27 Av 5768
August 28, 2008 - US, Russia Dispatch More Ships to Georgia, Israel Watches  Anxiously
As the US and Russia sent military vessels to dock at different Georgian ports yesterday, Israel has continued to tread carefully, issuing no statement regarding Russia's recognition of the breakaway Georgian provinces and - in an apparent show of balance - is planning to send humanitarian aid not only to Georgia, but to North Ossetia as well.

About 150 people gathered last night near the Gaza border to mark Gilad Shalit's 22nd birthday today, his third birthday in captivity.

The event took place at the Suffa border crossing, where Palestinian gunmen abducted Shalit to Gaza in June 2006.
 
Speaking to reporters ahead of the event, Miki Goldwasser slammed the government's inaction towards securing Shalit's release. After the body of her abducted son, Ehud Goldwasser, was repatriated by Hizbullah, Goldwasser has vowed to continue fighting for Shalit.

"I'm here because three families started this journey, and my mission is not over yet. It will end only when Gilad Shalit is returned, this is a shared struggle. I think of the case of (MIA navigator) Ron Arad and I'm terrified to think that Gilad could share his fate."
 
Goldwasser accused the government of being preoccupied with internal politics rather than focusing on Shalit.  "I don't think Hamas is so strong that nothing can be done. I don't know the reason, it could be that they are too busy with other things, like the primaries, instead of what should be the first order of business," said Goldwasser.
 
In her speech the bereaved mother called on Palestinian mothers to join the struggle to see their children freed for Shalit. "Just as you do not want your sons to celebrate the upcoming Ramadan away from home, so we too do not want to see the coming holiday celebrated with Gilad in captivity," she said.

Shalit's platoon commander, Dagan Shochar, said that politicians fear for their standing and therefore are scared to make tough decisions. "We can't allow leaders to abandon a soldier, because by doing so they are abandoning all of us. A soldier who knows that the country will not fight for him, won't fight for her. But we will serve, at all times and under all conditions, despite the moral collapse led by the leaders of Israel," he said.

Rose's Biological Father Hangs on to Hope

Details continue to emerge in the tragic story of 4 year old Rose, missing since May and presumed dead.  The search for her body has been expanded beyond the Yarkon River (into which her grandfather first said he threw her body) to the Mediterranean coast of Netanya.

Investigators, neighbors and social workers say that 4-year-old Rose Pizem was bounced back and forth between her father in France and her mother in Israel and was a sad, lonely and maltreated child.

Her grandfather, Roni Ron at first told investigators he killed Rose by accident by striking her in a fit of rage, then dumping her body in a river. Then he switched stories a number of times, saying that he had trafficked her to Palestinians, sent her to an ultra-Orthodox Jewish boarding school and arranged for her to go abroad. He then reverted to his original version. 

On Wednesday police divers and tracker dogs had still not found the body where the suspect says he put it. Ron said that the child's mother (his daughter-in-law) with whom he has been living and with whom he fathered two children, was unaware of the killing and accepted his story that he had sent the girl off to an institution in France. 

Police are skeptical, saying that when she heard police were searching for Rose she asked a family friend to bring to the house a girl of similar age and size she could pass off as her own.

Police investigators said Rose suffered a range of emotional and developmental problems. They said she had difficulty speaking, wasn't toilet trained and often banged her head against the wall.   Parents of playmates described her as melancholy and appearing to be unwell.

Investigators say Marie-Charlotte Renault met Benjamin Pizem, Ron's estranged son, in Paris when they were both still in their teens.   Rose was born there in 2003 and the following year the couple got married and visited Israel to explore Benjamin's roots and get to know his father.  The trip was disastrous as the young bride and the amorous grandfather fell for one another and in 2005 Benjamin went back to France in disgust, taking Rose with him. 

In an interview Wednesday in Paris with Associated Press Television News, the father, Benjamin Pizem, said he had not heard from Rose since 2007 because his mother and stepfather "changed addresses, changed telephone numbers and I never could find them."  He added that the mother's charge that he abused his daughter is "absurd" and that he had stated the child needed treatment since she wasn't speaking nor was she toilet trained.

He had harsh words for his ex-wife, charging that she abandoned her daughter. "I think that if a mother is capable of abandoning her daughter, she's capable of many things," he said.  He said that his father, Ron, the stepfather, was manipulative, and he held out hope for the girl." "I know he's capable of stealing the wife of his son," Benjamin said.  "From that, I think that he's capable of many things. When I see him in videos, I see in his face, even if it's quite a neutral one, he has an expression that says 'you don't know everything, and I'm manipulating all of you.' That's the reason why we think there's some hope Rose is still alive."
 
UN Extends UNIFIL Mandate in South Lebanon

It was due to expire at the end of this month but last night, the United Nations voted to extend the mandate of UNIFIL in southern Lebanon, despite repeated incidents demonstrating their ineffectiveness at implementing the terms of Resolution 1701 which ended the Second Lebanon War in August 2006.

Charged with preventing Hizbollah from re-arming, UNIFIL has failed miserably.
Hizbollah has tripled their arsenal and the smuggling of arms from Syria into Lebanon can hardly be called "smuggling" anymore as it's done right out in the open and UNIFIL does nothing to stop it.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Daniel Carmon said, "It has been over two years since the adoption of Resolution 1701 and the situation in Lebanon appears to be one of ongoing concern. Today, more than ever, we are witnessing challenges to UNIFIL's activity and mandate." 

He also said, "Instead of encouraging one of the main elements of Resolution 1701 - the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon - the new guidelines, in effect, are backing Hizbullah's actions. For us, this is a major concern," said Carmon.
 
Secret Deal in the Works?

Prime Minister Olmert will meet Sunday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas amid growing rumors that Olmert is desperately trying to lay out the guidelines for a Palestinian state before he leaves office in less than a month.

PA sources said they will discuss the status of Jerusalem and the PA "right of return" demand that involves allowing millions of foreign Arabs to immigrate. Water resources also will be discussed.

American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hinted a deal is in the works during her visit to Israel this week. At her meeting with Abbas in Ramallah, she "proposed new ideas related to the peace process," Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rdneh said. "The coming weeks will be very decisive," he added.

Prime Minister Olmert is taking advantage of the summer vacation, when most Israelis are vacationing, the Knesset is out of session and he is free to act without worrying about keeping his coalition government together. He recently said that negotiations with the PA must be kept secret and not in the eye of the media.

The editor of a leading PA newspaper believes that Secretary Rice, Prime Minister Olmert and Abbas are cooking up a surprise to satisfy President Bush's desire to reach a final agreement before he leaves office in January.
 
Israel's First Solar Power Station Up and Running

Israel's first solar power station is up and running. Moshe Tenne built the plant on his Negev farm for NIS 1.3 million, and he estimates he will sell NIS 220,000 of electricity a year to the national power grid.

The state incentives to produce solar power took effect on July 1; they allow home and industrial customers to install solar power panels and receive NIS 2.01 per kilowatt hour for the electricity they produce  compared with the NIS 0.50 per kilowatt hour they pay the Israel Electric Corporation.

The new agreement is for photovoltaic cell array technology, and the power produced is intended for the producer's use, while any extra power may be sold to the IEC. The state limits household power plants to 15 kilowatts, and business customers to 50 kilowatts.

Tenne inaugurated his 50-kilowatt solar array this week. It will provide two-thirds of the needs of his central Negev farm, located on the region's so-called Wine Route. The Tenne family established its farm three years ago, and makes its living from a sophisticated dairy barn with 70 cows producing about 800,000 liters of milk a year.
 Shalom

Wait on Hashem; be strong, and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for Hashem.

Psalm 27:14

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Recommendation from Subscribers

In the past couple of weeks, no less than 21 subscribers have written me about the book, THE OBAMA NATION by Jerome Corsi.  While it's not unusual to have subscribers recommend books to me, this is the first time that so many people have singled out the same book and urged me to pass the recommendation on to all my subscribers, particularly US citizens.  Interestingly, nearly half of those who wrote me identified themselves as Democrats.

I have not yet read the book myself and it has been my practice not to recommend a book unless I've personally read it.  That said, however, among the 21 who have written me about this book are several people I know personally and whose input I respect - so -  I'm going out on something of a limb here, but I decided to go with their recommendation and pass this on to you.  I fully intend to read it myself as soon as I'm able to locate a copy.  (Amazon doesn't ship to Israel!)

Click on the link below to get your own copy.  Amazon has both new and used copies available at the best prices anywhere.

Shalom and blessings,

Leah
 
The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality
by Jerome R. Corsi by Threshold Editions
Hardcover 
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