JERUSALEM NEWS
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Events, happenings, and Opinions Concerning
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Jerusalem News-800
Jerusalem News-800
21 Av 5768 22 August 2008
Contents:
1. The Floating Circus Heads for Gaza
Brit-Am Commentary:
Why They Will Not Come Through Egypt!!
2. Bnei
Menashe
(from Burma) to be Brought to Israel?
3. US's largest kosher market opens in NYC
1. The Floating Circus Heads for Gaza
'Free Gaza' Attempts to Rip Open American-Israeli Battle Scars
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127286
by Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com) The pro-Arab 'Free Gaza' organization tried Thursday to reopen
old battle wounds with a "memorial service" for "forgotten" Gaza fishermen and
American sailors killed by Israeli soldiers.
The passengers and crew of the two converted fishing boats, which are planning
Thursday night to set sail for Gaza from Cyprus at midnight, announced the
service on the group's website.
The 46 left-wing activists include Jeff Halper (founder of "The Israeli
Committee against House Demolitions"), Lauren Booth, sister-in-law of former
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, several Palestinian Authority Arab activists
and dozens of foreign nationals.
Thursday's post described the service as a memorial to "commemorate the 14
fishermen of Gaza who have been killed by the Israeli Navy over the past four
years as they were fishing off their coast."
The group also managed to involve the United States in their "mission," adding
in the announcement that it would "also be held for the 34 American sailors
killed aboard the USS LIBERTY by Israeli forces in 1967."
The posting went on to explain that activists would "lay flowers in the water
for these forgotten seamen from two countries, the Palestinians killed while
trying to feed their families and the American sailors who were attacked by
Israeli fighter jets and submarines for 75 minutes on June 8, 1967."
Gone, but Hardly Forgotten
In the USS Liberty incident, a group of Israeli jet fighter planes and motor
torpedo boats attacked the USS Liberty intelligence ship as it traveled in
international waters north of the northern Sinai Peninsula coast, approximately
25.5 nautical miles (47.2 kilometers) northwest of the minaret at El Arish on
June 8 during the 1967 Six Day War.
The incident, which the Israeli government said had occurred in error, was
investigated by IDF Col. Ram Ron, who concluded that it was indeed the result of
a series of mistakes in the IDF chain of command. The IDF said it had asked the
US to inform them of any American ships in the area but was not told about the
presence of the Liberty, leading Israeli forces to misidentify it.
Israel paid nearly $13 million in humanitarian reparations to the US government
and in compensation to the families of the victims.
With regard to the "forgotten fishermen," many of the "catches" harvested along
the Gaza coast have been weapon and have had little to do with fish or food.
According to senior Israeli defense officials, Iran has continued its attempts
to smuggle weapons into Gaza by using floatable devices dropped into the water
off the coast, which are then picked up by PA Arab "fishermen" from Gaza. The
sources have described "catches" that include rockets and other advanced
weaponry safely wrapped in the floatable devices.
Arrival at Gaza Coastal Waters Expected Early Saturday
The safety certificates for both the SS 'Free Gaza' and the SS 'Liberty' were
granted in Greece, where the boats are registered.
The voyage to Gaza is expected to take around 30 hours, and Israel has warned
that Navy boats will try to prevent the boats from landing and declaring Gaza
sovereignty over waters off the Gaza coast.
As part of a large publicity stunt, the activists are carrying with them
balloons and hearing aids for children. Israeli officials said the gifts can be
distributed via Israeli port landings.
Brit-Am :
Why They Will Not Come Through Egypt!!
If YOU LOOK AT A MAP,
Gaza is contiguous with Egypt as well as with Israel.
Egypt has also closed its border to Gaza.
Why are none of the international sensitive souls of do-good-to-the-poor
oppressed-native-people putting pressure on Egypt.
I can think of two reasons:
a. When there is no chance of demeaning and hurting the Zionists (i.e. the main
section of the Jewish People) the do-gooders loose interest.
b. When it comes to dealing with protesters and do-gooders etc the Egyptians are
not so pleasant and forbearing as the Israelis.
If they tried anything like the exhibition they are putting on against Israel
with Egypt they would get hurt and since "Zionists" would not be involved there
would be no sympathy or EU backed budgets to console them.
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Map shows FORMER Israeli Settlement
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2.
Bnei
Menashe
(from Burma) to be Brought to Israel?
From: Harriet Bograd
Subject: [Kulanu-List] [Fwd: Harriet - MAJOR News regarding Bnei Menashe aliyah
Translation of article in Maariv, August 20, 2008
Olmert Decides: Thousands of Bnei Menashe will come to Israel
by Eli Bardenstein
Extracts:
In a historic decision, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has decided that all 7,232
members of the tribe of Bnei Menashe who are living in northern India will be
allowed to make Aliya.
Olmert and his office took the decision a short while after they decided to put
a stop to the aliya of the Falash Mura from Ethiopia.
The decision came a short while after Meir Shitreet, Minister of the Interior,
who had lead the opposition to their Aliya, removed his objections. After Rosh
Hashana, Shitreet, together with Eli Afflalo, Minister of Absorption, will fly
to northern India, where the Bnei Menashe reside, and will meet with them. Upon
the Ministers? return, the decision will be brought to the Prime Minister for
formal approval. Their Aliya will take place, in all probability, with a monthly
quota system of a few hundred Olim per month, with the anticipation that within
two years, the entire group will be brought over to Israel. The agreement in
principle regarding their Aliya was reached in a small meeting that took place
last Wednesday in the Prime Minister?s office.
Until 2003, only 100 of the Bnei Menashe made Aliya each year, and completed
their conversion in Israel. In that year, Avraham Poraz, then Minister of the
Interior, decided to freeze their Aliya until the topic was clarified. ...Rabbi
Amar sent representatives of the Rabbinical Court to convert 218 of the Bnei
Menashe. The episode caused resentment within the Indian Government, because
the Israeli government performed conversions in their country.
That group made Aliya in 2006, and another 232 made Aliya in the context of a
secret agreement that Freund reached with the head of the office of the Interior
Ministry at the time, Ram Balinkov.
The Israeli government is aware of the sensitivities of the Indian Government
with regard to the emigration of thousands of Bnei Menashe from their country
within a short period of time. Therefore, their Aliya will take place over an
extended period, with the quota system. Of course they will undergo conversion
in Israel with the assistance of the Shavei Israel organization.
3. US's largest kosher market opens in
NYC
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3585586,00.html
Associated Press
The US's biggest kosher supermarket opened in Brooklyn this week, hoping to
bring an upscale grocery shopping experience to the city's tens of thousands of
observant Jews.
Pomegranate, which sprawls over 20,000 square feet in Midwood ? Woody Allen's
childhood neighborhood ? is also hoping to lure customers who don't keep kosher
with its array of organic meats and chemical-free produce.
Menachem Lubinsky, a kosher food industry consultant, said it is the biggest
exclusively kosher supermarket in the country. "It's more upscale than previous
attempts, with everything under one roof, from frozen to fresh to flowers," he
said.
"You don't have to walk from the produce grocer to the meat grocer to the
baker." The store offers delicacies like sushi, organic pear juice and fresh
kumquats along with such traditional Jewish foods as gefilte fish, matzo meal
and kishke, a kind of sausage. There's full-time rabbinical supervision, and
even valet parking.
The supermarket will compete with mom-and-pop grocery stores in the neighborhood
that have catered to generations of religious Jews who follow the strict dietary
laws.
"That a market like that can open in a neighborhood like Midwood, where small
independent kosher butchers have been going out of business, illustrates the
growing globalization of kosher food production," says author Sue Fishkoff, who
is writing a book about kosher food in America. "Where are the goods coming
from? All over the world."
Lubinsky said Pomegranate "may set off a price war" in New York's
super-competitive grocery market, competing with kosher grocers as far away as
Long Island and trendy chains like Trader Joe's or Whole Foods.
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