Staying Real in Israel
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"The Marty Roberts Show"

Attacks on the proposed ban to criminalize Jewish ritual circumcision (brit milah) in San Francisco, California, USA spread to the legal and federal legislative fronts…

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But the King of the Zulus has requested (and received) Israeli aid in achieving his goal of circumcising 2.5 million adult Zulu males in the next 5 years…Purpose…To prevent the spread of AIDS in Africa…

And now, a serious move in The Netherlands to ban kosher meat, while the European Union attacks Judaism through labeling (again)…

Also…Special coverage of the “Presidential Conference: Facing Tomorrow” in Israel…

Shakira debunks her alleged anti-Israel bias…

But an album in Arabic?…Really?

Sarah Silverman manages to restrain herself, while proposing a peace plan of her own…

Amos Oz, Daniel Kurtzer, Jimmy Wales, Tony Blair and others…

Plus…Israel…World leader in social networking, a daughter named “Like”…

All this and more on “The Marty Roberts Show”…

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A tidal wave of populist uprisings are sweeping the Arab Middle East, starting with Tunisia and spreading into Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and beyond…

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The Arab people are screaming for democracy, demanding a change of the old order, removal of benign and not-so-benign despots and their military regimes…This has to be a good thing, right?

Maybe not…It all depends upon who gets the power and what they do with it (Think: Iran, circa 1979…The Shah vs. the ayatollahs)…

A look at the current state of the widespread rioting and revolts throughout the Arab Middle East…Who is revolting against whom, and who are the likely winners?

A look at the Muslim Brotherhood…Where do they come from?…What do they stand for?…What are their goals and how do they intend to achieve them?

Plus…What has been the historic results of the people taking democratic control of their countries in the Arab world?…What are the likely outcomes today, and what are the implications for the Western World, the U.S. and Israel?

Also…U.S. President Obama’s Middle East track record…What has he achieved and where does he and his administration stand in light of the current unrest in the Arab world?

And…Some parting advice for the policy-makers in Washington…Take it, or leave it…

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Anyone Who Talks About Apartheid in Israel Does Not Have a CLUE!!!
Just Ask Israeli-Arab-Member-of-Parliament-Advisor-to-Arafat Ahmed Tibi
(if you can catch him between Israel and her enemy, Lebanon!)
Also, Warnings About Abu Mazzen From Intelligence Sources Like Mossad…

Continue reading “Apartheid and Israel: Get Serious!!! — Maybe, “As different as “Black” &”White?” »

NOT food, concrete and medical supplies…

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Gaza is booming, with the opening of new shopping malls, sports clubs with olympic-sized swimming pools, gourmet restaurants and seaside tourist resorts…

At the same time, Israel is treating palestinian terrorists and their children in Israel’s hospitals…at the expense of Jewish charity organizations!

Flotillas of aid ships should be traveling from Gaza TO Turkey instead of vice versa, since the economic, social and health conditions in Gaza are markedly BETTER than they are in Turkey…not to mention most of Black Africa and the rest of the Arab world…But try to tell THAT to the (mis-guided) bleeding-hearts in the Western media…

And then there’s Islamic Sharia law taking hold in Gaza, largely at the expense of the rights of palestinian women…You won’t believe some of the laws being enforced under Sharia in Gaza, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries…Guess the “Human” rights organizations don’t consider women “human”…

Also…Do you really want sitting on the US Supreme Court (lifetime appointment) one Elena Kagan, who forged Harvard’s “Islamic Finance Project”, stated purpose: “to promote Sharia compliance in the U.S. financial sector”…Gaza coming home to roost in America?

Who in the world are bigger experts on making the desert bloom than Israelis? Who knows better how to squeeze food out of barren landscapes while preserving precious water than the Israelis? Obviously, the answer is nobody. And Israel is working actively to share their know-how with starving African desert nations.

Look at this glorious way that the Israeli government, in concert with individual endeavors, contributes to saving lives and helping the starving African continent to not only survive, but thrive.

“If I give you a fish, you will eat tonight…If I teach you HOW to fish, you will eat forever”…

Israel helps African farmers fight desert

Having ‘conquered the desert’ at home, Jewish state ready to share technology and skills with African countries struggling to sustain agricultural output due to increasingly unreliable rains

Reprinted from Ynetnews.com Reuters

Having “conquered the desert” at home, Israel is ready to share technology and skills with African countries struggling to sustain agricultural output due to increasingly unreliable rains, an Israeli minister says.

Shalom Simhon, Israel’s minister of agriculture and rural development, said sharing know-how, especially in irrigation and water management, was his focus on a recent tour of Senegal, Ivory Coast and Gabon.

His trip comes as some 10 million people in West and Central Africa face food shortages due to failed rains.

“We are not arriving here in Africa to take resources from the African countries. We are coming here in order to give know-how and abilities to these countries to develop,” Simhon told Reuters in Senegal.

“Israel is the only country in the world that has been able to conquer the desert. More than 50% of our exports are coming from semi-arid areas. This is our strength – this we would like to bring here.”

Simhon said Israel could help Senegal reduce dependence on imports, which currently account for around 80% of food needs. “Senegal’s traditional agriculture is one crop a year. We know how to do three and four crops a year. We can teach that.”

The minister would not give any figures on proposed Israeli aid to African farming or detail the role of Israeli companies in such programs. Already Senegal hosts several Israeli-funded projects looking at using low-pressure drip irrigation to increase productivity.

‘World drying up’

Israeli farmers have been heavily involved in modern developments in irrigation, including drip irrigation systems and water recycling methods.

Some experts believe these techniques could become invaluable in Africa’s arid growing regions, which risk becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change.

“One of the most important things is the water technology and usage. The world is drying up. There is less water, there is less rain days,” Simhon said.

“In Israel we are using recycled water, desalinated water, rain water, salty water, which almost anywhere in the world we will not have any use for (but) we (use to) make the sweetest tomatoes,” he added.

Simhon said advances in technology had allowed Israeli farmers to use 30% less water while almost doubling output over the last decade, leaving the country with a 150% food surplus.

“We have over-production in Israel. It would have been very easy for us just to load the boat or the airplane … but we think we can do it differently,” he said.

“We are coming with the knowledge, the expertise, with the willingness to share it with other countries,” he added, saying it was up to African nations to establish their priorities and seek assistance that was available.

The United Nations chief of humanitarian operations, John Holmes, is currently in West Africa, seeking to draw attention to the food emergency. The UN called for more efforts to tackle the root causes of the recurring crises.

If this isn’t proof that “UN” stands for “Useless Nations”, then I do not know what is…

Out of 14 candidates for the 14 open seats on the United Nations Human Rights Council, SEVEN of them are accused of HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS!!!

Oh, by the way, ALL SEVEN WERE APPROVED by wide margins, and now are sitting on the UN Human Rights Council. How can any sane person give ANY credibility whatsoever to ANYTHING that comes out of that conglomeration of Israel-hating, Third-world banana republics. The “Real” countries are now only a minority in what has become a totally useless…no, make that extremely DESTRUCTIVE international abomination.

The UN should close its doors…not tomorrow, but yesterday…

UN elects rights violators to Human Rights Council

Seven countries accused of human rights violations, including Libya, Angola and Malaysia, won seats on the U.N. Human Rights Council in an uncontested election Thursday.

Reprinted from Associated Press

The U.N. General Assembly approved all 14 candidates for the 14 seats on the 47-member council by wide margins despite campaigns by human rights groups to deny countries with poor rights records the minimum number of votes needed.

All 14 countries easily topped the 97 votes required from the 192-member world body. Libya, which currently holds the presidency of the General Assembly, received the lowest number of votes — 155 — while Angola got 170 and Malaysia 179.

In addition to these three countries, human rights groups criticized the poor rights records of Thailand, Uganda, Mauritania and Qatar which also won seats.

The seven other countries that won seats were Maldives, Ecuador, Guatemala, Spain, Switzerland, Moldova and Poland.

Iran withdrew from the race on April 23 after facing strong global opposition for severe human rights abuses including the government’s crackdown on opposition supporters.

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said it was “notable … that Iran’s bid fell short.”

Human rights groups and other non-governmental organizations also successfully opposed the election of Iran and Venezuela in 2006, Belarus in 2007, Sri Lanka in 2008, and Azerbaijan in 2009.

The 14 countries elected Thursday will serve three-year terms starting June 19 on the Geneva-based council, which was created in March 2006 to replace the U.N.’s widely discredited and highly politicized Human Rights Commission.

The council, however, has also been widely criticized for failing to change many of the commission’s practices, including putting much more emphasis on Israel than on any other country.

The United States voted against the council’s creation during the Bush administration but reversed its position and won a seat last year after President Barack Obama took office.

Rice cited “some progress” since the U.S. has been on the council, noting its approval of a “milestone” resolution on freedom of expression, its investigation of last year’s massacre and rapes in Guinea, and adoption of stronger resolutions condemning rights violations in Congo, Myanmar, Somalia and Sudan.

“We remain committed to strengthening and reforming this council,” Rice told reporters. “We hope that the new council’s composition for the most part will provide us with partners — not all but most — with whom we can work constructively.”

The NGO Coalition for an Effective Human Rights Council said the failure of U.N. regional groups to put forward competitive slates deprived the General Assembly of the opportunity to elect the most qualified countries.

“Those who want the council to improve have to commit themselves to competitive elections and be willing to compete themselves for a seat,” said Peggy Hicks, global advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, a coalition member.

“Without competitive elections,” she told AP, “we’ll continue to see states that don’t meet the qualifications set by the General Assembly getting seats like Libya, Angola and Malaysia.”

Under the resolution that established the council, members are expected to “uphold the highest standards” of human rights and “fully cooperate” with it.

Hillel Neuer, executive director of Geneva-based UN Watch, which heads a coalition of 37 human rights organizations that campaigned for the U.S. and European Union to defeat Libya’s candidacy, said that “by electing serial human rights violators, the U.N. violates its own criteria as well as common sense.”

“Choosing Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to judge others on human rights is a joke,” Neuer said in a statement. “He’ll use the position not to promote human rights but to shield his record of abuse, and those of his allies.”

South African Judge Goldstone, author of the lie-filled condemnation of Israel’s self-defense war against Hmas in Gaza, has brought hypocrisy to new heights…

And he’s also Jewish, no less…Talk about self-hating Jews…

This guy saw fit to fill an official UN report on the war in Gaza with lies, alleging Israel was guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, while overlooking the years of missile and rocket attacks against helpless Israeli civilians. Now, it comes out that Goldstone was an active participant in South Africa’s cruel and immoral apartheid regime…that he was personally responsible for sending at least 28 black defendants to their death by hanging.

Shame on you, Judge Goldstone. I was ashamed of you after your report came out, but now…I can hardly find the words…

Judge Goldstone’s dark past

Yedioth Ahronoth investigation reveals man preaching human rights, who authored scathing report against Israel’s operation in Gaza, sent at least 28 black defendants to gallows as South African judge under Apartheid regime

Reprinted from Ynetnews.com Tzadok Yehezkeli

He asserted that Israel committed war crimes and came out against the Israel Defense Forces, whom he claimed violated basic human rights. Judge Richard Goldstone forgot just one thing – to look long and hard in the mirror and to do some soul-searching before he rushes to criticize others.

A special Yedioth Ahronoth investigation reveals Richard Goldstone’s dark side as a judge during the Apartheid era in South Africa. It turns out, the man who authored the Goldstone Report criticizing the IDF’s actions during Operation Cast Lead took an active part in the racist policies of one of the cruelest regimes of the 20th century.

During his tenure as sitting as judge in the appellant court during the 1980s and 1990s sentenced dozens of blacks mercilessly to their death.

This stain on Goldstone’s past kept him from coming out against the death penalty on many occasions and from vehemently criticizing countries who still allow executions. Goldstone didn’t bother confessing and telling about his actions in any of his statements or speeches.

Another young Muslim woman dies as a result of inhumane Islamic Sharia law, this time, in Yemen.
Once again, no outcry from woman’s rights groups nor human rights groups in general. How about defenders of children’s rights? Has their need to be PC-”politically correct” finally outweighed the entire purpose of their mission, that being to defend the universal human rights of the weak?
These are TRUE crimes against humanity.
Seems that most of these so-called “human rights” organizations don’t really care about anybody’s human rights, unless they think that somehow the Israeli Army may be involved…

13-year-old Yemeni bride dies of bleeding

A 13-year-old Yemeni girl has died of injuries to her genitals four days after a family-arranged marriage, a human rights group said.

Reprinted from AP/Google News

The practice of marrying young girls is widespread in Yemen and has drawn the attention of international rights groups seeking to pressure the government to outlaw child marriages. Legislation that would make it illegal for those under the age of 17 to marry is in serious peril after strong opposition from some of Yemen’s most influential Islamic leaders.

The 13-year-old girl from Hajja province, northwest of the capital, died on April 2, four days after her marriage to a 23-year-old man, said Majed al-Madhaji, a spokesman for the Sisters Arab Forum for Human Rights. A medical report from al-Thawra hospital said she suffered a tear to her genitals and severe bleeding.

Authorities detained the husband.

The Yemeni rights group said the girl was married off in an agreement between two men to marry each other’s sisters to avoid having to pay expensive bride-prices. The group said that was a common arrangement in the deeply impoverished country.

Yemen’s gripping poverty plays a role in hindering efforts to stamp out the practice, as poor families find themselves unable to say no to bride-prices in the hundreds of dollars for their daughters.

More than a quarter of Yemen’s females marry before age 15, according to a report last year by the Social Affairs Ministry. Tribal custom also plays a role, including the belief that a young bride can be shaped into an obedient wife, bear more children and be kept away from temptation.

Last month, a group of the country’s highest Islamic authorities declared those supporting a ban on child marriages to be apostates.

A February 2009 law set the minimum age for marriage at 17, but it was repealed and sent back to parliament’s constitutional committee for review after some lawmakers called it un-Islamic. The committee is expected to make a final decision on the legislation this month.

Some of the clerics who signed the decree against a ban sit on the committee.

Further imperiling the effort is the weak government’s reluctance to confront the clerics and other conservative tribal officials, whose support is essential to their fragile hold on power.

The issue of Yemen’s child brides got widespread attention three years ago when an 8-year-old girl boldly went by herself to a courtroom and demanded a judge dissolve her marriage to a man in his 30s. She eventually won a divorce, and legislators began looking at ways to curb the practice.

In September, a 12-year-old Yemeni child-bride died after struggling for three days in labor to give birth, a local human rights organization said.

Yemen once set 15 as the minimum age for marriage, but parliament annulled that law in the 1990s, saying parents should decide when a daughter marries.

After extolling the virtues of Israel’s fine wines, I must insert this caveat…Do NOT try drinking any of the devil’s brew while visiting Sudan…unless you also ENJOY a nice whipping every now and then (different strokes for different folks, etc. etc.)
You will be whipped not just for drinking the stuff, but plan on some S&M fun for just making or even selling any drinks of the intoxicating variety. And if you are a woman, you’d best not be wearing pants, or you, too, will get your butt whipped…for real. Not to be judgemental, but isn’t Islamic law great?
A Shabbat kiddush just wouldn’t be the same in Sudan, not to mention Purim or Passover…Oh, well…as always…There’s no place like home for the holidays…

Sudan’s Bashir warns drinkers face lash


Sudan’s president warned people caught selling, drinking or brewing alcohol would be lashed, despite complaints from rights groups, as he addressed an election rally outside Khartoum on Thursday.

Reprinted from af.reauters.com

“Anybody who drinks alcohol, we lash them. Anybody who makes alcohol, we lash them. Anybody who sells alcohol, we lash them. I don’t care about the U.N. or human rights organisations,” Omar Hassan al-Bashir said in a speech broadcast on Sudan’s Blue Nile television.

Bashir, a powerful public speaker who regularly peppers his rallies with broad nationalistic and Islamic appeals, spoke in Omdowan, a village just east of the capital, known as a religious centre.

The president, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court to face charges of war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region, has thrown himself into a nationwide campaign tour ahead of elections due to start next month.

Alcohol is banned in Muslim north Sudan and whipping is a common punishment for anyone caught drinking, brewing or selling it.

Rights groups have complained about lashing sentences handed out against women caught brewing alcohol in Khartoum, many of them from the non-Muslim south.

Sudan’s brand of Islamic law has come under the international spotlight in recent years. A British teacher was jailed after letting her class name a teddy bear Mohammad in 2007 and a Sudanese journalist was imprisoned in September after being convicted of indecency for wearing trousers. Both women had faced a maximum sentence of flogging.

Nigerian football star Stephen Worgu last year said he had been sentenced to 40 lashes after being convicted of drunk driving in Khartoum.

Worgu, who plays for Omdurman club Al Merreikh, said he was innocent.

I guess this is what you mean when you call someone a “member of the tribe”…Looks like a real lost tribe, no?
I don’t think you really need the DNA once you catch a look of these guys in their prayer garb, eh? Well, maybe that staff is a bit over the edge…

Report: DNA tests support Zimbabwe tribe’s claim of Jewish roots


British scientists have succeeded in proving the Lemba tribe of Zimbabwe and South Africa descended from Jewish ancestors, according to a report by the BBC.

Reprinted from HaAretz.com

According to the report, the scientists conducted DNA tests on a large sample of the Lemba people, which confirmed Semitic origins dating back more than two millennia.

The BBC says that the 80,000 Lemba tribe members abstain from eating pork, wear yarmulke-like skull caps, conduct ritual animal slaughter, and even put a Star of David on their gravestones.

The report says the tribe has an oral tradition that links them to the ancient Jews. They also circumcise their male children, which is not a common practice in Zimbabwe, but is one of the basic principles of the Jewish faith.

Members of the priestly clan of the Lemba even have a genetic element also found among the Jewish priestly line – known as Cohen.

“This was amazing,” Professor Tudor Parfitt from the University of London told the BBC. “It looks as if the Jewish priesthood continued in the West by people called Cohen, and in same way it was continued by the priestly clan of the Lemba,” he added.

“They have a common ancestor who geneticists say lived about 3,000 years ago somewhere in north Arabia, which is the time of Moses and Aaron when the Jewish priesthood started,” Parfitt told the BBC.

In addition, the report says, the Lemba have a sacred prayer language that combines Hebrew and Arabic, which indicates their roots were in Israel and Yemen.

“We have been a very secretive people, because we believe we are a special people,” religious Lemba singer Fungisai Zvakavapano-Mashavave told the BBC.

The tribe even uses a religious artifact they say connects them to their Jewish ancestry – a replica of the Biblical Ark known as the ngoma lungundu, meaning “the drum that thunders,” which they say was made by Moses.

The tribe’s oral tradition says that centuries ago a small group of men began a long journey carrying the ngoma lungundu from Yemen to southern Africa.

The Ark went missing during the 1970s and was eventually rediscovered in Harare in 2007 by Professor Parfitt.

“Many people say that the story is far-fetched, but the oral traditions of the Lemba have been backed up by science,” Parfitt said.

Despite their “Jewish roots,” many of the tribe are now Christian or Muslim, the report claims. But, says Perez Hamandishe, a pastor and member of parliament, “Christianity is my religion, and Judaism is my culture.”