release], perhaps the time is right to seize Megrahi and finally win justice for the American victims of Lockerbie.
The odds of Obama ordering Megrahi's arrest without the consent of both Britain and NATO (if not the UN as well) are not good. But if we're really lucky, maybe he'll ask the British or the Scottish to do the job for him. That's leading from behind.
IDF sources claimed Monday night that new intelligence information obtained by Israel in recent days shows that participants of the flotilla planning to break Israel’s sea blockade over the Gaza Strip later this week plan to kill IDF soldiers who board their ships.
According to the information obtained by the IDF, some of the participants have prepared a number of sacks with sulfur, which they plan to pour on the soldiers as they board the vessels.
“This is a chemical weapon and if poured on a soldier it can paralyze him,” an IDF source told The Jerusalem Post Monday night. “If the sulfur is then lit on fire, the soldier will light up like a torch.”
The information was obtained from closed meetings held by participants on the ships during which some voiced their intention to “murder Israeli soldiers,” according to the IDF. Also, despite earlier predictions that members of the Turkish organization IHH would not participate in the flotilla, it now appears that some members will sail with the ships alongside additional radical Islamic activists.
The IDF sources also claimed that the military had also succeeded in linking activists involved in the flotilla to Hamas and that charities run by the Palestinian terrorist organization were providing financial and logistical support for the flotilla.
There is no reason to endanger IDF soldiers to spare these morons' lives. There is also no reason to board the ships. Just sink them.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
