A friend forwarded this update from a fellow translator named Marsha in Kiryat Shmona:

Dear friends,

I've been telling you about the little things here. Now that it's over, I can tell people about something else that just happened.

I just got back from a funeral. One of the soldiers killed in the battle for Maroun Ras, from the Egoz unit, was a young man from Kiryat Shmona, a really special kid named Liran Sa'adya, z"l. Only a month ago, he'd been given the "excellent officer" award. His commanding officers and his friends talked about his volunteerism, his modesty, his care and concern for others. Although it sounds like a cliche, and is said at almost every funeral, Liran truly was special. His parents are both teachers, and very well-known here. They were in Thailand when it happened, and only able to return yesterday, which is why the original reports said "At Least 2 Killed...".

Click to read more ...

Kindly call the White House as soon as you read this message:

                        202-456-1111

Here's what to say:

President Bush,

Please continue to stand up for Israel !

No surrender!

Friends,

The following from an Israeli soldier was sent to me by his mother. I think it will give you a deeper understanding for what we in Israel are facing.

Every blessing,

Naomi

Notes from Zachary Taylor, a soldier in the Nachal Haredi Unit, sent to me by his mother.

People jump to conclusions about the Israeli leadership and their strategies concerning Gaza and Lebanon. First of all, do not believe anything you read in a foreign newspaper or even half of the Israeli ones about this current situation. For example, just a few months ago an Arab Family in Gaza was killed on a beach. The Palestinians said the Israelis did the killing, as did international media. After research it was shown that in no way whatsovever was it an Israeli bomb that murdered that family, but a bomb that was left by HAMAS.  However, by then, we lost the sympathies of world media, and Olmert apologized prematurely for something that Israel did not even do.

Click to read more ...

Listening to Kol Israel over the Internet, it is heartwarming to hear how our people are rising above their political differences and uniting in the support of the nation. Most of the nation's young people have been called up to active reserve duty, so many essential services - food delivery, travel, mail, telephone - are somewhat curtailed.  But in response to the situation, there is a continuous stream of accounts of distribution of goods, of volunteers going above and beyond to meet the needs of others.

Bezek is installing telephone and Internet service in all the bomb shelters. People in areas of the country that have not yet been targeted by missiles are opening their homes to those from the north.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. 

 From an article by Paul Eidelberg in The Jewish Press, 6/2/2006

Israeli-American Professor Paul Eidelberg, a long-time advocate of judicial reform in Israel, states, "Israel's High Court of Justice is a self-perpetrating oligarchy."

The fifteen Justices are appointed by the President of the State of Israel upon the nomination of "The Judges Nominating Committee" for lifetime tenure.  The Nominating Committee has nine members, consisting of three sitting justices, including the court president.  Two are representatives of the Israel Bar Association.  Two are cabinet members, including the Justice Minister, and two are Knesset members.

The committee's majority is unelected.  The two Bar Association members are subject to pressure by the Court President before whom they may argue cases.  In addition, the court's president handpicks the judge for every case.

This court has arrogated to itself legislative authority over the people of Israel. When Chief Justice Aharon Barak says, "Everything is justifiable," he rejects government by the people, of the people, and for the people.  "The Barak Court" is the ultimate judge of what is good and bad, right and wrong, modest and immodest.

Illustrations

• "The Barak Court" ruled that the Chief Rabbinate does not have final jurisdiction over conversions.
• "The Barak Court" ordered the Interior Minister to recognize homosexual adoptions performed overseas, even though Israeli law does not recognize such adoptions.
• "The Barak Court" ordered the Interior Ministry to register a lesbian couple as co-parents of a child.
• "The Barak Court" ruled that land purchased by the Jewish National Fund for the purpose of Jewish settlement must be sold to Arabs on an equal footing.
• "The Barak Court" ruled against the Israel Defense Forces' decision to level certain Arab houses used by terrorists to murder Jews.
• "The Barak Court" substituted its own judgment for that of the Defense Ministry by ordering the latter to reroute various sections of the "security fence" to the disadvantage of Jews.
• "The Barak Court" ruled that Judea, Samaria, and Gaza are "occupied territory."

Barak's ruling that Judea, Samaria, and Gaza are "occupied territory" provided the cover of legality for Prime Minister's Sharon's disengagement plan.  By implementing this plan, the government dispossessed and deported at least 8,000 Jews from Gaza, and thereby violated the "basic law: Human Dignity and Freedom."  (Israel does not have a constitution. "Basic laws" are the closest concept to constitutional law in the Israeli form of government.)

The same government, contrary to the warnings of Israel's highest military and intelligence officials, turned this land over to Israel's implacable enemies who have made Gaza a center of international terrorism.

Barak has spearheaded the Left's agenda to truncate not only the Land of Israel, but also the historic memory of the Jewish People.  That memory is bonded to Judea and Samaria and their centrality in the teachings of the prophets and the sages of Israel.

To rule that Judea is not part of Israel is to rule that Eastern Jerusalem and the Temple Mount are not part of Israel.

Think about this.

by Rachel Saperstein
Thursday, 29 June 2006
The following was adapted from a speech delievered by Mrs. Saperstein to the World Beitar Convention, held at the Hyatt Hotel in Jerusalem on June 17, 2006

My name is Rachel Saperstein. I am 65, a wife, mother and grandmother. I came from New York to live in my homeland 38 years ago. My husband and I once lived in a beautiful home in Gush Katif. Today, I am a refugee.

We were forcibly removed from our home by the State of Israel. Not by the non-Jewish government of a foreign country, but by the Jewish government of my own homeland.

Click to read more ...

 Your editor believes that calling any Muslim nation a "vital U.S. ally" is kind of silly. Nonetheless, interesting stuff here.

Jordan Emerges as a Vital U.S. Ally
Aid in Tracking of Zarqawi
Burnishes Antiterror Role;
Hotel Attacks Were Impetus
By JAY SOLOMON
June 10, 2006; Page A4

WASHINGTON -- Big breaks in tracking the recent movements of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, commander of al Qaeda in Iraq, came directly from intelligence gleaned by agents of neighboring Jordan, say Middle East and American officials.
[Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi]

While the Bush administration is cautious in identifying precisely the information provided by Amman, U.S. officials are now lauding the kingdom as a model for its cooperation in counterterrorism operations globally. Jordanian agents directly worked with coalition forces operating in Iraq's restive Anbar province, say these officials, and helped provide information that directly tracked Mr. Zarqawi to a safe house in central Iraq where he died in a bombing raid Wednesday evening.

"The Jordanian government has been stalwart in fighting the war on terror because ... they have suffered from terror," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday in discussing Mr. Zarqawi's slaying.

Indeed, Jordanian intelligence officials are now calling their role in helping to kill Mr. Zarqawi "the operation of the hotel martyrs." Mr. Zarqawi comes from Zarqa, Jordan, and has actively sought to topple Jordan's Hashemite kingdom and its ruler, King Abdullah II. To this end, al Qaeda agents have plotted a string of attacks against Jordan in recent years, including last November's triple bombing of luxury hotels in Amman. Jordanian officials worried at the time that the attacks -- which they refer to as their own 9/11 -- could cripple their tourist-reliant economy.

Mr. Zarqawi has also sought to push the Iraqi insurgency into Jordan and Lebanon and use these countries as bases for strikes against Israel. Jordanian officials had also been concerned about Mr. Zarqawi's efforts to radicalize the country's largely Sunni Muslim population.
[King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein]

Since the November attacks, Jordanian officials say King Abdullah authorized a much broader and aggressive campaign to hunt down Mr. Zarqawi and his deputies. Rather than just defensively seeking to prevent al Qaeda agents from infiltrating into Jordan from Iraq or Syria, the monarch's government called for Jordanian agents to go on the offensive and actually enter Iraq and other countries. Jordan's intelligence service, the General Intelligence Department, has also sought to build bridges with the Sunni tribes based in Iraq's neighboring Anbar province. Many Jordanians share religious, linguistic and tribal roots with western Iraq's peoples.

Jordan has also worked to develop even closer intelligence-sharing with U.S. coalition forces operating in Iraq, say Jordanian and American officials. Washington and Amman have historically cooperated closely in combating Middle East extremist groups, particularly Hamas and other Palestinian organizations. But the two sides sought ways to even more closely share information on the Iraqi insurgency.

"The collaboration between Jordan and the U.S. has been ongoing since before 9/11," Jordan's ambassador to the U.S., Karim Kawar, said in an interview. "But certainly, the Nov. 9 attacks in Amman have been a turning point in accelerating the process of bringing those people to justice."

Jordanian officials said their heightened hunt for Mr. Zarqawi netted them dozens of al Qaeda agents since November, with each capture producing a greater understanding of how the overall Zarqawi network worked. A clean-up operation by the GID after the November attacks netted a female al Qaeda agent who was married to a close Zarqawi aide, according to Jordanian officials. And in March, the GID arrested three al Qaeda operatives inside Jordan -- two Iraqis and one Libyan -- who were charged with seeking to attack major infrastructure installations in Jordan, particularly power plants.

Perhaps the most important arrest, however, say Middle East and European intelligence agents, was Jordan's capture last month of an al Qaeda logistics and smuggling agent, Ziad Khalaf Raja al-Karbouly. Mr. Karbouly went on Jordanian television after his arrest and described murdering Jordanian truck drivers moving goods into Iraq. He also described carrying out political assassination of Moroccan and Kurdish diplomats on the orders of Mr. Zarqawi.
[Jordan 3]

The Jordanians worked with agents inside Iraq to draw Mr. Karbouly across the border, Jordanian intelligence officials said last month. And the al Qaeda operative provided Jordanian interrogators with important intelligence on Mr. Zarqawi's top aides, including his spiritual adviser, Abu Abdul-Rahman. In recent weeks, U.S. military personnel said they monitored Mr. Rahman's movements and, ultimately, were drawn to Mr. Zarqawi's hideout near the Iraqi city of Baqubah.

The Jordanian operation "offered a critical link" on al Qaeda's leadership structure, said a European counterterrorism official.

Today, both Jordanian and American officials are dealing with the fallout from Mr. Zarqawi's death. The al Qaeda commander's family in Zarqa is demanding his body be returned to Jordan for burial, a request the Jordanian government said it would deny. The Associated Press quoted a Jordanian security official Friday saying his government would never allow Mr. Zarqawi's corpse to "stain Jordanian soil." In addition, questions have been raised about Mr. Zarqawi's death, after the U.S. military acknowledged he was captured alive but severely injured in the aftermath of the airstrike.

The American government, meanwhile, is considering how to distribute the $25 million bounty it had placed on Mr. Zarqawi's head, noting that many different organizations and individuals helped track him down. Some in Washington are calling for the funds to be distributed to Iraqi victims of his attacks.

Both American and Jordanian officials have said in recent days they are also preparing for a continued assault by al Qaeda in the Middle East. U.S military intelligence Friday continued to parse through what they described as a "treasure trove" of information they recovered from Mr. Zarqawi's safe house, including passports, license-plate numbers and munitions equipment. Coalition forces also continued to raid homes and buildings they believe were tied to Mr. Zarqawi.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, is seeking to find out how al Qaeda's leadership will change. Islamic Web sites on Friday were pledging their allegiance to Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi as the new "emir" in Iraq. The Pentagon, however, was citing an Egyptian al Qaeda veteran, Abu Ayub al-Masri, as taking over Iraqi operations. Mr. Masri, said Major General William Caldwell -- a spokesman for coalition forces in Iraq -- had "very close contacts" with both Mr. Zarqawi and al Qaeda's overall No. 2 commander, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Write to Jay Solomon at jay.solomon@wsj.com

WSJ.com - Jordan Emerges as a Vital U.S. Ally.

From Missy Lerner: 

Dear Friends,

To fully appreciate the Jewish refusal to abandon "The Hope" -- or,
in Hebrew, "Hatikva" -- you must listen to this recently-discovered
recording of Jewish prisoners in Bergen Belsen singing Hatikva
on the first Shabbat after hearing of their liberation, April 20, 1945.

The introduction is by the BBC.  

    http://www.israelreporter.com/files/radio/BergenBelsenHatikva.mp3
   
Hatikva - English Lyrics
As long as deep in the heart,
The soul of a Jew yearns,
And forward to the East
To Zion, an eye looks
Our hope will not be lost,
The hope of two thousand years,
To be a free nation in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.

Professor Morris Moscovitch, University of Toronto, writes:

Several weeks ago, Germany announced its decision to stop all arms sales to Israel . Since then, other countries have followed suit.

In response, Israel has canceled its annual multimillion dollar contract for its nationwide DAN buses which were manufactured in Germany , and is looking at other bus suppliers in the US , and Japan.

The Europeans and their Muslim allies should understand that boycotts works both ways. When we said NEVER AGAIN, we meant it. Europe is stuck in the mentality of 1933 and conditioned to thinking of Jews as defenseless entities. The reality is very different. As long as Europe adheres to and supports its primitive Middle Ages death cult, European products must be off limits.

We continue to call for a complete boycott of travel and products from the following countries France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Holland, and China, due to their support, sponsorship, and/or participation in global Islamic terror. The voting record of the above countries at the UN openly endorses Muslim terror.

Remember, every time you buy a bottle of Evian, a Carlsberg product, a Spanish melon, a Godiva chocolate, a Dior lipstick, a Gucci bag, or a German kitchen appliance, you are financing the next Muslim mass murderer.

The European Union gives over $10 million per month to the Palestinian Authority, knowing full well that the money is funneled to buy, import, and train Muslim terrorists and their weapons of mass murder.

We strongly encourage everyone to buy American and Israeli products instead. Buy Estee Lauder or Ahava instead of Chanel, Dior, and YSL. Tell the salespeople why. Educate the public when you shop.

Europe is underwriting the Arab war to exterminate the Jewish state. We cannot sit idly by while this happens. Make your voice heard and let them feel the sting in their pocketbooks. Let the Europeans know that supporting terror does not pay.


Morris Moscovitch
Professor of Psychology
Max and Gianna Glassman Chair in Neuropsychology and Aging Department of Psychology
University of Toronto