MK Tzipi Hotovely on Dignity and Honor for the Women of Israel

Tzipi Hotovely is a Member of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, from the Likud Party. She is a Torah-observant Jewish woman, an attorney, and, when elected at the age of 30, she became the youngest person ever to serve in the Knesset. I have never met her, but I am privileged to be on her e-mail distribution list. Some of our readers may have heard about recent incidents in which thugs from a fringe Orthodox Jewish sect have bullied and harrassed young girls at a Modern Orthodox elementary school, Orot, in Beit Shemesh and have tried to intimidate female bus riders on public buses passing through Haredi neighborhoods in Jerusalem into sitting at the rear of the bus. Here is MK Hotovely's position on these recent incidents:

The Knesset
MK Tzipi Hotovely
Jerusalem, 16th of Tevet, 5772January 12th, 2012

Dear Ralph:

You may be interested to know that in recent weeks a battle has ensued to protect the honor and dignity of women in Israel. I grew up as part of the National Religious community. In school I learned of Devorah the Prophetess. At Home every Shabbat we sang Eshet Chayil, "a Woman of Valor", and in synagogue once a year we celebrated the heroic acts of Queen Esther. I grew up proud to be a Jewish woman.

In the last month multiple incidents have occurred affecting the role of women in Israeli society, while widening the schism between Israel's Ultra-Orthodox population and the rest of its citizens. An eight year old girl in Bet Shemesh was spit upon on her way to school, because she was "immodestly dressed". Women and female soldiers were defamed and harassed because they refused to move to the back of a public bus. Mass protests for, and against, the actions of the Ultra-Orthodox ensued. In this time, I attempted to understand all perspectives on the issues at hand. I visited with families involved in these incidents, as well as municipal officials and community leaders. Along with my colleagues from the Committee for the Advancement of Women, I boarded a "Mehadrin" (Ultra Orthodox) bus and sat down up front, where I was berated with unpleasant verbal assaults. I also spent a Shabbat in Beitar Illit, a community with a significant Ultra-Orthodox population, to better understand their perspectives on the issues.

From my experiences, I have seen that this is not a conflict between the religious and secular. There are two battles here. The first is being waged by a small extremist group, from within the Ultra-Orthodox, who have attempted to hijack Judaism. In their distorted view, they have turned a religion which teaches of love and respect towards thy neighbor, into a religion of internecine persecution, animus, and division amongst the Jewish people. This cannot be tolerated in the one State we have and the police must enforce the law against any who seek to violate it. The second battle is over the role of women in society, an issue of culture which all sectors of Israeli society are responsible for. As the famous US Supreme Court ruling of Brown vs. the Board of Education proved, "separate but equal, is not equal". Two weeks ago, five women were inducted as pilots in the Israeli Air Force. If they can sit in the cockpit watching over our country, then as the Chair of the Woman's Committee, I will ensure that these modern day Devorahs, and all other women, will sit wherever they want on a public bus.

I am proud to share with you that, this week, the cabinet approved a law granting free education to children of three and four years of age. Next year this will provide over a quarter of a million Israeli children with education, and allow thousands of young mothers to return to the work force. As daycare costs have skyrocketed this has been one of the main battles of my committee. Now that this law has been approved, we can begin to educate children at a younger age with strong Jewish values, while strengthening the careers of countless women as respected, equal and integrated members of the work force. It is through education and opportunity that we shall promote a culture of dignity and honor for the Women of Israel.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please feel free to contact me. To better update you on the latest developments please be sure to stop by my Facebook page,, with up to the minute news to keep you informed. It is my sincere hope that together we will work to forge a brighter future for the men and women of Israel.

Shabbat Shalom,
Tzipi Hotovely
Member of the 18th Knesset Chairperson,
Committee on the Status of Women

Why President Obama Adopted the National Security Policies of President George W. Bush

Candidate Barack Obama promised to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. It is still open. Candidate Barack Obama criticized the troop surge in Iraq. President Obama implemented his own troop surge in Afghanistan. Candidate Barack Obama vowed to end what he criticized as Bush Administration offenses against human rights and civil liberties, including extraordinary rendition and targeted assassinations. President Obama has continued both, and even expanded targeted assassinations to include an American citizen, killed by a drone attack without any attempt at arrest or trial. One can only imagine the outcry if such an action had been ordered by President George W. Bush.

To what may we attribute the apparent change of heart on the part of President Obama. In some cases, no doubt, such as civilian trials for terrorists and the closing of Guantanamo, the President would have gone further were it not for unyielding political opposition, including from his own Democratic Party in Congress. However, at least one seasoned Washington observer, veteran Senatorial staffer Dr. David Luchins, although he claims no specific knowledge of what transpired, attributes President Obama's tranformative thinking to "the talk," the national security briefing he received upon his election to the Presidency, even before he took the oath of office. Suddenly President Obama was burdened with the full and accurate picture of national security threats against the United States and its citizens. Suddently he was forced to come to terms with the most vivid evidence that there really is evil out there--very bad people who want to hurt us very badly.

I hope that Dr. Luchins is correct. I hope that the change in the President's thinking proves that a person may grow in the office of the United States Presidency, and grow very quickly. When President Obama was elected, I somewhat pompously declared myself to be a member of the loyal opposition, ready to criticize the Administration when it veered off course, but always ready to support the President when he did what was right by our country. In that spirit, I write now that while I have many objections to the President's foreign and domestic policies, on some of the most critical issues of national defense and security, I can heartily say, "Well done, Mr. President."

Car Bomb Kills Iranian Nuclear Scientist

Working in the Iranian nuclear weapons program has become a hazardous profession of late. The latest fatality was Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, deputy head of the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, killed today by a car bomb in Tehran.

Speculation runs rampant that the string of assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists is the work of the Mossad or CIA. In what I feel is a well-reasoned column, Shoshan Bryen at the Jewish Policy Center argues that such precisely targeted assassinations are morally preferable to both airstrikes and economic sanctions as a means of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

While I agree with Ms. Bryen's reasoning, I fear that such targeted assassinations alone will only slow down, but not prevent, Iranian nuclear weapons development. Therefore ultimately airstrikes by the United States and other Western nations may ultimately prove necessary. Indeed, former White House adviser Dennis Ross told Bloomberg in an interview Monday that no one should doubt President Obama's willingness to use military force to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

He's Back! What the Kosher Hedgehog did During the Holidays

Dear Frustrated Hedgehog Blog Readers:

I am sure that both of you were very concerned that I have not posted since Nov. 22, 2011. As for Lowell Brown, the Original Hedgehog (although he seems now to disdain his animal identity), he has not posted since Utah's football embarrassment against Cal on October 22. Not even the Utes's overtime victory over Georgia Tech in the Sun Bowl seems to have revived him. Lowell, let's see that Ute pride--Utah upheld the honor of the PAC 12 after bowl losses by Cal, ASU, and UCLA.

PAC 12 football also explains part of my long hiatus. I attended the Fiesta Bowl on January 2. I am a native Phoenician, and my trip allowed me to re-connect with old friends and re-visit the haunts of my youth. Phoenix is a beautiful and well-governed city. (Indeed, a boyhood friend and fellow ASU law alumnus, Phil Gordon, was completing his term as Mayor of Phoenix as I arrived.)

As for the Fiesta Bowl itself, it was a great game. The few from my seat is shown above. Unfortunately, as I repeatedly complained during the Fiesta Bowl to my best boyhood friend Brian, who attended the game with me, I hate great games. I want one-sided routs in favor of my team. Great games can be lost.

That complaint unfortunately proved prophetic, as Stanford Coach David Shaw snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by taking the ball out of the hands of two-time Heisman runner-up and presumptive NFL draft first round top pick Quarterback Andrew Luck, and entrusting the game to a redshirt freshman kicker who was coming back from an injury and had been inconsistent during the last games of the season and in the Fiesta Bowl itself. Luck was simply superb in his last game as Stanford's quarterback--it is too bad that his coach decided to play consertively when the game was on the line.

However I am not bitter. Congratulations to the Oklahoma State Cowboys. May your horse go lame on the waterless plains.

I also spent nearly a week on a visit to my daughter Elise and her husband Eliott in their recently purchased co-op in Riverdale, NY, where they apparently are neighbors to President Obama's newly appointed Chief of Staff, Jack Lew. Coincidentally, my daughter Sara and son Nathan live in the neighborhood of former Obama Chief of Staff and current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who belongs to Sara's synagogue. Mr. Lew, when he is in residence, belongs to the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, rather than to the synagogue that Elise and Eliott have been attending, the Riverdale Jewish Center.

I do not mean here to suggest any Kostant family influence over national policy. As readers of the blog know, I am a Romney man myself. And congratulations to Mitt on his big primary victory in New Hampshire.

Mamet: Conflict, Choice and Surrender

One of my pet peeves about the media is the way that local news, and to a lesser extent network news as well, deals with stories about legislation. "GOP blocks jobs bill," or "Republicans oppose environmental bill" are typical headlines. Rarely does the news story analyse the actual legislation and its likely impact. As David Mamet points out in his column in the November 17, 2011 Jewish Journal, hard analysis may demonstrate that what is sold by its proponents as a "jobs bill" may in fact be more likely to result in the loss of jobs.

Likewise one sees so-called environmental legislation that at best is innocuous in its effect on the environment, and at worse may well result in a decline in environmental quality. And we are all familiar with the "education bill" that if enacted would only further aggravate conditions in our schools.

Sometimes, a deliberately misleading bill of goods is being sold by the media, but quite often the reporter is simply too lazy or too stupid to read and try to understand what the proposed law would accomplish. Frequently enough, the actual objective of the legislation is to line the pockets of someone, or a lot of someones, either politicians or special interest groups, or both. Nonetheless, anyone courageous enough to oppose a "jobs bill" risks being branded as "anti-jobs," opponents of an "education bill" are labeled as anti-education and those who vote to defeat an "environmental bill" earn the reputation of being enemies of the environment, if not of planet earth itself.

In an intelligent and articulate article (what else would one expect of a Pulitzer-prize winning playwright?), Mamet appeals to the American Jewish community not to make the same mistake regarding the "Middle East Peace Process." Do not be so mentally lazy and so craven, he implores, as to fall for the conventional wisdom that if Israel would just make more concessions to the Palestinians, peace would inevitably follow.

Read the column. A summary cannot do it adequate justice.

Arab League Confrontation with Assad May Bring U.S., Israel into Conflict with Iran

A Jewish proverb holds that since the destruction of the first Temple, prophecy has been given only to fools and children. With that caveat, the Kosher Hedgehog calls his readers' attention to an ominous development on the international scene, which could lead to a confrontation of the United States with Iran, in which the Arab League would back the U.S. in an alliance of strange bedfellows with Israel.

The Arab League is reconvening after the Syrian government failed to keep its agreement, reached last week in negotiations with the Arab League, to refrain from killing anti-government demonstrators. Instead, Syrian forces murdered 13 protesters today on the Id-Al Adhar Islamic holiday.

Today's Jerusalem Post quotes Mideast analyst Walid Phares as observing, "The Arab League has the intentions to support the uprising in Syria but needs a US commitment to support them if Iran retaliates." Unlike most Arab states, Syria is allied with Iran, as the photo above of Syrian President Assad meeting with Iranian President Ahmadinejad and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei depicts.

Now here is the "prophecy." The Kosher Hedgehog believes that Iranian retaliation most likely would be directed, in the first instance, not at any Arab League nation, but rather at Israel. Here is one scenario: The Arab League enters into open support of Syrian rebels. To counter that pressure, Iran turns loose Hezbollah and Hamas to launch rocket and missile attacks against Israel. Such a move effectively dares the Arab League to publicly oppose Iranian and Syrian proxies when they launch attacks on Israel.

Israel is in no mood to placidly sit back and do nothing and absorb rocket and missile attacks as it did at the behest of the United States during the first Gulf War, when the government of Saddam Hussein in Iraq launched missiles at Israel. For one thing, Israel does not trust the government of President Barack Obama to effectively defend it against Iran, in the manner that President George H.W. Bush defended Israel against Iraq, when the U.S. and its allies dispatched their forces to liberate Kuwait and launched air strikes on Iraq, and the U.S. sent Patriot anti-missile equipment and crews to Israel. Of course, President Bush's primary objective was to liberate Kuwait, and his principal concern in the wake of Iraqi missile attacks on Israel was to prevent Israeli military retaliation against Iraq that might drive Arab nations out of the anti-Hussein coalition. Nonetheless, regardless of the motives of U.S. actions, Israel knew that the might of the U.S. armed forces would be unleashed against Saddam Hussein, while now an American attack on Iran is far from a foregone conclusion.

Second, the people of Israel are far more vulnerable today to deadly attacks from Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza than they were to Iraqi missiles in the first Gulf War.

Finally, Israel is itching for diplomatic cover for an attempt to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities, which pose an existential threat to Israel. The Israeli government might consider an Iranian-directed attack by Hamas and Hezbollah to present that opportunity. Yes, Israel would endure international condemnation, joined in publicly and vociferously by the Arab Gulf States. Secretly, however, those same Arab States would be delighted, and might even lend covert support to an Israeli attack. For example, Saudi Arabia might turn a blind radar eye to overflights by Israeli fighter-bombers and refueling of those aircraft in Saudi airspace.

Of course, the better strategic alternative would be for the United States to lead a sustained international campaign to dismantle the Iranian nuclear weapons program, by military force if necessary. But I have no confidence that the Obama Administration would lead such a campaign, and, sadly, I suspect that the government of Israel shares my view.

Not A Good Day for Utah Football

But a great day for Stanford Football

And a Word About Israeli "Disproportionate Responses" to Arab Attacks

Whenever Israel defends itself against attacks from Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists, or from Hezbollah in Lebanon, she is criticized for her "disproportionate response." It would appear that Hamas, which is so proud of the 1,177:1 rate of exchange in the Gilad Shalit ransom, has now itself established the appropriate level of a proportionate response to an Arab attack. From now on, for each Israeli killed or injured by Arabs (victims of terror such as the Fogel family pictured on the left or Ido Zoldan, pictured prior to his murder with his widow and orphan child on the right), Hamas must surely deem Israel to be reacting proportionately so long as it kills or injures less than 1177 Arabs in return.

Please do not think that I am advocating mass murder or accuse me of racism. In Jewish belief, the taking of a single human life, regardless of nationality or religion, is equated to the destruction of a world. But Jews are not pacifists, and taking the life of an enemy in wartime or self-defense is permitted.

I merely am pointing to the logical conclusion to be reached using the moral values of Hamas.

Egypt Puts Propaganda Ahead of Gilad Shalit's Welfare

I first noticed what was going on when Al Jazeera interviewed released Palestinian prisoners as they arrived in Egypt. One after another, they thanked the Egyptian government for their release. Not one even mentioned Hamas. Very strange. It occurred to me that the Egyptian Information Ministry was putting on a propaganda show.

That was less of a concern with the Arab releasees, because they had been well-treated and well-fed during their terms in Israeli prisons. They could worship in mosques in the prisons, fraternize with fellow prisoners and receive visitors.

Gilad Shalit had no such advantages. He has been in solitary confinement for over 4 years, with no one to talk to but his guards. He has not been allowed visitors, even from the Red Cross. The Israeli doctors who examined him upon his arrival in Israel said he was suffering from malnutrition and lack of sunlight. He also is obviously suffering from the mental effects of lack of human contact.

But, as reported in this AP story, that didn't stop the Egyptian Information Ministry from staging a propaganda interview with Shalit even before he was allowed to call his parents. Blinking, obviously dazed and near fainting, he was subjected to ridiculous questions from an Egyptian television "journalist," Shahira Amin, such as the following:

"You have known what it is like to be in captivity. There are more than 5,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails. Will you help campaign for their release?" [Shalit was kidnapped. The prisonres in Israei jails are convicted terrorists and criminals.]

Amin also asked Shalit why he only gave one interview while in captivity, ignoring the fact that Hamas had kept him in solitary confinement.

Throughout the interview, armed Hamas militants surrounded Shalit, including one wearing a black knit mask over his face. Shalit must have been terrified that the entire interview was a prelude to returning him to his Hamas captors.

One would think that Arabs would be ashamed of the contrast between the levels of humanity in Israel and in the Arab world.

BARUCHIM HABAIM: Welcome Home, Gilad

Joe Lieberman Writes Why Romney's Mormon Faith Must not be a Barrier to his Candidacy

In the Washington Post, the Kosher Hedgehog's co-religionist, Senator Joe Lieberman, the first Jew to be nominated by a major party for the Vice Presidency of the United States, explains why the Mormon faith of Mitt Romney, Lowell's co-religionist, should not be a bar to his candidacy for the U.S. Presidency.

Is Israel Paying Too High a Price for Gilad Shalit's Freedom?

God bless Gilad Shavit. God willing, may he soon be reunited with his family. May he marry, have children, build a bayit neeman, a faithful house, in Israel. May he prosper and live until 120 years.

That having been said, is Israel paying too high a price for his freedom? Reportedly, Israel will release some 1000 Palestinian Arab prisoners from Israeli jails, many of whom are serving time for murder, and some of them for multiple murders. The Israeli victims were mostly civilians, non-combatants, including women and small children. The perpetrators committed the killings deliberately, and in cold blood. Corporal Gilad Shalit, in contrast, was guilty only of being captured by Hamas thugs while on patrol duty in Israel.

This afternoon, Dennis Prager, speaking on the Hugh Hewitt Show, said that he feared that the Israeli government was making a huge mistake. John R. Bolton, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, expressed a similar opinion.

Yes, it is a religious obligation in Judaism to ransom Jewish captives. However, it is also the halacha, Jewish law, that one does not pay too exorbinant a ransom price, lest the ransom encourage more kidnappings of Jews.

Someone, and it may have been Dennis Prager, once said that if he were Noam Shalit, Gilad's father, he would put unrelenting pressure on the Israeli government to pay whatever price was necessary to free his son; but that if he were an Israeli citizen, he would hope that the Israeli Prime Minister had sufficient moral strength to look Noam Shalit in the eye and say, "No, the price is too high."

May God erase from human memory those wicked persons whose evil deeds compel such a difficult choice.

Alan Dershowitz Flays the UN and the Palestinian Statehood Initiative

From PJTV, Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz's speech at the Durban Watch Conference. Lecturing across the street from the UN, Dershowitz, armed only with logic and facts, flays the UN and the Palestinian statehood initiative. Along the way, he totally discredits the concept of basing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks on "the 1967 borders with mutually agreed-upon swaps," demonstrating how that position would almost certainly result in the loss to Israel and the Jewish people of the Western Wall, the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem and access to the Hebrew University campus on Mount Scopus, all of which are not within the so-called 1967 borders. The video could not be embedded on this blog, so please follow the link.

Palestinian Authority Claims State Covering All of Israel

The Palestinian Authority (the "PA") is seeking recognition of the State of Palestine from the United Nations. One of the legal attributes of national sovereignty is control over the territory the state purports to govern. So what territory does the Palestinian Authority claim? Well, here (courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch, whose logo appears in the lower left-hand corner) is a graphic broadcast by PA TV, the official PA television broadcasting station, controlled directly by the office of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, commemorating the application to the United Nations for recognition of the State of Palestine. It shows the Palestinian flag wrapped around the entirety of Israel, with a key symbolizing ownership.

[Of course, the PMW logo did not appear on the original image broadcast by PA Television.]

As documented by photographs at the Palestinian Media Watch website, this is only one of many official PA maps that depict the boundaries of the future Palestine as covering all of present-day Israel.

The PA does not view its application for UN recognition and membership as the means to achieve sovereignty over only Gaza, Yehuda and Shomron (the so-called West Bank). It wants the whole cheese blintz, so to speak. It views the creation of a Palestinian State in Gaza and the West Bank to be just another step toward its ultimate goal of eliminating the State of Israel. That is why the PA refuses to engage in face-to-face negotiations--any peace treaty emerging from such negotiations, even if it gave the Palestinians all of the West Bank and Gaza, and East Jerusalem as its capital, G-d forbid, would also require the Palestinians to give up any territorial claims on what remained of Israel, and to give up the right of Palestinian refugees to return to the lands within the 1949 armstice lines. That goes against the PA's fundamental objective, the entire reason for its existence--the eradication of the world's only Jewish state.

CERN Reports Particles Moving Faster than Light Speed

If this story turns out to be true, it would invalidate Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity and revolutionize physics. Also, it restores hope for intergalactic space travel at warp speed. "Mr. Zulu, warp factor seven."

Dry Bones on Uncle Sam's Current Economic Dilemma

How said, but how true.

Palestinians Want It All--All of Israel that is

Saree Makdisi, a professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA, has an op-ed column in today's Los Angeles Times. It is particularly revealing if one wants to understand the Palestinian Arab world view. He criticizes the effort of the Palestinian Authority for recognition as an independent state within the 1949 armstice lines (the so-called "1967 borders") because it would leave 1.5 million Palestinian Arabs as citizens of Israel within the 1949 armstice lines and would abandon the right of Palestinian Arabs to return to their homes within Israel. If one gives his arguments any thought, one realizes that what Professor Makdisi is advocating is the reversal of the 1947 resolution partitioning the Palestinian Mandate into a Jewish State and an Arab State. In its place he wants a partition into an Arab State and a binational state that would in due course become an Arab State.

The only surprising aspect of this column is its criticism of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, because if the truth were known what Makdisi wants is what Abbas wants as well. Abbas just does a better job of hiding the ball. If all the PA wanted was a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, it could have achieved that objective long ago, but only at the cost of relinquishing any claim on the part of Palestinian refugees to resettle inside Israel. Abbas, like Arafat (may the name of the wicked be erased) before him would not make that concession.

That is the main justification behind the PA's effort to obtain recognition of a Palestinian State through the United Nations, bypassing negotiations with Israel. A negotiated peace would require recognition of Israel as the Jewish State called for in the 1947 partition resolution, and relinquishment of any Palestinian right of return. A unilateral declaration of statehood, on the other hand, would give the Palestinians a state without compelling them to recognize Israel, relinquish claims to Israeli territory, or relinquish a claimed right of return. It thereby preserves the true Palestinian objective, the elimination of the world's only Jewish State.

Useful Idiot Update-Ahmadinejad Cancels Dinner Invitation to Columbia Students

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad abruptly cancelled his dinner invitation extended to Columbia students while he visits New York City for the UN General Assembly session. The cancellation came without explanation.

Oh dear! Who can the students find for a substitute dinner guest? After all, neither Bashar al-Assad, nor Muammar Gaddafi are expected this year. Of course, there is always Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas. He meets the relevant anti-Jewish criterion.

Refusal to Sell F-22 Jets to Taiwan Raises Doubts About U.S. Reliability as Ally

"Why won't Israel take risks for peace, and rely on the United States to protect its security?" That is a question one often hears from well-meaning American friends of Israel who are puzzled by what they perceive as its obstinate preoccupation with security issues.

Taiwanese may be able to partially answer that question today. The Obama Administration announced that it will not sell Taiwan the 66 new F-16 C/D fighter planes requested by that government. Instead, the United States will only agree to upgrade Taiwan's existing fleet of F-16 A/B aircraft.

The decision, apparently intended to mollify China, drew instant bipartisan criticism. Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn, in whose state Lockheed Martin would have built the Taiwanese jets, called the move a "slap in the face of an ally." Even Obama partisan Howard Berman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called it a "half measure."

Half a measure was not better than none as far as China was concerned. The U.S. action intended to defer to Chinese diplomatic sensitivities was instead met with an angry denunciation by Beijing. The pressure from China for a complete U.S. abandonment of the Taiwanese government continues unabated.

Understandably, U.S. allies, including Israel, watch and wonder. Are their fears overblown? Well, have you ever heard of the Shah of Iran? Or a former Egyptian dictator named Hosni Mubarak? Or a country called the Republic of Vietnam, more commonly known as South Vietnam? They also were allies of the United States, until the United States abandoned them. Who's next?

Israel Sends Assistance to International Disaster Sites

If an extraterrestrial visitor to Earth were to judge only by resolutions condemning Israel passed by the UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council, the visitor would assume that it is the most evil nation in the world today, if not in all human history. More resolutions condemning Israel are passed than against all other nations of the world combined.

Once the visitor educated itself about earthly politics and the sorry condition of the United Nations, and then examined the facts further, it would come to a very different conclusion. Here is an incomplete list of how Israel has responded in recent years to international disasters, by rendering humanitarian assistance:

Albania- After severe flooding in December of last year, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs delivered 307 family-sized tents for families made homeless by flooding there.

Congo- Israel sent 4 tons of humanitarian aid to the country in November 2008 to relieve the suffering of the population in rural areas.

Dominican Republic- Israel sent relief teams to assist in cleanup operations in the wake of Tropical Storm Noel in November 2007.

Greece- Israel sent 52 firefighters to assist in battling major conflagrations there in August 2007.

Haiti- In January 2010 Israel was the first country to successfully setup a fully equipped field hospital just 4 days after the devastating earthquake that struck the country.

India- Israel sent 150 emergency personnel to assist in relief efforts after the January 2001 earthquake in Western India.

Indonesia- In January 2005 Israel sent 75 tons of relief material for the benefit of those made homeless by the December 2004 Tsunami.

Kenya- Israel sent search and rescue teams to Kenya after the bombing of the US Embassy there in August 1998.

Macedonia- Israel sent firefighting equipment twice in 2007 to assist in battling major blazes there in July and August 2007.

Mauritania- Two medical missions sent to the country by Israel in 1999 to treat eye problems among the populace.

Mexico- Israel sent relief teams to assist in cleanup operations in the wake of Tropical Storm Noel in November 2007.

Myanmar- Israel sent relief workers to help local officials in the wake of the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis.

Nepal – Israel's non-profit organization Tevel b'Tzedek sends volunteers to help with Kathmandu street children's crises in ongoing programs.

Nicaragua- Israel sent relief teams to assist in cleanup operations in the wake of Hurricane Felix in September 2007.

Nigeria- Israel sent medical supplies to Nigeria in March 2006 to battle bird flu.

Philippines- In response to the damage caused by typhoon Ondoy, Israel sent planeloads of medicine to the beleaguered areas in October 2009.

Sri Lanka- After the December 2004 Tsunami Israel delivered emergency food kitchens to help feed those displaced by the devastating wave.

Turkey- Israel sent 250 relief workers to assist in cleanup operations after the August 1999 earthquake that hit Turkey, followed by a complete field hospital. After the area was cleared, Israel then built a village of prefabricated houses for the survivors.

This list does not include Israeli humanitarian assistance sent to Japan, China, Kashmir, Chad & Somalia'

The source of all this humanitarian aid is a tiny nation with a land mass the size of New Jersey and a population of only seven million. Its humanitarian contributions dwarf those of the Islamic nations, probably combined, with their billions of petroleum income and over a billion and a half in population.

Indeed, a number of the recipients of aid listed above are Islamic nations and other countries who regularly vote to condemn Israel in the United Nations.

Hat tip: Israel Up Close, www.israelupclose.org.