FactsOfIsrael.com covers the basic facts on the State of Israel and the Middle East. This includes Maps, the History of the region, Statistics, and more. We also post articles related to the Victims of Palestinian Terrorism, Anti-Semitism, Jewish History, and also a bit of Humor, News and Opinions.

Random Fact:

Fact 193: "On June 2, 2001, Yael-Yulia Skolnik, 15, of Holon, was one of 20 people killed in a suicide bombing at a Tel-Aviv discotheque. Mortally wounded in the blast, she died the following day. Yael was a 9th grade student at the Katzir high school in Holon, Israel. Yael left behind her parents, Oleg and Iriana, and an older sister, Liora. She was buried in the Yarkon cemetery in Tel-Aviv."

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Islamic racism, violence and terror no longer tolerated by many Westerners (03.30.2004)


OpinionThe Washington Times (www.washingtontimes.com) has published a great essay by Jean-Christophe Mounicq, who's sick and tired of fascist Muslims:

The morning of Jan. 29, upon hearing about the attack on a bus in Jerusalem, I did not experience the expected emotion. It seemed such a "normal" thing, and I have not enough tears to shed for people I do not know.

The next day, on Jan. 30, I read an article about one of the victims — Avraham Belhassen, 26 years old, a young father — and realized that I could tolerate no more. I can no longer tolerate terrorist folly, Islamist hatred, the passivity of Muslims, the blindness of the West. [...]

I can no longer tolerate descriptions of the monster responsible for hundreds of deaths and thousands of wounded as a "spiritual leader," a poor "paralytic in a wheelchair." I can no longer tolerate murderous, barbaric Islamist hatred. [...]

I can no longer tolerate the double game of Yasser Arafat, the Saudi princes or Pakistani leaders. I can no longer tolerate watching Muslims dance with joy, in the Palestinian territories or in Paris, following attacks on the World Trade Center or an Israeli bus. I can no longer tolerate their anti-Semitism, anti-Christianism, anti-Buddhism or anti-Hinduism.


There's a lot more Mr. Mounicq can't tolerate in regards to Islamic racism, violence, terrorism and murder. And many Westerners today completely agree with him.

I copy the full article below (got this on LGF).

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Noa Shlomo, 18, killed by a Palestinian homicide/suicide bomber (05.24.2002)


VictimsFaces of the Victims has published the story of Noa Shlomo, 18, who was killed by a Palestinian homicide/suicide bomber on April 10, 2002.



Noa Shlomo, 18, killed by a
Palestinian homicide/suicide bomber


Noa was the niece of Israel's Ambassador to the U.N., Yehuda Lancry. She graduated from the Amal high school, majoring in film and television. She also was a member of the school dance group, and had received an award for her photography skills.

May God bless her memory. I copy the full article below.

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BBC and NPR lead biased leftist media in anti-Israel reporting (02.11.2004)


Media BiasThe Jerusalem Post (www.jpost.com) reports on how the English BBC and America's NPR lead the leftist media in their anti-Israel reporting:

The BBC is at the forefront of the anti-Israel media pack in Europe. It has been so effective in smearing Israel as a rogue state that in a recent poll, Europeans rated Israel as more dangerous to world peace than Saddam Hussein's Iraq or Iran or North Korea.

The American people so far remain relatively immune to the virus of anti-Western (namely anti-American) propaganda and to plain anti-Semitism masquerading as anti-Zionism. Despite the strenuous efforts of America's leftist elite (who dominate its academia and media) to promote the notion that American imperialists' designs, especially support for Israel, are the reason for all the world's troubles, Americans do not fall for this "blame America and its friends" propaganda. Especially not after 9/11. [...]

However, a majority of Americans – notably the Evangelical churches – have been supporting Israel despite the possible loss of Arab "friendship." They believe this is the moral thing to do, since Israel – like America – promotes freedom and democracy, and that in a region rife with dictatorships and oppression. More recently, many Americans came to appreciate that Israel is a valuable ally in fighting the deadly threat of terrorism directed also at "The Great Satan" – America.

IT IS to undermine this moral status of Israel, indeed its very legitimacy, that its enemies in America are striving. Leading the onslaught is National Public Radio, the BBC's ideological partner.

For a decade, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) has been meticulously documenting its charge of "false and inflammatory reporting on Israel" by NPR. CAMERA has exposed many instances of bias, fabrications, and lies employed by NPR and its correspondents (see www.camera.org).


If you haven't already done so, please stop giving money to NPR. Click here to check out an article that describes how NPR reported on an Israeli 7 year-old girl as a "settler", while the Palestinian murderer that shot her in the head is described as a "militant". Next time NPR calls asking you for your yearly/monthly pledge, just say "No".

I copy the full article below, which includes additional specific examples of NPR's bias and hate of Israel.

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Jews from West Bank and Gaza (Yesha) now have their own web site (07.29.2004)


NewsA new web site has been created for those that have no voice in the media: the Jews who live in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha, or the West Bank and Gaza):

A group of Yesha residents has decided to bypass the traditional public relations methods aimed at getting a message across to the media, opting instead to document the ups and downs of life in Yesha in full view of anyone in the world with an internet connection - at www.YeshaSpeaksOut.org.

Ben-Avraham says it was the 1993 Oslo Accords that made him realize the importance of getting the message out through alternative sources of communication. “Since the beginning of the 'Oslo Process' there has been a real need to counteract the negative effects of hostile media, both Israeli and foreign, that effectively delegitimized the Yesha settlement movement,” says Ben-Avraham. “When both government agencies and world media systematically distort every quote, every fact, to create the perception of wrongdoing and malicious intent in everything we as Jewish residents of Yesha do, there is a need to counteract this campaign.”


Leftist media outlets such as NPR and the BBC will generally refer to these folks as "Israeli settlers", vilified people in the European leftist view. These same biased media outlets will refer to the mass murdering scum from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Arafat's Al-Aksa brigades as "militants".

Well, the Yesha Jews now have a voice: and they will expose the mass murdering bastards from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and their European leftist cheerleaders while showing what their daily life is all about.

I copy the full article below (found this article on the excellent "Unsealed Room").

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Islamic leader of Palestinian Hamas calls for "Suicide Army" (01.10.2003)


Palestinian TerrorismThe Middle East Media Research Institute (www.memri.org) translates articles from the Arab Muslim world. In its latest article, Memri.org has translated an article from the spokesman of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic terrorist group responsible for the deliberate murder of hundreds of women and children:

An article titled "Iraq Will Triumph, by Allah's Will" by Hamas spokesman Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rantisi, was posted on the Hamas movement's website.[1] In the article, Al-Rantisi called on Iraq to establish a suicide army that would accept all Jihad warriors, so as to halt the impending attack on the country. The following are excerpts from the article: [...]

"I still maintain that in spite of the tremendous [military] Crusader buildup in the Gulf, the war on Iraq is not the most likely scenario, and that in the shadow of the venom of the blind Crusader hatred disseminated by Bush, all options are [still] open. But if war is at the gates, is the triumph of this Crusader oppressing aggression certain? I don't think so. I think that the West's arrogance will lead it to its sure end if it is determined to act with aggression and terror against the Islamic nation, and that its first defeat will be in Iraq." [...]

"Another quality of strength is that the Iraqis will have an army of martyrs. The enemies of Allah and the enemies of this people are cowards. They crave life, while the Muslims crave martyrdom. The martyrdom operations that shock can ensure that horror is sowed in the [enemies'] hearts, and horror is one of the causes of defeat. There is no other way than to establish thousands of squads of martyrs, in a secret apparatus, who, from now, have at their disposal the capability, as well as thousands of sophisticated explosive belts, with powerful explosive [capacity] to cause great damage."

"In order to defend the homeland from the terrorist Crusader attack, there is a need for people who yearn for Paradise, and the shortest way to Paradise is death for [the sake of] Allah. Some of us should see the joyful and satisfied faces of the mothers in Iraq when they part from the fruit of their loins, who go off to the realms of honor, the realms of martyrdom. This is so that the enemy of the nation knows that safeguarding honor and the homeland is dearer than life, and that our mothers in Iraq, like our mothers in Palestine, [are willing] to sacrifice the fruit of their loins – but not their honor."


For a full list of homicide bombings executed by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas since Arafat rejected peace in October 2000, click here.

There's a lot more crazy-fanatic-intolerant-racist Islamic nonsense in the article - I copy the rest below.

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Massacre in Jerusalem: Palestinian homicide bomber deliberately murders 11 Israelis, including 5 women and 4 children (11.22.2002)


Palestinian TerrorismThe Jerusalem Post (www.jpost.com) reports that a Palestinian homicide/suicide bomber blew himself in a bus in Jerusalem, murdering 11 Israelis, including 5 women and 4 children:

A suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt packed with nuts and bolts to maximize the impact inside a Jerusalem bus filled with schoolchildren today, killing 11 people and wounding 50.

Among those killed were an eight-year-old, three teenagers and seven adults. The names of 10 victims were released by late Thursday afternoon, among them a mother and son, Ella and Michael Sharshevsky, aged 44 and 16, of Jerusalem's Ir Ganim neighborhood, and a grandmother and grandson, Kira Perlman, 67 and Ilan Perlman, 8, also of Ir Ganim.

Also killed were Hodaya Asharaf, 13 of Kiryat Menachem, Yafit Revivo, 13, Dikla Zino, 20, Marina Bazarsky, 46, and Sima Novack, 56, all from Ir Ganim.


The Palestinian Hamas, a fanatic Islamic terrorist group, has claimed responsibility for the murders. The Hamas, similarly to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, deliberately targets Israeli women and children; they wish to destroy the State of Israel and replace her with a Palestinian Islamic country; see the Palestine page for more details.

I copy the full article below.

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Islamic Fascists call for genocide of non-Muslims (08.07.2006)


Palestinian TerrorismConservative Truth (www.conservativetruth.org) has published pictures from a recent demonstration of Islamic Fascists in London, England:

Religion Of Peace Demonstration
June 5, 2006, London, England



Below are pictures of Moslems who marched through the streets of London during their recent Religion of Peace Demonstration.







These pictures have never been shown in any of our American newspapers or television news programs because we are so 'politically correct' that we don't want to 'offend' anyone!


I copy all of the pictures below.

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Calling for articles on Jewish Diversity for a contest and upcoming book (08.15.2002)


NewsThe Organization Kulanu (www.kulanu.org), which means "All of Us" in Hebrew, is calling for articles on Jewish Diversity for a contest and upcoming book:

Writing Contest Announced - August 13, 2001
Contact: Karen Primack, primack@starpower.net or 301 565 3094

The organization Kulanu is calling for articles on Jewish Diversity for a contest and upcoming book.

Kulanu, which assists "lost and dispersed Jewish communities around the world," hopes to publish a booklet entitled Readings in Jewish Diversity. It is intended for use in synagogue services, home ceremonies, communal gatherings, and quiet contemplation of the rich diversity to be found within Judaism.

The organization is seeking poems, prayers, prose, and songs. Perspectives can be Ashkenazic or Sephardic, white or nonwhite, American or Asian or African, Lubavitch or "Marrano." The writing can be, but need not be, geared to a particular holiday or life-cycle event. Non-English writings should include an English translation.

Send submissions to primack@starpower.net or Kulanu Book Project, 1217 Edgevale Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910-1612 USA.


After checking out www.kulanu.org I see they are dedicated "to finding and assisting lost and dispersed remnants of the Jewish people." Among the groups they help are the 'Marranos', "a large group of Jews [which] was 'lost' during the period of forced conversions to Christianity in Spain and Portugal starting in the 15th century. Many of these so-called 'Marranos' continued to practice Judaism in secret. Today their descendants can be found in Brazil, Mexico, the southwestern United States, and Majorca, as well as mainland Spain and Portugal.".

When I was a student in Israel in the early 90's, during summer, I used to guide groups of kids from Europe and America. One my groups turned out to be a mixture of kids from Western and Eastern Europe, including England, France, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Belgium, Romania, Spain and Portugal. Since I speak French, Portuguese, English and Hebrew fluently, I was perfect for the job.

One of the kids came from a small northern Portuguese village, a Marrano community. It was the first time I met a Marrano, and we kept in contact for years after he went back to Portugal. For more info on Marranos, click here.

I copy below Kulanu's full press release and my submission to the contest, "Pleading for my Land" by the French singer and poet, Herbet Pagani.

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Help our boys and girls in the US military (12.21.2002)


NewsA new site has been created called "Military Penpals":

I am starting a new project called Military Penpals. It is in the very beginning stages. My goal is to set up FREE penpal programs between military personnel and the civilians who want them to know they are remembered. I will act as the go-between and coordinate the exchange of email and snail mail addresses. Ideally, I want to find military personnel... soldiers, sailors, etc... who don't receive mail from home. There is nothing sadder to me than the thought of a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine far from home and having nothing with his/her name on it during mail call. Any serviceman or woman is very welcome to participate!!

I will add to this site as information starts coming in. For now I am looking for people who wish to participate... both military and civilians.


I served in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces, or Israel's army) as a field medic. My parents and family do not live in Israel and I was a "Haial Boded", or "Lone Soldier". I stayed many weekends alone at the base, while my buddies would travel back to their girlfriends, family and friends - it's not a good feeling.

If you have the time, please sign up and write a few words to our boys and girls who are risking their lives so we can live ours in peace. Check out the Military Penpals website at:


http://www.geocities.com/military_penpals/index.html


Thanks to Rachel Lucas for the link.

Update: Unfortunately the Military Penpals site now seems to be down. This post is receiving many comments from folks who would like to help and contact a soldier but I haven't yet found a similar site. If anyone knows of one, please add your comments below.

Update 2: One of our readers, Loretta, has a good tip: point your browser to www.operationmilitarypride.org, whose mission is to "keep our service members morale high".

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Media starts to understand and support Israel (07.18.2002)


OpinionThe Jerusalem Post (www.jpost.com) has a good article by Bret Stephens who has witnessed a more pro-Israeli stand in the media.

Suddenly, a wave of charitable coverage of Israel.

WHAT ACCOUNTS FOR this apparent shift in emphasis, if that indeed is what it is? Three factors: First, a public outcry, combined with the threat of boycotts; second, President Bush's speech of June 24; and third, a large dose of editorial guilt.

And at National Public Radio, ombudsman Jeff Dvorkin reports receiving 9,000 emails over three months concerning the station's alleged pro-Palestinian bias. "No one has ever seen pressure like this before," he says.

In doing so, Bush shifted international focus from what Israel was failing to do to get peace - concede land - to what the Palestinian Authority wasn't doing - reform its institutions. Willy-nilly, the news media was forced to play along.

And then: The lynching of two reservists in Ramallah. The Dolphinarium attack. The Sbarro massacre. The Seder massacre. The attack on the Egged 32 bus. Seventy-odd suicide attacks in all. Whispers, growing ever louder, that Palestinian terror was not instrumental in its purposes but actually genocidal in its aims.


I copy the full article below.

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An Antisemitic Myth in the Arab Press: The September 11 Attacks Were Perpetrated by the Jews (06.25.2002)


Anti-SemitismThe Middle East Media Research Institute (www.memri.org) has published translations from the Arab press where Jews are blamed for the barbaric attacks on the United States on 9/11/2001.

Apparently this theory is widely accepted in the Arab and Muslim world and is backed by Foreign Ministers and Ambassadors. The Arab world cannot accept the fact that among their midst we find monsters capable of organizing and executing the 9/11 attrocities and the homicide bombing attacks against civilians, including babies and kids.

Since September 11, the Arab media have claimed that Jews perpetrated the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. Promoting this new myth are high-ranking public officials and columnists in the government and non-government press in Arab countries.

In the articles reviewed in this report, the conclusions point directly at the Jews. These conclusions are supported by various forms of evidence, further buttressed by timeworn, long-"substantiated" antisemitic myths. Thus, the papers posit guilt, substantiate their accusations, convict, and, in one case, hand down a sentence – annihilation "as Hitler did."

Syrian foreign minister Mustafa Tlass, author of The Matza of Zion, a book that depicts the infamous Damascus blood libel of 1840 as an actual event, claimed during a meeting in Damascus with a delegation from the British Royal College of Defense Studies that the Mossad planned the ramming of two hijacked airliners into the WTC towers as part of a Jewish conspiracy.

Former Egyptian ambassador to Afghanistan Ahmad Al-'Amrawi told the Palestinian Islamic Jihad mouthpiece Al-Istiqlal that the Zionist movement and American intelligence organizations planned the attacks. He said the aim was both to extricate Israel from its current crisis and to give the U.S. an opening to take over the oil reserves in the Caspian Sea, thus gaining full control of the world's main oil resources.


I copy the full article below.

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Video: Ilan Ramon, first Israeli astronaut, and crew from space shuttle Columbia see Israel from space (02.08.2003)


MultimediaI have just received an amazing video that shows Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut, and the rest of the crew of the space shuttle Columbia, while they comment on seeing Israel... from space:




The State of Israel seen from Space


In the video, you can see astronaut and hero David Brown, while the space shuttle crew comments on their flight over Egypt, the Sinai Peninsula and Israel.

For more information on Ilan Ramon and the space shuttle Columbia please read:

NASA sends first Israeli astronaut into space

Israeli Astronaut takes with him into space
a small pencil drawing made by a
14-year-old killed in Auschwitz

Tragedy over Texas skies: seven astronauts killed
in explosion of space shuttle Columbia

Artist Barry Munden creates painting in
memory of Ilan Ramon and Peter Ginz


I copy the full video below - special thanks to Gary Fremont and his sister-in-law Donna for sending me a copy of the video.

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Israel gives Palestinian civilians early warning before attack (01.13.2009)


Opinion

The Houston Chronicle (www.chron.com) has published a great article by Charles Krauthammer where he explains the difference between the States of Israel and Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists:

  • Late Saturday [Dec. 27], thousands of Gazans received Arabic-language cell-phone messages from the Israeli military, urging them to leave homes where militants might have stashed weapons (Associated Press, Dec. 27, 2008).

Israel is so scrupulous about civilian life that, risking the element of surprise, it contacts enemy noncombatants in advance to warn them of approaching danger. Hamas, which started this conflict with unrelenting rocket and mortar attacks on unarmed Israelis — 6,464 launched from Gaza in the last three years — deliberately places its weapons in and near the homes of its own people.

This has two purposes. First, counting on the moral scrupulousness of Israel, Hamas figures civilian proximity might help protect at least part of its arsenal. Second, knowing that Israelis have new precision weapons that may allow them to attack nonetheless, Hamas hopes that inevitable collateral damage — or, if it is really fortunate, an errant Israeli bomb — will kill large numbers of its own people for which, of course, the world will blame Israel.

For Hamas the only thing more prized than dead Jews are dead Palestinians. The religion of Jew-murder and self-martyrdom is ubiquitous. And deeply perverse, such as the Hamas TV children's program in which an adorable live-action Palestinian Mickey Mouse is beaten to death by an Israeli (then replaced by his more militant cousin, Nahoul the Bee, who vows to continue on Mickey's path to martyrdom).

At war today in Gaza, one combatant is committed to causing the most civilian pain and suffering on both sides. The other combatant is committed to saving as many lives as possible — also on both sides. It's a recurring theme.

Charles Krauthammer makes many additional good points on the latest battle against Hamas and other Palestinian Islamic terrorists - I copy the full article below.

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Many Arabs and Muslims blame their incompentence on Jews (10.03.2002)


OpinionThe Arab and Muslim political circles and press continuously spit out hate of Jews and Israel. Last saturday for example, Iraq's Deputy Primer Minister Tariq Aziz said that "Zionist Circles" in Britain and the US "were pushing the two countries into war against Iraq to serve Israel and its interests".

The Jewish World Review (jewishworldreview.com) has some insight on how racism and hate of Jews is a given in the Arab World:

How about the deterioration in US-Iranian relations? You guessed it: it's the Jews again. In a September 12 interview with ABC News, Hassan Rohani, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, complained that, "after September 11, the hardliners, especially the Zionist lobby, became more active and, unfortunately, influenced Mr. Bush" to view Iran in a negative light. [...]

Then there are the Saudis, whose image in the West has suffered since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Rather than taking stock and asking themselves why 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, they prefer instead to pin their troubles on the Jews.

Last Friday, Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif said that Western media reports highlighting Saudi support for terrorism are "orchestrated by the Zionist lobby which works against the American people's interests."

"The most powerful nation in the world," he asserted in all seriousness, "is hostile to Arabs and Muslims as a result of the influence the Zionist lobby wields in the United States" (Arab News, September 27).


I copy the full article below - read it and learn how to join the "Zionist Lobby".

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Islamic court in Saudi Arabia sentences man to 70 lashes in public (01.20.2003)


News"Arab News" reports that Saudi Arabia has implemented once again Islamic law and is disrespecting human rights:

Indian flogged for sacrilege
By Abdullah Al-Fehaid

SUDAIR, 20 January 2003 — An Indian worker in Roudhat Sudair, 150 km north of Riyadh, was sentenced to 70 lashes in public and deportation by a Shariah court here for urinating on the walls of a mosque. The man, a non-Muslim tailor, was proved guilty of repeating the sacrilegious act several times with malicious intention. He was flogged at the courtyard of the Sabeen Mosque in Roudhat Sudair. Security agencies are now taking steps to deport him.


As a matter of policy, I don't link to Nazi publications (such as this "Arab News"), so I won't list the source of the above article. Thanks to LGF for the link.


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