M E N O R A H

A Jewish Family's Emotional and Harrowing Exodus from Egypt

Dina Ovadia, today a soldier in the IDF Spokesperson Unit, was born in Egypt not knowing she was Jewish until the age of 15. In an emotional interview published on the IDF website, Ovadia spoke about her childhood in Alexandria, the earthshaking event that changed her life, the discovery of her Jewish identity, and her immigration to Israel and integration into local society.

Going by the name Roulin Abdullah throughout her childhood, Dina always felt that she belonged somewhere and to something else, but wasn't quite sure what that was. "I attended a Muslim school, and we were made to study the Koran, but I was constantly asking myself, 'Why am I learning this?'"

The discovery of her true identity will forever be with Dina as the most traumatic event of her childhood. On what was turning out to be a normal day at home studying while her brother and cousin played on the computer, suddenly the silence was shattered by the sound of gunfire and breaking glass. "I became frantic, fearing that someone was coming for us because we were somehow different from everyone else," said Dina. "I went outside and saw five masked men, Islamic activists." Armed with clubs and rifles, the men demanded to see the master of the house, whom they labeled "a Jew," an assertion that, at the time, was incomprehensible to Dina. More

Memo to John Kerry: 'Two-State Solution' Bankrupt

Greetings! I assume that you will have already finished your short trip to Israel by the time this is published, so allow me to apologize for not writing to you before your plane took off from Washington. It is quite possible that if, by some chance, you had seen this then, you would have considered staying home instead of crossing the Atlantic.

Let me cut to the chase. Yesterday, I conducted another tour of the settlements in Samaria, particularly those settlements lying on the mountain ridge that cuts through the territory. While doing that, I reached a very clear conclusion. Allow me to express it by saying, “Forget about it!” Or, to put it slightly differently, “Don’t waste your time.” What I mean to say is that the old formula of “two states for two peoples” is bankrupt. It’s dead, it kicked the bucket, it’s pushing up daisies, it went the way of Elvis. Anyone who repeats that mantra today should reconsider. They should hit the reboot button or simply pay a visit to the West Bank. More

Kerry and Hague are pushing Israel to capitulate to the Palestinians, while their own people lick the wounds of brutal terrorist attacks at home

Arrogant Kerry points finger

"We ask the United States to make a massive effort, the biggest effort in 20 years, to bring new momentum to the Middle East peace process, and I'm very pleased that the secretary of state is putting in that effort," Hague said, following a meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem and then Abbas (whom he called "a courageous man of peace") in Ramallah. "This cannot just stand still. It is becoming much more urgent as the weeks and months go by …"

It beggars belief that such sentiments come on the heels of a vicious Islamic terrorist attack in the streets of London -- but no more than Kerry's concern that Israel curb settlement activity to prove to the Palestinians that it wants to achieve peace through capitulation. More

Pro-Palestinian groups hijacked narrative of peace and justice, yet in reality they yearn for Israel’s destruction

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement’s biggest success is rooted in its ‘soft power.’ The ability to influence behavior through values, policies, institutions and culture, as opposed to 'hard' or coercive power exercised through military or economic pressures, plays a tremendous role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Using soft power pro-Palestinian groups have been able to hijack the narrative of peace, justice and human rights while in reality they yearn for Israel’s destruction. One of their most important missions has been to convince notable individuals to join their campaign. Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking’s recent boycotting of President Shimon Peres’ annual conference in Jerusalem has become another feather in the cap of those who work so diligently to delegitimize and isolate Israel. More

PALESTINIANS REFUSE KERRY REQUEST TO COMPROMISE

US Secretary of State John Kerry was in Ramallah for talks with Palestinian Authority leaders on Thursday evening, after talks in the morning with Israeli leaders and statements to the press in which he urged both sides to compromise in order to restart negotiations. But PA President Mahmoud Abbas made it clear he’s not prepared to compromise on the PA’s long-held demands that Israel cease all construction in the West Bank and the eastern neighborhoods of Jerusalem and release Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails before he is even willing to begin negotiations.

“Our hope is that the leaders in both Israel and the Palestinian authority will find a way to compromise,” Kerry told President Shimon Peres on Thursday evening. “It’s really a question of whether Israel and the Palestinians make the choices. More

Corrupt Olmert: W. Bank policies behind bad int'l press

“As long as we are in the [West Bank] territories while millions of Palestinians live there without rights equal to those of Israelis, almost no public diplomacy efforts can compete with the claim that this policy leads to extreme responses, including violence,” Olmert stated.

“Some think the current government’s policies are the right ones that will ensure our survival, but many in the nation and the vast majority of the international community do not agree,” he said.

At a meeting in the Prime Minister’s Residence in September 2008, Olmert offered the Palestinians a state. He also agreed to land swaps, in which Israel would keep major West Bank settlements and cede land near Afula and Beit She’an, a part of the Judean Desert north of Jerusalem and an area near Gaza. The West Bank and Gaza would be connected by a tunnel.

In addition, according to Olmert’s plan, neither Israel nor the Palestinian state would have sovereignty over holy sites in Jerusalem; rather, a five-member group would oversee the area. More

Thank you Hafez al-Assad

The threats emanating from Syria have become downright frightening. For the past several days, Home Front Defense Minister Gilad Erdan has been warning repeatedly that it is certain that Israeli population centers will be hit by Syrian ballistic missiles and that we have to be prepared for the worst-case scenarios, including Scud missile-launched chemical weapons attacks on Israel's metropolitan centers.

On Wednesday, Air Force commander Maj.- Gen. Amir Eshel spelled out Israel's concerns from a military perspective. The chance of war breaking out at any time is extremely high. Syria has a massive arsenal that includes advanced anti-aircraft missiles, anti-ship missiles and surface- to-surface missiles. Syria also has large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, advanced artillery as well as the other components of a large conventional military force.

Eshel warned, "Syria is collapsing before our eyes. If it collapses tomorrow we could find its vast arsenal dispersed and pointing at us." More

Israel heatedly debates peace process, as Kerry returns

Israel's government this week heatedly debated how and if to restart peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, as US Secretary of State John Kerry returned to the region to continue pushing the two sides back to the table.

Meeting with Kerry in Jerusalem on Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel "wants to restart the peace talks with the Palestinians. ...I hope the Palestinians want [this] as well...we ought to be successful for a simple reason: When there’s a will, we’ll find a way."

But fiery discussions in the Knesset earlier in the week put an end to any illusions that Israel's new government is anywhere close to a unified position regarding the peace process. More

"Both sides are deceived. There will be no peace. The Palestinians are not a "people". They are a proxy group controlled by jihadist like the Muslim Brotherhood and Yasser Arafat types. These groups only see a Palestinian State as one more step towards Israel's irradication. There will be no peace. There will be no irradication of Israel."

Senate: US must back Israel in case of Iran strike

WASHINGTON - The Democratic-led Senate voted 99-0 - with one senator not present - on Wednesday night, on a resolution that the United States should support Israel if it were forced to defend itself from an Iranian nuclear threat. The measure also urged Obama to strengthen enforcement of existing sanctions on Iran.

Earlier Wednesday, a US House of Representatives committee approved legislation seeking to impose tighter sanctions on Iran, the latest congressional effort to slow development of the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear program.

The "Nuclear Iran Prevention Act of 2013" passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee by a unanimous voice vote and is expected to easily pass the full 435-member chamber, where it already has about 340 co-sponsors. A vote by the Republican-controlled House is likely within the coming weeks. More

Minister Ariel: We'll Return to Gush Katif

Housing Minister Uri Ariel expressed hope on Wednesday that Israel will eventually return to Gush Katif, from which it unilaterally withdrew in 2005 – a move which resulted in hundreds of missile barrages aimed at southern Israel and two IDF operations that attempted to stop them.

Ariel was speaking during a ceremony marking the establishment of Be’er Ganim, a new community for Gush Katif residents who lost their homes during the so-called Disengagement. Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett also attended the ceremony.

"We fought hard to prevent the expulsion but failed," Ariel said. “But hopefully, after it took 2,000 years to bring the Jewish people back to their homeland and 19 years to bring back Gush Etzion and other communities, we will also return to Gush Katif. Those who remember their past will also find their future.” More