Georgian olim: We're home

Israel absorbs 75 new immigrants from Georgia during past week in wake of war; Immigrant Absorption Ministry approves assistance plan for newcomers; one immigrant says he'll do everything 'to defend the homeland'

Yael Branovsky Ynetnews.com August 16, 2008

The war in Georgia may be waning, but those who fled its horrors are still living with its aftermath. And dozens of them have found new homes in Israel. A total of 75 new immigrants arrived in Israel last week from Georgia, with most of them settling in the cities of Bat Yam and Ashdod.

The Immigrant Absorption Ministry has already approved an assistance package for the newcomers that will include Hebrew schooling, employment offers and subsidized rent. Underprivileged immigrants will also receive a grant of several thousand shekels. According to the Jewish Agency, some 120 additional Georgians are preparing to immigrate to Israel within the coming months.

The Memisashvili family abandoned its home in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi and arrived in Israel last week. Vaj'a and his wife, both in their thirties, and their two children, aged 3 and 8, have taken up temporary residence in Kibbutz Messila in northern Israel, as part of a collaborative program between the Jewish Agency and the Kibbutz Movement.

"I feel like I've come home," said a proud Vaj'a, who has already managed to squeeze in a visit to Jerusalem. "Here, I am not afraid of a war starting. As an Israeli citizen I will do whatever is necessary to defend the homeland. I feel like we've come home, and I know everything will work out for the best."

The kibbutz, he says, has welcomed his family with open arms. "I have a lot of family in Israel, and I heard stories of when they first immigrated, I was surprised by the way people responded to us. They come over, they visit, they bring us clothes and things for our home, and we were even invited over for Shabbat dinner. It warms the heart."

Natia Zurshvili, a single mother of two, was a resident of Gori. The town became the epicenter of the violent clashes between Russia and Georgia, and is currently still under Russian occupation.

"Our house was bombed, almost all of it collapsed," she told Ynet. "My father took me, he children and my mother to Tbilisi, and then went back to collect our belongings. Now he can't get out of there, because the Russians have closed it down. But he will immigrate too, because there's no choice left. There is nothing there."

Zurshvili, her children are currently staying at an absorption center in Ashdod along with her sister and her sister's family.

"We came with nothing, not even a change of clothes," recalls Natia. "It's hard to describe the hell we've been through. I'm in daily contact with my father, he doesn't leave the house – what's left of it, and we're very worried about him."

In the coming days Zurshvili is expected to move into a larger apartment along with her children and mother, and she has been declared eligible for the welfare grant.
"I'm still in shock because of everything that's happened, but I hope we'll manage. I'm an accountant, I hope I can find work and make a living here."

Memorial in China for 11 Israeli Athletes Killed in '72

(IsraelNN.com) A ceremony in memory of the 11 Israeli athletes murdered by PLO terrorists during the 1972 Munich Olympics will be held this evening in Beijing's Olympic Village. In addition to the current Olympic Commission representatives, the head of the German Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, and Honorary President of the International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.) Juan Antonio Samaranch will take part in the memorial.

In 1972, a Fatah terrorist front group going under the name of Black September infiltrated the Olympic Village in Germany and took 11 Israeli athletes hostage. After negotiations, and a botched rescue attempt, the bound Israeli captives were killed. The mastermind of the Munich attack, Mohammed Daoud Oudeh, or Abu Daoud, revealed in his 1999 memoir that current Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas handled the financing for the Munich attack.

Saudi Columnist: Bomb Iran Now, Let Chips Fall Where They May
or, "Iran is not the problem [of the U.S. Israel, and Europe alone] "--Mark

In his August 4, 2008 column in the liberal Arab e-journal Elaph, Saudi columnist Saleh Al-Rashed argued that the Gulf states should urge the West to attack Iran before it acquires nuclear weapons.

Following are excerpts from the column: [1] as translated by and aggregated from MEMRI

A Nuclear Iran is Like a Nuclear Bin Laden
"'There's no avoiding what there's no avoiding' - this adage came to mind when I read the pronouncement by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Mohammad 'Ali Ja'fari, who said: 'My country is easily capable of closing the Straits of Hormuz, the main passageway for oil freighters, if the country is attacked due to its nuclear program.'

"In my estimation, confronting this country, which is trying to gain the time necessary to acquire nuclear weapons, is unavoidable. The possession of nuclear weapons by a state like Iran, which is ideological to the core, is more or less like Osama bin Laden having a nuclear bomb. They are two of a kind. Despite the difference in their turbans and in their religious beliefs, the end result is the same.

"Perhaps it is our bad luck that we [i.e. Saudi Arabia] and the Gulf states would be the first to suffer from a military confrontation with Iran and from its response, and the problem would become even more grave if Iran succeeded in closing the Straits of Hormuz, as the IRGC commander threatened. But our situation with Iran is like that of the sick man who refuses to have his illness treated with cauterization. Yes, the pain of the burning is horrible, but this malady can only be treated through this military confrontation -cauterization.

"History has taught us that ideological countries only pay heed to victory over their ideology… They never accept any halfway situation, even when they find themselves on the brink of disaster."

"Confrontation Is The Solution"; "The Absolute Priority Must Be Our Strategic Security in the Gulf"

"Confrontation is the solution, and there is no solution but confrontation. The game of the carrot and the stick played by the U.S. and E.U. will be to no avail.

"At present, we are suffering from two things: Iran's attempts [to gain] regional hegemony, and its attempts to impose its influence via its sectarian allies - the fifth column of Arab Shi'ite fundamentalists. Imagine what Iran's influence, hegemony, and fifth column would be like if Iran had a nuclear bomb.

"Perhaps it is a strange coincidence that, this time around, our strategic interests coincide with those of Israel. The regime of the mullahs in Iran is our enemy, and at the same time it is an enemy not just of Israel, but of world peace and security.

"I know that the Arab demagogues stand together indiscriminately with anyone who is against Israel and America. But we need to not be swept away by these demagogues as we were in the past. This time, the absolute priority must be our strategic security in the Gulf, which is threatened by Iran - even if this comes at the expense of the Palestinian cause.

"In politics, nothing prevents you from allying with the devil for the sake of your interests. This is what confronting the Iranian danger - which is close - demands of us. This issue, in my estimation, cannot suffer delay or hesitation. Every passing day benefits Iran.

"Thus, we need to push the world powers, and especially the U.S. and the E.U., towards military confrontation to neutralize the Iranian enemy, whatever the cost, before the nuclear bomb makes it too late - even if it is against the will of the Arabs of the north."

[1] www.elaph.com, August 4, 2008.

Jordan bars Jews with religious items

Aug. 14, 2008
Matthew Wagner , THE JERUSALEM POST
Jordanian border officials refused to allow a group of Israeli tourists carrying religious objects such as talitot and tefillin to enter their country on Tuesday, saying it was "a safety measure" to avoid potential terror threats.

Thirty-six Israeli tourists on their way to Amman for a three-day tour were detained at the Sheikh Ali Hussein Crossing near Beit She'an at 6:30 a.m. and notified of a new regulation that prohibits entry into Jordan with tefillin, talitot, prayer books, Bibles or the Talmud.

"Our group was presented with two options," said Alan Novetsky, a recent immigrant from New York who was accompanied on the tour by his wife. "Either enter Jordan without religious objects or go back to Israel."

Novetsky said the group's suitcases were thoroughly searched for religious items. "They seemed to know exactly what they were looking for.

"It was very demeaning to have such a negative experience in what is billed as a friendly country. People in the group, including the tour guides, were quite shocked. No one had ever heard that Jordan imposed religious restrictions," he said.

"What made it worse was that the whole thing seemed to be directed solely at Jews. I saw Christians walking through into Jordan openly wearing crosses. Apparently, Christian religious symbols did not seem to be a problem for the Jordanians. I can well imagine the international outcry if Islamic tourists were to encounter such restrictions on their entry into Israel."

A Jordanian security official said the decision was taken only for "security reasons."

The official said that the decision had been in effect for a long time and Israeli authorities were aware of it.

"The Jordanian security authorities are responsible for the safety of all visitors to the kingdom and it is our duty to take all measures required in this regard," the official explained. He expressed regret that the tourists had been offended by the measure.

Novetsky said that at first the the guides tried to bargain with the Jordanian officials, promising to keep the religious items hidden and to pray inside the hotel. But the suggestions were rejected.

"The vast majority of the group decided that as proud Israelis, we were either going to be allowed to walk into Jordan holding our religious objects or we would not go in at all."

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1218446197326&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Jewish Community in Yemen

The Jewish community in Yemen faces a challenge.

Aggregated from Israelmatzav.blogspot.com

I have no idea what brought this on, but CNN did a report that was posted to the web on Friday about the Jewish community in Yemen. The Yemenite Jewish community, which has a very rich and ancient heritage, mostly lives in Israel these days with smaller pockets in the US and in London. But the small community just outside of Sana very strongly keeps to its traditions, as you will see in this video. I fear that this community may reach a bad end - God forbid - unless it leaves Yemen soon.

Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: NYNana who found it after CNN removed the original). [If the video is not included in your e-mail, go to jcommunitynews.blogspot.com

Jewish Agency evacuates hundreds from Georgia war zone

After establishing contact with Jewish community in war-torn South Ossetia, Agency coordinates evacuation to capital city of Tbilisi. As death tolls crosses 2,000, West announces delegation of EU, US, NATO officials en route to broker ceasefire

Yael Branovsky 08.09.08, ynetnews.com



"I'm staying here till the last Jew is evacuated," a defiant Bashu Mansharov told Ynet on Saturday after the Jewish Agency evacuated hundreds of Jewish Georgians to safety as Georgian-Russian hostilities continue to rage in South Ossetia.

At least 200 Jewish residents living near the ongoing Georgian-Russian hostilities have been evacuated by the Jewish Agency to the capital city of Tbilisi. Most from Gori.

Mansharov said the majority of those who have not fled are adult men who chose to stay behind and protect their homes and property. "I sent my wife, my two children and my mother-in-law away, but I will stay here until the last Jew leaves," Mansharov said. "Things here are bad, there are many wounded and killed, but even though I am a doctor I'm not in the hospital right now, because we're trying to get all the Jews out. I gave all of them the number of the Jewish Agency, so they could reach them for help."

According to the Agency, there are currently 12,000 Jews in Georgia, most of whom live in the capital. It also said there are still four Jewish families in South Ossetia that no one has been able to contact as of yet. Georgia's communications network in the region has been badly damaged.

"In The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, Andrew Bostom explodes the delusional myths with which too many in the West obscure the truth of Muslim Jew-hatred"
-- Bruce S. Thornton

Islam Without Apologetics by Bruce S. Thornton
8 August 2008 [excerpt]

According to received wisdom,

an Islamic faith that once tolerantly coexisted with Jews and Christians has been traumatized by the twentieth century and its destructive ideologies(such as fascism, communism, and nationalism), by the depredations of European colonialism and imperialism, and by the displacements wrought by globalization.

These developments, according to such apologists as John Esposito and Reza Aslan, have given rise to a distortion of Islam,

one manifested not just in “Islamist” terror but also in the virulent anti-Semitism visible today throughout the Middle East and in Europe’s Muslim communities. A religious culture that once embraced the kindred “people of the book”—Jews and Christians—has now been infected by European anti-Semitism, just one more way that Western cultural dysfunctions have damaged the traditions of a proud faith.

The problem with this tale, as Andrew Bostom documents in The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, is that it isn’t true.

A physician and professor of medicine at Brown University, Bostom demonstrated a doctor’s fidelity to empirical evidence in his previous book, The Legacy of Islamic Jihad, showing how violence against the infidel is central to Islamic doctrine, theology, and jurisprudence. He now performs a similar service in examining Islamic anti-Semitism, exploding the delusional myths with which too many in the West obscure the truth of Muslim Jew-hatred.

As he did in his earlier book, Bostom provides copious documentation from primary sources—including the Koran, hadith (traditional accounts of Mohammed’s deeds and sayings), sira (early biographies of Mohammed), and other Muslim texts—as well as modern scholarly commentary, including his own introduction, which summarizes his conclusions. His use of such an abundant body of scholarship makes it difficult for critics to dismiss his arguments as biased interpretations of the evidence.

As he writes,

“For the Muslim masses, basic Islamic education in the Qu’ran, hadith, and sira . . . may create an immutable superstructure of Jew hatred on to which non-Muslim sources of Jew hatred are easily grafted.”

Islamic anti-Semitism begins, as do all things in Islam, with the Koran—the immutable, infallible, timeless words of Allah dictated to the Prophet—in which Jews are cursed with “abasement and humiliation” and are “deserving of Allah’s wrath” because they rejected Mohammed. Jews are further characterized as corrupt, treacherous rebels and infidels whose destiny is to be the enemy of the true believers.

Read more of this article.