Doc's Talk: Heroes With No Borders

Saturday, December 07, 2013

Heroes With No Borders

Nurit Greenger
Some healing of American veterans starts in the State of Israel
There is one program, showing on Saturday and Sunday, that, if possible, I will never miss and it is the Mike Huckabee on Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/huckabee/index.html.

I like Huckabee because he is bright, rational, logical, talks truth, funny, "politically correct" and has deep affinity for our Judeo-Christian culture and the commonality the United States and Israel hold. I learn a great deal from each of Huckabee, a former presidential candidate, program's segment. And this is where I learned about Judy Isaacson Schaffer, an advertising salesperson, married and a mother of two, the founder and president of the organization Heroes To Heroes. http://heroestoheroes.org/

From R-Judy Isaacson Schaffer, 3rd from R-Mike Huckabee and a group of veterans-Photo provided by Judy Schaffer.jpg

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Thankfully, we live in the cyber era, which allowed me to locate Judy and share with the readers the story of her organization that she founded in December 2009, a story that should move you like it has moved me.
It all began with Judy's father, Irving Isaacson, a heating, ventilation and air-condition engineer who was a WWII veteran. She grew up in a very patriotic home, with the American flag in the front yard, and was raised to believe that the United States is the best country on earth. After her father's passing, in 2001, Judy discovered that her father volunteered to help Jewish war veterans. This new discovery gave her food for thought. In 2009, when Judy was visiting Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, in Washington D.C., and when speaking with veterans and their family members, she realized that there is so much pain that goes along with serving our country that requires buckets of healing. The doer she is Judy knew, there and there, that she wanted to do something. If her father helped veterans she could follow in his footsteps.
Few weeks after her visit to Walter Reed hospital Judy was traveling to Israel to visit her son, who was on a one year study program in Jerusalem. On the plane she set next to a young Israeli man who, after his military service, took off on a trip to South American to "refresh" before entering civilian's life. Judy asked the young man what Israel does for her soldiers, especially the wounded ones. He told her how Israel takes care of her veterans and how Israelis help one another because Israel is one army nation. Because in Israel everyone has to serve in the military and then remains in reserve service for years to come. The young man summarized his answer by referring Judy to the organization for the wounded soldiers and Beit Halochem, meaning the Home of the Fighter, in Israel. http://www.inz.org.il/index1.asp?view_date=&cat=54 / http://bh-tla.inz.org.il/index1.asp?view_date=&cat=68
Judy was wowed; what if American veterans care to come to Israel and see the country and meet with some of their equal Israelis? She called Beit Halochem, spoke with Ora Seidner and told her what she had in mind and Seidner's reply was, any American soldier is welcome here in Beit Halochem; our home is theirs. The possible support Judy was foreseeing receiving from Israel was promising. So she decided, why not!
A year and a half later the first group of American veterans, some of them disabled soldiers, traveled to Israel for a life changing experience. The program, now recognized to be spiritual, healing, religious and connecting to God, to each other and to Israel, has brought strangers from across the oceans to meet and become friends. It has proved that American veterans love to be in the company of Israelis.
Each group consists of ten American veterans and they are joined in Israel by five Israeli veterans who stay with the group for the entire ten days program. The program, a combination of spiritual, physical, social and emotional, starts in Jerusalem in a visit to the 9/11 Memorial; then a visit to the Western Wall, Christian sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, the Holocaust museum Yad Vashem and even meeting with government officials and some veterans got to meet with Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The group travels the country, goes sailing and biking and meets veterans form organizations such as Achim l'Achaim, meaning brothers for brothers. http://achimlachaim.org/.
At the end of each day of the trip, the group meets to talk about the experiences of the day and what they have learned that can help them to get stronger and move on a positive note to a better future.
Alumni select and put together the next group; the funds to send a group of veterans to Israel - $7,500 per one person - come from private, tax deductible donations, and since 2010 Heroes To heroes is a 501(c)3 organization.
Right now the foundation can afford to send one group of ten veterans each year, but the need in the USA demands to send at least ten groups a year. So there is much work ahead.
It is now evidencing that the Heroes to Heroes program is a life changing experience for American veterans.
See the video introducing Heroes to Heroes - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhEgJKwhfk8#t=13

The participants return to the United States having new brothers and sisters; they remain connected with their Israeli counterparts, whom they call 'brothers' and most of them would like to return to Israel on a second trip, even live there for a while. Some alumni have expressed their wish to send their sons to serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

USA Veterans on and by an Israeli tank-Photo provided by Judy Schaffer.jpg

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Our veterans are among the most vulnerable members of society. It is our duty to take care of them and find ways to integrate them back into society as not all of them return from service they way they were when they left for their mission.
A huge thanks from the American people to Israel for always opening arms and making America's veterans at home while in the Holy Land. And we, Americans, will do all that we can to show our veterans our gratitude for their service, one of which is to send them to Israel for a life changing and healing program. And to Israel we give our utmost gratitude for helping American veterans to heal. And to Judy I. Schaffer and Heroes To Heroes our appreciation for making it all possible.

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The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

Bedouins:

Bedouins are nomadic Muslims who were in Israel when modern borders were set in place and are now considered Israeli citizens. They are not required to draft but a growing number choose to enlist. In 2012, there were over 1,400 Bedouin Muslim soldiers doing regular IDF service and almost 1,500 in the reserves.

Read more:http://www.idfblog.com/2014/02/27/truth-idf-numbers-pictures/#more-34027

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.
More...

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’
-- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.
Clare M. Lopez

Who is being discriminated-facts tell the truth

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/narratives/hate-crime-2010-incidents-and-offenses.

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror Yemini
In 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").
Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state.
Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."
Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

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