Friday, July 01, 2016

The complexity of the land and people doesn't end with Palestine and Israel.

June 30, 2016
By Hilal Kaplan

March 2013, (click here) Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu called then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to apologize for the Mavi Marmara raid. This was the first time Israel apologized to a foreign state in its history.
With this agreement, Israel agreed on Turkey's second stipulation. Accordingly, it will pay compensation to the families of the victims of the Mavi Marmara raid. the third condition is that Israel eliminates the blockade on Gaza.
Turkey succeeded to a large extent in this. According to media reports, as part of the agreement, "Turkey will take materials with civilian purposes, including humanitarian aid, to Gaza and make infrastructure investments there. It will construct houses for Gazan people and put the 200-bed Turkey-Palestine Friendship Hospital into service soon." Moreover, Turkey will build a power plant to meet Gaza's energy requirements....

Perhaps it should be Turkey that negotiates the peace between Palestine and Israel.

I remember this as a young adult. Many people were grateful to the IDF. 


July 1, 2016
By Adam Eiiyahu Berkowitz

A reproduction photograph of the late Yonathan Netanyahu, the brother of Bibi Netanyahu. Yoni was awarded the Medal of Distinguished Service for his actions in the Yom Kippur War. He was killed in action during Operation Entebbe at Entebbe airport, by Ugandan soldiers, when the Israeli military rescued hostages after an aircraft hijacking. Netanyahu was the leader of the assault, and the only Israeli military fatality of the raid. February 05, 2009. (Photo: Nati Shohat/Flash90)

A great man who valued life. He saved many lives that day.

Next week, (click here) Israel will mark the 40th anniversary of the daring IDF operation to rescue hostages at Entebbe Airport in Uganda, an event embedded in the national consciousness of every Israeli, and one which represents to the core the Jewish life-cherishing principles which have given Israel its strength and power. More than that, the rescue operation is a clear reveal of the hand of God upon the people of Israel.

It began on June 27, 1976, when an Air France plane with 248 passengers, half with Israeli passports, was hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in cooperation with German terrorists and diverted via Libya to Uganda’s Entebbe Airport. The hijackers demanded the release of 40 prisoners being held in Israel and 13 more held in other countries.

Idi Amin, the despotic ruler of Uganda, was sympathetic to the terrorists, personally welcoming them when they landed. The passengers deplaned, and in a process reminiscent of the selections at Nazi death-camps, the Israelis were separated out.  Non-Israeli Jews were forced to join the Israelis. Two non-Jewish passengers voluntarily joined the group of hostages as well. The 148 other passengers were eventually released....