Israel’s News Blog Magazine: Daily Stories Video and Photos

The cancer patient have ended their hunger strike yesterday, after an addition of 350 million NIS was added to the health basket. It all started a few weeks ago, during the Knesset’s first reading of the budget.

Labor members Shelly Yacimovich and Yoram Marciano walked out of the vote in protest. Later they said they were protesting for the budget’s lack of socioeconomic considerations. Kadima officials said that following the vote, Prime-Minister Ehud Olmert had to remind Amir Peretz, head of the Labor party, that Labor’s support of the 2006 budget was part of the coalition agreement signed between the two parties.

Sixteen days ago, cancer patients and their families decided to struggle for life saving drugs, which were left out of the health basket due to the budget, and went on a hunger strike. A strike that ended yesterday.
“We’ve ended the strike and I’m focusing now on the hardest war of all - the war for dad’s life” said Ron Hirsh who has stroked instead of his ill father. “We congratulate Israel and the government for taking responsibility on its patients and we hope the massage of our strike was loud an clear.”
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By Maurice Picow

Citing it as a “particularly difficult and troublesome visit”, Pope Benedictus IVI’s visit to the former Auschwitz concentration camp was one in which all who were present could see that the German born Pontiff was visibly moved by the experience. Passing under the infamous entrance, the words Arbeit Mach Frei (work makes freedom) still in place, the Pope spent two hours at the site, in weather the seemed to change with the progress of his visit: from rain and ominous grey to sunshine and even a rainbow.

In the midst of a large crowd that also included several Auschwitz camp survivors, as well a several Rabbis and other Jewish dignitaries, the Pope made comments which included ones in which he could not understand how such a thing could have happened “to the children of Abraham”, the founder of the religion from whom his own faith emerged. “Why Lord did you remain silent? How could you tolerate this?” The 78 year old Pontiff, who himself had been in both in the Hitler Youth and the German Army, before being captured near the end of the war, said that he had “come to Auschwitz as a son of the German People”, and spoke about forgiveness and understanding towards the people who had once been acclaimed as the most cultured and progressive of Europe before slipping into the maelstrom of the Hitler years.
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Shock Magazine is a new magazine that recently came out in the US, aimed at the new 18-35 generation. A quick look at the magazine’s website ShockU.com showed some great promise…

By Raz Koller

A wave of fires swept over the country yesterday, with fires bursting out from the north to the plain. The miracle was that there were no casualties. In the afternoon a fire started in the industrial zone in Rishon LeZion. It started out in a field of dried thorns, apparently as a result of the intense heat. It grew and spread towards an old car junkyard. For several hours the firemen worked to stop the fire from spreading to nearby factories, something that would have caused a huge amount of damage. When the firemen of Rishon LeZion saw that they might lose to the fire, firemen from the neighbor city Rehovot were called to aid. But due to water problems they had to call for special containers to finely have the fire under control.
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Yesterday night the tension between Israel and Hizballa of the north has a reached another peak, which means fire was exchanged between the two sides. The IDF attacked with heavy bombing from the air and the ground, until finely Israel received a request through the UN to a cease-fire.

“We have waited for Nassralla to attack,” a high ranked officer from North Command said, “If he’ll escalate the conflict, he’ll get hurt.” This morning there is a tense silence surrounding the northern border. “I can’t say it’s over.” the officer said, “In the aftermath we could say that Hizballa fell right into our ambush. We waited for this attack and when it came, it cost them many casualties and infrastructure damage.” The officer also revealed that Hizballa used children during the fighting, and fired from UN posts.
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It seems that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad just doesn’t know when to shut up. His latest contribution to his country’s increased isolation now comes from remarks he made today regarding the German Government’s refusal to let him attend this year’s World Cup, scheduled to begin in Germany this coming July. In an interview with a reporter for the German newspaper Der Spiegel, Mr. Ahmadinejad continued with his opinions concerning the Holocaust.

During the interview, Mr.Ahmadinejad continued to state that the story of The Holocaust is “a series of lies” told by the world Zionest ‘conspiracy’, and that he personally would believe it and accept it as the truth only if be believed it to be so. “I only believe that something can be true if I totally believe in it.”, Ahmadinejad commented, regarding The Holocaust.

Since being elected of the Islamic Republic of Iran, few if any kind words regarding the non-Islamic word have been uttered by Mr. Ahmadinejad. If personally barred from the World Cup, the Iranian president will most likely take out his wrath against countries who simply do not accept Mr. Ahmadinjad and his line of rhetoric.

Iranians themselves view their president’s statements with mixed emotion. “We feel that our government does not care for out well fare, and only gives money to terrorist groups and similar organizations”, a young Iranian student was reported to have said recently in a protest gathering of university students. Perhaps Iran’s younger generation, being more and more frustrated, due to lack of job opportunities and curtailing of individual freedoms, are beginning to view their president in a different manner. “Islam may have a strong pull in this country, but in the long run, people have to live” an Iranian businessman commented.

Iran’s pledge to give the Palestinian Authority a sum of 50 million dollars has also been met with protest by Iranians, many of whom would love to see that money used to help create job opportunities to young (and not so young) Iranians.

Returning to the Iranian president’s World Cup remarks, Mr Ahmadinejad had planned to be present in Germany when the Iranian team plays there this summer. “A Zionest web is preventing me from traveling to Germany to see may country’s team play”, he remarked to the reporter. Interesting that he should say this, in light of all the rhetoric that has been coming from him in an almost continuous flow, since he assumed office as Iran’s president. “My decision (to the attend) depends upon a lot of things”, Ahmadinejad was reported to have said.

Perhaps Mr. Ahmadinejad should take time to consider just what people have against him outside (and probably inside) of Iran. With this in mind, and the Iranian nuclear issue still very much in the forefront, Mr. Ahmadinejad should consider being more compromising in terms of his feelings toward the West, in general, and Israel in particular. The Iranian president ended the interview commenting that Germans are not being allowed to “write the truth” regarding the Holocaust. He claims to only be speaking the truth – his version that is.

The British paper “The Guardian” published yesterday a letter written by four British academics writing in the name of six hundred Academy people from all around the world, calling the NATFHE (National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education) to not boycott Israeli academics. This comes as a response to a Palestinian initiative to make British scholars boycott Israel “Due to the occupation and its Apartheid policies”.

Another academic organization, AUT (Association of University Teachers) has already declined the Palestinian initiative. Now the four British scholars want the NATFHE to do the same.

According to “The Guardian”, thousands of academy people have already sign the petition that was published on the Internet against the boycott. The petition was publish by the “Academic Higher Council for Freedom of Academic Teaching” which was founded in Bar-Ilan University, and has about five hundred people for twenty different countries as members. The petition says amongst other things that a boycott “Will weakened the bridge that lead to the end of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians”.

The letter in the Guardian was written by Derek Meyer from University of Westminster, Leslie Bash from Anglia Ruskin University, Paul Langston from Aylesbury College and Stephen Soskin from Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College.

The four say that the initiative is discriminating to Israel and writes, “Unions should have consistent policy with regard to human rights abuses and the curtailment of academic freedom that goes with them. We oppose the inconsistency of blacklisting Israelis, but adopting a different attitude to academics in the US, China, Russia, Britain, Sudan, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, Syria or Egypt - or in the long list of other states that are responsible for equal or worse human rights abuses”.

They also mention that, “Israeli universities are among the most open and anti-racist spaces in Israel. They have large numbers of Arab students and teachers. The Oslo peace process was forged by links between Israeli and Palestinian academics”.

NATFHE is supposed to make a decision in the days ahead.

When Jewish settlements in Gaza were evacuated last August, some buildings were left standing by the Israeli military. These buildings, some of them former municipal office buildings, schools, etc., are now finding new uses by Palestinians who have claimed the areas as their own. Though many areas are still declared ‘off limits’ by the central Palestinian Authority (due to internal wrangling over who actually gets to use these areas) others, such as in the former community of Neve Dekalim are now being used by a branch of Al-Aksa University, whose rectors plan to create a campus that will eventually contain more than 7,000 students.

Initial feelings of animosity against the Jewish residents resulted in a number of buildings, particularly synagogues and other religious institutions, being burned and vandalized by militant Palestinians pouring out their hatred towards the former “occupiers”. These feelings soon changed as many Palestinians began to see the value of using these properties for their own benefit. Though large sums of money are needed to renovate these buildings, work has begun in earnest on several of these projects, particularly the one at Neve Dekalim. Al Aksa, despite having it’s own funding crises due to it being a ‘public university’ is still managing to secure donations from outside entities, including a substantial one from the United Arab Emirates, as well as from countries like Saudi Arabia. The university hopes to officially open the new campus in the coming September, providing the P.A.’s own financial problems improves by then.

The Director of the new campus, Sayez Abu Samal, was recently quoted as saying that despite the funding problems, the university will continue to operate including the new campus. Al Aksa now has three campuses: in Kahn Unis, Gaza City, and the new one in Neve Dekalim. Students have a fairly wide choice of study options, and come from literally all sections of Palestinian society. Though more men are currently enrolled, a growing number of women are also taking advantage of one of the lowest tuition rates among Palestinian colleges and universities.

Other areas formerly containing Jewish settlements are also being ‘recycled’ for use by their new Palestinian landlords. Settlements that formerly had resort facilities along the Mediterranea, such as Shirat Ha-Yam, are now beginning to be used by Palestinians for their own enjoyment. “We made good profits when the Jews lived here, and hopefully, the will happen again – this time with our own people”, a Palestinian who opened a coffee house was said to comment. In fact, this person, named Sabrij Ak-Kdera is actually head of the Al-Aksa military brigades in the Khan Unis area. “I am optimistic that this entire area will one day become a big tourist attraction for foreigners, as well as for Palestinians. However, Israelis will not be welcomed – at least for now.”

Perhaps, if peace occurs one day between Israelis and Palestinians, clever entrepreneurs will see the profits that can be made in these beach resorts by allowing Israelis in, as Egyptians did when the Sinai coast was returned to their jurisdiction. These areas may even become the beginnings of an era of economic cooperation between the two peoples.

A mega-fire burst yesterday at the heart of Eshckol Park in the southern Israel.

There were no casualties other then the park itself and the nature within it.

Eshckol Park is a very green and beautiful oasis in the south, and a it is a tourist attraction especially for Israelis during the weekends and holidays. It was a vast meadow ornamented with trees of different types, and right in the middle the Basher River goes through it. But yesterday, the little piece of heaven in the middle of the desert burned down in what firemen described as “The largest fire of the last decade”. Thousands of acres went in flames.

The fire started as two different fire spots. Eight Negev fire trucks were launched, but they came across an access problem, due to the way the park is built, so fire choppers were launched as well. All campers in the park were evacuated to allow better access to the firemen. By night the choppers had to retire for fear of crushing into electrical wires. Tractors and heavy machinery were brought to pave the roads and keep the fire from spreading. Volunteers from the area also pitched in and tried to help stopping the fire from spreading farther into the south, into the park.

But the wind was their real problem, sending flames and sparks directly at that direction, directly at the easily flammable trees and grass of park Eshckol. The fire was monstrous, burning acre after acre, until at one point the fire department announced that there might be danger for the small settlements of the area, especially the settlement Patish and Kibutz Urim.

Reshef Gershon, commander of the force during that night said that, “Many forces were recruited to fight the flames, but the feisty winds fanned the fire and spread it across the park.”

The police are currently investigating the cause to the fire, but there is an assessment by the Authority of Nature and Gardens, that it was started by a “Baggie” vehicle, driving around the park and emitting flammable substance from its exhaust. There is also a danger to many of the wild life of the area. It would years for the park to recover, for new trees to grow and for the green to come back.

And so we are left only with the striking truth which strike us every time anew, that what take years to build, can be burned down in only a few hours.

A recent interview with the deputy editor of Italy’s largest national newspaper, Corrie della Sera, included a rather frank comment that Israel is mistaken if it thinks that Hamas will ever change it’s thinking and polices toward Israel. The remarks were made during an interview with the Jerusalem Post Arab Affairs Editor, Khaled Abu Toameh. Mr. Magdi Allam, a Muslim himself, and originating from Egypt, said that due to the inflexibility and goals of radical Islam, of which the Hamas organization is definitely a part, any possibility of peace between Israel and a Hamas led Palestinian State is impossible to attain. Mr. Allam, who has lived in Italy for more than thirty years, noted that Hamas follows the tenants of classical Islam, the same tenants that have been in inexistence since the religion’s beginnings more than 1,300 years ago.

Mr. Allam reviewed the carious problems currently existing within the Palestinian Authority, including various separate groups vying for a share in the running of this entity, with comparisons to the fighting among war lords as is presently happening in the African country of Somalia, as well as in Afghanistan. He noted that while the former Fatah or PLO ruled government was rife with miss-management and corruption, the militant fundamentalism of Hamas is in some ways more dangerous, as well as more inflexible. That Hamas won the last P.A. held election under a so-called ‘democratic format’ only happened because the Palestinians themselves saw that they had received nothing from the former government, led for so long by Yassir Arafat. He noted that it was a ‘big mistake’ for Hamas to even run in the election as the possibility of the organization being accepted by both Israel and other countries was very remote. Allam said that Hamas has not changed, and will not change its position in regards to recognizing Israel. The only thing that Hamas will agree on, Allam continued, is a Hudna or truce between it and what it considers as an infidel entity. This kind of truce is no different than that affected by numerous Islamic rulers and governments through the centuries with ‘non believers’ or infidels. This kind of feeling also underlines the organization’s relations with all non-Islamic countries, especially with the United States.

Mr. Allam also commented about the relationship between Hamas, Al Qaeda, and the Hezbollah, saying that all three groups shared the same terror ideology and were unified in denying Israel its right to exist. This correlation also included Iran and its radical Islamic government, so much in the news nowadays due to Iran’s current leadership. The radicalism shared by all these entities is something that the entire Western World must be concerned with, Allam noted.

The statements made by Iran’s president, Mahmoud Admadinajad, in respect to both Israel and to Western society, make that leader comparable to Adolf Hitler, and is thus a threat not only to the Jewish State, but to the entire Western World. “We must stop this mad regime” Allam said, even it might require the use of military force.

Returning to Israel and any future relationship with Hamas, Allam noted that Hama’s preconditions for a peace agreement with Israel were so inflexible that it would be a mistake if Israel is prepared to withdraw to the 1967 borders. “Israel must stick to its principles as it is the only way to guarantee its right to exist” Allam said.