Oooops, I did it again and again

Last night's news almost had me pity the poor poor children of Gaza, forced to burn their books and notebooks to avoid freezing to death because our evil army cut fuel supplies to Gaza. We were once again treated (by Israeli TV, not some BBC, CNN or other terror supporting news agency, no sir, by our own) to heart breaking footage of Gaza in the dark, Gaza drowned by the noise of the generators (only a lucky few can avail themselves thereof), Gaza this, Gaza that and the other thing. But my pity was short lived and proven quite unnecessary, because tonight's news sounded more optimistic: Gaza is no longer bankrupt! Gaza has pulled itself out of its bitter predicament: Gaza has fuel, electricity, food, medicine, can treat its own sick, can teach its own aspiring academics. Gaza can afford to import explosives:

2 tons of explosives found amongst humanitarian aid en route to Gaza
Terror groups take advantage of Israeli permit allowing humanitarian goods into impoverished Gaza Strip, attempt to smuggle two tons of fertilizer in truck transporting aid in second such incident this week.

Three weeks ago potassium nitrate was being passed as sugar. Six and a half tons of it, allegedly provided by the European Union.

Yes, poor Gazan kids. What with the evil Yahood oppressing them and such and denying them their inalienable rights to rocket science, fireworks and suicide bombing. But look on the bright side, perhaps those kids burning books might not need their books any more, after armed thugs practically destroyed a private American school: "We don't need no education..." gains a whole new meaning in Gaza. So does "our daily bread": Allah, you're listening? Forget about our daily bread. Give us our daily explosives, you hear?"

I hear Hamas is condemned the attack. I say Hamas did it. Why? I suspect the American owner wouldn't let them shoot mortars (please watch video) at Israel from the premises, fearing IAF retaliation. "Oh, yeah?" said Hamas, "you think WE can't retaliate?"

I Stand with Lionheart

Dear Lionheart, I stand with you.

The blogosphere is asizzle over a British blogger facing the threat of arrest for speaking his mind. Lionheart has had the unheard of gall (hutzpah as we say in Hebrew) to speak his mind. To protest Islam taking over his homeland. A realm that has taken pride in its insularity, traditions, religion, culture, freedom and independence. A country where Queen Boudicca rose against the Romans just like Shimon bar Kochba, a country where Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic church, will now punish a free man for exercising his right to free speech, in a manner that reminds me of the darkest days of the KGB. Yet this same country allows hatefests without batting an eyelid: the BBC and Guardian can indulge in bashing Israel with impunity; members of the academia, media and trade unions call for isolation and boycott of the Jewish State; the celebrated Oxford University holds Holocaust Denial seminars. These are just a few instances of the corruption of freedom and distortion of truth allowed in a European country where hospital employees have to turn beds occupied by Muslims in the direction of Mecca to allow them to pray. Five times a day. This same country that produced the Magna Carta Libertatum in 1215, and where Muslims are free to hold up banners sending the British police to hell 800 years later, has a severe grievance with a man who stands in solidarity with Israel, who has gone so far as to put the crest of Israel right next to St. George's cross.

Well, dear Lionheart, for your courageous stand, for your declared love for and solidarity with the Jewish people, I hail you as my Righteous Gentile. I wish there was something the State of Israel could do for you. I mean, a snake such as Jonathan Cook is allowed residence in Israel and can spew hatred at will. But then, as you know, our own leadership seems to have succumbed to the "charms" of Islam, the "religion of peace".

I, on the other hand, thank you and wish you good luck. I hope the British system of justice still has the ability to locate its right mind and focus on the real perpetrators of racial hatred.

God bless!

Bad, Bad Jewish Boy

Bad, bad Jewish boy with eyes to die for! Or kill for!

No wonder more and more Pali women are becoming suicide bombers: those cruel cruel Jewish soldiers with their gorgeous blue eyes won't even rape them !

No Partition, No State

Ya'akov Ahimeir

November 11, 2007
Ma'ariv, Today supplement

Sixty years ago today the UN General Assembly voted to establish a Jewish state alongside an Arab one. The Arabs refused then and have ever since.

After reading the full version of UNGAR 181 one has to agree with Abba Eban's famous quote: "The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity". The UN Resolution dealing with the partition of the Land of Israel into two states emphasizes the lack of vision afflicting Arab policy. Arab, mind you, not Palestinian. This document speaks of two states - a Jewish state and an Arab state. Arab, mind you, not Palestinian.

The State of Israel is not mentioned in the text, but it was established half a year after the vote. What the General Assembly approved was the "Jewish State", and the text makes no mention of the Jewish people or the Palestinian people. The Arabs refused to recognize Israel as a Jewish state then, just as they do now. The UN resolution also deals with the settling of the Land of Israel, and defines the intended boundaries between the two sates. Nahariya and Beer-Sheva, e.g., would have been part of the Arab state. But nrcause the Arabs rejected the partition plan, Israel has retained its yekke town, with its industrious and equally intellectual population, famous for locally-produced cheeses and ice-creams.

Jerusalem was not meant to be a capital city, neither "the eternal capital of the Jewish people", nor the capital of the "Palestinian state." Jerusalem was to be a separate entity, under a special international Trusteeship Council, administered by a governor, not mayor.

The Arabs were not alone in refusing the partition. Menahem Begin, head of the pre-state underground Irgun (Etzel) and Israel Eldad, one of the Lehi commanders, also refused. After the UN vote, Begin declared that the Jewish people would fight to free its country on both sides of the Jordan: "The Land of Israel will be returned to the Jewish people. All of it, for ever."

Now the Arab states are struggling to establish a Palestinian state. Had they accepted the partition, they would have been celebrating the 60th anniversary of yet another Arab state. Instead, the Arab countries went to war. The bloodshed has never stopped. The paper on which the United Nations partition resolution has become just another piece of paper. The State of Israel was established thanks to the valor and boldness of its soldiers and fighters. I was a child when the resolution was passed. I remember one of our neighbors in Jerusalem worrying that we had no air force. Except now we do have an air force. And not only.

Yet in this day and age, the UN General Assembly would have rejected the partition plan, perhaps even by a large majority. Had the necessity of a Jewish state been at stake in
November 2007, instead of November 1947, the Jews of the Land of Israel would have been split by a fierce debate, just as we are now. Sixty years ago such a debate would have been unthinkable.

Jewish Israel

If Israel Isn't Jewish

by Amnon Rubinstein
Ma'ariv

If Israel is not the Jewish State it may not be called Israel. Israel is synonymous with Jewish.

If Israel is not Jewish, the Declaration of Independence must be annulled, because it deals with the establishment of the Jewish State called Israel.

If Israel is not Jewish, the November 29, 1947 UN General Assembly resolution must be annulled, because it deals with the partition of Palestine into two states - A Jewish one and an Arab one.

If Israel is not Jewish, one should also annul the Law of Return and the Human Dignity and Liberty Basic Law, which establishes the values of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

If Israel is not Jewish, a new national anthem must be found in lieu of the Tikvah. If Israel is not Jewish it will not be Catholic. Nor Buddhist. It will be Muslim Arab, even if in order to get there it may have to be a bi-national state for a while. If Israel is not Jewish, there will never be two states for two peoples.

If Israel (interim name) becomes Muslim Arab, it is hard to believe it will be democratic.

If Israel is Muslim Arab, the first to flee will be the learned anti-Zionist journalists, while Jews from Arab countries will stay put. They have already fled Arab rule in order to live in a Jewish state, but the same regime that once humiliated and oppressed them, will have caught up with them.

All of this is not likely to happen, but it is important to understand that it is right to define Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. We are being told that the large Arab minority in our midst should preclude this definition, as it is undemocratic to disregard this minority. However, the UN accepted the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, when the Arab minority here constituted over 40%. The General Assembly saw no discrepancy between the facts on the ground and the definition of Israel as the Jewish State. The anti-Zionists will argue: the facts on the ground have changed. We are living in the post-national era (this is what I call the multi-crappy-culti). But even in this day and age most European countries are being defined as national states, even though many of them have very large minorities.

The truth is there is no justification in not recognizing Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. The Supreme Court has defined on several occasions the main characteristics of the Jewish state, including the following elements: Hebrew is the main official language, the days of rest are those defined by Jewish tradition, and there is a Jewish majority in the State of Israel (yes, that too).

We are being told that the Jewish State is redolent of religious coercion, and that it is at most the State of the Jews, as per Herzl's book. However, Herzl saw no difference between the two, and even allowed his book to be translated into several languages either as The State of the Jews or The Jewish State. The UN General Assembly surely did not think of a religious state; neither did Ben-Gurion when he declared independence; nor did ex-Supreme Court Justice Aharon Barak, who defined the hard core of the Jewish State. Besides, what good would a name change do? Would the Palestinians agree to a Jewish State? Quite the contrary, they would argue that it would be ten times worse, as it makes no mention of its Arab citizens.

If Israel shouldn't be Jewish in the religious/Jewish law meaning, what does Jewish mean? In fact, the meaning has not changed since Herzl: Jews, at least since the emancipation, are a people, a nation. A people just like any other people, with an important religious contingent, a link to its religious past. This religious past is the source of modern nationalism. Yes, Jews were late in this respect too, that is why there still is an on-going struggle to divide between nationality and religion, whereas other nations are past this point in their evolution. However, the process is similar. The State of Israel is the state of this people, of all denominations, and it must also be the state of its non-Jewish citizens, including the large Muslim minority whose leaders preach dissent from the state.

The state cannot be identified with a certain part of the Jewish people. It is the home of all: Jews and non-Jews, religious, traditional and secular, and therefore it must not discriminate between is different constituents. It's true, there are flaws in our governing, such as the absence of civil marriages. The very submission of Israelis to religious courts does not sit well with its democratic character. But this is not why the Arab leadership in Israel and the Palestinian president object to Israel being the Jewish State. On the contrary, they aspire to establish a religious state, fanatic and anti-democratic at that. They object to the very existence of a Jewish democratic state in "their" region. They envision a nightmarish non-Israel state, as described above.

[The beautiful illustration I chose for this post shows how each and every Hebrew letter has its place in the Star of David, the eternal symbol of the Jewish people, which has also become our national symbol. Courtesy of Hazofen (The Code) by Rabbi Zamir Cohen].

Tinker, Tailor, Spy and Traitor or Bishara Launderette, Ltd.

It's urgent, it's urgent, and I need it!
by Shmuel Mittlemann
January 2, 2008
Ma'ariv (Today supplement)

"MK Azmi Bishara, sir, you are suspected of breaking the law on a number of counts: you have traveled to enemy states without proper clearance, aided the enemy during wartime, passed information onto the enemy, laundered money received from foreign agencies, became involved with terror financing. We have solid evidence that you have received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Jordan, via an East Jerusalem money changer." This is how Yaron London of the International Crime Unit greeted his distinguished guest. Bishara missed a beat, but quickly recovered: "This is all lies, it's insulting… I never …"

It was an embarrassing situation: the most prominent Arab member of the Israeli Knesset, the intellectual who hopped in and out of Arab capitals, sitting in the interrogation room of the Petach Tikva international crime unit, like a common criminal. Wondering how this came to pass. He denied everything, angrily, vehemently, but the interrogating officer kept on asking the pertinent questions unrelentingly. Bishara felt cornered. He saw no way out. That is why, a few days later, at the end of March 2007, taking advantage of his parliamentary immunity, he fled the country and has not come back since, fearing justice, no doubt. Sometime later he resigned from the Knesset.

Bishara saved his skin from a severe criminal trial concerning the security of Israel, that had the potential to put him behind bars for a good number of years. His minor partner in crime was not so lucky. Last week, Fires Assila, the East Jerusalem money changer, was convicted by the Jerusalem District Court for transferring excessive amounts of money from Jordan to Bishara. No less than three hundred and ninety thousand USD. The source of money in Amman, Jordan, remains a mystery. All through the trial the State (Israel) claimed that the money had been sent from an Arab country, but it is believed that the money source was a terrorist organizations, meaning Hezbollah. The money is also gone, and nobody knows where it went.

Assila was confronted with the incriminating evidence and stood trial. He consented to a plea bargain: admitting to money laundering. His attorney, Reuven Bar-Haim, managed to get him off lightly: the more severe charges of endangering state security were dropped. He will probably spend six to eight months in jail.

Ma'ariv has recently obtained transcripts from Assila's questioning, shedding quite a lot of light on the "money monkey business" surrounding the Bishara affair: declarations obtained from Assila and Bishara and transcripts from their tapped telephone conversations about money transfers and meetings. It appears that there was solid evidence against Bishara, that would have gotten him convicted, at least on the money laundering charge.
Thirty-year-old Assila went to university in Jordan, and is currently an employee of the Assila Bros money changing firm. Their offices are in East Jerusalem, on Saladin Street, a few hundred yards away from the Department of Justice and the Attorney General's Office. On March 16th, 2007, Assila admitted that his dealings with Bishara were an extension of his connection with Bishara's wife Rana, who used Assila's offices to

convert her salary from Bir Zeit University where she was a lecturer. In early 2006, she asked Assila for his private number.

One week later her husband, dr. Azmi Bishara, called him and invited him to their home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina. There Bishara asked Assila to help him transfer a certain amount of money from Jordan to Israel. Assila agreed and gave Bishara the address of G., a money changing friend of his in Amman. Bishara asked Assila to notify G. in Amman that every now and then a courier would deposit certain amounts of cash, and that he was not supposed to enquire as to who the man was, who sent him or where the money was coming from.

And this is how it worked: G. would notify Assila whenever the money man arrived. Assila would transfer the money to Bishara and refer East Jerusalem residents seeking to exchange money in order to travel to Jordan on business or for university studies to G. in Amman, who would do the same: send the Bishara money via East Jerusalem investors. During

the next fourteen months, Assila transferred, in complete secrecy and total violation of the law, seven installments of at least fifty thousand USD each, adding up to 390 thousand USD in cash, to Azmi Bishara. "Whenever he called, I'd go to his house and hand him the money."

The International Crime Unit investigator informed the money changer that he was suspect of financing terror, assisting in unauthorized associations, and contact with foreign agents:

"Investigator: Does your money changing firm transfer money from Arab states?
Assila: No, not even once.
I: Then why did you agree to transfer money from Jordan to Bishara?
A: For profit. He agreed to pay me one percent out of every payment.
I: Did you know that the money was being transferred illegally?
A: Yes.
I: Then why did you do it?
A: Because Dr. Azmi is a Christian, famous and honorable. I had no idea the money was meant to finance terror. I was wrong and I am sorry.
I: Did Bishara ask you not to record any of the transfers?
A: No, but it was obvious.
I: Did you use any code words?
A: When he wanted shekalim, he'd say "local" (from the transcripts it appears that Bishara also mentioned "books, local", when he wanted shekalim).
I: Would you have agreed to transfer money for any other person?
A: Of course not. Moreover, had Bishara been Moslem I would have refused because I would have suspected a terror connection."

The transcripts of the phone conversation between Bishara and Assila are even more incriminating. Bishara is laconic and prudent, and uses code words, obviously trying to avoid the unwanted eavesdropper. There is no way he was acting candidly. Sometimes he asked for "urgent" deliveries: "It's been a long time and you're late. And it's got to be in Hebrew. Books." Whenever someone else answered the phone in Assila's office, Bishara would just leave a message for Assila to call Omar.

The following conversation took place on December 28th 2006:
"Bishara: What are you doing tomorrow morning?
Assila: Ok, half a book?
B: Nope, one or two. In Hebrew. It's got to be in Hebrew.
Later the same day:
B: Hello, Fires. Please come by tomorrow morning. It's very very urgent. Because of the holidays. I want to know where I stand."
Assila went to Bishara's house and gave him the money. Bishara called him again, probably before flying abroad and asked: "Please have the remainder ready for me by next Sunday, when I get back."

January 19th, 2007, Bishara calls again and is very laconic:
B: The remainder, when is it possible?
A: How do you want it?
B: Doesn't matter, it's been a long time. You're late. When? Tomorrow? The day after?
A: You want two installments? Tomorrow and the day after?
B: Yes, like the last time.
A: OK, four local?
B: Twenty two-hundred bills."

During the last conversation, on February 17th, 2007, Bishara asked: "Can you bring me the last book?" Assila agreed and two days later brought Bishara the last payment, about 100 thousand USD.

One month later, as evidence was piling up, the police and the Shabak decided the time was ripe for an inquiry. On March 22, 2007, Bishara was summoned to the Petach Tikva international crime unit. He had no idea that the investigators had a solid body of evidence, including the money changer's declarations, tapped conversations transcripts and additional elements, quite sufficient to incriminate him. Bishara was taken aback by the gravity of the accusations:

"Investigator: Do you know Fires Assila?
Bishara: Yes, money changers.
I: Are you conducting any kind of business with them?
B: No, sometimes my wife or I use their services for checks.
I: So you are not conducting any kind of business with their firm?
B: Occasionally I exchange very small sums of money, checks that I receive from different newspapers.
I: So you conduct no personal business with Assila?
B: I have no personal connection with him.

I: Is it possible that he transferred money for you from a foreign source?

B: No, there is no such thing.
I: Has he ever been to your house?
B: Yes, I invite him over when I need to exchange the checks.
I: Does he receive money for you from different sources and transfers you this money?
B: No.
I: We have evidence that he has handed you sums of money received from different sources.
B: No, there is no such thing. If he says so, he's lying.
I: He told us he received money on your behalf. And he mentioned very large sums.
B: There is no such thing.
I: Can it be that someone is trying to frame you?
B: No, there is no such thing. This comes to me as a surprise.
I: He told us that he came to your house on several occasions and handed you large sums of money.
B: It can't be. This is groundless.
I: Do you want to check back with him?
B: No, I don't.
I: Do you understand that this means breaking the law?
B: It surely means breaking the law."

The following day Bishara was questioned again. Officer London confronted him with the previous day's declarations: "Yesterday you told us that you didn't want money from Rabbat Ammon (Amman). Except I never mentioned Rabbat Ammon." Sensing that he had fallen into a trap, Bishara lost his temper and went into a lengthy angry monologue: "You mentioned money transfer, and I understood exactly what you meant, that's why I answered categorically NO. I know those people and I use their money changing services. But this thing comes as a total surprise. Because your accusations make no sense. One can get to Rabbat Ammon by car. I am just a state employee, my wife is also an employee, anyone can tell that we don't have a lot of money. We live a modest life. No way I could have received such large amounts of money. This is insulting. I wish they had sent me some money. I have rich relatives abroad. It is not uncommon for rich relatives to help. But this thing… What would that money have been for? This is quite a surprise… Do you have any information on Azmi Bishara spending money? You have put people on trial for things like that. Had I received any money I would have told you. I have nothing to add, and I am very upset, because I live a modest life and I stay away from these things as fire stays away from water."

People involved in the investigation told Ma'ariv that the secretive conspiracy-like manner adopted by Bishara, the total separation between the Jordanian and Israeli money changers and the very high sums of money involved, point to illegal activities. "This is not writer's fees", they said cynically. At the end of the investigation, Bishara informed the detectives that he was traveling abroad for a few days. They replied that he would be needed for additional questioning upon his return. He promised to be there. Except he has never returned.

Bishara is suspected of aiding Hezbollah target strategic locations in Israel. Many of the victims were Arabs, Druze and Bedouins.

Thank you, Mr. Simon Deng

A few weeks ago Mr. Deng was interviewed by Israeli Channel One. Sadly, I missed the better part of it, except for a few words at the end, where Mr. Deng was praising the State of Israel. I can only thank him for speaking out for us and remind him that God blesses those who bless Israel. His account of the atrocities perpetrated against his own people is too painful to read and bear, yet I am pasting it at the end of this post. It is the least I can do for the victims of the horrors inflicted in this day and age against Christians whose additional sin is that they are black, and also had the misfortune of being born in Sudan. Not exactly the plight of the Palestinians, is it now?

Disappearance of Bishop Tutu
By Simon Deng - Monday December 3 2007
Late last month, I went to hear Bishop Desmond Tutu speak at Boston’s Old South Church at a conference on “Israel Apartheid.” Tutu is a well respected man of God. He brought reconciliation between blacks and whites in South Africa. That he would lead a conference that damns the Jewish state is very disturbing to me.
The State of Israel is not an apartheid state. I know because I write this from Jerusalem where I have seen Arab mothers peacefully strolling with their families - even though I also drove on Israeli roads protected by walls and fences from Arab bullets and stones. I know Arabs go to Israeli schools, and get the best medical care in the world. I know they vote and have elected representatives to the Israeli Parliament. I see street signs in Arabic, an official language here. None of this was true for blacks under Apartheid in Tutu’s South Africa.
I also know countries that do deserve the apartheid label: My country, Sudan, is on the top of the list, but so are Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. What has happened to my people in Sudan is a thousand times worse than Apartheid in South Africa. And no matter how the Palestinians suffer, they suffer nothing compared to my people. Nothing. And most of the suffering is the fault of their leaders. Bishop Tutu, I see black Jews walking down the street here in Jerusalem. Black like us, free and proud.
Tutu said Israeli checkpoints are a nightmare. But checkpoints are there because Palestinians are sent into Israel to blow up and kill innocent women and children. Tutu wants checkpoints removed. Do you not have doors in your home, Bishop? Does that make your house an apartheid house? If someone, Heaven forbid, tried to enter with a bomb, we would want you to have security people “humiliating” your guests with searches, and we would not call you racist for doing so. We all go through checkpoints at every airport. Are the airlines being racist? No.
Yes, the Palestinians are inconvenienced at checkpoints. But why, Bishop Tutu, do you care more about that inconvenience than about Jewish lives?
Bishop, when you used to dance for Mandela’s freedom, we Africans - all over Africa - joined in. Our support was key in your freedom. But when children in Burundi and Kinshasa, all the way to Liberia and Sierra Leone, and in particular in Sudan, cried and called for rescue, you heard but chose to be silent.
Today, black children are enslaved in Sudan, the last place in the continent of Africa where humans are owned by other humans - I was part of the movement to stop slavery in Mauritania, which just now abolished the practice. But you were not with us, Bishop Tutu.So where is Desmond Tutu when my people call out for freedom? Slaughter and genocide and slavery are lashing Africans right now. Where are you for Sudan, Bishop Tutu? You are busy attacking the Jewish state. Why?

Simon Deng, a native of the Shiluk Kingdom in southern Sudan, is an escaped jihad slave and a leading human rights activist.

My name is Simon Aban Deng. I am from Sudan. I am a Shiluk by tribe. I am a Christian by religion. I belong to a people who have been subjected to mass murder, slavery, systematic rape, religious persecution, enforced starvation, dislocation, exile. We are the victims of genocide, both physical and cultural. We have been targeted for annihilation as human beings and as members of a culture. These miseries did not fall upon us from the sky; we have been and remain the victims of the radical jihadist regime in Khartoum.The scale of our losses has been enormous in the two genocides perpetrated by the Islamists - two, not one. Starting in 1955, the year before independence was granted by the British, up until 1973, 1.5 million Southern Sudanese Christians were slaughtered by the Arab/Muslim dominated government in Khartoum. From 1983 until just 3 months ago when a peace treaty was brokered by the United States, we Southern Sudanese lost 2 million more to what Khartoum calls a holy war against the infidels. Yes, I am an infidel according to their definition. I think many of you are as well. We black "infidels" in the South, Christians and other non-Muslims, refused to be ruled by Islam, and we refused to be Arabized.Our only offense was our determination to remain faithful to our religion and to honor our African cultures. For these "crimes" The National Islamic Front regime has committed genocide against us. Not only has that genocide produced the largest body-count of murdered innocents since the Nazis and the work of Joseph Stalin's followers, but it has also produced the largest population of refugees anywhere on earth since the Second World War.
I am standing before you today, ladies and gentlemen, a victim of Sudanese Arab enslavement in Sudan. I was a slave. I am not ashamed to say it. When I was nine year's old, my village was raided by Arab troops in the pay of Khartoum. As we ran into the bush to escape I watched as childhood friends were shot dead and the old and the weak who were unable to run were burned alive in their huts. I was abducted and given to an Arab family as a "gift." A "gift," ladies and gentlemen. When you look at me, do you see a gift? Do I look like an object or a commodity? I am a human being, a person created in the image of God, a simple truth the jihadists did not and can not recognize. As a child, I lived as a slave for several years. I was beaten time and time again for no reason at all - even the whim of my "master's" children could produce these beatings. I was subjected to harsh labor and indignities of every sort. A beloved child in my own loving family, I had to become accustomed to sleeping next to the animals and to clean the ground where I slept. I became accustomed to awakening first in the household to begin my labor, eating the leftovers from the plates of my "master's" and going to sleep last - only after every bit of heavy work had been performed. I will not dwell on this time in my life. I speak of it because you need to understand that if you take my experience as a child slave and multiply hundreds of thousands of times only then can you begin to understand the nightmare of the African peoples of Sudan at the hands of the jihadists.While the life of a slave is like hell, there is no shame in being a slave; it is not a choice. There is only shame in being a "master." If any one is to feel shame for the suffering of the people of the Sudan who have lost 3.5 million lives at the hands of a barbarous regime, it is the radical Muslims in Khartoum and their Islamist allies throughout Sudan and across the whole of the Islamic world. It is important to bear in mind that by definition the African Christians of the Southern Sudan are the victims of jihad Islamism. The war against us (I should add that the word "war" is misleading because it has not been conventional war we have experienced but a genocidal war of extinction) has been and is being conducted in the name of jihad. According to the murderers, rapists and slavers - they are engaged in a holy war in the name of Allah. The Sudanese jihadists have a simple-minded, cruel, binary worldview. If you are not a Muslim you are a khoufar, an infidel, an enemy, a human being with no right to life who may be treated with terrible inhumanity. The jihadists in Khartoum have a great challenge in Sudan, the Land of the Blacks. Those Arabs and Sudanese who have chosen to be culturally Arab are so comparatively few - and the blacks are so many. Still, they have done their work with great efficiency. They have been well-armed by their friends in the Arab world. They committed genocide against us in the South and they got away with it: the world simply looked away. Now they have turned their attention west, to Darfur. Some are watching; most are not.
When millions of African blacks were being slaughtered and hundreds of thousands of Southern Sudanese children were and are being enslaved, the world was indifferent. Perhaps worst of all - the UN turned its back. Ladies and gentlemen, there are very painful questions which must be asked, and I will ask them. How long will mass murder, slavery, religious persecution, systematic rape, enforced starvation, and "ethnic and religious cleansing" be allowed to go on? When will those with the power to act to stop these crimes stand up and say enough is enough?
Not long ago - only yesterday in historical terms - after the Nazis slaughtered millions of innocent Jews, the UN was created. At that time, standing on the ashes of the victims of Auschwitz and the other places of torture and mass-murder, the world said, "Never Again." The words seemed to mean something at that time; they seemed filled with purpose and power. It appeared as though a brave new world was coming into being in which such atrocious evil would never again be permitted by civilized nations. When Pol Pot slaughtered his own people in Cambodia we returned to that phrase and once more said, "Never again." But in Sudan, when 1.5 million were lost in a genocide perpetrated by the Islamists, nobody said anything at all. Then Rwanda came, and even though no one lifted a finger to save the 800,000 so horribly slaughtered, yet again, everybody said "Never Again". In Sudan, in the second genocide in the South, 2 million were being slaughtered up until two months ago in the name of jihad by the Islamic government in Khartoum. Once more, there was a deathly silence.
When are we going to say "Never Again" with respect to the people of Sudan? And more to the point, when - at long last - will the international community act on the meaning of those words?
But perhaps this is not the right question. I have begun to think that the right question to ask the so-called civilized world is to stop saying "Never Again" since those words carry no meaning. Why bother repeating the phrase when you know in your heart you do not mean it? That is the question I leave you with today. If we live in a world in which simple moral understanding is dead, perhaps we should at least have the decency to speak that truth. Lest us bury the empty words. It is an act of indecency to the victims to permit these words to have lost all meaning. Let us bury them along with the bodies of the innocent.
I ask this question as a victim of enslavement in Sudan; I ask it for my fellow Southern Sudanese who are always asking this question. My voice is their voice. We can not stop wondering why no one cares about our fate, why nobody does anything about it. We have been victimized by the Arabs in the name of the ideology of jihad, but no one seems to care. We have endured and are enduring the most systematic destruction of a people since the Nazi Holocaust, but our fate seems largely invisible to the world.
It is very painful to say this, but we Sudanese victims can not avoid uttering the truth, at least among ourselves: we are black, and therefore nobody cares about us. We are the ultimate victims of a global racism that continues even in the new millennium. We also have the great misfortune to be the victims of Arabs who slaughter and enslave us in the name of jihad. And everyone sitting here surely knows that when it comes to the ideology of jihad, open discourse at the Commission for Human Rights is muted. People refuse to speak the truth because no one wishes to be seen as anti-Islamic, especially not at the UN.
Finally, let me turn to address Muslim believers. Surely you know the enslavement and slaughter of millions of people is evil. Does your religion condone these crimes against humanity? If it does not, why don't you speak up to condemn these crimes, these sins? The genocide and slavery perpetrated by the government of Khartoum is done in the name of the ideology of jihad. Thus, these crimes appear to be committed, by implication, in your name, in the name of the religion you hold sacred.
If you are silent, I can not help but think you condone these crimes against humanity. If any religion, condones mass murder, slavery, religious persecution, systematic rape, forced starvation, and ethnic cleansing, what can be said about the peaceful, beneficent character of that religion?
I speak with an angry voice because I am a victim. I am a victim of the great evil of slavery. I have witnessed the slaughter of my people - the death of 3.5 million innocent human beings created in the image of God. My enslavement, the murder of my people - these crimes were often committed in the name of jihad. Muslims: if you believe your religion does not condone these crimes against humanity, shouldn't you collectively say it is wrong here at the UN?
As a child in Southern Sudan, I witnessed my people being slaughtered with my own eyes; I witnessed young girls and women being raped. As you surely know, the rape of black women in Sudan counts for nothing because the Arab regime of Khartoum sends its soldiers in the field to rape and murder because black African infidels are not judged to be entitled to human rights as defined by the international instruments. The ideology of jihad places infidels outside the law. No religious authority or system of justice holds the perpetrators responsible because their crimes are a matter of government policy and are sanctioned by the state religion, a religion that pretends to be universal but that slaughters the "other" without mercy.
In the Sudan I witnessed my people who escaped slaughter in the South become refugees. I assume all of you know how the Khartoum government deals with black African refugees: it denies food to the needy, water to the thirsting. To receive humane treatment as a refugee you must become a Muslim. Thus even the system of relief to needy refugees is part of a process of forced conversion.
There are 2-3 million Southern Sudanese refugees in another part of Sudan where they are treated like dogs; they are not even considered citizens because in Sudan citizenship is based on religion, and only Muslims qualify. The laws relating to citizenship rights place the nation's black African Christians at the bottom, in legal limbo without status or rights. Muslim men are first-class citizens. The second-class citizens of the Sudan are Arab Muslim men from any other Islamic country, and the third-class citizens are the Arab Muslim women. The infidel Africans of that nation are not considered by jihadists to be full citizens; this despite the fact that nearly 90% of the population is black African.
Let me draw to a close. In conclusion, I repeat the question that never stops troubling me and my fellow Sudanese who have suffered so terribly: how long will the world be silent? How long will the world let my so-called "infidel" people be slaughtered and enslaved in the name of the ideology of jihad? How long will the world silence moral judgment in a pointless effort not to offend the murderers and slavers and the supporters of murder and slavery? Is the sacrifice of ethical principle more important than not offending violent jihadists?
While the world watches on the sidelines, the government of Sudan wages its war of jihad against the black African people of the land, the true indigenous people of Sudan, focusing now on Darfur. Because the world has failed to act decisively millions have died, hundreds of thousands have been enslaved, hundreds of thousands have been raped, and millions more have traveled the painful path of exile. To be silent is to condone. The international community must accept responsibility for every evil that it could end yet chooses not to.
I direct these last words principally to the United Nations. Do you stand for all human rights? Do you stand for all human liberties? Do you care about the dignity of all of the people of the world, including those branded by jihadists as infidels? The questions I have asked are repeated every single day by millions of black Sudanese. Can you answer me?
The failure of the United Nations to guarantee the basic rights of the slaves of Sudan and other black African "infidels" is shameful beyond my ability to express.

Thnak you again, Mr. Deng. This Israeli loves you.

I'm back

Tel-Aviv is hosting beautifully decorated globes along Rothschild Boulevard. Enjoy my random selection along with some gorgeous buildings in this elegant neighborhood:

taking a break...

Azzam Azzam, Loyal Citizen

Adapted from "Jerusalem", May 18, 2007
Yaniv Alfia

Two and a half years ago, Azzam "lucky to have been born in Israel and proud of it" Azzam was released from Egyptian prison. (I remember the moment he crossed the border into Israel and someone handed him a cell phone to call his family. All he said - in Hebrew - was "I am in Israel" and his family at the other end of the line burst into hysterical shouts of joy).
He has become a celebrity: people stop to talk to him, ask for his signature. People love him, want to talk to him and shake his hand, and Azzam is all too eager to tell his story (I can vouch for that: I saw him one day at the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, and I smiled and nodded at him. He immediately stretched out his hand, and I asked him how he was, and told him how happy I was to see him out of prison. We made small talk for a couple of minutes and parted Israeli style - wishing each other all the best. He looks very fragile, but his huge smile and lively eyes exude warmth and confidence.)
Coming home was difficult and painful for Azzam: "I wasn't able to lie down in bed, literally, because it felt like floating in outer space. I told my wife that I had to sleep on the floor. So we placed mattresses on the floor and slept on them during the first night. The next night I slept alone on the floor. Eventually I got used to sleeping in bed once again."
When the media coverage died down, Azzam was left alone, confused, with nothing to do, a stranger to his own children – without a future. "My wife noticed there was something wrong with me, that I was different. I wasn't really there. I was afraid of crowds. Once I ran away from home to be alone in the woods. So I was taken to Jerusalem for psychiatric treatment. I talked to doctors and nurses several times a day. I read books and watched TV. I was given a room of my own. One day the doctors found me writing on a piece of paper the names of all the wardens and officers I had met in jail. They told me, Azzam, it's OK, writing is good. I felt better when I left hospital. The staff who treated me encouraged me keep telling my story because people will want listen to me: You have got to get it out of your system."
So Azzam is telling his story, mainly on weekends. He is a cherished guest in private homes. He is fully booked in advance. The story brings tears to the eyes of his listeners. People tell their friends about him. The establishment has also become interested: public institutions, the army, different organizations.
- What do you tell your audience?
- I am simply telling my story. I warn them that they will hurt and become emotional. I tell them to look at me and follow my example. If I can smile after all I have been through, they should also smile. Then I tell them – I am Azzam Azzam, Israeli Druze from Mrar (a village where people, including a relative of Azzam's were killed by Katyusha strikes during the second Lebanon war). I am married with four children. I have six brothers. My oldest brother died in the Yom Kippur war. I served in the IDF. I was a sewing machine technician who went to Egypt to train workers in the textile industry.
- Tears fill the eyes of the audience when I tell them about my family. I show them this 15 minutes DVD presentation, with news clips and all sorts of pictures. People see my children before my arrest, and also eight years later, when I was released.
After my release a lot of people contacted me and wanted to hear my story. The IDF and IAF wanted me to speak to soldiers. My friend Mofaz (Shaul) told me that I could motivate young people before they join the army. I tell them that one can deal with getting into trouble and that one need not collapse under pressure. I assure them that the State of Israel looks after its citizens, Jews or non-Jews. I tell them to value this country and refrain from being too judgmental. Nobody values what they have until it is taken away from them.
(The following is for all those who claim that Arab detainees, mostly terrorists, are being abused in Israeli jails. Four Jordanian murderers were released from Israeli prison this week at the request of King Abdullah. Once in Jordan they complained about the bad treatment they received at the hands of the Israilis, who do not value human life. Can they beat Azzam's story? And please remember that Azzam did in fact spare us the most gory details. The abuse is absolutely incomprehensible and unbearable). Azzam recalls what he went through, mainly while being held in the underground facilities of the Egyptian intelligence (intelligence, yeah, right, Egyptian intelligence is a good one). He was tied upside down above a tub of ice-cold water. His interrogators would lower him repeatedly into the tub until his head was completely submerged. They told him to confess unless he wanted to be cut up into pieces and fed to the crocodiles in the Nile. There is not one inch of his body that has not been subjected to electric shocks. How DID he survive for over eight years, or more precisely 2,950 days, in a windowless cell measuring 250x185 cm, with a threadbare mattress, three blankets, one pillow and two plastic buckets, one with water to wash his face, the other to be used as a toilet? How did he survive the fist four months without being allowed to shower? How did he survive on two bowls of fava beans a day? He wasn't allowed a drink of tea for several long months, until one of his jailers took pity on him and improvised a paper funnel to drip the precious liquid into his mouth through the latticed peephole. As he speaks, Azzam shuts his eyes and inhales the aroma of the warm drink. The people in the audience feel for him.
He shows everybody the tiny wireless radio provided for him by the Israeli Embassy in Cairo and a jumping rope. (The Arab criminals jailed in Israel can watch TV, use computers and talk on the phone, yet Israilis do not value human life and treat prisoners badly). He jumped rope counting to 28,000 every day. This is how he killed time and kept his sanity in his tiny cell. (Arab terrorists jailed in Israel are allowed to study for academic degrees, alas, in Hebrew, and can obtain Bachelor's and Master's degrees in political sciences, geography, history, etc., yet it is the Israilis who treat prisoners badly and do not value human life).
The radio has a special place in Azzam's story of how he survived in hell: he improvised an aerial from a piece of wire, tied it to the door and fiddled with the buttons until he heard "This is Radio Israel Station B, the morning news show with Aryeh Golan." This is how I became a dedicated consumer of Radio Israel news programs. It felt as if the entire State of Israel was sitting with me in my cell. I felt closer to home."
Two and a half years into captivity, all hope of freedom seemed lost, and Azzam tried to kill himself. He started complaining of headaches and backaches and the guards would bring him painkillers, which he hid in a plastic bag. One day he was supposed to receive news from Israel. But the news never came. Feeling hopeless and abandoned, he swallowed the pills: "You only live once. My cell was not fit to house a human being. My wife had to see me like this. My brothers were angry. That was no life for me. I wanted to die. After I took the pills I felt terrible abdominal pain, I became dizzy and I threw up. I was foaming and bubbling at the mouth. I must have passed out, because the next thing I remember was lying in bed in the prison infirmary. The doctor told me they had pumped by stomach. He gave me a mirror and told me to look at myself: I was unrecognizable, emaciated with bloodshot eyes. He encouraged me: Only an innocent man would try to take his own life. Prove to them that you are not a spy."
Two weeks later, Azzam's brother Sami came to see him in prison and was very angry when he heard about the suicide attempt: "What are you trying to accomplish? We are working hard for your release. Do you want your wife to become a widow? Your children orphans? We are doing all we can to support them and you want to kill yourself?" It was then that Azzam realized that he wanted to prove his innocence and be able to return to Israel as a proud man.
After more than eight years in Egyptian prison, Azzam did indeed return to Israel as a proud man. He even talked to PM Ariel Sharon on the phone, and later met him at the Sheraton Hotel in Tel-Aviv where he was taken from the Taba border crossing. His brother had brought him the Israeli flag and some new clothes. Azzam proudly wrapped himself in the Israeli flag: "I was an Israeli soldier, I pledged allegiance to the state, I am a proud Israeli (you hear that, Avrum Burg?), and I am not ashamed of the Israeli flag."
Despite his great love for our country and despite his gratitude and love for Arik Sharon whom he calls his father, his liberator, despite the publicity and media coverage, Azzam is having a hard time regaining normalcy. He cannot find employment, he is frustrated and depressed. He seems to find solace in touring the country and telling his story again and again, in talking to young soldiers about Zionism and values. He can't let go of prison, and prison won't let go of him. He has nightmares and cries in his sleep. "Only last week my wife told me that I was talking and shouting in my sleep."
He was invited to light a beacon on Israel's Independence Day. As long as people recognize him in the street, as long as ministers and MK's call him on the phone, as long as he is an honored guest at the ceremonies for the completion of IDF officer courses, Azzam Azzam is there to share his experiences again and again.
- Are you a hero?
- I'm no hero.
- What are you then?
- A loyal citizen. (How do YOU plead, Avrum Burg?)

The Leftist Fascist

Ben Dror Yemini
Ma'ariv, June 15, 2005
(Shabbath supplement)

Years of dehumanization have turned the Jews' very existence into a menace to world peace. Years of demonization have turned Israel's very existence into a menace to world peace. Avrum Burg dehumanizes, demonizes and comes to the fascist conclusion: no right to exist.

These types are readily found in the extreme right. One can tell them by certain peculiarities: they deeply despise everyone who is not like them; they totally deny the other's right to exist as a human being; they totally deny the other's right to self-determination; they also deny the other's national rights.
In order to justify their existence, fascists resort to that old trick: dehumanization. Thus, the Arabs in general, and the Palestinians in particular, are nothing but a bunch of animals. All of them, without exception. As such they have no right to self-determination or to a state of their own.
All of this is perfectly mirrored by the extreme left fascism. The two are identical twins. Everything the right-wing fascist says about Arabs, the left-wing fascist says about Israelis and/or Jews. Israelis and Jews are thus demonized and dehumanized and can be turned into Nazis, or quasi-Nazis, who no longer have the right to self-determination and a state of their own.

Reinforcement player
The left-wing fascist camp in Israel has been joined by a fresh player, Avrum Burg. He no longer is a post-Zionist, he is anti-Zionist now. He is in favor of a Palestinian state. Or perhaps two Palestinian states, as fascist standards are double standards. Whatever the side you support deserves must be denied the side you oppose. Don't let Burg fool you! The fact that he quotes Ehad Ha'am and George Steiner doesn't mean he is less of a fascist. In true fascist fashion, he misquotes Ehad Ha'am. And Steiner is several sizes too big for Burg, but one can see why he clings on to him.
Steiner, an important and creative thinker, defines himself as a citizen of the world, a Diaspora kind of Jew. In fact he is cosmopolitan and radical. His ideal Jew is the wandering Jew. His texts are his motherland. But despite his critique of Zionism, Steiner also justifies it. He comes close to blaming Jews for anti-Semitism. He may have even crossed the red line. Not that he has done anything. "Jews are guilty of innocence", he says, in order to explain, or perhaps justify anti-Semitism. Everything Steiner claims, not always with great success, is regurgitated by Burg in a miserably superficial manner.
It is not by chance that Burg chose Hitler for the title of his book. Steiner got there ahead of him: The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. (A.H. being Adolf Hitler). The plot is not important here. Steiner's book concludes with Hitler's defense plea. The Nazi criminal miraculously turns accuser: "Did I declare the superiority of the Aryan race? It was the Jews who declared themselves the chosen race (ubermenschen). Did I invent genocide? You taught us how to destroy other peoples, the way you destroyed those you conquered in your Promised Land." Mind-boggling demagoguery. On the one hand, Steiner engages in an intellectual exercise. On the other hand, his text becomes anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist. Steiner tries to explain that Hitler's convincing argument, which remains unanswered, is a technique employed by Dostoyevsky as well. In fact, he even admitted that he doubts that there is an answer. His mind was probably made up.
Burg tries to plagiarize Steiner, but the results are disastrous. Steiner managed to link between Herzl and Bismarck's nationalism. Burg, the little imitator, claims that the Israeli nationalism equates pre-Nazism. The original is wrong, and the copy – a disgrace. Three years ago, Burg published an article justifying the Palestinian shaheeds and blaming the Israeli for the suicide bombings. One can look hard and still find no facts, no evidence of the Hitlerism taking root in our bosom. This is dehumanization at its most monstrous. It is fascism.
We honor Burg by comparing him to Steiner. Steiner is a man of controversy. He sometimes hesitates. He even admitted last year that anti-Zionism is a pretext for anti-Semitism. But there, he sprouted a wild weed that pretends to walk in his footsteps.

Humanism and its opposite
Decades of blood libel, brainwashing, dehumanization and demonization have created the Jew whose very existence threatens world peace. Decades of blood libel, brainwashing, dehumanization and demonization have created Israel whose very existence threatens world peace.
This is exactly what left-wing fascists do, those who call themselves anti-Zionists. That's exactly what the extreme Islam, such as Hamas, does. This how low Burg has sunk. He has dehumanized Israel: the Jewish State threatens world peace, and has come to the only logical conclusion – the State of Israel has no right to exist. Fascism is the opposite of humanism. If humanism is all about recognition of rights, fascism is all about the denial of rights. Burg, at the height of his gall, dares call himself a humanist.

A swamp of lies
Facts? What about them? Is there a grain of truth in the libels spewed by Burg & Co.? The world is currently witnessing terrible and horrible war crimes that have nothing do to with Zionism, Jews or Israel. One may, can and should criticize Israel. But one must also put things in perspective. Since most of the criticism directed at Israel targets "occupation", it might be a good time to tell the truth about this occupation. During the 40 years of Israeli occupation, less than six thousand Palestinians have been killed. The absolute majority died in war operations. Very few of the nearly six thousand can be defined as victims of "war crimes". Very few.
Every armed conflict in the world claims far greater numbers of victims and causes far greater suffering among civilians. In just one week of conflict, more Muslims were butchered in Srebrenica, Europe, that in the entire Arab-Israeli conflict. In just one week, more civilians are massacred in Congo than in the entire 40 years of occupation. In Saddam's heyday, every single month ten thousand individuals were murdered in Iraq, obviously more than in 40 years of occupation. The NATO air strikes campaign against Milosevic's rule in Serbia exacted many more innocent civilian victims, relatively, than the Israeli occupation.
There is no national conflict generating such a small number of casualties. And I am not claiming that all Israeli actions are clean. But examining the global scale of atrocities committed against mankind in the last century alone, if Hitler were top of the list, Israel would only make to the last occupants at the bottom of the list, perhaps even the last.
But let us not confuse Burg & Co. with facts and figures. They are holding fast to demonizing. Blood libels have always been the anti-Semites' lifeline, just as they are the lifeline of those who hate Israel. They just can't do without the defamation. Take e.g. a large scale ground operation in Gaza – most Israelis are against it, despite the Qassams. But Burg claims most Israelis are in favor. And by the way, most Israelis would be justified to such a large scale operation. But that is not the point. The point is that Burg is living in a swamp of lies. And he just can't do without those lies. Because that is the essence of fascism. That is how Kahanists think of Muslims. That is how Hamasniks think of Jews. This is how Burg thinks of Israelis.

The jeep has nothing to do with it
It is high time one put Burg back in his place. Him and his friends from the radical islamists, the neo-Nazi right and the radical left. Not because of his salary and not because of his jeep. Not even because of his superficiality – after all it is hard to find intellectual depth in a person who adopts Azmi Bishara's ideas, but because of his support for Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak. It is hard to define Burg's sort as "serious" when he chooses to live in Europe, but at the same time vehemently asserts that Sarkozy is a "threat to world peace". After all, Burg was supposed to be a Zionist, according to Nordau's definition of Zionism as an extension of European borders into the Middle East. Except Burg has no idea who he himself is. He is against Zionism because we have built a wall separating us from the East. He is anti-Zionist by virtue of his being European and cosmopolitan.
Burg must be put back in his place because he is a fascist, an anti-Zionist fascist. And if anybody wanted more proof that fascism and anti-Zionism go hand in hand with idiocy and meanness, with dehumanization and denying the very right to exist, there comes Burg to provide it. But please don't thank him; we didn't really need more proof.

Yelena Warshawskaya

Eli Brandstein
Ma'ariv, July 5, 2007


64 years ago, Yelena Warshawskaya, a Jewish warrior, died defending Estonia's capital. Her grave was located two and a half months ago. Yesterday she became the first Red Army combatant to be laid to rest on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, with full military honors.

What were the chances of Yelena Warshawskaya, a Jewish girl who died fighting the Nazis in Tallinn 64 years ago, to be buried in Jerusalem? What were her chances to become the first Red Army soldier to be given a full military funeral in Israel? Slim. But that's exactly what happened yesterday. Israel Meir Lau, Chief Rabbi of Tel-Aviv recited Kaddish over her grave. Next to him stood one of the Chief Rabbis of Russia, Berl Lazar, the President's Military Secretary, Col. Shimon Hefetz, who laid a wreath on behalf of the IDF, and the Russian ambassador to Israel, Piotr Stegniy. Israeli soldiers carried her coffin covered by a Shield of David. When the coffin was lowered into the grave, the Army Chief Rabbi recited "El Male Rahamim" (Most Merciful God) in her honor.
Yelena was sixteen and a half years old in 1941 when the Nazis invaded the USSR. A talented musician, she had been born in the Ukrainian town of Poltava, but moved to Moscow together with her parents, in order to study at the prestigious Gensin Institute. Althoug a painter, her father joined the Red Army. Eventually, Yelena and her family, along with millions of other Soviet citizens, were evacuated to Central Asia, away from the front line. But idealistic Yelena had other plans, so she jumped off the train and reported to the nearest enlistment station, where she persuaded the recruiting officer that she was old enough to join the army as a nurse.
She was assigned to an artillery regiment where she fought with great courage. She received several citations and decorations, including "The Red Star", for saving the lives of hundreds of Soviet soldiers and officers. She even captured two German officers during the battle of Oriol in 1943. Yelena was killed during the battle for Tallinn, between the Soviet and German armies, either from a stray bullet or a shell, while tending to the wounded in the field hospital.
Yelena's mother returned to Moscow towards the end of WWII, and found her husband recovering from combat wounds. Their soldier son had been killed in battle and declared MIA. Grieving over the unbearable loss of her own two children, Yelena's mother adopted two orphaned nephews.
Nobody had known where Yelena's grave was until two months ago, when the government of independent Estonia decided to dismantle the monuments of "Mother Russia's glorious Red Army troops", mainly to remove the monument raised by the Soviet authorities in memory of the liberating Red Army, including the mass grave of 12 soviet soldiers, among them Yelena, and relocate them to the military cemetery in Tallinn.
The Russian minority residing in the city took to the streets in violent demonstration that killed a person and wounded several others. Russia threatened economic sanctions against the rebellious Baltic state, but the Estonians didn't flinch. They wanted rid of the monument that reminded them of the Soviet occupation. So they exhumed the remains of the fallen soldiers and invited the families to give them proper burials elsewhere. Berl Lazar, Chief Rabbi of Russia, called on Yelena's parents and suggested they give her a Jewish burial.
Vladimir Parnas is an Israeli citizen dividing his time between Israel and Russia. After some research, he discovered that Yelena was a long lost cousin. He contacted Rabbi Lazar, who suggested that Yelena be buried in Israel. The Rabbi also wrote to the Ministry of Defense, and asked that Yelena be laid to rest on Mount of Olives and even promised to fund the entire operation. Yelena was laid to rest in the civil section of the cemetery.
Zecher Tzadika Livracha.