Lebanese Maronite priest expresses his 'love' for the Jewish People

It's interesting that a maronite priest can take time out from the woes of christians persecuted, beaten and killed throughout the muslim world to spread hatred of jews using the notorious tsarist forgery the Protocols of the Elder of Zion and the deicide myth.
Speaking in arabic on Hezbolla TV the priest opens up his heart to the Hezbollah killers who are presently firing hundreds of missiles nightly into sunni villages just over the border in Syria, and says what he really feels about jews.
There's none of the crocodile tears for 'suffering' palestinian arabs and 'occupation' and the suchlike we often hear from the mealy mouthed franciscans and Vatican media.
 Here we get just the raw expression of the old hatred for the Jewish People from a christian priest spreading the old calumnies to islamic murderers.
If this priest thinks that ingratiating his community with Hezbollah will convince them not to turn their guns on his community he's living in a fool's paradise.
The turn of Lebanon is coming and no amount of peddling of the old lies against jews will spare his own community from the coming islamic storm being waged next door.

Haman retakes the White House

The worst has happened and now it's time to take stock.  Obama remains president knows the ropes and will be able to work faster and harder to achieve policies that are important to him. He also will not need to tailor policies in his last year to getting re-elected.

Obama has no love for Israel or its current leader Netanyahu who will most likely also be re-elected. The question is whether Obama will try again to hammer Israel over its citizens living in the Jewish Ancestral Homelands of Judea and Samaria. Hopefully Obama is chastened by events last time round, and will have little enthusiasm to go head to head with Israel when it is palestinian arabs who have been the stumbling block to moving peace forwards.
Palestinian arabs are the ones who have refused to sit down at the table with Israel who constantly provoke and attack jews.
But the problem is not whether and when to negotiate but the fact that arabs keep telling Israel they will sooner or later destroy it. Why else does Abbas and his crew stick rigidly to the 'right of return', that arabs and their descendants can move back to towns in Israel where they might have  come from. Israel is supposed to forget that 5 arab armies and arabs living in Israel tried to strangle Israel at birth, to forget that the moment it left Gaza and Lebanon they attacked Israel. In the case of Gaza the rocket attacks are unceasing.

Palestinian arabs have little wish to establish their own state albeit Farouk Kadummi the PLO former 'foreign minister' who only this last week said that he favoured a confederation with Jordan.So did another PLO central committee member:

Zaki also discussed the idea of "Palestine" federating with Jordan, which PLO official Farouk Kaddumi recently suggested. Zaki said that this is of course a possible option - but now is not the time to talk about it. Apparently, the PLO knows quite well that independence was never its goal - destroying Israel has been, and the entire facade of a "two-state solution" is simply another stage in that goal. But if the PalArab leaders publicly acknowledge that they really are indistinguishable from Jordan, the UN member states might wonder why they really want their own state.

So will Obama go full steam ahead to bully Israel into allowing the establishment of another terror state for a non-existant people, some millions of arabs west of the Jordan whose identity is based upon the destruction of Israel?

Obama may very well move forwards with this, hanging the possibility of the USA allowing the UNSC to pass damaging resolutions against Israel.  He could downgrade military links with Israel and generally work to destroy Israel's links with the USA. Obama doesn't have a totally free hand as Congress is still very supportive of Israel. But a chill will soon enter the air.

Apart from Obama's obsession with Israel he will need to take time out on a regular basis to deal with Iran whose nuclear program threatens to set off an avalanche of proliferation, something that Obama is committed to prevent. And then there is China the bully of South East Asia. That is going to take up increasing amounts of time. And lastly there is that burgeoning deficit. $16 trillions is no mean sum and might soon lead to a collapse in the dollar if nothing is done.

Israel is a tiny country but it has weathered many storms in its recent history. The second Obama period was presaged by the omen of Hurricane Sandy and Netanyahu will indeed need to batten down the hatches and be prepared to take a lot of flak from a man who now has a greater ability to damage it. This is despite the fact that the american people is generally very well disposed to Israel. Obama's mandate was not intended to be used for such a purpose, to harm jews, but there again neither was Hitlers.

Americans want jobs and financial security. Hopefully their president will work to achieve this, but his eye is firmly fixed not so much on the welfare of americans but on adding to the manifold threats and dangers to Israel's security caused by his first administration.

The return of the Turkish 'sick man of europe' (& hopefully farewell to Obama)

 I had to repress a smile when reading that Turkey is putting Israelis on 'trial' in their absence for having killed the IHH terrorists on the Mavi Marmara. Of course the verdict is a foregone conclusion in the country which jails more journalists than any other country (around 100 at present) and has thousands of political prisoners languishing in prison. The sentence being asked by the prosecution is 18,000 years for each soldier who defended himself from the violent turks. 

I'm sure that with pleading mitigation and time off for good behaviour, Erdogan's judges might be convinced to allow the imposition of a more lenient 6,000 year sentence. The only remaining question is how long before amputations, whippings and stonings are introduced into the Turkish penal system?

Even before the latest turkish farce, there was a feeling that Turkey not only lost all sense of realism but was punching above its weight. To give him credit the turkish islamist PM Erdogan instigated the Gaza flotilla provocation when he felt the time was right. The Turkish economy had seemingly taken off and Turkey appeared to have foreign policy successes across the board. The islamist Erdogan's mantra was zero foreign policy problems other than with Israel. And for one short year it seemed to ring true.

It wasn't long however before the foreign policy goals unravelled with Armenia not seeing any fruits of its appeasment of Turkey. Its border is still blockaded by Turkey. Turkey also woke up to the fact that supporting Iran's regional and nuclear ambitions might clash with its own security goals.  

Turkey now has problems with all its neighbours (apart from tiny Georgia) evoking the feeling in europe that the best place for irascible Turkey is not in the EU or in Nato (sighs of relief from EU nations that Turkey never managed to break into the EU club and now it never will).

And Turkey's economy is giving increasing cause for worry (or the opposite depending on your point of view). The economic boom has been predicated on real estate rises in value, 'hot' credit and consumption. There is little capital investment in Turkey and unemployment is booming.

All Turkey needs now is to go to war with Syria. Every time a Syrian shell lands over the border Erdogan huffs and puffs and we wonder if it will finally happen. Just how long will hot tempered Erdogan manage to resist taking his country into a disastrous war with Syria (and Hezbollah and Iran supported by Iraq and Russia). The disaster will of course not just be for Turkey but for a number of Israel's worst foes. 

So apart from the above scenario worrying cooler minds in Turkey, there's always that horrible Kurdish problem, a problem of the kurdish birth rate that keeps gnawing away, and will continue to do so until one day Turks wake up some time around 2038 and find out that Kurds outnumber them.

Long before then Turkish soldiers will be dying in ever greater numbers, and the increasing repression against kurds in eastern Turkey will just hasten the progress of turkish collapse in the east.
No wonder Turkey is beside itself with worry over the new kurdish autonomous areas in Syria's north east.

If I was Erdogan i'd forget the Jews for the moment as there are just so many problems looming on the horizon. I would be really worried about the rise of the Kurds as, sad to say if you are an Ottomanist and islamist Turk, there doesn't seem to be any solution other than radically shrinking the borders of Turkey at the very least from Erzurum eastwards. Turkey is going to be forced to drink some of the poison it recommends Israel partake of. Unlike Turkey Israel has legitimate and somewhat long standing claims (admittedly not 18,000 years) to all the lands its people live on.

I'm going to bed soon and will hopefully awaken to drink a lechayim to the american people's good sense in kicking Obama, the Jewish and American Peoples' worst enemy since Hitler (bar maybe a couple of madmen living in Iran) into the long grass. When I open my eyes in the morning the middle east and asia will hopefully be much safer (we mustn't forget how China has flexing its muscles in the South China Sea area since Obama's administration showed how spineless it is in the face of aggression by enemies of the West) .  

Turkey may go out of top 20 club: CHP

 Turkey will fail to achieve its long-term growth targets as the government is incapable of developing the necessary economic policy, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has said.

“This government is incapable of developing the policy to lift Turkey into the top 10 economies in the world by 2023. On the contrary, the country may fall outside of the top 20 economies. Turkey was the 14th largest economy [in the world] in 1987. Now it is the 17th,” he said yesterday at a meeting organized by the Economy Journalists Association (EGD).

The government has set an ambitious target to become one of the largest 10 economies and reach $500 billion in exports volume by 2023, the centennial of the foundation of the republic.

However, Kılıçdaroğlu said the Turkish economy was off-track and was missing crucial targets in the government’s much-praised medium-term program. “The government makes a three-year program, however, all the targets are missed,” he said.

CHP Vice President Faik Öztrak, who also made a presentation at the event, said the government had revised down its own targets in the medium-term program regarding the main macroeconomic indicators including gross domestic product growth, and year-end consumer inflation for this year and the following two years. The government has revised its growth target for 2012 from 4 percent down to 3.2 percent and year-end inflation from 5.2 percent up to 7.4 percent.

Noting that domestic demand had contracted sharply, he said the target for demand growth in 2012 was 4.1 percent, but it had plunged to -0.1 percent. Turkey’s economic growth is predominantly based on external resources and debt, he said.

Another soft spot in the Turkish economy, according to Öztrak, is the household debt level, which has shot up 36-fold since 2002, while household financial assets merely increased threefold in the same period.

“There is no soft landing in the economy [as suggested by the government],” he said.
......the actual unemployment rate was higher than the official disclosure.

“Millions of people are jobless. The government claims to have decreased unemployment through tweaks in statistics. Someone who works for only 15 days is also counted as employed [for the full year],” he said.

Pallywood provocation industry didn't get their 'incident' this time

The shameless manipulation of children by palestinian arabs goes on. Here children spend a long time haranguing soldiers hoping that one will strike out whilst being filmed. To their credit the soldiers acted impeccably. 
The constant teaching of hatred for jews and the attempt to defame them is why arabs will never be successful in Judea and Samaria. 
Arabs in Judea and Samaria will never have a viable state not because Israel failed to offer them their freedom, but because the arabs there don't want to build but only to provoke, to destroy, to maim and to kill jews. 
Kol Hakavod (well done) to those soldiers to allowed themselves to be abused so whilst keeping their good humour. They should not have to put up with this level of abuse though. All the adults including those inciting the kids, especially those with the cameras who the encouragement for such provocations should have been arrested. 
Any foreigners found taking part in such incitement should be arrested and then deported. Hopefully once the new government is elected they will begin to act against participants in these staged incidents and those who are responsible for them.

A video that has been uploaded to Youtube shows how Arabs in Judea and Samaria abuse their own children and manipulate unwitting Israeli soldiers in order to manufacture photographs that can be used for propaganda purposes. The case in point is a situation that appears to have been masterfully directed by an unknown propagandist, starring a girl who was successfully used for the same purpose three months earlier.

In August, Arab propagandists produced photos of a soldier manhandling a crying Arab girl – an excellent illustration of the theme propagated by Israel's enemies, regarding Israel's allegedly evil military occupation of Judea and Samaria. The girl was blond and light-skinned to boot – making the photos more touching for many westerners, as she appeared to be "one of their own." The new video shows the girl in a similar situation, but this time it is plain to see what really goes on in these "photo ops."

The girl was obviously instructed to "get in the faces" of the soldiers, and spent a considerable amount of time cursing them, shouting herself hoarse and hitting them on occasion as well. At the same time, adults all around her were taping the occurrences, waiting for a soldier to lose his nerve. The staging of scenes for Israel-baiting is such a common Arab tactic in the Palestinian Authority that the industry has come to be known as "Pallywood." The most famous and successful Pallywood film ever made was that in which an Arab boy, Muhammad a-Durah, was placed in proximity to a Gaza firefight in 2000, and made to look as if he had been shot dead by IDF soldiers. Belated investigations showed that shots fired at a-Durah came from Arabs.

Lieberman will stiffen Netanyahu's backbone

It is hard to criticise Netanyahu has been unfortunate enouth to have had to work with the most anti-Israeli of US presidents ever, a president who has spent the last four years undermining Israel's security whether indirectly through 'regime change' of stable arab powers for extremist ones of the Muslim Brotherhood or through extreme pressure brought to bear on Israel over jews living in its ancient homelands.
It is hard to know just how difficult things have been for Netanyahu, or what brought him to recognise 'rights' of arabs who call themselves Palestinians not in order to build themselves a state of their own, but in order to destroy Israel. Obama has however undoubtedly been up there with Iran on Netanyahu's list of worries these last four years. 
But Netanyahu was no spring chicken. He is serving a second term of office and he has sacrificed the jewish inhabitants of Judea and Samaria for no gain. Obama never let up for a minute in the years he has been in the White House, whether a manufactured crisis over housing permits in Jerusalem or pushing Israel to make ever greater concessions to arabs whose successes are guaged not by their increase in per capita income, but in how many jews they have killed.

Elyakim Haetzni should however not just encourage people not to vote for likud. An alternative should be offered as power loves a vacuum. The worst possible outcome would be if people in Yesha just decide not to cast their ballot, handing their enemies a victory. Jews in Israel's ancient homelands of Judea and Samaria ('West Bank') must use their vote to elect those friendly to jewish settlement throughout the country. 
After all, with Lieberman having united with Netanyahu things are hopefully now set to improve.


Op-ed: Hundreds of thousands of settlers now second-class citizens due to Netanyahu's policies

Elyakim Haetzni  Published:     11.02.12, 13:03 / Israel Opinion

The local news outlets are focusing on the "moderate" voters who will flee Likud due to the "Lieberman threat," but they are forgetting the party's rightist bloc, which has an old score to settle with Netanyahu.

Here is a partial list: "Two states for two people," the essence of the Left's doctrine; the freezing of settlement construction for 10 months and a willingness to extend the freeze in exchange for Palestinian recognition of a "Jewish state" and to permanently halt construction following negotiations; a partial construction freeze in Jerusalem and in all of Judea and Samaria's Jewish communities, which is still in effect; a willingness to launch negotiations on the Golan Heights; a cold and distant attitude towards settlers who have not been "legalized" by the Left – meaning those who live outside the "settlement blocs"; and, worst of all, the handing over of the settlement enterprise - with its 370,000 people and 250 communities - to Defense Minister Barak, who is using the Civil Administration to abuse the settlers and violate their property rights.
West Bank

Therefore, the prime minister is responsible for the fact that hundreds of thousands of his subjects have become second-class citizens. Netanyahu knew what Barak's approach vis-à-vis the settlers was, so by handing them over to the defense minister's absolute rule, he essentially threw them under the bus.

Construction in many West Bank communities is restricted because Barak is refusing to approve city construction plans, and some communities have become "illegal" only because of this refusal. "Beit HaShalom" in Hebron was purchased for a million dollars, but 16 families were evicted from the premises for no reason at all – as a court ruling issued years later determined.

The purchase of Beit HaMachpela was found to be legal, but its dwellers were still evicted because Barak refused to certify the purchase. And there is also Migron, Ulpana and Beit-El, the university in Ariel and the brutal evacuations of women and children, which are accompanied by the sadistic razing of homes and property.

Lieberman bears some of the responsibility for these injustices, and he also approved the "two states" formula. Therefore, merging Likud with his Yisrael Beiteinu party does not erase Netanyahu's negative track record.

Rightist voters will also consider Netanyahu's attitude towards the Levy Report, drafted by three prominent judges seeking to end the legal injustices against Jews in their own land. The prime minister continues to ignore the report, which determined that Israel is not an occupying force in Judea and Samaria.

Likud's refusal to accept this historic decree will not be forgiven and it will not be forgotten - not to mention the party's complete disregard for the report's practical recommendations, which call for the annulment of some of the draconian measures that limit Jewish settlement in the West Bank. The Levy Report alone may cost Likud-Beiteinu a few Knesset seats.

No islamic nostalgia for buildings and art unless in Israel and the Temple Mount

Egyptian Sphinx given a 'nose job' by muslim iconoclasts

I'm filled with sadness when I think of so much world heritage smashed to pieces by muslim iconoclasts in years gone by. Much of ancient Egyptian art was given the islamic treatment with faces bashed out so that only the bodies are left on many beautiful statues. That beautiful monument the "sphinx"might have been so much more beautiful were it not for islamic "improvements".
So it is with little surprise that the barbaric islamists of Mali and Saudi Arabia are destroying ancient relics of islam itself. A religion that does not teach tolerance for the other, that has no possibility of updating its creed into an age of human rights and respect for other people's sensitivities and cultures will not respect its own. All that is needed is for a different islamic school such as the wahabites or salafists to come along and then previous works of even islamic art become dust.

The Saudis are bulldozing Islam's heritage. Why the silence from the Muslim world?

By Damian Thompson World Last updated: November 2nd, 2012

Imagine that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem – the traditional site of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus – has been taken over by Cromwellian Puritans. The new owners of the shrine plan to send bulldozers in, replacing the old church with a monstrous building resembling a concrete spaceship. This is so pilgrims can pray without being distracted by “superstitious” icons. Also, the Old City will be buried under hotels that make Vegas look like Venice.

It wouldn’t happen, would it? Christians would fight to the death to preserve Jerusalem. So would Jews and Muslims. And, for once, they’d have the support of secular politicians and scholars, horrified by the prospect of an act of cultural vandalism unprecedented in modern times.

Unprecedented until now, that is. The long-cherished ambition of Saudi Arabia’s ruling Wahhabi sect to smash up the ancient buildings of Mecca and Medina is nearing fruition.

In Mecca, the house of one of Mohammed’s wives has been demolished to make space for public lavatories. His birthplace may disappear, too, as part of King Abdullah’s scheme to complement the skyscrapers and shopping malls with a Grand Mosque fashioned from the same materials as a multi-storey car park in Wolverhampton.

As for Islam’s second holiest place, the city of Medina, a recent article by Jerome Taylor in the Independent revealed a megalomaniac plan to pull down three 7th-century mosques. Taylor added: “Ten years ago, a mosque which belonged to the Prophet’s grandson was dynamited. Pictures of the demolition that were secretly taken and smuggled out of the kingdom showed the religious police celebrating.”

Only a small minority of the world’s billion Muslims are Wahhabis, despite the tens of billions of petrodollars spent by the Saudis propagating their creed. (Bosnia, for example, is now littered with Saudi-style mosques, replacing the graceful Ottoman architecture that Wahhabis detest.) Many pilgrims to Mecca are revolted by the marriage of Puritanism and greed they find there. Yet protests are scattered and muted. Why?

One answer is that the House of Saud, though widely hated, is also feared: its wealth and terrorist connections make it unlikely that, say, a Pakistani politician would speak openly about the desecration of the Hajj.

The West can hardly complain about such gutlessness: this year’s Hajj exhibition at the British Museum was creepily sanitised – no mention of bulldozers or the 2,000ft clock tower built right next to the Kaaba, the black cube-shaped building that is the centrepiece of Islamic devotions.

But what sticks in the craw is the hypocrisy of Muslims who throw a fit if Israeli archaeologists carry out non-intrusive work underneath the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, “Islam’s third holiest place”, as we’re constantly reminded. Such anger would be more convincing if the first and second holy sites weren’t being ploughed up by a police state. Likewise, are cartoons of Mohammed really more offensive than reducing the remains of his life to rubble?

As one Middle East expert put it to me: “Jews disturbing the Dome of the Rock fits into an anti-Western narrative, so Muslims can cope with that. The Saudi destruction of Mecca doesn’t fit into that narrative, and so there’s virtual silence.” Something worth bearing in mind, perhaps, when you wonder why the murder of Muslims by Muslims in Darfur or Syria provokes only limited outrage in the Islamic world.

The 600 who understand on which side their bread is buttered

Role model for christians in Israel - Monalisa Abdo the first female Arab combat commander

It is heartwarming to see that so many young christians in Israel go against their leaders, the official churches, their bishops and do their duty by their country Israel by doing national service and serving in the IDF. 
Christian youth such as MonaLisa and her sister are the future of their community, not the religious bigots who purport to represent them.
Christians in Israel know that they have the luck to live in the only country in the region which protects the rights of all religious denominations, that allows freedom of worship and protection from discrimination.
Only in Israel are christians free. Christians look around them and see themselves under attack in every muslim country, every arab country in the middle east.
Many christian youth are not just taking all that Israel has to offer whilst besmirching the State of Israel, but are doing their duty. Kol Hakavod (Hebrew for 'respect'/ 'well done').


Christian leaders spar over IDF enlistment

Conference allegedly encouraging young Christians to serve in IDF leads to boycott, death threats and police complaints, but volunteers could be more satisfied with their service

Hassan Shaalan
The issue of the enlistment of Christians in the IDF has sparked unexpected tensions in Israel's Arab Christian community.

The head of the Council of Arab Orthodox Community Dr. Azmi Hakim on Tuesday filed a police complaint claiming he received death threats after voicing opposition to the recruitment of Christians following a conference in Nazareth Illit.

He later said he has no problem with those who choose to join the army but remains opposed to the idea.

Threats were apparently also made against other members of the community who promote enlistment, according to Defense Ministry official Haim Ben-Ami. 

The affair began early last month during a conference which was attended by Defense Ministry representatives as well as Nazareth Illit Mayor Shimon Gabso and Reverend Jubrail Nadaf.

During the conference, Christian teens were encouraged to join the IDF which sparked uproar among clerics and members of the Christian community council.

They called to boycott Nadaf claiming he does not represent them. "We will not let anyone sully the community's name by recruiting Christians to the IDF or National Service. We must fight this," one councilman said. 

Reverend Nadaf said, "I am not responsible for what was said at the conference. Anyone who says otherwise is inciting against me as a religious figure and will pay for it in court." Nadaf filed a police complaint against the council citing defamation.  

Data show that 18% of Christians in Israel volunteer for National Service, the director of the National Service Directorate, Sar-Shalom Jerby, said. "Of the 3,000 Arabs volunteering for National Service 570 are Christians," he said.

"There is some opposition to National Service in the Arab community," Jerby added. "Some treat the volunteers as traitors. At times they are even attacked."

'I love helping my community'

While the community's leaders continue to quarrel over the matter, it appears that the young Israeli Christians embrace the opportunity to serve their communities.  

"I volunteer at a school in the village and am very satisfied with my service because I'm helping my community," said 19-year-old Jana.

"All the people who are against it don't understand what we contribute. In the beginning, those who weren't happy with my decision created problems for me but I've proven myself." 

Another young Christian said she volunteers at a cultural institute and is happy she is able to help others. "I'm thinking about also serving in the IDF because I'm an Israeli citizen and want to contribute to the country," she said.  

One volunteer said she is determined to continue her service despite receiving threats. "It made me want to stop but my parents supported me and gave me strength. It made me go on without being scared of all the threats. I never expected Christian religious figures to stoop so low because of the conference, which is hardly something new." 

The Nazereth Illit Municipality said in response, "The event was a tribute to Christian soldiers serving in the IDF and performing National Service. It was not aimed at recruiting more Christians to the IDF."

 The Defense Ministry said, "We will not tolerate threats or attacks against those who promote enlistment. They will receive our support."

Greek Orthodox Church believes that Israel should pay its bills even whilst undermining Israel's security

The Greek Orthodox Church is up in arms over having its bank account frozen by the Mekorot water company. It seems that the church believed that it was exempt from normal arrangements like paying for what you consume. 
I wonder why an unnamed Jerusalem mayor, most likely Teddy Kollek allowed the church to get away with this theft for so long. Most probably as usual Israel was blackmailed into it over the bad publicity that would ensue. And of course anti-Israel hatred is exactly what the Greek  Orthodox Church is trying to do at the moment. In the past its Bishop Hilarion Cappucci smuggled weapons for PLO terrorists abusing diplomatic rights afforded the Church by Israel. And only the other day another Bishop Hanna showed just how much hatred its priests have for the Jewish State when fulminating against christians serving in Israels army.

The Israeli government is usually soft on those that hate it and work against its interests, but a water company is a business and less likely to take religious blackmail into account. Most likely what will happen is that the Israeli government will pay up. Anything for 'peace' and quiet. The trouble is the enemies of Israel are very well aware of this.

Clergyman from church built on site where Jesus Christ is said to have been crucified says its bank account has been frozen due to long-standing dispute with Israeli water company

A clergyman from the church built on the site where Jesus Christ is said to have been crucified said Friday that its bank account has been frozen as the result of a long-standing dispute with an Israeli water company.

Greek Orthodox priest Isidoros Fakitsas said that the move has impaired the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to pay bills and salaries.

As a result, the church is considering closing for a day in protest, shutting the doors to one of Christianity's most popular pilgrimage sites.

The account was blocked two weeks ago and lawyers were hired to address the matter in court, Fakitsas said. He insisted the church will be able to function despite the blocked bank account and that if matters become too difficult, it will try and find an alternative, such as opening a new bank account.

The church for decades was exempt by the different leaderships which ruled over Jerusalem's Old City from paying water bills until the Israeli water company began pressing it to pay up a few years ago.

Fakitsas, the superior of the Greek Orthodox Church, said an agreement was reached after months of negotiations. Under the deal, various denominations in the church would pay their monthly bill. A debt of some NIS 9 million ($2.32 million) was to be forgotten, he said.

But to the surprise of the church elders, its account was blocked two weeks ago, making it impossible to pay stipends of some 500 priests and monks, 2,000 teachers and the running costs of over 30 Christian schools that the church runs in the Palestinian territories and Jordan, church spokesman Issa Musleh said.

The water company, which could not immediately be reached for comment, demands the church pay for its water – charges from which it has been exempt for decades.

The Israeli Tourism Ministry said the issue is between the Church and the Jerusalem municipality. But because of the great importance of the site, the ministry is now trying to mediate between the two sides and hopes the issue will be resolved quickly.

Peace at "any price" is a recipe for Israel's destruction

 Israel is waking up to the fact that there is an enemy entity in the south of the country, but the message from Egypt has still not gone home. That an adviser to Barak the defence minister can talk about keeping the peace treaty with Egypt at "any price" is foolish. 

Britain's Chamberlain wanted peace at "any price", and the price for that was Czechoslovakia. The result of that perfidy in selling an ally down the road was not peace, but a terrible world war that could have been avoided. Germany was no match in 1938 for an alliance of France, GB and Czechoslovakia. Germany's generals were themselves only waiting for the nod from Lord Halifax to go ahead and arrest Hitler.

Israel has been buying peace at any price with Hamas for a long time now, and it has no peace or peace of mind. Israel keeps to the islamist rules of the game that so long as only the 'expendable' towns and even the city of Beersheba are attacked, then Hamas rule is safe. So we see time and again wave after wave of rockets killing and injuring Israelis and terrorising a million people. Once the terror has been inflicted Hamas through the intercession of Egypt 'agrees' to a ceasefire. This constant terror now aided and abetted by Egypt is aimed at undermining the peace and security of Israelis throughout the south, and a few dead Israelis now and again are just the icing on the cake. 
And the terror has had its effect. Israelis with capital have left the south. Only the poverty stricken remain in Sderot and Netivot the communities closest to Gaza.

And Israel goes along with this. It kills a few expendable terrorists in the act of firing rockets and then waits for the next attack which will force a million Israelis to sleep in bomb shelters and stop life for days. And that is without mentioning the thousands of jewish kids who wet their beds at night. And this goes on year after year.


The 'peace at any price' mantra in Judea and Samaria means that there also there is no peace. Jews are attacked and their property is damaged and stolen unceasingly and arab settlements keep encroaching on jewish land.


There is an inability amongst many of Israel's leaders to recognise just what our enemies are up to. From trying to cut bits of Israel's ancient homelands away, to terrorising the border areas and now to Muhammad Morsy's desire to rearrange the peace treaty there is a plan, to reduce the area where jews live in, to make Israel's borders less secure than they already are, to reduce those borders, to situate armed and agressive enemies along those borders and then to destroy Israel when it is least able to defend itself, when its strategic borders are lost to it. This may happen through one coordinated attack or many smaller ones which gradually overwhelm Israel's defences. The latter plan is already in effect in Judea and Samaria and with the attacks from Gaza.

Barak and Netanyahu must realise the game has changed in the middle east. The sunni muslim countries are surrounding it with (the present exception of Jordan but that country is very unstable and could easily fall to the islamists) all extreme and all committed to Israel's destruction. None more so than Egypt whose leader only a week or two ago uttered 'amen' to his imam's prayer for the destruction of jews and Israel. One month before his election Morsy was screaming his wish for Jihad, his Muslim Brotherhood leader Baddie said that next year muslims would raise their black flag in Jerusalem.

If Israel's really do want peace, then they must remember the wise saying that "if you wish for peace, then prepare for war." 

If Israel believes that it can buy its way out of another war with Egypt by appeasing it, by allowing the Peace Treaty to be changed, it is very much mistaken. The only way a new war can be avoided is if Israel makes it clear that Egypt will pay a terrible price, that the Aswan dam will be turned to rubble. Israel must learn the laws of the middle east. Hezbollah has not messed with Israel since 2006 after Israel turned its Beirut neighbourhood and much of South Lebanon to rubble. Balance of terror is the only way that the armies of islam will be put off from their plans.

Israel must change its mindset, turn from appeasement to a determination to defend its interests, to make its enemies pay a stiff price for their aggression against Israel. Once Israel does that it will have peace.

Shabbat Shalom (to my christian and muslim readers, have a nice weekend)

There is little chance that Israel will maintain high-level diplomatic channels with an increasingly radicalized Egypt, a top Israeli security official said Friday.

Defense Ministry department director Amos Gilad told students in Herzliya that the election of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi as president in Egypt had led to all but frozen ties between Jerusalem and Cairo.

“There’s no talking between our diplomatic corps and theirs, and I believe there will not be in the future. [Morsi] won’t talk with us,” he said.

Morsi’s election has worried some officials in Israel, who fear that the Islamist president will move to change the terms of Israel and Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty, which has held a cold peace between the countries.

Gilad slammed Morsi’s regime, saying its rise to power boded ill for the region.

“Out of a desire for democracy, grew a horrifying dictatorship,” he said.

Gilad, a top aide to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, said Israel needed to make sure the treaty with Egypt stayed in place, no matter the cost.

“We need to keep the peace treaty with Egypt at any price,” he said, adding that the country did not want to have to send troops against Egypt.

Morsi has said he will respect the treaty, but has downplayed any chance of high-level contact with Jerusalem.

In July, President Shimon Peres received a friendly letter from Morsi hoping for security and stability in the region, but Morsi’s office denied ever sending the letter.

A letter sent last month with Egypt’s envoy to Israel called Peres a “great and good friend.” After the publication of the letter caused a small uproar in the Arab world, Cairo claimed the text was standard and did not mean anything special.

Loyal christians make this greek orthodox bigot fume

Yet another christian bigot allowed to disseminate his anti-semitism and intimidate christians from within Israel

That our brave christian arab Mona Lisa and her sister are not alone, that there are more christians interested in doing their bit to help the land that protects them and their community is laudable. It makes bigoted clerics like Father Attallah Hanna fulminate against them from the pulpit.

That's all well and good, but I wonder how many other countries allow enemies to run around in time of war intimidating citizens into not doing their duty by their country?

If this religious bigot who hates the fact that christians want to serve in Israel's army wishes to rant and rave in his incitement against the country which gives him refuge, then he should be shipped over the border to another country where he'll be happier and more welcome. He could go to Lebanon, Syria or Egypt. He should be given the opportunity to acquaint himself with the reasons why christians in Israel love the country and wish to serve in its army. The bigoted bishop could ask copts why their daughters are kidnapped and forcibly converted? He could ask Syrians why the christians of Homs packed their bags and left so hurriedly? He could investigate the murder of monk in Syria last week. Why stay in Israel the country he hates so much?

Israeli Monalisa Abdo the first christian arab combat commander1

Israel salutes its brave muslims and christians who show their loyalty to the state and jit suffers those who do not whilst extending to them all their rights. 
But those who act seditiously in an attempt to force israeli citizens away from doing their duty must be punished or shown the door just as happens in any other country. 

Will Israel finally begin to show that it's tired of its hospitality being abused?

Father Hanna slams attempts to recruit Christian Arabs in Israeli army

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Father Attallah Hanna, the archbishop of Sebastia in Jerusalem, strongly denounced the Israeli army for its attempts to recruit Christian Palestinians from the 1948 occupied lands.

Father Hanna said those who participated in suspicious meetings with Israelis to encourage the Christian young men of Palestine to join the army do not represent the Palestinian Christians and their national affiliation and only represent themselves.

He stressed that the Palestinian Christians are Arabs and an essential part of the Arab nation, describing these Israeli attempts as a grave conspiracy aimed at uprooting the Christian Palestinians from their national identity.

The Israeli war ministry organized recently a meeting in Nazareth Illit city between a number of Christian clergymen and Israeli officers from the army and its intelligence to urge the Christian Arabs to join the army and fight in its ranks.

For its part, the Islamic Movement in the 1948 occupied lands warned the Arab young men of falling into the trap of the Israeli attempts to Israelize them and create sectarian conflicts between the different spectra of the Palestinian people inside the Israeli occupied territories.

The Islamic Movement also urged the Arab political parties and movement in the 1948 occupied lands to take active role within the Arab committee against military and civil service in order to pool the efforts to confront Israel's attempts to recruit Palestinian young men.