The Collaboraters. . . . Rachel Corrie

Her Name Was Rachel Corrie

Rachel Aliene Corrie (April 10, 1979 – March 16, 2003) was an American member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who traveled to the Gaza Strip during the Second Intifada. She was killed by a bulldozer operated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during a protest against the destruction of the homes of Palestinian terrorists by the IDF in the Gaza Strip.

One of the most publicized symbols of neo-anti-Semites, Rachel Corrie's life and prejudices are a microcosm of the soul-searing hatred that drive so many of those disparate groups who have banded together to dedicate their lives to finishing the work that the Nazis began and the Mohammedan terrorists are continuing . . . the destruction of the Jewish people.

Rachel Corrie's basic political philosophy dove-tailed well with that of the International Solidarity Movement of which she was a member. This organization has been actively and eagerly engaged in providing both logistical and material support for Mohammedan terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, making no distiction among Jews, Mohammedans or Christians. Their most notorious support effort was in the arming, aiding and abetting of the two suicide bombers who attacked a Tel Aviv beachside pub, Mike's Place on April 30, 2003. An International Solidarity Movement volunteer later confirmed that the bombers had been among a group of known Palestinian terrorists who were offered tea when they paid a visit to an ISM office on the way to a memorial for Rachel Corrie.

The question now arises; "What are the moral, ethical and political values of those who, like Rachel Corrie, align themselves with Arab and Mohammedan terrorists?" Let's take a look at the values that anti-Israel groups hold so dear and what they find so reprehensible about the State of Israel.

First, the most obvious difference between Israel and the Mohammedan nations surrounding her is that Israel, like America, is a democratic govenment based on the equality of her citizens and the rule of law. Democracy, in the eyes of Islam is anathema.

Israel is also the only nation in the Middle East where Mohammedans, Jews and Christians live side-by-side with no restriction on the practice of their religions. Religious freedom, in the eyes of Islam, is anathema.

Israel is the only nation in the region where each citizen, regardles of sex, has the right and opportunity to pursue his or her chosen direction in life. Both men and women have access to higher education, the workplace, politics, etc. Equality of the sexes is searing anathema in the eyes of Islam.

The International Solidarity Movement, Hamas. Islamic Jihad, the P.L.O., in fact the entire Palestinian population ( or, at least, the entire male sector) despise the values that the Western World hold sacred and Rachel Corrie despised these values no less than the terrorists she supported. If there is any question about that statement, one picture is worth a thousand words.

This photo of Rachel Corrie burning both American and Israeli flags in an hysterical frenzy needs no further commentary. It shows in naked, graphic detail the searing, white-hot hatred she, and those like her, feel for individual freedom and democratic government. Her gut-wrenching hatred for Jews overode any consideration of the plight of the women and children she would be leaving when she tired of playing the dilletante in a land in which she had no personal stake.

We know what Rachel Corrie, and the other Western ISM supporters, despised, but now the next question that obviously arises is; "What do they stand for? What do they hold worth giving their lives for?"

If they hold individual freedom and religious plurality in contempt, then the following conclusions become glaringly obvious.

Rachel Corrie lent her full support to the institutionalized Islamic oppression of women, she fully backed Sharia law which allows girls as young as 6 years old to be subjected to sexual abuse, she had no problem whatsoever with the barbaric "honor killings" of mothers, wives, sisters or daughters as young a 12 years old, the summary, ex-judicial executions of those considered to be"collaboraters" with Israel.

She and her fellow ISM supporters unconditionally applaud the indefensible war crimes of the Palestinian terrorists who specifically target Israeli civilians, she idolized the corrupt Palestinian politicians who she plainly, and daily, witnessed profiting from the theft of international aid meant for the average Palestinian. She and her fellow ISM supporters encouraged, contributed to and facilitated the accumulation of both conventional and unconventional weapons to be used specifically against Israeli women and children.

After her death, in one of the most bizarre demonstrations of what can only be described as cynical Mohammedan humor, her body was "reverantly" draped with . . . guess what? An ersatz American flag!

For some reason, the humor of this bizarre gesture has totally escaped this writer.

Perhaps the ISM were intending to cremate her body along with the American flag she despised so fiercely. . .

While Rachel Corrie has been elevated to the status of an iconic "victim" of "the evil Zionist entity", her story is not an uncommon one. The neo-anti-Semites in the West and every dedicated Mohammedan alive today use the existence of the State of Israel as an excuse to perpetuate the millenia-old goal of exterminating the Jewish people.

As a minor postscript to this issue, it seems interesting to note that Amnesty International, while routinely lashing out against the democratic State of Israel, has, like the ISM, reportedly routinely supplied poloitical, logistical and material support to Palestinian terrorist groups who deliberately target Israeli civilians. We will look into those dark corners of the neo-anti-Semitism in later articles.

Hamas' field trial to a man suspected in drug dealing

A Little Quiz . . . .

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Based on everything you know about the three great monotheistic religions of the world, this is most probably a photograph of:

1. A blood-thirsty, barbarian Christian Crusader's child.

2. An evil, world-dominating, satanic Zionist oppressor's child.

3. An heroic, peace-loving and infinitely tolerant child of glorious Islam.

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Hint: one picture truly is worth a thousand words . . . . denying Mohammedan propaganda !

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And the "Yasser" Award Now Goes To . . . Sophie Claudet of "France 24"

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Truth be told, we do miss Christiane Amanpour.

As the discredited ex-international C.N.N. journalist has faded from the world's media stage, there remain few truly Machiavellian pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic members of the international press, however Ms. Sophie Claudet of France 24 television is clearly nipping at Ms. Amanpour's heels in an effort to overtake and surpass the reputation for yellow journalism that Ms. Amanpour worked so hard to attain and perfect.

On Tuesday, February 10th, in an interview on the international media agency France 24, Ms. Claudet turned in one of the most breathtakingly virtuoso performances of disingenuous pro-terrorist propaganda this writer has ever seen. She actually raised the bar set by Ms. Amanpour by at least a couple of feet.

The vast majority of journalists who have made quite comfortable incomes through Israel-bashing and declaring "being anti-Israel doesn't mean I'm anti-Semitic", are mediocre at best and while, as the world has repeatedly witnessed, they continue to pump out undocumented and unverifiable statements by Arab sources, Ms. Claudet's interview went them one better.

Following the month-long anti-terrorist offensive launched by the Israeli Defence Forces against Hamas Ms. Claudet, who is allegedly based in Ramallah ( rather than in Gaza we might note . . .) but spends a rather inordinate amount of quality time in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, pounded Israel with an iron fist in a velvet glove during her interview.

For those who listened closely, a number of extremely interesting facts emerged about Ms. Claudet's journalistic style. First, while the world at large and the Israeli public as well as the entire Palestinian population were well aware of the impending military operation by the I.D.F against Hamas in the Gaza strip, the actual opening of hostilities found Ms. Claudet, surprisingly, among the hundreds of journalists who, by some odd coincidence, just happened to be caught off-guard outside of Gaza at the time.

During the Second World War, the most respected and dedicated American war correspondant was Ernie Pyle. A man who was always among the troops in the front lines, sending back both gut-wrenching photos and hard-hitting eye-witness descriptions of the naked truth of the war, his dedication to journalism ultimately cost him his life. Had Ms. Claudet been given the assignment of covering that conflict, one can easily imagine her being "caught off-guard" on the beach in Miami on the eve of the war and raging impotently against the U.S government for keeping her from being in the thick of the fighting.

As we watched the virtual traffic-jam of media vehicles, reporters ( Ms. Claudet included) and cameramen criticizing Israel for "forcibly excluding" them from Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, one wonders why they weren't in Gaza in the first place. They certainly had enough time and forewarning to scoot in there with all their equipment before the actual operation began and get up-close and on-the-spot coverage of the conflict. But, like Ms. Claudet, they seem to have been caught completely by surprise despite the stunningly massive build-up of tanks, troops, attack helicopters and other fairly obvious indications of an impending military operation.

Now, having been apparently duped by Israel's troop build-up, and finding herself "forcibly excluded" from the conflict zone by the Israeli military, Ms. Claudet began, apparently, frantically attempting to enter Gaza to cover the hostilities. However, despite her best efforts, and over a month-long operation, Ms. Claudet only managed to "sneak into" Gaza from the Egyptian side a bare two days before the operation ended. One can only imagine how disappointed she must have been to have managed to "sneak into" Gaza so late in the game.

By that time, what she coyly intimated in her interview must have been mountains of bodies of Palestinian women and children, all innocent victims of Israeli (read: Jewish) atrocities, had been removed so, unfortunately, she was unable to document the carnage. But she assured the world they had been there; she was just a bit too late to document it all. Oops . . .

Interestingly, this interview included a taped conversation with an Italian journalist who had actually stayed in Gaza during the hostilities and gave a graphic account of how the Israelis intentionally tried to kill him (omitting to mention that he was not wearing a "Press" jacket at the time) and showed the film crew bullet holes in a car to prove his accusation. The fact that it wasn't his car was beside the point. Our sources also turned up the interesting fact that this particular journalist has in the past acted as an eager conduit for undocumented and unverified accusations against Israel by Hamas officials. Somewhat like our dedicated Ms. Claudet.

While a cursory scan of Ms. Claudet's articles on the Arab-Israeli conflict show a dedication to "exposing" Israeli (again, read: Jewish) injustices, her attacks being somewhat comparable to a pit-bull attacking a small child, she has not, to our knowledge, spent any of her time covering the ex-judicial summary executions of innocent Palestinians by Hamas, the wide-spread practice of "honor killings" of Palestinian women, the rampant corruption of Palestinian politicians of all stripes, the kidnapping and torture of foreign journalists (which may explain her adorably coy reluctance to base herself in Gaza rather than West Jerusalem or Tel Aviv ), the indiscriminate firing of Kassam and Grad rockets into civilian centers in Israel, homicide terrorist bombings of Israeli civilians, the indoctrination of Palestinian children to consider "martyrdom" (read: homicide bomber) as the highest goal to which they can aspire, or any of the other more uncivilized aspects of Palestinian society.

While Ms. Christiane Amanpour's anti-Semitic journalistic vitriol was basically fueled by the financial advantages to be gained from accomodating Arab sources, Ms. Claudet's hatred of Jews seems to be so deeply rooted that it not only enables her to turn a blind eye to the most blatent examples of Islamic barbarism, it has actually driven her to become what Ms. Christiane Amanpour never was . . . an ideologically motivated terrorist collaborator and propagandist.

We also found it interesting to note that the France 24 interviewer never raised the question of why Ms. Claudet spent all but the last two days of the conflict safely ensconsed in Israel and well out of harm's way while other foreign journalists managed to stay in the danger zone and were able to cover the conflict first-hand. Nor did the interviewer bother to raise the question of what compelled Israel to launch this operation. Embarassing question, that . . . ?

And so . . . . we most respectfully and, with grudging admiration for her dedication to the Hearst principles of reportage, present Ms. Claudet with the coveted "Yasser" award for yellow journalism, bless her little heart . . .

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Hamas leader admitting to using women and children as human shields

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While the various international news organizations like the B.B.C., C.N.N., France 24, Sky and myriad local and national European media devote a great deal of toil, sweat, tears and blood to "exposing" the "evils" of Israel's "disproportionate" response to Hamas' eight year long campaign of terrorist rocket attacks on civilian populations in Israel, they seem either strangely and inexplicably unaware of the most public pronouncements of Palestinian political officials and religious leaders such as the ones stated in the video posted above, or they are so sympathic to the Palestinian goal of exterminating the Jews that such baldly proclaimed admissions of internationally recognized war crimes justify the ends.

We find it a bit odd that, like so many of her journalistic collegues, Ms. Sophie Claudet, a senior Middle East correspondent for France 24 television, has, to our knowledge, never printed, spoken or broadcast the slightest criticism of these declarations while finding quite a bit of energy to condemn Israeli military operations against internationally recognized terrorist organizations such as Hamas, conveniently "misremembering" that the Israel Defence Forces and their elite commando units actually telephone intended targets prior to an attack in order to enable the families to evacuate their houses before they are hit. Apparently, Ms. Claudet doesn't consider it quite sporting to extend the same warnings to Jews.

We are still waiting for the U.N., Amnesty International, the Red Cross, U.N.R.W.A., the E.U. and, of course, the B.B.C. or C.N.N. to describe or officially classify these acts of terror and the openly proclaimed policy of using civilians as human shields by Hamas as "war crimes".

And, given the U.N.'s past history of rape, pillage and plunder in Africa, the Balkans and other areas under its "protection", as well as the demonstrated sympathy of the Red Cross, Amnesty International and the E.U. for Mohammedan outrages, we certainly aren't going to hold our breath . . . .

From the "Why Am I Not Surprised?" Files . . .

The United Nations' premier "humanitarian works" agency, U.N.R.W.A., informed the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) on Friday, February 6th, that it is suspending its humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip after Hamas had, in broad daylight, stolen hundreds of tons of supplies the United Nations organization had transferred to the Palestinian territory from donor countries around the world.

The seizure of the more than 200 tons of supplies took place Thursday and in response, U.N.R.W.A. officials informed the Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration that it was suspending its deliveries to the Gaza Strip until further notice. The supplies confiscated included flour and other basic commodities as well as camoflage uniforms, boots, and other non-humanitarian items.

The transfer of 40 truckloads of "humanitarian supplies" - some 800 tons - planned for Sunday has already been canceled.

Officials in Jerusalem said the announcement by U.N.R.W.A. constituted an involuntary and grudging UN confirmation of Israel's position, that Hamas is using the Palestinian population in Gaza "cruelly and cynically" and is solely responsible for the hardship there and not the defensive closing of crossings by the Israeli military.

The theft of humanitarian aid exposes the true face of Hamas and of its supporters in Iran and completely discredits the picture of a starving and destitute population as portrayed by Reuters, the B.B.C., AP, France 24 and other Western pro-terrorist media organizations whose CEOs and senior editorial officials have profited quite handsomely from grateful Arab "gratuities" for their work over the years.

It was the second time this week that Hamas stole UN supplies transferred to the Gaza Strip for "impoverished" Palestinians. The first incident took place Tuesday evening when armed Hamas police broke into a Gaza warehouse packed with UN humanitarian supplies and seized tens of thousands of blankets and food packages as well as the non-humanitarian military material.

Interestingly, an earlier news item widely reported by the media on the damage to a U.N. warehouse in Gaza by an Israeli tank shell graphically showed the damage caused by the shell but also, inadvertantly, showed that the warehouse was stuffed to the rafters with supplies that the U.N. had agreed with both Hamams and Fatah to withold from the population in order to bolster the media images of the Palestinians' claims of "poverty" and "destitution" caused by the closing of crossing points by the Israeli military.

The seizure of these supplies by Hamas took place after U.N.R.W.A. staff earlier refused to hand over the aid supplies to the Hamas-run Ministry of Social Affairs.

"We received a phone call this morning from U.N.R.W.A. officials that they have decided to suspend their deliveries after Hamas stole supplies from one of the organization's warehouses in the Gaza Strip," explained a senior official.

The IDF had earlier noticed the trend during Operation Cast Lead last month, when despite the fighting, Israel transferred close to 80 trucks a day to the Strip which were promptly seized by Hamas officials and sold for exorbitant blackmarket prices to the Arab population.

While this particular incident resulted in a negative response from the U.N., this has been an on-going co-operative practice between the U.N. agency and Palestinian terrorist organizations ever since the establishment of U.N.R.W.A. offices inside the Palestinian camps and cities over the past forty years.

Nuaf Atar, a Fatah operative captured during the operation, confirmed the war profiteering by Hamas officials and party members when he told the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) that Hamas government officials "took over" humanitarian aid Israel allowed in to the Gaza Strip and sold it when it was supposed to be distributed for free.

While U.N.R.W.A. Spokesman Sami Mshasha confirmed that the organization had suspended its deliveries to Gaza after Hamas stole its supplies, he refused any comment on past complicity by his agency in withholding supplies from the Gaza and West Bank populations or his agency's close relationship with internationally designated terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

"This is the second incident this week and this is a point of great concern for us and sets a bad precedent and if we are to provide services to people in Gaza after such an ordeal we need assurances that our work will be unimpeded," Mshasha said. He reportedly continued,"We cannot subjugate our work to the Ministry of Social Affairs in Gaza, since that cuts deeply into our profits"

If it weren't so tragic, it would be laughable to consider that the old adage about "there is no honor among theives" has rarely been so clearly illustrated as in this case where the U.N.'s premier "humanitarian aid agency", U.N.R.W.A., which for years has collaborated with and provided logistical and material support to Palestinian terrorists, has now been victimized by those same terrorists they so enthusiastically supported.

There truly is a G-d in this world . . .

Words of Wisdom . . .

Whenever the violent and psychotic acts of the Mohammedans against the innocents provokes you to retaliate in kind, just remember the words of one of the wisest and most experienced humans to ever walk this earth:

"To refrain from imitation is the best revenge."

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, "To Myself", Book 6, Verse 6

An Idle Thought . . .

It just occured to me that the comparision by pro-Mohammedan, pro-terrorist groups and individuals of the Israeli defensive barrier wall to the Berlin wall erected by the Russians at the height of the Cold War seems more than a bit farcical.

The main images that have been burned into the conciousness of the world by the Berlin Wall are the photos and films of the East Germans who risked their lives diving through forests of barbed-wire and clambering over that slate-gray wall to escape from the oppression on Communism.

The interesting thing is that since the erection of the Israeli defensive barrier, not one image has been taken or one foot of film shot of an Israeli Arab risking his or her life by scrabbling over the wall INTO the Palestinian areas. Even Reuters and the AP, both noted for their staged and choreographed images of "oppressed Mohammedans" whether in the Palestinian areas or the Lebanon, have been unable to bring themselves ( as yet ) to create a fantasy image of that magnitude.

They do, however, routinely, show the tens of thousands of Palestinians who wait daily to get INTO the "despised Zionist Entity" for work and an honest living that Hamas and the corrupt and violent Palestinian leadership have denied them in their own lands.

That thought just brings an interesting perspective to the hysterical rantings of the Jew-haters in this world . . .

Notes from the Holy Land

It's been a while since we've been able to post a new article on our blog and things have changed fairly drastically in many ways since our last posting. As always in this life, some of the changes were for the better and, to keep us on our toes, some were naturally for the worst, but we roll with the punches and, as this snowy-pated generation used to say, "We keep on truckin'".

Things are jogging along as best as can be expected given the looming cloud of economic Armageddon that's gathering world-wide these days. I feel like someone sitting quietly on a hilltop under a spreading oak tree on a crisp, clear summer's day watching with growing fascination and horror as I watch two thundering hundred-car freight trains hurtling toward each other at the foot of the hill around a blind bend at full steam.

Bucking the seemingly universal euphoria that has accompanied Obama's election as President, I just have a gut-wrenching feeling that this is a disaster of monumental proportions just waiting to happen. The fact that within the first couple of weeks of his administration he's chosen a couple of the most corrupt and scoff-law politicians on the Hill for positions of power, and then been forced to admit that he "screwed up" is hardly the stuff to inspire reckless confidence in his ability to handle the impending decisions he'll have to make that will, literally, mean life or death to millions, if not billions of people around the world.

While his election as a black president has undoubtedly been an historic event in the history of a traditionally white, conservative political community in America, he's not going to be able to coast on his color in the face of internationally color-blind power politics. For the aggressive, power-hungry and, increasingly religiously fanatic Mohammedan political forces rearing their heads, sniffing for the scent of fear in the West and testing the new opposition, the color of the blood in Obama's jugular vein is the same as any other victim's no matter the color of their skin.

Now, here in Israel, we're looking forward to our own elections in the near future and, hopefully, we'll see a more pragmatic and less corrupt administration under someone like Benjamin ( Bibi ) Netanyahu. Our dream team is Netanyahu, Moshe Arens, Natan Sharanski and a few of the political young Turks to the right of center. With Olmert leaving with a cloud of corruption trailing in his wake and other high ranking politicos facing serious police scrutiny, the nation's definitely ready for our own clean sweep for "Change" and Hope" for which the U.S. voted. Fortunately, the choices we have in Israel have already been battle-hardened and will be up to the tasks before them. Obama seems to feel he can pick up the hang of the presidency as he goes along. Not a good sign.

The major voting bloc in Israel is the Russian community and, contrary to the intentions of the Left Wing who brought them over by the hundreds of thousands in the hope they would bolster the Leftist Socialist parties, have been some of the most pragmatic, right-wing voters in the country. After so many of them endured the horrors of the Second World War and experienced first-hand the terror of the Nazi regime, they are listening with an extremely critical ear to the rhetoric of Ahmadinajad's anti-Semitic rants and the terrorist tactics of today's Muslims in general. They, before anyone else, realize that they no longer have the vast, empty, frozen wastelands of the Soviet steppes and the ferocious Russian winter to protect them from the Arabs as they protected them against the Nazis. Where they were used to measuring distances in tens of thousands of kilometers, now they measure in tens of hundreds of meters. This entire nation of Israel holds barely a third of the population of the city of Moscow. Now they can not only see the wolf at their doorstep, but can actually hear him panting. I think Bibi's going to be our next Prime Minister.

While the mainstream media is still overwhelmingly biased with oil-soaked reportage in this neck of the woods, there are growing signs that the Arabs grossly misplayed their hand when they jacked up the price of oil to over $150 a barrel last year. The reverberations from that money-grab have further crippled already reeling economies around the world and now the new Leader of the European Union, Czechoslovakia, is voicing, for the first time, a loud and unequivical denounciation of the Arab States and Islamic terror. The President came out and boldly stated that is was sheer insanity to pour billions and billions of dollars into the Palestinian territories for reconstruction, humanitarian projects and infrastructure when Hamas just takes the money, squirrels most of it away in Swiss numbered accounts and then turns around and provokes Israel by firing rockets into civilian populations which means repeated destruction of the "reconstructed" areas by the Israeli forces. . . and then, of course, another financial windfall for the corrupt Palestinian leaders who whine and whimper about their demolished homes and lands.

Our oldest son is thriving in the army now. He's back home almost every other weekend and it's a bizarre feeling for an ex-American G.I. ( me :-) who was posted halfway around the world during the Vietnam War to have a son whose most likely battleground would be just hours from his own house. I think it must be even more traumatic for the Russian parents of the soldiers serving in the Israeli Army. Again, it's that awareness of the distance thing.

I'm going to take a break here and add an e-mail that we got from one of the guys I work with. I think it deserves some kudos for giving a bit of insight into Israel that I don't have the talent for. The guy's name is Lior ( Lee - OR ) and he and his family went down south with some stuff for the troops fighting the terrorists in Gaza. I'll let it speak for itself:

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Lior's Update:

I just got back from the Gaza Israeli border. Yesterday, as some of you may know, our son called us in the morning to tell us that his unit was being pulled for 2 days from Gaza to rest and refit and that they were going to let the parents of the soldiers come and visit briefly.

I immediately told my boss that I had to go and see him. He gave me the day off and offered to get a ride to that area., The company I work for was sending 2 cars to the area to the local hospital to take gifts to the wounded soldiers in the hospital in Beer Sheva.

Later he told me that the company was gathering things for me to take. Then shortly thereafter he offered a company car for me to take, his own personal company vehicle, as he went out and gathered items to send to our soldiers fighting in the south.

During the night we got calls from Pinny, our son, that they were moving out at dawn. We weren't happy. Then in the morning he told us they would move out at around 10 am.

We left at 8 am. Its about 250 kms to there from where we live in the north in Carmiel. In the car were my wife, a close friend of the family Paula and myself driving. Paula's boyfriend, Noah wanted to come but he was afraid he might lose his job if he took the day off. Our other son, Shlome, wanted to come and also our daughter, Chana.

It seemed a little too dangerous to take him with us. I would not been able to deal with it if he was hurt in a rocket attack.

And Chana wanted to come but we were too pressed for time to make the detour to get her in Tel Aviv.

We took off and were in constant communication with Pinny.

The car had a GPS that took me in the wrong direction. So I used the old fashioned way, pull over and check the map. LPS, (Lior Positioning System).

By the time his unit was on the move we were still 100 kms away. Also, as we left 3 rockets hit the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona.

We were worried but, as I told my wife, our mission was to get to the south. The chances looked pretty slim that we would catch them before they deployed again. I have been on numerous US Army deployments and I know first hand that things get delayed. I relayed this to her and prayed to God silently that we would find him. Although personally at the time I gave it a 2% chance of success.

As all this was going on, the driver of the vehicle that was transporting the soldiers, a civilian, overheard my son speaking Spanish on his cellphone. He asked him where he was from and my son relayed the whole story. As it turned out the driver was from the same town, Carmiel, as we are.

Shortly after that the bus they were on experienced some mysterious mechanical malfunctionsn that kept delaying them.

In the mean time we were called by a liaison to the army that had heard we were coming with food and snacks for the soldiers from the north and told us how to get close to where they were being deployed and promised to get the items to the soldiers.

We ended up south of Sderot ( Google it ) at a crossroad to a kibbutz call Be'eri. Army activity was extreme. You could hear the jets and helicopters flying overhead.

As we came around the corner we saw a bus pulled over with 3 officers yelling at the driver and the driver scratching his head looking at the engine.

Just then our son came out with his sergeant and waved us in. We had quite an emotional moment. We got out and started to hand out bags of food and snacks, some brought by us, some provided by friends, some by the company and cookies baked by a friend of ours, Sarah, and of course Coca Cola and two large trays of food. ( Chicken Fajitas and a Cuban dish called Picadillo). . . Google it.

The officers came over and clearly they were upset. Once they realized who we were, how far we came and what we risked to get there they quickly realized they had been had by the bus driver.

It was a miracle, suddenly, the bus started and was running fine.

While we got to spend time with our son 2 rockets landed nearby. My wife asked me about the noise and I innocently told here it must be trucks bouncing down the road. We could clearly see the buildings on fire in Gaza from there, from the airstrikes.

We took pictures, ate and spent time with him.

The morale of the soldiers was low when we got there.. However when they saw us and realized also what it took for a family to drive there they were amazed. One came up to us and told us that up until they saw us they were wondering what the hell were they doing.

Then they said now they understood what they were fighting for and that if there were common citizens willing to risk their lives to bring them food and gifts they could understand who they were fighting for also.

They loved the hot food and the cookies, candies and cakes.

We stayed as long as we could and then we had to leave.

It was 505 kms roundtrip. Thank God for my stubbornness, the bus driver, my wife's ability to handle 2 cell phones simultaneously, her ability to cook, the company, especially my boss, and the chance to see my wife's and my son's faces light up when they saw each other.

You never know what tomorrow brings so we just went for it.

Life is full of good moments and bad.

Today was a good day.

Lior
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That's pretty much a "slice-of-life" peek at what goes on in this country. As in so many other situations, the key to the success of something can depend on the most unusual factors, in this case it was the simple ploy of a stubborn ( and typically compassionate ) bus driver that saved the day.

And now, on to more mundane matters. We're slowly coming out of winter now, with the last gasp of rain squalls drenching the north and center of the country. Pretty soon it will be Spring again in the Holyland, the weather will be hotting up and the sweltering winds coming off the Jordanian desert will be driving Israelis to the beaches of the Mediterranean and the Sea of Galilee. Slim, seductive, olive-skinned Israeli girls will be sharing the sands with the older Russian women who are, essentially, pallid beachballs with legs at the best of times. There will be the wafting, mouth-watering smells from the seasoned lamb kabobs over the charcoal grills, the sweet, cloying smoke of the mint and honey soaked tobacco of the nargilas ( hookah water pipes) and the throbbing sounds of the Middle East music blaring out of little Fiats and Skodas driven by teenage Arabs and Sephardic Jews crusing the beach-side drives.

While the tension of this neighborhood is always in the air, somehow Israelis, whether Jews, Arabs or Christians, all manage to find a way to relax together, even if it seems to be in constant high gear.

The on-going war against Hamas and the Palestinians is one in defense of this pluralistic democracy, the rule of law and a drive for progress scientifically, socially and religiously and it will be a never-ending one until the Palestinian Mohammedans have been pounded back into the desert.

For those who brand Israel as a "racist" state, I would ask them where the Jews are in Gaza? Where have the Christians of Bethlehem disappeared to? While Nazareth, the home of Jesus, in the Jewish State of Israel, boasts one of the largest and most prosperous Christian communities in the Middle East, Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus has seen its Christian community dwindle to less than 20% of what it was before the Palestinians took control. Now it has become a city where Christians live in fear, held to their homes only through their faith while enduring constant harassment and attacks by the Mohammedan occupiers.

As we continue our struggle against the forces of barbarism in the shape of Mohammedan terror fueled by Arab oil and the ever-present anti-Semitism spawned over the centuries by the Catholic Church and the Mohammedans, the iron-clad fact that sustains us is that we have not only endured and survived the terrors and tribulations of the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the mighty colossus that was once Rome, the scourge of the Church and the Mosque, the abasement by the Ottoman Turks, the satanic psychosis of the Nazis, and now the pure evil of Islamic terror, but we have, against all historical odds, actually regained our ancient homeland and thrived and prospered in the arts, the sciences, the humanities, blazing new pathways for healing and uplifting the mind, the body and the soul of the world.

Like Lior said . . . . it's been a good day.