Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By simmons on November 2, 2015

The West Bank (Arabic: , al-diff l-arby, Hebrew: , Hagadah Hamaaravit) is the area west of the Jordan river that was occupied by Transjordan since 1949. The name "West Bank" was devised by Transjordanian and British diplomats following World War II, when Jordan contemplated annexing a portion of the Palestinian Arab state that was to be created when the British vacated Palestine, and later envisioned by the UN when it partitioned the Palestine Mandate into Jewish and Arab states (See Partition Resolution). Following Israeli territorial gains during the 1948 Arab-Israel war, about 2,200 square miles were left in the territory of the West Bank. Currently about 2.4 million Arab Palestinians, including a significant number of refugees of the 1948 Arab Israel War, live in the West Bank, along with about 250,000 Israeli settlers.

The area is currently officially under Israeli occupation or "administration" with partially autonomous government of the Palestinian National Authority. It incorporates part of the areas known since ancient times as Judea and Samaria. "Judea and Samaria" as a unit is the name officially given to the West Bank in Israel, but the ancient areas of Judea and Samaria in fact overlapped into current portions of Israel. The name is used by the Israeligovernment and military communiques, and by media outlets and politicians associated with Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the mainland Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, it shares a border with Jordan. The West Bank also includes a significant coast line along the western bank of the Dead Sea and part of the Dead Sea may be included in its territory. Since 1967, the West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation.

Prior to the First World War, all of the area known to Europeans as Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire. In the 1920 San Remo conference, the victorious Allies allocated the area to the British Mandate of Palestine. The 1948 Arab-Israeli War saw the establishment of Israel in parts of the former Mandate, while the West Bank was captured and annexed by Jordan, which destroyed any existing Jewish villages. The 1949 Armistice Agreements defined its interim boundary. From 1948 until 1967, the area was under Jordanian rule, and Jordan did not officially relinquish its claim to the area until 1988. Jordan's claim was not recognized by most other countries. The West Bank was captured by Israel during the Six-Day War. Most of the residents are Arabs, although large numbers of Israeli settlements have been built in the region. Most of the Arab portions of the West Bank are administered by the Palestinian National Authority.

The West Bank has an anomalous international status, since Jordan's occupation was never recognized as legitimate by most countries, and Jordan relinquished its territorial claims. The area is not occupied under the strict definition of international law, since it is not territory of another sovereign, but most countries consider that Israeli rule there constitutes occupation. Israeli courts apply most aspects of international law regarding occupation to cases where it is relevant. The West Bank is legally distinct from the area of Jerusalem, which the UN declared to be an internationalized Corpus Separatum in 1947.

Synonyms and alternate spellings:

Further Information: History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Palestine

Map of Palestine History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

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Posted By simmons on November 2, 2015

Welcome to the Westbank which is the area on the west bank of the Mississippi River from New Orleans. There are three bridges and three ferries which connect the Westbank to the Greater New Orleans area. The main bridge is the Crescent City Connection which goes to the Downtown area and the Super Dome. You also have the Huey P Long Bridge which goes from Bridge City to Elmwood. The third bridge is in St Charles Parish and is called the Hail Boggs Bridge which is the newest bridge.

The Huey P Long Bridge is going thru a widening project which will make many people very happy. It is known for its narrow lanes which for the 1st time ride over it can be a little nerve racking.

The three ferries run from one side of the river to the other. The Gretna and Algiers ferry cross the river and go to the same landing area near the foot of Canal Street in Downtown New Orleans. If you are visiting the city I highly recommend you take the ride and see New Orleans on the Mississippi River.

The links below go to an encyclopedia with census and other types of information. The Westbank is a suburban area of New Orleans that is on the west bank of the Mississippi River from New Orleans and is composed of parts of three Parishes. The Westbank includes part of Jefferson Parish including the cities and towns of Waggaman, Avondale, Bridge City, Nine Mile Point, Westwego, Marrero, Harvey, Gretna, Terrytown, Jean Lafitte, Lafitte, Crown Point, Barataria, Estelle, Timberlane, and Woodmere that lies on the western bank of the river. A portion of Orleans Parish is also on the Westbank which includes the area cities and communities of Algiers and English Turn. Further down the Mississippi River is the city of Belle Chasse which has a large Navy Base that makes up for a large part of the population. The West Bank of Plaquemines Parish will also be included on this website. Plaquemines Parish both encompasses and is bisected by the final leg of the Mississippi River before it enters the Gulf of Mexico. Down river from Belle Chasse is an area of Plaquemines Parish that has numerous rural communities scattered along both banks of the river, but none of these communities have a population greater than 5,000. The terms "Eastbank" and "Westbank" are spelled as one word in the local official terminology when being applied to the Greater New Orleans area.

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Posted By simmons on November 2, 2015

The following is a very short synopsis of the history of this conflict. We recommend that you also read the much more detailed account, "The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict."

For centuries there was no such conflict. In the 19th century the land of Palestine was inhabited by a multicultural population approximately 86 percent Muslim, 10 percent Christian, and 4 percent Jewish living in peace.[1]

In the late 1800s a group in Europe decided to colonize this land. Known as Zionists, they represented an extremist minority of the Jewish population. Their goal was to create a Jewish homeland, and they considered locations in Africa and the Americas, before settling on Palestine.[2]

At first, this immigration created no problems. However, as more and more Zionists immigrated to Palestine many with the express wish of taking over the land for a Jewish state the indigenous population became increasingly alarmed. Eventually, fighting broke out, with escalating waves of violence. Hitlers rise to power, combined with Zionist activities to sabotage efforts to place Jewish refugees in western countries[3], led to increased Jewish immigration to Palestine, and conflict grew.

Finally, in 1947 the United Nations decided to intervene. However, rather than adhering to the principle of self-determination of peoples, in which the people themselves create their own state and system of government, the UN chose to revert to the medieval strategy whereby an outside power divides up other peoples land.

Under considerable Zionist pressure, the UN recommended giving away 55% of Palestine to a Jewish state despite the fact that this group represented only about 30% of the total population, and owned under 7% of the land.

While it is widely reported that the resulting war eventually included five Arab armies, less well known is the fact that throughout this war Zionist forces outnumbered all Arab and Palestinian combatants combined often by a factor of two to three. Moreover, Arab armies did not invade Israel virtually all battles were fought on land that was to have been the Palestinian state.

Finally, it is significant to note that Arab armies entered the conflict only after Zionist forces had committed 16 massacres, including the grisly massacre of over 100 men, women, and children at Deir Yassin. Future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, head of one of the Jewish terrorist groups, described this as splendid, and stated: As in Deir Yassin, so everywhere, we will attack and smite the enemy. God, God, Thou has chosen us for conquest. Zionist forces committed 33 massacres altogether.[4]

By the end of the war, Israel had conquered 78 percent of Palestine; three-quarters of a million Palestinians had been made refugees; over 500 towns and villages had been obliterated; and a new map was drawn up, in which every city, river and hillock received a new, Hebrew name, as all vestiges of the Palestinian culture were to be erased. For decades Israel denied the existence of this population, former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once saying: There were no such thing as Palestinians.[5]

In 1967, Israel conquered still more land. Following the Six Day War, in which Israeli forces launched a highly successful surprise attack on Egypt, Israel occupied the final 22% of Palestine that had eluded it in 1948 the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since, according to international law it is inadmissible to acquire territory by war, these are occupied territories and do not belong to Israel. It also occupied parts of Egypt (since returned) and Syria (which remain under occupation).

Also during the Six Day War, Israel attacked a US Navy ship, the USS Liberty, killing and injuring over 200 American servicemen. President Lyndon Johnson recalled rescue flights, saying that he did not want to embarrass an ally. (In 2004 a high-level commission chaired by Admiral Thomas Moorer, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, found this attack to be an act of war against the United States, a fact few news media have reported.)[6]

There are two primary issues at the core of this continuing conflict. First, there is the inevitably destabilizing effect of trying to maintain an ethnically preferential state, particularly when it is largely of foreign origin.[7] The original population of what is now Israel was 96 percent Muslim and Christian, yet, these refugees are prohibited from returning to their homes in the self-described Jewish state (and those within Israel are subjected to systematic discrimination).[8]

Second, Israels continued military occupation and confiscation of privately owned land in the West Bank, and control over Gaza, are extremely oppressive, with Palestinians having minimal control over their lives.[9] Thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children are held in Israeli prisons.[10] Few of them have had a legitimate trial; Physical abuse and torture are frequent.[11] Palestinian borders (even internal ones) are controlled by Israeli forces.[12] Periodically men, women, and children are strip searched[13]; people are beaten; women in labor are prevented from reaching hospitals (at times resulting in death)[14]; food and medicine are blocked from entering Gaza, producing an escalating humanitarian crisis. Israeli forces invade almost daily, injuring, kidnapping, and sometimes killing inhabitants.[15]

According to the Oslo peace accords of 1993, these territories were supposed to finally become a Palestinian state. However, after years of Israel continuing to confiscate land and conditions steadily worsening, the Palestinian population rebelled. (The Barak offer, widely reputed to be generous, was anything but.[16]) This uprising, called the Intifada (Arabic for shaking off) began at the end of September 2000.

Largely due to special-interest lobbying, U.S. taxpayers give Israel an average of $8 million per day, and since its creation have given more U.S. funds to Israel than to any other nation.[17] As Americans learn about how Israel is using our tax dollars, many are calling for an end to this expenditure.

[1] John W. Mulhall, CSP, America and the Founding of Israel: an Investigation of the Morality of Americas Role (Los Angeles: Deshon, 1995), 48; Mike Berry and Greg Philo, Israel and Palestine (Pluto Press, 2006) p. 1; Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, author of Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle, includes a number of population tables in this book, which are available in his booklet, Palestinian Refugees Right to Return and Repatriation (http://ifamericansknew.org/history/ref-qumsiyeh.html); Justin McCarthy, author of The Population of Palestine: Population History and Statistics of the Late Ottoman Period and the Mandate, provides detailed information on population in the excerpt Palestines Population During The Ottoman And The British Mandate Periods. (http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Palestine-Remembered/Story559.html)

[2] John W. Mulhall, CSP, America and the Founding of Israel: an Investigation of the Morality of Americas Role (Los Angeles: Deshon, 1995), 47-52.

[3] In many places Zionists manipulated local Jewish populations into going to Palestine/Israel, in some cases using subterfuge and terrorism.

Sami Hadawi, Bitter Harvest, p. 37: Commenting, author Erskine H. Childers, wrote, one of the most massively important features of the entire Palestine struggle was that Zionism deliberately arranged that the plight of the wretched survivors of Hitlerism should be a moral argument which the West had to accept. This was done by seeing to it that Western countries did not open their doors, widely and immediately, to the inmates of the DP. (displaced persons) camps. It is incredible, that so grave and grim a campaign has received so little attention in accounts of the Palestine struggle it was a campaign that literally shaped all subsequent history. It was done by sabotaging specific Western schemes to admit Jewish DPs.

A number of authors have discuss Zionist connections with Nazis; for example:

He describes this in greater detail in his book: Ben-Gurions Scandals: How the Haganah and the Mossad Eliminated Jews:

I write this book to tell the American people, and especially the American Jews, that Jews from Islamic lands did not emigrate willingly to Israel; that, to force them to leave, Jews killed Jews; and that, to buy time to confiscate ever more Arab lands, Jews on numerous occasions rejected genuine peace initiatives from their Arab neighbors. I write about what the first prime minister of Israel called cruel Zionism. I write about it because I was a part of it.

[4] Qumsiyeh, Palestinian Refugees Right to Return and Repatriation (http://ifamericansknew.org/history/ref-qumsiyeh.html)

Norman Finkelstein, Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict; George W. Ball & Douglas B. Ball, The Passionate Attachment, on p. 29: quotes a message from future prime minister Menachem Begin, head of the Irgun Zionist terrorist group, commending them on the grisly massacre of women, children, and old men at the village of Deir Yassin: Accept my congratulations on this splendid act of conquest. Convey my regards to all the commanders and soldiers. We shake your hands. We are all proud of the excellent leadership and the fighting spirit in this great attack. We stand to attention in memory of the slain. We lovingly shake the hands of the wounded. Tell the soldiers: you have made history in Israel with your attack and your conquest. Continue thus until victory. As in Deir Yassin, so everywhere, we will attack and smite the enemy. God, God, Thou has chosen us for conquest.

[5] Sunday Times, June 15, 1969, quoted widely.

[6] Donald Neff, The Six Days War, Simon & Schuster

During the Six-Day War, Israel also attacked a US Navy ship, the USS Liberty, killing and injuring over 200 American servicemen. Many analysts believe that the fact that there were no consequences for this attack led Israeli leaders to conclude that they could commit any act of aggression without US complaint. While this attack has largely been covered up in the US media (see American Media Miss the Boat: For USA Today, Freedom of the Press Means the Right to Report It Wrong http://ifamericansknew.org/media/misslib.html, Alison Weir, CounterPunch, June 23/24, 2007), it is discussed in a number of books, including James Ennes, The Assault on the Liberty; William Gerhard, Attack on the USS Liberty; Dr. John Borne, The USS Liberty, Dissenting History vs. Official History; Stephen Green , Taking Sides: Americas Secret Relations with a Militant Israel; James Bamford, Body of Secrets; and in a recent article: New revelations in attack on American spy ship Veterans, documents suggest U.S., Israel didnt tell full story of deadly 67 incident, John Crewdson, Tribune senior correspondent, Chicago Tribune, October 2, 2007 (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-liberty_tuesoct02,0,66005.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout).

Additional information can be found at:

http://www.ussliberty.org/

http://ifamericansknew.org/us_ints/ussliberty.html

[11] See, for example, BTselem The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, Absolute Prohibition: The torture and Ill-Treatment of Palestinian Detainees, May 2007, http://www.btselem.org/publications/summaries/200705_utterly_forbidden

Defence for Children International/Palestine Section, http://www.dci-palestine.org/theme/detention

Addameer, Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, http://www.addameer.org/index.php

Samidoun, Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, http://samidoun.ca/

Alison Weir's new book Against Our Better Judgement: How the U.S. was used to create Israel brings together meticulously sourced evidence to outline the largely unknown history of U.S.-Israel relations.

Buy the book on Amazon.com.

Visit the book website for reviews, more ordering options, and upcoming author events.

Ethnic Cleansing: How Palestine Became Israel In the late 1800s a small, fanatic movement called political Zionism began in Europe. Its goal was to create a Jewish state somewhere in the world. Its leaders settled on the ancient and long-inhabited land of Palestine for the location of this state. READ MORE | FOOTNOTES

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A Synopsis of the Israel/Palestine Conflict

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Posted By admin on November 2, 2015

Hamas is a militant and political Islamist group operating in the West Bank and Gaza. Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by much of the international community, but enjoys wide support from Palestinians as a legitimate force against Israels occupation.

The movement was founded as an offshoot of Egypts Islamic Brotherhood, and in 1987 Hamas spiritual leader and founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin established the movements military wing, which became known as Hamas. In 1988, in the wake of the outbreak of the First Intifada, Hamas published its official charter, in which it announced its departure from nonviolence in its struggle against Israel.

Hamas popularity among Palestinians comes partly from its tradition of providing welfare programs, such as schools and hospitals. The militant wing of Hamas adheres to the movements 1988 charter which calls for the liberation of all of historic Palestine, and views all lands under Israels domain as part of an Islamic Waqf, of which every inch must be liberated.

The signature of the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was viewed by the Hamas leadership inside the territories and in exile as a violation of Palestinian rights, and in 1993 Hamas launched its first suicide attack inside Israel, a practice that it would uphold from then on, causing massive Israeli civilian casualties.

Hamas leaders have long been the target of Israeli assassinations. Yassin was killed in 2004 in a missile strike as he left a mosque in Gaza. His Hamas co-founder, Abdel Rantisi, was killed weeks later in an Israeli air strike. In 1997, Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal was the target of a botched assassination attempt by agents from Israels Mossad espionage agency operating covertly in Jordan. Meshals life was saved when Israel agreed to hand over the antidote to the toxin used on him, in return for the release of the two Mossad agents caught and held in Jordan during the assassination attempt. Yassin, who was in an Israeli jail at the time, was released under the terms of the agreement.

Long-standing tensions between Hamas and the secular Fatah came to a head following the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, which gave Hamas a decisive victory and put it in charge of the political regime in the Palestinian territories. Hamas Gaza chief, Ismail Haniyeh, was named Palestinian prime minister, but Hamas status as a terror group resulted in immediate sanctions from Israel and other Western countries. The group rejected demands to adhere to previously signed peace agreements, renounce violence and accept Israels right to exist, and the sanctions were upheld.

Meanwhile, tensions with Fatah grew as the two factions attempted to cooperate with the framework of a unity government, but when the attempt failed and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas dissolved the government, bloody clashes erupted between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza, resulting in the seizure of the area by Hamas in June 2007.

There have been numerous attempts by neighboring Arab countries to end the Hamas-Fatah rift, and form a unified Palestinian leadership. The failure of the two groups to come together has perpetuated the continuing division within the Palestinian Authority, with Fatah as de facto rulers in the West Bank, and Hamas firmly in control in Gaza.

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Posted By admin on November 2, 2015

Israel & the Middle East

Hamas is a Palestinian Islamic extremist terrorist organization based in the Gaza Strip and West Bank that calls for the eradication of the State of Israel. Both theUnited Statesand the European Union have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization. Following internecine fighting between Hamas and Fatah in June 2007, Hamas controls the Gaza Strip.

Hamas (the Arabic acronym for Harakat Al-Muqawama Islamiya fi Filistin, or the Islamic Resistance Movement in Palestine) was established in 1988 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, then a preacher with the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza. Its ultimate goal is the establishment of an Islamic Palestinian state ruled by Islamic theocratic law in place of the State of Israel.

The Hamas covenant, issued in 1988, is replete with anti-Semitism, and echoes the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion charging Jews with an international conspiracy to gain control of the world. In Hamas world-view, Islamic precepts forbid a Jewish state in the area known as Palestine, and they assert the Jewish people have no legitimate connection to the land of Israel. As its covenant proclaims, Theland ofPalestine is an Islamic trust... It is forbidden to anyone to yield or concede any part of it...Israel will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it... To this end, the leaders of Hamas have denounced compromise withIsrael as a betrayal of the Palestinian cause.

Funding and support for the group has traditionally come from Muslim charities around the world, sympathetic sources in the Gulf and Saudi Arabia, and most importantly from Syria and Iran, although in recent years, both have stepped back somewhat due to Hamas support for the rebels in the Syrian civil war.

Hamas is both a terrorist organization and a mass social, political and religious movement. It operates schools, medical clinics and youth groups. The division of Hamas into military and political/social wings has led some observers to erroneously assume that the social wing of Hamas is completely separate from its military wing. To the contrary, funds raised for the social programs of Hamas free up other funds for the military wing. Moreover, Hamas military wing utilizes the organizations social wing for indoctrination and recruitment. The social, cultural, religious and educational institutions of Hamas, including youth groups and summer camps are well-known venues for anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatred and have served as recruitment centers for suicide bombers.

Since 1994, Hamas has been the main organization perpetrating terrorist attacks in major Israeli cities with targets including shopping malls, cafes, buses and hotels. Its most deadly attacks include the March 2002 suicide bombing of the Park Hotel in Netanya, killing 30 and injuring 140 during their Passover seder; the August 2001 suicide bombing of the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem killing 15 and injuring 130; and the June 2001 suicide bombing at the Dolphinarium nightclub in Tel Aviv, killing 21 and injuring 120, most of them youths. Following the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip, Hamas has been behind the thousands of rocket attacks that have targeted Israels population centers.

Hamas entered the Palestinian political arena and secured nearly half of the municipal seats up for grabs in the January 2005 Palestinian elections. In the January 2006 parliamentary elections, Hamas had tremendous success and won 74 seats in the 132-seat legislature, with Fatah earning a disappointing 45 seats.

Following the 2006 election, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh became Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority while Mahmoud Abbas remained President, creating a so-called unity government. The international community established a policy of isolating Hamas, and suspended financial aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority until it met three conditions: recognizeIsraels right to exist, renounce the use of violence and terrorism and accept previously negotiated Israeli-Palestinian agreements. Hamas continues to refuse to comply with these conditions.

In June 2007, tensions between Hamas and Fatah reached a boiling point and violence broke out between the two groups in Gaza. Within a few days, Hamas prevailed. Palestinian Authority President Abbas dissolved the Hamas-led government and declared he would govern based on emergency powers. As a result, Gaza is administered by Hamas, and continues to be isolated by the international community. TheWest Bankis under the sole administration of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, which enjoys international support.

Over the years there have been a number of efforts to reconcile Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. In April 2014, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas announced a surprise reconciliation deal which included the formation of a Palestinian unity government. This Palestinian Authoritys decision effectively put an end to the nine-months of US-led negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, and soured relations with Israel. To date, however, the reconciliation agreement has not progressed and has had little impact on the ground.

According to the U.S. State Department and human rights NGOs, Hamas has restricted freedom of speech and press inGaza. The Hamas security apparatus attacks, tortures and detains those who publicly criticize its authority. Hamas affiliates have attacked journalists and other individuals, who publicly criticize their authority. Since 2007, only pro-Hamas broadcast media and PFLP-affiliated radio outlet Voice of the People have operated in Gaza. Hamas television broadcasts childrens shows which glorify suicide bombings and defame Jews, spreading anti-Semitism and hatred. Hamas also imposes its religious extremism on its people, with a morality police force, which monitors womens dress. Gender segregation is also strictly enforced couples walking together are often stopped and asked to prove that they are married, men are not allowed to work in womens hair salons and women are discouraged frompatronizing certain cafes.

Since 2000, Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups, have launched thousands of rocket and mortar attacks. In early years, Hamas rockets reached vulnerable southern Israeli cities such as Sderot, Ashkelon, Netivot and nearby environs, landing in or near private homes, schools and day care and recreation centers. In recent years, Hamas rockets have reached well beyond the south, reaching Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, Beer Sheva, and even as far north as Haifa, a distance of over 85 miles from Gaza. Two-thirds of Israels civilian population (equivalent to over 200 million Americans) Jews, Muslims, Christians and others have been directly threatened by missiles from Gaza.

Hamas has constructed hundreds of smuggling tunnels underneath the border with Egypt and stockpiled an enormous cache of weapons and associated supplies. In June 2006, Palestinian terrorists, including members of the military wing of Hamas, tunneled under the border fence in the southern Gaza Strip and attacked an Israeli military installation inside Israeli borders, killing 2 Israel soldiers, and kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Shalit, age 19. Shalit was eventually released in October 2011 after over five years of Hamas captivity in exchange for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. In addition, in 2014 it was revealed that Hamas has constructed dozens of terror tunnels which enabled its operatives to reach inside Israel to carry out terrorist attacks and kidnappings.

On December 27, 2008, following the lapse of an agreed six month Israel-Hamas period of calm, and in response to renewed rocket attacks, Israel initiated a military operation in Gaza, entitled Operation Cast Lead. The three-week air and ground operation was intended to stop the rocket attacks on southern Israel and end Hamas smuggling of arms and related supplies.

Four years later, on November 14, 2012, Israel initiated Operation Pillar of Defense in response to intensifying rocket attacks from Gaza. The aerial military operation targeted Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist leadership and rocket launching and storage sites. During the 8 day operation, Hamas launched 1,506 rockets at Israeli targets. The Iranian-made and supplied Fajr-5 rockets reached as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

On July 7, 2014, following weeks of unceasing missile, rocket and mortar fire from Gaza on civilian centers in Israel, the IDF launched Operation Protective Edge targeting Hamas facilities, tunnels, weapons and leadership. The conflict lasted 50 days, with a series of short-lived cease fires breached by Hamas. Israel initially attacked Hamas targets by air, however, on July 17, Israel sent ground forces into Gaza for a period of just over two weeks in order to destroy Hamass infrastructure, including rocket storage sites and infiltration tunnels which Israel was unable to destroy by aerial attacks.

During the conflict, 4,700 missiles, rockets and mortars were fired by Hamas into Israeli cities and towns, including Sderot, Ashkelon, Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, and even as far north as Haifa, a distance of over 85 miles from Gaza.The Syrian made M-302 missile, modeled after the Chinese WS-2, which has a range of almost 100 miles, was fired at Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem. Two-thirds of Israels civilian population (equivalent to over 200 million Americans) Jews, Muslims, Christians and others were directly threatened by missiles from Gaza. An open-ended cease fire was reached on August 26.

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Posted By admin on November 2, 2015

Hamas is the Arabic acronym for "The Islamic Resistance Movement" (Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyya). Since 2007, Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip.

Hamas grew out of the ideology and practice of the Islamic fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood movement that arose in Egypt in the 1920s and it was legally registered in Israel in 1978 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the movement's spiritual leader, as an Islamic Association by the name Al-Mujamma Al Islami. Initially, the organization followed the Muslim Brotherhood's model of acting primarily as a social welfare agency that catered especially to the Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip and, over time, developed a good reputation for improving the lives of Palestinians. Hamas also exerted its influence through the mosques. Today, Hamas is intimitately tied to the Islamic regimes in Syria and Iran.

In August 1988, Hamas published the Islamic Covenant, which makes clear the organization is opposed to Israel's existence in any form. It states that "there is no solution for the Palestinian question except through jihad (holy war)." The group warns that any Muslim who leaves "the circle of struggle with Zionism" is guilty of "high treason." Hamas' platform calls for the creation of an Islamic republic in Palestine that would replace Israel. Muslims should "raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine," it says.

Hamas stresses jihad as the sole and immediate means to solve the problem of Palestine. Hamas aims to create an Islamic state in all of Palestine. The immediate means to achieve this goal is the escalation of the armed struggle, and ultimately jihad, with the participation not only of Palestinian Muslims but of the entire Islamic world.

Hamas' violent activities are run by two central departments, which were established before the intifada. One is Hamas' military arm, created in 1982 in Gaza by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. In the early 1980's, the group began amassing arms for use against Israel. After it was uncovered in 1984, Yassin was imprisoned. He was freed as part of a 1985 prisoner exchange between Israel and PFLP-GC leader Ahmed Jibril.

A second Hamas arm called the Majd was created by Yassin in 1986 to monitor Arabs deemed to be "collaborating" with Israel or failing to follow Islamic doctrine. In 1988, a similar Hamas operation began in the West Bank.

The military apparatus of Hamas underwent several changes in the course of the intifada, as a result of preventive measures and exposure by the Israeli forces following major terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas operatives. The last form which this apparatus has taken is the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Squads, which is responsible for most of the serious attacks carried out by Hamas since January 1, 1992.

Hamas perpetrates terrorist attacks in a variety of forms: firing rockets toward Israeli communities, infiltrations into Israeli communities to murder Israeli civilians, explosive charges against IDF tanks and vehicles, shooting toward civilian vehicles in the Gaza Strip, ambushes of IDF soldiers, dispatching booby-trapped boats towards Israeli ships, kidapping and attempted kidnappings of IDF soldiers and of course suicide bombings. In addition, Hamas operatives smuggle weapons and terrorists from Egypt into Gaza using underground tunnels. Amazingly, some of this activity is directed by Hamas prisoners in Israeli prisons, though most of it is done by the Hamas headquarters in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas tries to present a separation between the political leadership and the military wing, as if the military activity serves no political aim. In practice, the formal "military leadership" of the Hamas is subordinate to what is known as the "political leadership." However, it is this "political echelon" of the terrorist organizations, which directs, instructs and determines policy, including terrorist activity. Interrogation of Hamas operatives point to Rantissi as directing Hamas terrorist policy. His public statements serve as instructions for terrorists to carry out attacks.

With the start of the Palestinian uprising known as the Second Intifada in 2000, Hamas used its power in Gaza to repeatedly fire rockets at both Israeli settlements within the Strip as well as Israeli cities outside of it. Hamas also stepped up its suicide bombings inside Israel. The IDF answered by leading a missions of targeted assassinations against the Hamas leadership in an attempt to destroy the organizaton by cutting off its head. On March 22, 2004, Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was assassinated, and the subsequently named successor, Abdul Aziz al-Rantisi, was killed for the IDF on April 17, 2004.

In 2005, after much debate, the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided to unilaterally withdraw all Israeli presence from Gaza in an overt attempt to appease Hamas and get it to stop firing rockets and terrorizing Israel.

In 2011, it is obvious that Sharon's plan failed miserably. Hamas rockets continue to rain down on Israel and the Israeli Defense Forces has been forced to invade the area twice in attempts to destroy Hamas's fighting capability.

The IDF first reentered Gaza in June 2006 after Hamas operatives infiltrated Israel, attacked an army post and kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. Then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered the army to invade, rescue Shalit and destory Hamas's weapons stores. Known in Israel as Operation Summer Rains and Operation Autumn Clouds, the missions failed to achieve any of the major goals set forth by Olmert. Though Hamas was weakened by the IDF, it was not destroyed and Shalit was not rescued.

In 2007, following Hamas' victory in the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, Hamas violently siezed control on the Gaza Strip and forced out all remnants of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party.

When Hamas rocket fire against Israel escalated to a point that the government could no longer sit idly by, Prime Minister Olmert ordered a second invasion of Gaza in December 2008, code-named Operation Cast Lead. With much of the same stated goals as the previous operations, the IDF was tasked with destroying Hamas's rocket infrastructure and, if possible, rescuing still captive soldier Gilad Shalit. Operation Cast Lead lasted into late January 2009 before a cease-fire was implemented by Israel. Hamas claimed yet another victory in this round of fighting, but statistics showed that the IDF has managed to kill nearly 1,000 Hamas operaties during the few weeks of battle.

In October 2011, after more than five years holding Shalit in captivity, Hamas negotiated with Israel (though Egyptian and German intermediaries) for his release in exchange for the release of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Israel agreed to the prisoner swap, and on October 18, 2011, Shalit was returned to Israel.

In December 2011, Hamas celebrated in 24th anniversary with huge celebrations across the Gaza Strip. In a press release sent out by the organization through its Twitter account, Hamas claims to have fired more than 11,000 rockets at Israel between 2000 and 2011, to have killed more than 1,360 Israeli's and to have injured more than 6,400 others.

In 2012 Hamas fired 1,697 rockets at Israel.

On April 24, 2014, the two main Palestinian political factions -HamasandFatah- signed a reconciliation agreement to unite their disparate parts of thePalestinian Authority. The two rivals split seven years ago followingHamas' violent coup that wrested control of theGaza StripfromFatahand the PA. To read the full article on the Fatah-Hamas reconcilliation, click here.

As a response to the kidnapping of three Israeli teens as well as dramatically increasing fire coming from Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israel launched Operation Protective Edge on July 8, 2014.Over the following 50 days Israel fought to destroy the terror capabilities of Hamas by carrying out air strikes against Hamas leaders, locating and destroying attack tunnels dug by Hamas to infiltrate Israel, and using the Iron Dome to defend it's citizens. Over 2,000 Palestinians died as Hamas used their standard tactics of firing from densely populated urban areas and provoking Israeli responses that decimated the Gaza Strip.Throughout the conflict Egypt acted as a mediator in desperate attempts to end the violence, which resulted in multiple cease-fires being agreed to. Hamas violated these cease-fires by firing rockets and mortars into Israeli territory on eleven occasions.During Operation Protective Edge the international community chastised Israel and saw them as being unfair to Hamas, laying out strikes against the organization in Gaza that international actors deemed to be a gross and unnecessary display of force. By violating the agreed-to ceasefires, Hamas showed that they have no regard for the Palestinian citizens, and showed that their vision is clouded by pure hatred for the Israeli "occupying force". They deliberately put their citizens in danger in order to gain international sympathy for the Palestinian people when Israel is forced to retaliate.

Israel's stated goal at the begining of the conflict was to destroy the attack tunnels dug by Hamas into Israel, stop the endless rocket fire coming from the Gaza Strip, and bring to justice the individuals responsible for the abduction and murder of three Israeli teens. When the abduction first occured on June 12, 2014 Hamas officials denied involvement, but then three months later accepted responsibility and announced that the abduction and murder of Eyal, Gilad, and Naftali was of their orchestration.Over the course of Operation Protective Edge 3,356 rockets were fired at Israel by Hamas, and the Iron Dome intercepted 578 of them. The Israeli forces destroyed 32 terror tunnels dug by Hamas, and carried out air strikes which resulted in the deaths of multiple Hamas leaders and their family members.

On Tuesday August 26 the Palestinian terror organizations and Israel came to an agreement for an extended ceasefire to take effect immediately. Hamas members declared a glorious victory, and citizens celebrated by firing guns into the air, injuring and killing multiple people. The plan that Hamas accepted was almost identical to the first one that Egypt had proposed two months prior, and Hamas was forced to abandon their demands of a sea port, an air port, and an end to the Israeli blockade in order to reach an agreement. Although over 2,000 Palestinians died and it is estimated that reconstruction will cost $7.8 billion, Hamas sees the outcome of Operation Protective Edge as beneficial for them because they stood their ground in the face of Israel and were successful in garnering international sympathy for the plight of the Palestinian people.

On September 25, 2014, Hamas spokesperson Mahmoud Al-Zahar stated that "we don't want to establish an Islamic emirate in Gaza; we want an Islamic state in all Palestine". The ultimate goal of Hamas is to destroy the Jewish people and the Jewish homeland, and in this quote Al-Zahar makes it clear that Hamas is in no way interested in peace, and is only interested in the destruction and suffering of the people of Israel.

Following Operation Protective Edge, Hamas returned immediately to weapons production and propaganda. Although the organization is hurting for funds, they have managed to begin to revive their weapons industry, carrying out multiple rocket tests in the Mediterannean and begining the reconstruction of terror tunnels into Israel. The Izz al-Din al-Qassam brigades, Hamas's military wing, staged a military parade through the streets of Gaza on Thursday October 9, the same day that the newly formed Palestinian Unity government met for the first time in Gaza. This parade was part of a recruitment drive by Hamas, in an attempt to drum up more support for the military units.

Hamas carried out multiple rocket tests on October 23, firing rockets toward the Mediterranean Sea. This was the sixth incident of Hamas carrying out rocket firing tests since the end of Operation Protective Edge.

For the first time in months, on October 1 2014 many employees of the former Hamas government in the Gaza Strip recieved their salaries of $1,200 each.In total 24,000 public workers who had not been paid since October 2013 were paid out in this way. The money for the salaries was donated by Qatar, who gave the unity government $30 million to pay the workers.

The European Union removed Hamas from a designated terror organization blacklist on December 17, 2014. The ruling, handed down by General Court of the European Union, stated that Hamas's designation as a terrorist organization by the EU in 2001 was " not [based] on acts examined and confirmed in decisions of competent authorities," but instead based on "factual imputations derived from the press and the internet." This ruling wss brought about after Hamas officials contested their designation on the list of terrorist organizations. Despite this ruling removing the designation the court ruled that the effects of this designation would stay in place for at least 3 months, including the freezing of funds.

On January 19, 2015, the European Union announced that it would appeal this ruling by the European Union court, in a move that was welcomed by Israeli officials. The European Union must provide evidence that Hamas remains a terrorist group and cannot use third party sources from the internet to do so, according to court documents.

On December 24, 2014, it was reported by local news agencies that Hamas had begun building new fighting positions and fortifying their bases of operations. Residents of the Gaza Strip reported seeing dirt mounts, ramps, and other fortifications being built and moved by members dressed in Hamas military garb. Hamas members then raised flags over their new positions.

Although groups like Hamas and Fatah have continued to deny it, the Islamic State has begun to take a foothold in the Palestinian territories.Israeli security sources claim that in late 2014 and early 2015 hundreds of Hamas and Fatah supporters have defected to the Islamic State. Following the attack on the satirical French news magazine Charlie Hebdo in January 2015, thousands of supporters of the Islamic State crowded the streets of Gaza in protest of the publishing of images of Mohammed by the magazine, and in support of the violent attack that left twelve people dead. Similar demonstrations took place in Ramallah and Hebron. These protestors attempted to storm the the office of the French Cultural Center in Gaza, and burned French flags while chanting calls for the slaughter of French nationals.Palestinian security forces were dispatched to the protest area, where they arrested seven Islamic State supporters.It was revealed on January 18, 2015, that a number of would-be jihadists "training" to join the Islamic State had been arrested in November and December in Galilee, Northern Israel. The seven Arab Israeli citizens were apprehended by Israeli security forces after apparently participating in "training" sessions during which they slaughtered sheep, practiced riding horses, learned how to properly make and hurl a molotov cocktail, and participated in target shooting activities.The individuals arrested included Adnan Ala al-Din, a 40 year old prominent lawyer from Nazareth, and brothers who had had issues with Israeli security forces in the past.Ala al-Din presented himself to the security forces as the Senior Commander of the Islamic State in Palestine at the time of his arrest.

After carrying out multiple attacks inside of Egypt in late 2014 and early 2015, an Egyptian court designated Hamas' military wing, Izz al-Din al-Qassam brigades as a terrorist organization in February 2015. The group was accused of the financing, planning, and execution of terrorist attacks that have killed hundreds of Egyptian citizens, including security personnel. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri issued a public statement in which he rejected the ruling passed down by the Cairo Court of Urgent Matters, calling the designation "dangerous."The following month an Egyptian court ruled that the Hamas organization as a whole is a terrorist movement, not just their military factions.Hamas took to twitter to issue an immediate response, posting that designating Hamas as a terrorist organization was a great shame disgracing the reputation of Egypt. Five days later however, Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh wrote an email in which he stated that the Hamas organization wished to air out their grievances and establish further ties with Egypt. Haniyeh wrote that the Hamas organization was ready for any proposals that would remove obstacles between the Palestinian and the Egyptian brothers.

Government files leaked in February 2015 showed that the CIA had tried to make contact with and gain access to Hamas through back channels, despite an official ban on contact with the terrorist organization. The leaked documents disclosed how in 2012 a CIA agent contacted a South African intelligence agent about the possibility of gaining access to Hamas, in order to recruit an informant. Also included in the reports are call transcripts from a call between President Obama and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in which Obama threatens Abbas in no uncertain terms if he were to go forward with the Palestinians 2012 statehood bid.

Three Israeli citizens were arrested on March 2, 2015, charged with suspicion of supplying raw materials to Hamas militants during Operation Protective Edge. The suspected smuggling ring also included multiple Palestinian businessmen and a Palestinian merchant named Osama Zuaroub. Zuaroub was the Israeli's main contact point on the other side. The accused apparently stored the materials in a warehouse in Mivtachim and used the Kerem border crossing to tramsfer truckfulls of materials to Hamas militants. The charges detailed that the payment for the materials, storage in the warehouse, and transfer to Hamas, amounted to about $375,000 per month. Hamas allegedly purchased more than $30 million worth of goods from the three Isrealis through Zuaroub. Files charged against the Israeli individuals include contact with a foreign agent, providing aid to the enemy in it's war against Israel, and fraud.

Hamas representatives rejected a peace agreement presented by the UN Special Coordinator for Middle East Peace, Robert Serry, on March 12, 2015. The proposal was drafted by Palestinian, Israeli, US, and international representatives, and would have seen an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza as well as the allowable construction of an airport and seaport. The peace agreement was for a proposed five year cease-fire. Hamas spokesperson Mousa Abu Marzouk explained their rejection the next day on social media, claiming that "Israel made the proposal with the aim of separating the enclave from the West Bank so it can swallow it with the settlements. We are paying a steep price for our stance by the continued blockade and economic pressure over the Strip, but we reject any idea that would lead to the separation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank." This trip was Serry's last to the Gaza Strip.

For the first time since Hamas took over Gaza eight years prior, in March 2015 a large shipment of vegetables was exported to the Israeli territory. Prior to Hamas taking control of the area, Palestinian merchants used to export hundreds of tons of produce to Israel daily. Since the takeover however it has been too risky for Israel to leave the border crossings open regularly, and the blockade on Gaza has been enforced. This shipment in March 2015 included 27 tons of tomatoes and five tons of eggplants, to be sold in Israel for about $770 per ton. In the months following the end of Operation Protective Edge, Israel officials increased the amount of border permits for Gaza merchants to sell their products in Israel. The Israeli military agency that oversees Gaza civilian affairs, COGAT, said that shipments totaling 1,500 tons are expected monthly in the future. This produce will be shipped in a box stamped with the name of the farmer, and a sticker that reads product of Gaza.

New video surfaced on March 12, 2015, showing Hamas militants digging tunnels and setting up training facilities near the Israel border. The video was shot by civilian residents near the border, who said that the men bore arms and wore masks while they worked.

The Hamas organization put extra effort into revamping their naval commando units following Operation Protective Edge during Summer 2014, according to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Akhbar. Since Operation Pillar of Defense, Hamas has been working to set up a large, professional underwater force, capable of launching stealth attacks against Israeli power plants, coal terminals, gas rigs, etc.

Dirar Abu Sisi, Hamas engineer and tactician, was convicted in March 2015 of opening and operating a "war college" where Hamas commanders trained, multiple counts of attempted murder, belonging to a terrorist organization, conspiracy to commit a crime, and unauthorized manufacture of arms. Abu Sisi plead guilty to all charges levyed against him. He was directly involved in the development of missiles and rockets used by Hamas, including developing ways to make them shoot farther. Because he plead guilty in court, the prosecution agreed to drop some of the many attempted murder charges.

A report published by the Wall Street Journal on April 21, 2015, detailed that Iran had been funneling millions of dollars to the Hamas military wing the Al-Qassam Brigades, to help them rebuild their network of terror tunnels that were destroyed during Operation Protective Edge. These funds were transfered under direct orders of Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the IRGC Quds force. In addition to rebuilding their network of tunnels, Hamas members used the funds to replenish their rocket supplies.

Foreign Policy magazine reported in April 2015 that Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups were hard at work training for the next armed conflict with Israel. Women were being used more frequently by the groups according to the report: one female Hamas member was quoted saying We fit the training around our domestic chores. We also watch the roads, protecting the men as they move. Since the end of Operation Protective Edge, more and more women in Gaza have been training to fight hand-to-hand, use firearms, disarm opponents, drive vehicles through battle-zones, and kidnap Israeli soldiers. Abu Mujahid, a Nasser Salahuddin Brigade commander, said that the war could start any minute. All the fighting groups evacuated the bases, weve postponed training sessions, and many of the men have moved underground... There are people right now under your feet.

Hamas militants began using heavy machinery and engineering tools to build their underground attack tunnels into Israel in the begining of 2015. Witnesses from the Israeli side of the border said that they could clearly see large tractors digging and moving dirt, while underground the Hamas members used small bulldozers to maneuver in the tunnel's tight spaces. While Hamas funnels millions of dollars meant for humanitarian aid into terrorist projects, the situation of the civilians living in the Palestinian territory worsens by the day.

Khalil al-Haya, a senior Hamas official, encouraged Hamas members to engage in the abduction of Israeli soldiers in April 2015, stating we tell the Zionist enemy: you are all a target for us and the resistance, we will fight you until we finally get rid of you and take as many captives as possible to free our heroes. Our men, our women, our children all envision kidnapping your soldiers and settlers, wherever they are. And it is our right because we have no other way to free our heroes, and it is the Zionist enemy responsible for this state of affairs. He said firmly that captive Palestinian prisoners should rest assured that they will be released, and encouraged members of Palestinian resistance forces to abduct Israelis so they may be used in prisoner exchanges.

Palestinian Authority ministers and officials visiting the Gaza Strip were detained in their hotel by Hamas during the second week of April 2015. The group of 10 ministers and 30 government officials were sent to the Gaza Strip in order to solve the issue of Palestinian Authority employees not having been paid for months, but they were barred from leaving their hotel by Hamas militants. The Palestinian Authority members were not able to attend their important meetings scheduled during that week, and were also not able to speak to any Palestinian civilians.

During the weekend of April 18, senior Hamas members passed the National Solidarity Tax law on non-basic goods being imported into the Gaza Strip. This tax will be levied on goods such as meats, fruits, electronics, and clothing, while necessary goods like flour and medicine are to be exempt from the tax. Senior Hamas officials revealed that most of the revenue from this new tax would go towards paying the salaries of the over 40,000 Hamas employees who had not been paid in over a year. This tax angered Gaza merchants, who were worried that they would not be able to sell as many products if the taxes increase. The increased import tax also meant that some merchants will not be able to afford their wholesale products anymore, forcing them out of business. According to Hamas Parliament member Abu Halbiya, the tax could pile on an extra 10% in certain cases.

Hamas commander Mohammed Deif, a long-time target of the IDF for his key role in planning terrorist attacks, who had been wounded in a prior assassination attempt, was thought killed during Operation Protective Edge. He resurfaced, however, months later in April 2015, reportedly overseeing a crew of approximately 1,000 workers constructing new attack tunnels with materials provided to Palestinian people for reconstruction, but sold on the black market to Hamas. Deif is also believed to be heavily involved in plans to advance Hamas's rocket capabilities.

The military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, released a video in August 2015 showing off their new tunnels which they had rebuilt following the destruction of Operation Protective Edge. Hamas managed to rebuild many of the terror tunnels that were destroyed by Israeli troops during the last conflict.

Palestinian leaders stoked the flames of violence during September and October 2015, spreading false information about Israel's actions surrounding the Temple Mount. Mahmoud Abbas stated that Israelis were desecrating Muslim holy sites the al-Aksa Mosque and Church of the Holy Sepulchre with their filthy feet, and encouraged Palestinians to carry out acts of violence against Jewish Israelis. The wave of violence experienced during late 2015 was due mostly to a Palestinian perception that the Israelis were going to somehow change the rules of who could access the Temple Mount, undermining Muslim supremacy at the holy site. The Israeli government issued official statements clarifying that there was no intention of changing the status-quo at the Temple Mount, but Palestinian leaders continued to incite violence against Israeli Jews through speeches and posts on social media. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh declared Friday, October 9, to be a day of rage... a day that will represent that start of a new Intifada in all the land of Palestine. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon travelled to Israel and met with various leaders in attempts to quell the violence on October 20. Nine Israelis were killed by random stabbing and ramming terror attacks between September 13 and October 21.

In response to these attacks Israeli officials ramped up security around the country, especially in Jerusalem and Hebron and at the Temple Mount. Israeli security forces also cracked down on Hamas leaders, detaining Hamas co-founder Hassan Yousef. Yousef was accused by Israel of encouraging, inciting, and praising the attacks that rocked the country during the previous month. Hamas leaders, including Yousef, called for a new uprising against Israel and encouraged attacks on Israelis via social media and news outlets.

In response to Palestinian leaders encouraging their constituents to carry out these attacks, the United States slashed aid to the Palestinian Authority by $80 million for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2016. This represents a 22% cut from the State Department's initial budget request earlier in the year. Florida Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen authored a Foreign Affairs Committee Resolution which was unanimously approved on October 22, 2015, calling for Abbas and other Palestinian leaders to be held accountable for the new wave of violence. Ros-Lehtinen issued a statement calling upon Abbas to [stop] inciting violence and promoting hatred, [and] to call for calm and work with the Israelis to restore the peace. To read the Foreign Affairs Committee Resolution, please click here.

Facebook shut down groups and pages associated with Hamas and similar organizations in late October 2015, in an effort to calm incitement being propagated through social media platforms. Hamas leaders issued a statement on October 21, confirming that, Facebook has closed, over the past two days, a large number of pages run by and close to the Hamas movements media in the occupied West Bank. Today and yesterday, [Hamas] pages [based] in Ramallah, Galilee, Nablus, Bethlehem, Qalqilya, Salfit, Tubas and Jenin were closed, as well as the page of Muslim Youth League in the West Bank. At the same time as the closure of these pages, Facebook has closed and frozen the accounts of dozens of publishers and administrators who run [them].

Sources: IDF, PASSIA, Kul al-Arab, (January 9, 1998); ICT, ADL; Wikipedia; Al-Qassam Information Office; IDF Spokesman (December 15, 2011); Hamas seeks to establish Islamic state on all Palestinian lands: Official, Xinhua (September 30, 2014); General Court of the European Union; Croft, Adrian. EU to appeal ruling that Hamas should be off terror list, Reuters (January 18 2015); Lubell, Mayaan. Thousands of Palestinians protest Charlie Hebdo Mohammad cartoon, Reuters (January 24, 2015); Ahram Online. Egyptian court declares Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades a 'terrorist group', Ahram (February 3, 2015); Milne, Seamus/McAskill, Ewen. CIA attempted to contact Hamas despite official US ban, spy cables reveal, The Gaurdian (February 23, 2015); IANS. Top Hamas leader says ready to resolve disputes with Egypt, Yahoo News (March 5, 2015); Kershner, Isabel. 3 Israelis charged with smuggling materials to Hamas, New York Times (March 3, 2015); Akram, Faras. Qatar offers cash to pay some staff in Gaza Strip, New York Times (October 29, 2014); Moore, Jack. Hamas rejects five-year Israel truce deal to end Gaza blockade, Newsweek (March 11, 2015); Akram, Faras. Gaza exports first produce to Israel since Hamas takeover, Salon Magazine (March 12, 2015); Levy, Elior. Gaza sources: Hamas test-fired rocket out to sea, Ynet News (October 24, 2014); Tzuri, Matan. Video: Hamas digging, building outposts not far from border fence, Ynet News (March 12, 2015); Fishman, Alex. Hamas' revamped naval commandos could pose a problem for Israel, Ynet News (March 15, 2015); Coughlin, Con. Iran is intensifying efforts to support Hamas in Gaza, The Telegraph (April 4, 2015); Trew, Bell. Gaza is a tomb, Foreign Policy (April 13, 2015); Issacharoff, Avi. Hamas accelerates it's tunnel building, using heavy machinery, Times of Israel (April 15, 2015); Miller, Elhannan. New Hamas import tax leaves Gaza merchants fuming, Times of Israel (April 21, 2015); AFP, Hamas official calls to abduct Israeli, swap for Palestinians, Al-Arabiya (April 17, 2015); Toameh, Khaled Abu. PA ministers leave Gaza after Hamas placed them on house arrest, Jerusalem Post (April 20, 2015); Coughlin, Con. Iran rekindles relations with Hamas, Wall Street Journal(April 21, 2015); Kais, Roi. New Hamas video boasts of reconstructed tunnels, YNet News (August 28, 2015); Lynfield, Ben. Gaza shootings: Hamas pledge new intifada as 'day of rage' sees Israeli soldiers kill six Palestinian protesters, Independent (October 9, 2015); Jones, Rory. Israel Detains Senior Hamas Official Accused of Inciting Violence, Wall Street Journal (October 21, 2015); Facebook moves against Hamas in West Bank, Now News (October 22, 2015)

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Background & Overview of Hamas | Jewish Virtual Library

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Over the years, news items have circulated about how hints and insights contained in the original texts among the famous Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in caves near the ancient site of Qumran can be found in the Bible. In other words, certain ideas in the scrolls also appear in the New Testament, meaning, of course, that the impression of Christianity as a divine revelation appearing whole cloth miraculously from the very finger of God is clearly erroneous.

Few scholars today claim that any of the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) date to the time after Christianity was allegedly founded by a historical Jesus in the first century of the common era. Indeed, it is agreed that most of the scrolls pre-date the turn of the era and that none of them show any knowledge of Jesus Christ or Christianity.

They speak of a Teacher of Righteousness and a pierced messiah, of cleansing through water and a battle of light against darkness.

But anyone looking to the Dead Sea Scrolls in search of proof, say, that Jesus of Nazareth was the messiah presaged by the prophets, or that John the Baptist lived among the scrolls authors, will be disappointed.

In my book The Christ Conspiracy, I demonstrate that Christianity is an amalgam of the many religions, sects, cults and brotherhood traditions of the Mediterranean and beyond. One of the major influences on Christianity is that of Jews, obviously, including those mentioned in the New Testament, i.e., the Pharisees and Sadducees. Ancient Jewish historian Josephus also mentions the sect of the Essenes, who are traditionally associated with Qumran, in a by default argument. However, scholar Solomon Schecter who discovered a scroll at Cairo that was later found at Qumran points to a heretical sect of Sadducees or Zadokites, as they are called in both the Bible and DSS. In The Christ Conspiracy, I discuss this Zadokite origin of the DSS and this groups obvious influence on the New Testament.

What this rumination all means, of course, is that Christianity is, as I contend in my books, largely unoriginal, representing not fresh and new divine revelation but, again, the amalgamation of not only the ideas of the Zadokite authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls but also influences from the Essenes, Jews, Samaritans and many others.

Hints of the Scrolls in Bible

To understand how the Dead Sea Scrolls influenced early Christianity, just turn to the New Testament.

Take, for example, the Great Isaiah Scroll, a facsimile of which is on display as part of the Milwaukee Public Museums Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. Written around 125 B.C. and the only scroll to emerge virtually intact from the caves at Qumran, its messianic message is quoted in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, John and Luke, the earliest of which wasnt written until around A.D. 65.

The scrolls so-called Son of God text reads much like the story of the Annunciation in the Gospel of Luke. And the Scrolls Blessing of the Wise echoes the beatitudes of Matthews Sermon on the Mount.

This early dating of the gospels, it should be noted, is based only on the a priori assumption that the story they relate is at least partially true in recounting a historical Jesus who truly walked the earth at the time he is claimed in the gospels themselves. There is no external evidence whatsoever for the existence of any canonical gospel at this early a date. In fact, the canonical gospels as we have them do not show up clearly in the historical record until the end of the second century.

Moreover, the Sermon on the Mount supposedly the original monologue straight out of the mouth of the Son of God Himself can be shown to be a series of Old Testament scriptures strung together, along with, apparently, such texts from Qumran. No historical founder was necessary at all to speak these words, as they are a rehash of extant sayings. (Even in this patent literary device the gospels cannot agree, as Luke 6:17-49 depicts the Sermon as having taken place on a plain.)

It is easy to see why the Catholic Church would blanche upon the discovery of these scrolls, as it could be and has been argued that these texts erode the very foundation of Christianity. It appears that this news, however, when released slowly has little affect on the mind-numbing programming that accompanies Christian faith.

The bottom line is that the existence of the Old Testament and the intertestamental literature such as the Dead Sea Scrolls shows how Christianity is a cut-and-paste job a fact I also reveal in The Christ Conspiracy, in a chapter called The Making of a Myth, which contains a discussion of some of the texts obviously used in the creation of the new faith. These influential texts evidently included some of the original Dead Sea Scrolls, serving not as prophecy, prefiguring or presaging but as blueprints of pre-existing, older concepts cobbled together in the New Testament.

Theres insight but not proof in the Dead Sea Scrolls

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Dead Sea Scrolls prove the Bible unoriginal - Freethought ...

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Judaism

Judaism and Ecology: A Theology of Creation

Daniel B. Fink Congregation Ahavath Beth Israel

Between Dust and Divinity Consider the order of the creation in the first chapter of Genesis. Humanity is not formed until the sixth day, after light and darkness, water and dry land, plants and animal life. We are clearly the final act of the Creator. But what does this suggest about our place in the cosmos? The Babylonian Talmud recounts a debate over why God created humanity last of all the living beings. One Rabbi suggested that people were the pinnacle of creation. He compared God to a king who prepared a fantastic feast and, after all was readied, invited the guest of honor. Thus, God made the entire natural world for the sustenance and enjoyment of humanity. Then, a second sage offered a very different response: Adam was created at the end of the sixth day so that if human beings should grow too arrogant, they may be reminded that even the gnats preceded them in the order of creation. According to this perspective, humanity is more or less a divine afterthought.

This is the same tension expressed in Simcha Bunams aphorism about keeping two truths in ones pockets. A Jewish earth ethic recognizes humanitys unique power to use natures bounty to our benefit. At the same time, it reminds us that each part of Gods creation has its own intrinsic value. As the great medieval Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides states in his Guide to the Perplexed, the Torah affirms after each days creation, God saw that it was good. Such praise is not reserved for humanity. Indeed, the biblical narrator declares that upon finishing, God saw all of the works of creation and behold, they were very good. The text goes out of its way to emphasize the value of each plant and animal. Therefore, Maimonides concludes, All the other beings have been created for their own sakes, and not for the sake of something else [e.g., humanity].

The Question of Dominion If human prerogatives are counterbalanced by the assertion of natures intrinsic value, what can one make of the somewhat infamous verse where God tells the first humans to master the earth and take dominion over all the living things? Contrary to the critique of Lynn White and many others, mainstream Judaism did not interpret this as a divine carte blanche to exploit nature without remorse. Nine hundred years ago, Rashi, the most distinguished commentator on the Torah, noted that the Hebrew word for take dominion (vyirdu) comes from the same root as to descend (yarad). Thus, he declares: When humanity is worthy, we have dominion over the animal kingdom; when we are not, we descend below the level of animals and the animals rule over us. We are preeminent only when we act in keeping with the highest standards of responsibility. Abusing the rest of the creation is a sign of debasement rather than dominion. To cite a modern example, if we destroy human life on earth through nuclear accident or war, the cockroaches will, in all likelihood, succeed us as the masters of the planet.

Furthermore, the true significance of the mandate given to humanity in Genesis 1 is not defined until the second half of the creation account, which is found in Gen 2:415. Many biblical critics of the past century have emphasized the discrepancies between these two stories, attributing them to different authorial traditions. However, Jewish traditionand an increasing number of literary-minded contemporary scholarsview the accounts as complementary. Each speaks to an important aspect of our relationship with the rest of Gods creation, and the full picture emerges only in the rich dialectic between them.

While the first account is primarily concerned with the linear unfolding of Gods cosmic plan to impose order upon chaos, the second accentuates humanitys links with the earth. It introduces the concept of stewardship. Humans (adam) are formed from humus (adamah). God set us in the garden and told us to work it and watch over it. This is what our dominion actually entails. As the twentieth century German-Jewish scholar Benno Jacob points out, Gods commandment to watch over the garden characterizes the land as Gods property, not ours. Genesis 2 defines the mandate set forth in the previous chapter. We are guardians of a divine trust. As the psalmist later reminds us, The earth is the Lords.

Shabbat: Last in Creation, First in Intention It is not easy to maintain the proper tension between human dominion and natures integrity. From the start, God seems to recognize that people will frequently choose to misinterpret their stewardship as license to plunder the natural world. Therefore, immediately after forming humanity, God establishes an essential constraint on our destructive tendencies, the Sabbath. This is the crown of creation, a day on which all forms of work are forbidden. The Rabbis of the Talmud maintained that although the Sabbath was the last thing God created, it was meant to be from the start, first in intention. These same sages defined the work prohibited on the Sabbath as any of thirty-nine types of activity that change the natural order. Once a week then, we are called upon to refrain from all labor that employs the things of nature for the achievement of human ends. The Sabbath is a tangible reminder that the creation is worth more than any monetary considerations. No wonder Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel considered this day the last, best hope of modern women and men who seek a vision of peace with all things in our profane age of clattering commerce. Later in the Torah, the principle of the sabbath day is applied to agricultural policy in the ordinance of the sabbatical year. Every seven years, the farmer is required to let his or her land lie fallow, relying instead upon Gods bounty. We moderns tend to see this as an earlyand soundpolicy of soil conservation. However, it is also one more expression of the proposition which underlies all Jewish environmental ethics: we are only tenants on this earth. The land belongs to God. We are given permission to enjoy the Creators abundant gifts, but we must not waste or wantonly destroy anything. The Jewish injunction known as bal tashchit teaches us to live lightly, conserving earths abundance. Indeed, the rabbis declare that anyone who eats a fruit without saying the proper blessing of thanksgiving to God is like a thief, stealing from the Creator.

Conclusion: A Gift to Our Descendants The creation narrative which opens the Torah has been the source of a steady stream of commentary, as each generation has sought to reinterpret it. We continue to revisit the Garden and explore the relationship with the rest of Gods creation. Our final selection is rooted in this tradition. It comes from Koheleth Rabbah, a collection of homilies based on the book of Ecclesiastes. It leaves us with a crucial charge: Preserve this beautiful world for your descendants, for if you fail to do so, there will be no more chances to restore it. When the Blessed Holy One created the first human beings, God took them and led them around all the trees of the garden of Eden and said to them: Behold My works! See how lovely and commendable they are! Pay heed that you do not corrupt and destroy My universe, for if you do corrupt it, there will be no one to repair it after you.

About this Author Daniel B. Fink is Rabbi of Congregation Ahavath Beth Israel, in Boise, Idaho. He received his Bachelors degree in History and Philosophy from the University of Virginia, and a Masters of Arts in Hebrew Letters from the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. He is an ardent environmentalist who enjoys hiking, canoeing, biking, and kayaking. He is coauthor, with Ellen Bernstein, of Let the Earth Teach You Torah (New York: Shomrei Adamah, 1992) and, with Aubrey Rose, Judaism and Ecology (London: Cassell, 1992), as well as numerous articles on Judaism and environmental policy.

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Judaism | Religion | Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology

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Posted By simmons on November 1, 2015

Yale historian Timothy Snyder is indebted to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently made Snyder's new book even more newsworthy than his extraordinary scholarship deserves to be.

And Netanyahu is indebted to Snyder, whose theory of Hitler's anti-Semitism is germane to two questions: Is the Iranian regime's anti-Semitism rooted, as Hitler's was, in a theory of history that demands genocide?

If so, when Iran becomes a nuclear power, can it be deterred from its announced determination to destroy Israel?

Netanyahu recently asserted, again, that a Palestinian cleric was important in Hitler's decision to murder European Jews. Netanyahu said that on Nov. 28, 1941, when Hitler supposedly preferred to expel Europe's Jews rather than exterminate them, Haj Amin al-Husseini, grand mufti of Jerusalem, met with Hitler and urged him to "burn them."

Certainly the mufti favored genocide; he certainly was not important in initiating it. Mass murder the Holocaust accompanied the German army, especially after the September 1939 outbreak of war, and especially after the June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union.

Granted, it was not until the January 1942 Wannsee Conference that the "final solution" became explicit. But by the time Hitler met the mufti, approximately 700,000 Soviet Jews had been shot. Snyder, not Netanyahu, should be heeded concerning the Holocaust's genesis.

Attempts to explain Hitler's obsession with Jews began with the idea that he was unfathomable, a lunatic "teppichfresser" (carpet chewer). The comforting theory was that no theory can explain Hitler because he was inexplicable, a monster, a phenomenon without precedent or portent.

In 1996, however, Daniel Goldhagen's book "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust" argued that the explanation for the genocide was acculturation centuries of German conditioning by the single idea of "eliminationist anti-Semitism."

This cognitive determinism reduced Hitler to a mere catalyst who unleashed a sick society's cultural latency.

This drew a rejoinder from Christopher Browning, author of "Ordinary Men" (1992), a study of middle-aged German conscripts who became consenting participants in mass-murder police battalions in Poland.

Browning noted that protracted socialization, centuries of conditioning, could not explain the Khmer Rouge's murder of millions of Cambodians, or the Chinese' slaughter of millions of Chinese during Mao's Cultural Revolution.

What happened in those places proved the power of an idea Marxism understood as a mandate to extirpate "false consciousness" to legitimize, even mandate, mass murder.

In "Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning," published in September, Snyder argues that the Holocaust's origins have been hidden in plain sight, in ideas Hitler articulated in "Mein Kampf" and speeches.

Snyder presents a Hitler more troubling than a madman, a Hitler implementing the logic of a coherent worldview. His life was a single-minded response to an idea so radical that it rejected not only the entire tradition of political philosophy but the possibility of philosophy, which Hitler supplanted by zoology.

"In Hitler's world," Snyder writes, "the law of the jungle was the only law." The immutable structure of life casts the various human races as separate species.

Only races are real and they are locked in mutual and unassuageable enmity, in Hitler's mindset, because life is constant struggle over scarcities of land, food, and other necessities.

One group, however, poisoned the planet with another idea. To Hitler, says Snyder, "It was the Jew who told humans that they were above other animals, and had the capacity to decide their future for themselves."

To Hitler, "Ethics as such was the error; the only morality was fidelity to race." Hitler, who did not become a German citizen until 11 months before becoming Germany's chancellor, was not a nationalist but a racialist who said "the highest goal of human beings" is not "the preservation of any given state or government, but the preservation of their kind." And "all world-historical events are nothing more than the expression of the self-preservation drive of the races."

Now, assume, reasonably, that Iran's pursuit of a potentially genocidal weapon will not be seriously impeded by parchment barriers such as the recent nuclear agreement. And assume, prudently, that the Iranian regime means what it says about Jews and their "Zionist entity."

Then apply Snyder's warning: Ideas have consequences. The idea of anti-Semitism is uniquely durable and remarkably multiform. It can express a mentality that is disconnected, as in Hitler's case, from calculations of national interest.

Hence an anti-Semitic regime can be impervious to the logic of deterrence. Much, including Israel's calculation of what military measures are necessary for its safety, depends on the nature of Iran's anti-Semitism.

George F. Will is one of today's most recognized writers, with more than 450 newspapers, a Newsweek column, and his appearances as a political commentator on Fox news. Read more reports from George Will Click Here Now.

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Is Iran's Anti-Semitism Too Deep for Deterrence?

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Posted By simmons on November 1, 2015

Yale University historian Timothy Snyder is indebted to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently made Snyders new book even more newsworthy than his extraordinary scholarship deserves to be. And Netanyahu is indebted to Snyder, whose theory of Hitlers anti-Semitism is germane to two questions: Is the Iranian regimes anti-Semitism rooted, as Hitlers was, in a theory of history that demands genocide? If so, when Iran becomes a nuclear power, can it be deterred from its announced determination to destroy Israel?

Netanyahu recently asserted, again, that a Palestinian cleric was important in Hitlers decision to murder European Jews. Netanyahu said that on Nov. 28, 1941, when Hitler supposedly preferred to expel Europes Jews rather than exterminate them, Haj Amin al-Husseini, grand mufti of Jerusalem, met with Hitler and urged him to burn them.

Certainly the mufti favored genocide; he certainly was not important in initiating it. Mass murder the Holocaust accompanied the German army, especially after the September 1939 outbreak of war, and especially after the June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union. Granted, it was not until the January 1942 Wannsee Conference that the final solution became explicit. But by the time Hitler met the mufti, approximately 700,000 Soviet Jews had been shot. Snyder, not Netanyahu, should be heeded concerning the Holocausts genesis.

Attempts to explain Hitlers obsession with Jews began with the idea that he was unfathomable, a lunatic Teppichfresser (carpet eater). The comforting theory was that no theory can explain Hitler because he was inexplicable, a monster, a phenomenon without precedent or portent.

In 1996, however, Daniel Goldhagens book Hitlers Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust argued that the explanation for the genocide was acculturation centuries of German conditioning by the single idea of eliminationist anti-Semitism. This cognitive determinism reduced Hitler to a mere catalyst who unleashed a sick societys cultural latency.

In an October 20 speech to the World Zionist Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, gave Adolf Hitler the idea to exterminate Jews during WWII. (YouTube/IsraeliPM)

This drew a rejoinder from Christopher Browning, author of Ordinary Men (1992), a study of middle-aged German conscripts who became consenting participants in mass-murder police battalions in Poland. Browning noted that protracted socialization centuries of conditioning could not explain the Khmer Rouges murder of millions of Cambodians or the Chinese slaughter of millions of Chinese during Maos Cultural Revolution.

What happened in those places proved the power of an idea Marxism understood as a mandate to extirpate false consciousness to legitimize, even mandate, mass murder. In Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning, published in September, Snyder argues that the Holocausts origins have been hidden in plain sight, in ideas Hitler articulated in Mein Kampf and speeches.

Snyder presents a Hitler more troubling than a madman, a Hitler implementing the logic of a coherent worldview. His life was a single-minded response to an idea so radical that it rejected not only the entire tradition of political philosophy but also the possibility of philosophy, which Hitler supplanted by zoology.

In Hitlers world, Snyder writes, the law of the jungle was the only law. The immutable structure of life casts the various human races as separate species. Only races are real and they are locked in mutual and unassuageable enmity, in Hitlers mind-set, because life is constant struggle over scarcities of land, food and other necessities.

One group, however, poisoned the planet with another idea. To Hitler, says Snyder, It was the Jew who told humans that they were above other animals, and had the capacity to decide their future for themselves. To Hitler, Ethics as such was the error; the only morality was fidelity to race. Hitler, who did not become a German citizen until 11 months before becoming Germanys chancellor, was not a nationalist but a racialist who said the highest goal of human beings is not the preservation of any given state or government, but the preservation of their kind. And all world-historical events are nothing more than the expression of the self-preservation drive of the races.

Now, assume, reasonably, that Irans pursuit of a potentially genocidal weapon will not be seriously impeded by parchment barriers such as the recent nuclear agreement. And assume, prudently, that the Iranian regime means what it says about Jews and their Zionist entity.

Then apply Snyders warning: Ideas have consequences. The idea of anti-Semitism is uniquely durable and remarkably multiform. It can express a mentality that is disconnected, as in Hitlers case, from calculations of national interest.

Hence an anti-Semitic regime can be impervious to the logic of deterrence. Much, including Israels calculation of what military measures are necessary for its safety, depends on the nature of Irans anti-Semitism.

Read more from George F. Wills archive or follow him on Facebook.

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Does Irans anti-Semitism run too deep for deterrence ...

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