Leaping Into a Brighter Future

Nurit Greenger 

LEAP is the acronym for Leadership, Excellence, Accelerating, Potential. (http://www.leapfoundation.com/)

Seven years ago Dr. Bill Dorfman – Dr. Bill as he is known to all – started LEAP, an incredible youth program its goal is to teach children and teenagers life skills, designed to help them become successful in life. During the seven days program duration, the participants, from all over the world, go through a life changing experience and receive the skills needed to succeed in any professions they may choose.

Dr. Bill Dorfman – Dr. Bill as known to all-photo Orly Halevy

One participant, Madisen, told me that the program gave her much confidence and has improved her skills a great deal that she has already repeated the course three times.

This year, for the first time, six Israeli youths had the privilege to participate in this unique program.

Morsi’s wife threatens to publish letters from Hillary Clinton, exposing “special relationship” between Muslim Brotherhood and Obama Administration

Raymond Ibrahim 
The wife of former Egyptian president Muhammad Morsi is the latest Muslim Brotherhood “insider” to threaten to expose the special relationship between Morsi and the Obama administration—a relationship the latter insists never existed.
Nagla Mahmoud, Morsi’s wife, is reportedly angry at some statements recently made by Hillary Clinton, including that Morsi was “naïve” and “unfit for Egypt’s presidency,” as reported by Arabic media.
In the words of El-Mogaz News, Morsi’s wife “is threatening to expose the special relationship between her husband and Hillary Clinton, after the latter attacked the ousted [president], calling him a simpleton who was unfit for the presidency.  Sources close to Nagla confirmed that she has threatened to publish the letters exchanged between Morsi and Hillary.”

Islamic State to Yazidis: “Either you convert to Islam or we slaughter you”

Robert Spencer 
The Yazidis are not among those considered to be “People of the Book,” and so conversion to Islam or death are their only options under Islamic law. There should be a public discussion of this law in light of generally accepted norms of human rights, but there won’t be, because that would be “Islamophobic.”
“Iraq: We’re fleeing because jihadists told us – Convert to Islam or we slaughter you,” by Jonathan Rugman, London Evening Standard, August 14, 2014:

They are camped on classroom floors and amid the concrete shells of unfinished buildings.
They are wholly reliant on the generosity of local people, their lives reduced to no more than the clothes on their backs.
They are the survivors of an ancient religious minority which many in the West had never even heard of until about a week ago.
The plight of Iraq’s Yazidis has triggered air drops and talk of humanitarian intervention by Britain and America.

Max Steinberg z”l‏

According to his close friends Max Steinberg was a very special young man. He shined in his honesty, his love for others and his responsibilities for man and country; his smile was his brand name.

Max Steinberg z”l

Last night, to a house full, at the Saban Theatre, in Los Angeles, the community held a memorial service for Max, who made the ultimate sacrifice to defend the State of Israel when fighting in Gaza. Max was killed in the Solid-Rock-Protective Edge War.

The Third Gaza War

A briefing by Efraim Inbar

http://www.meforum.org/4775/third-gaza-war

Middle East authority Efraim Inbar, Shillman/Ginsburg Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum and professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, is director of its Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies. He briefed the Middle East Forum in a conference call on August 12, 2014.

Israel's goal in the current confrontation was to restore long term calm to its cities and villages by debilitating Hamas's terror infrastructure (or "mowing the grass" as this strategy is commonly known) through the destruction of its rocket launchers, production facilities and terror tunnels. While a temporary truce hangs in the balance, Israeli society, which overwhelmingly unified behind Operation Protective Edge, continues to be resilient and ready to carry on the fight against this deadly enemy. Should the Cairo negotiations collapse, the war will escalate and Israel will exact a higher price from Hamas.

We Are Israel

By G. Murphy Donovan

“We don’t thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient."

Golda Meir as a girl

Almost every news report on the latest Palestinian war leads with comparative casualties; Israeli victims number in the tens while Arabs number in the hundreds. Such stories never fail to report on the percent of women and children injured as if Hamas tactics played no role in the predictable collateral damage of urban warfare.
Back in the day when Communism was a Soviet monopoly, Joseph Stalin is alleged to have said; “One death is a tragedy; a million is just a statistic.” Stalin was, if nothing else, a realist. He knew that numbers, like much statistical evidence, are just as malleable as anecdotal evidence. Objectivity, like truth, is also peculiar to the eye of the beholder. Military disciplines and sciences are no exception. All wars produce statistics, yet for the most part, battle numbers are most useful as propaganda. Take comparative casualties, the full metal jacket of statistics, a weaponized statistic if there ever were one.

IDF Details Hamas's Use of Civilian Areas as Missile Bases

DEROY MURDOCK 
The tactically adroit Israel Defense Forces are doing an ever-better job of fighting the information war. Throughout Operation Protective Edge, IDF maps, graphics, videos, and other communications tools have illustrated Hamas's consistent and routine transformation of civilian areas into launch pads for some 3,000 rockets blasted wildly into Israel. The IDF also has informed the world about its leaflets, phone calls, and text messages that urge Gazans to seek shelter before Israel neutralizes Hamas's hostile-fire INSTALLATIONS.
As the debate roars on about the current war between Israel and Hamas, these IDF materials arm Israel's friends, challenge its open-minded critics, and embarrass its enemies.
IDF now has created an outstanding document that resembles an unsealed indictment against Hamas - a State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization.

World Ignores Christian Exodus from Islamic World

RAYMOND IBRAHIM August 13, 2014
While the world fixates on the conflict between Israel and Hamas-and while most mainstream media demonize Israel for trying to survive amid a sea of Arab-Islamic hostility-similar or worse tragedies continue to go virtually ignored.

Christian refugees, who fled or were expelled from Mosul, crowd around a truck distributing food aid.
One of the most ancient Christian communities in the world, that of Iraq-which already had been decimated over the last decade, by Islamic forces unleashed after the ousting of Saddam Hussein-has now been wiped out entirely by the new "caliphate," the so-called Islamic State, formerly known by the acronym "ISIS."
As Reuters reported:

Islamist insurgents have issued an ultimatum to northern Iraq's dwindling Christian population to either convert to Islam, pay a religious levy or face death, according to a statement distributed in the militant-controlled city of Mosul....
It said Christians who wanted to remain in the "caliphate" that the Islamic State declared this month in parts of Iraq and Syria must agree to abide by terms of a "dhimma" contract-a historic practice under which non-Muslims were protected in Muslim lands in return for a special levy known as "jizya."
"We offer them three choices: Islam; the dhimma contract-involving payment of jizya; if they refuse this they will have nothing but the sword," the announcement said.

The amount of jizya-money demanded was $450 a month, an exorbitant sum for Iraq.
Hours after the demand for jizya was made, Islamists began painting the letter "n" on Christian homes in Mosul-in Arabic, Christians are known as "Nasara," or "Nazarenes"-signaling them out for the slaughter to come.

Hezbollah official: New tunnels dug in Gaza every hour

Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem says Israel destroyed only 30 of over 3,000 tunnels in Gaza • Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal condemns Israel, says it has no right to self-defense because "it is an occupier."

Daniel Siryoti

Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem | Photo credit: Reuters

Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem said Tuesday that Israel's Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip was ineffective and barely put a dent in Hamas' tunnel infrastructure.

Speaking on Hezbollah-run television station Al-Manar, Qassem said, "The Israeli prime minister was proud of destroying more than 30 tunnels, but in Gaza, there are more than 3,000 tunnels and a new tunnel is dug every hour."

He also addressed Palestinian criticism of Hezbollah for not getting involved in the conflict by firing rockets at northern Israel.

"Such an undertaking would work against the Palestinians, drawing international criticism and justifying Israel's continued aggression," he said.

In Gaza, officials are still determining the scope of the damage from the campaign. Some believe it will take years for Gaza to recover from the devastation.

"Thousands of buildings were destroyed," Gaza Civilian Emergency Services spokesman Ashraf al-Kudra told Israel Hayom. "The electricity, drinking water and sewage infrastructure has been almost entirely destroyed. What has not been destroyed has been severely damaged and is on the brink of collapse."

Tension mounts as clock ticks down on Gaza cease-fire

With 72-hour cease-fire set to expire at midnight Wednesday, Cairo talks reach a decisive stage • Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon: Fighting may break out again; we must be alert and ready • Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman: Israel must take the initiative, finish the story.

Daniel Siryoti, Mati Tuchfeld and Lilach Shoval

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon visits a Navy ship in Ashdod, Tuesday | Photo credit: Ariel Hermoni

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With the latest 72-hour cease-fire set to expire at midnight Wednesday, the only certainty about what will follow is uncertainty.

According to Israeli officials, the ongoing cease-fire talks in Cairo have hit a stalemate, and Israel's political echelon is prepared for the possibility that fighting in Gaza will resume after the 72-hour cease-fire ends.

A cabinet meeting that had been scheduled for Tuesday afternoon was canceled. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did meet with heads of coalition parties on Tuesday to update them on developments in Cairo, or lack thereof.

"Hamas is negotiating like someone who has nothing to lose," a senior Israeli political official said Tuesday.

The Romance of the Fall

Sultan Knish blog
Robin Williams is the keyword of the hour. Seeing the rash of stories about him, you might think that he went out at the high point of his career. And yet those same people couldn't be bothered to actually watch the movies he was starring in.

The closest he came to a starring role in the last few years was Old Dogs. It made less than $50 million. Before that there was License to Wed. A handful of people saw that.

Last year he was back on television. And the show he was on was cancelled after its first season.

The same public eating up Robin Williams stories now was bored and disinterested. A week ago, it wouldn't have paid attention to Robin Williams if he had paid them to. It didn't go to see his movies. It didn't watch his TV show.

Now that he committed suicide, it temporarily can't get enough of him.

History is speedily rewritten to put him at the center of everything. And yet how many of those same people turning him into the trending topic of everything tuned in to the series finale of The Crazy Ones? The ratings say that not a whole lot of people did.

Jihadis on Robin Williams: “hope this one burns in the hottest lake of fire”

This is the culture you expect to negotiate? You are a fool, ignorant or anti-western values-wake up!!

Robert Spencer  
 
They’re still angry about his jihad routine. So here it is, in tribute to him.
“Jihadis Slam Robin William [sic] for Stand-up Routine from 2002,” by Mangala Dilip, International Business Times, August 12, 2014:

Veteran actor and comedian Robin Williams, 63, was found dead in his California home by the Marin County Police, shortly after they responded to an emergency call around noon, local time, CNN reported.
He is said to have taken his own life and according to his media representative Mara Buxbaum, is said to have “been battling severe depression of late”.
David Itzkoff of the New York Times released a statement from Williams’ wife Susan Schneider on Tuesday morning.
Robin Williams died this morning, his publicist confirms. Statement from his wife Susan Schneider: pic.twitter.com/YS0WbTd3oO
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) August 11, 2014
While the world mourned his loss by sharing and retweeting his best performances, there were a few who actively celebrated the untimely death.
“#RobinWilliams hanged himself? SubhanAllah what blessing Islam is. Verily, Allah guards us from depression. Hell, what an evil destination.” Posted Abdullah, aka Mujahid4life.
In reply to Adbullah’s next tweet wishing Williams would burn in hell, Yusuf Nidal Rahman posted, “@mujahid4life how can any kafir rest it peace, hope this one burns in the hottest lake of fire.”

White House: U.S. is not at war with the Islamic State

Robert Spencer 
“Right now, ISIL’s primary focus is consolidating territory in the Middle East region to establish their own Islamic State.” Yes, but they have made it abundantly clear that that is not their only goal, and that they desire ultimately to strike inside the United States. We are not at war with them, but they most assuredly are at war with us.
“Airstrikes in Iraq: What You Need to Know,” by Ben Rhodes, White House Blog, August 11, 2014 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):

President Obama has authorized the U.S. military to execute targeted airstrikes in Iraq.
The President takes no decision more seriously than the use of military force. So it’s worth taking a few minutes to make sure you understand exactly what is happening in Iraq right now, who is involved, and why we are taking action. Here are a few answers to some key questions Americans may be asking:…
7. Is ISIL more dangerous than al-Qaeda right now?
While both are terrorist forces, they have different ambitions. Al-Qaeda’s principal ambition is to launch attacks against the west and U.S. homeland. That’s the direct threat that we have taken direct action against for many years. Right now, ISIL’s primary focus is consolidating territory in the Middle East region to establish their own Islamic State. So they’re different organizations with different objectives.

How Hamas Wields Gaza’s Casualties as Propaganda

• Steven Stotsky

Smoke rises from a building following the Israeli attacks in Gaza City on July 25, 2014. Anadolu Agency—Getty Images

The terrorist group casts Israel’s military as indiscriminate and civilian deaths as disproportionate, but Hamas-affiliated fatality figures should be viewed with suspicion

An informational battle of competing messages directed at international audiences parallels the military fighting between Israel and Hamas. Accompanying a barrage of wrenching images are Palestinian fatality statistics alleging disproportionate numbers of non-combatants. These figures are crucial because they form the basis of accusations that Israel uses excessive and indiscriminate force.

Hamas, the terrorist group controlling Gaza, endeavors to turn Israel’s military superiority to its own advantage by portraying the Israeli response to intense rocket and mortar fire as disproportionate and indiscriminate. In doing so, it hopes to turn public opinion against the Jewish state, as well as bolster its own standing at the expense of the Fatah-led Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank.

Fatality figures provided by Hamas and other groups should be viewed with suspicion. Not only do Israeli figures cast doubt on claims that the vast majority of fatalities are non-combatants, but a careful review of Palestinian sources also raises doubts.

Foreign reporters condemn Hamas' censorship policy in Gaza

FPA statement 'protests methods by Hamas against journalists in Gaza', cites Hamas attempts to create a 'blacklist' of reporters.
Yitzhak Benhorin

Published: / Israel News

WASHINGTON - The Foreign Press Association (FPA) released a statement Monday condemning censorship by Hamas in the Gaza Strip in attempts to ensure that reports put the terrorist organization in positive light over the course of Operation Protective Edge.

In response, Israel has apologized for such incidents, calling them a mistake and warning the organization that Hamas was using reporters as human shields. The Government Press Office (GPO) also stressed that Israel can't be responsible for the safety of journalists in the Gaza Strip saying, "The city of Gaza and the surrounding areas are a battleground."

Gaza construction funding ‘incorrectly’ handled by non-staff UN personnel, report finds

By George Russell

An Israeli army officer gives journalists a tour, Friday, July 25, 2014, of a tunnel allegedly used by Palestinian militants for cross-border attacks, at the Israel-Gaza Border. A network of tunnels Palestinian militants have dug from Gaza to Israel, dubbed "lower Gaza" by the Israeli military, is taking center stage in the latest war between Hamas and Israel. (AP Photo/Jack Guez, Pool)AP2014

See bottom of story for update
EXCLUSIVE:  While controversy continues to swirl around the huge Hamas tunnel network in Gaza, an internal United Nations audit report reveals that a U.N. Development Program office that funds and monitors spending on construction in the territory allowed at least five non-staff contract employees to handle “core” procurement  processes that only staffers are supposed to handle, including those for ordering up “significant” civil construction activities.
Moreover, the report says, of the UNDP office: “the Office was not monitoring and recording actual work” performed by these individuals and other contract employees handling “core” functions, and the terms of reference for their employment “did not include specifications for services provided to particular projects” — in other words, were relatively undefined.

COP: The Gases of Life are Not Pollutants

Viv Forbes

Our atmosphere contains the four gases of life – nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor, and carbon dioxide.
Nitrogen is the most abundant gas-of-life in the atmosphere (78%).  It is an essential building block of amino acids present in all proteins.  It is a very stable, unreactive gas, but micro-organisms in the soil and some plants are able to extract nitrogen from the atmosphere, making it available to growing plants.  Lightning also manages to oxidize some atmospheric nitrogen.
Oxygen is the second most abundant gas-of-life in the atmosphere (21%).  Every animal absorbs oxygen with every breath, using it to fuel bodily digestion of the foods animals eat.  This process builds bodies and provides the energy of muscles.  In the great oxygen cycle, plants extract oxygen from carbon dioxide and exhale it to the atmosphere for animals to breathe.
Water vapor is the third most abundant gas-of-life in the atmosphere (varies up to 5%).  Water vapor is part of the great water cycle, where water is evaporated into the atmosphere from salty seas, surface water, and plants.  Rain and snow return it to the surface supply of fresh water.  No animals, plants, or sea creatures could exist without water.
Water vapor is the most effective “greenhouse gas” in the atmosphere, with far more effect than carbon dioxide.  It reduces incoming solar radiation by day and reduces surface cooling at night.  Water is also a global temperature stabilizer – heat is transferred from oceans and land as latent heat by evaporation, forming clouds that often cool the surface.

The Real "Siege" of the Gaza Strip

Khaled Abu Toameh
August 12, 2014 

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4599/siege-of-gaza

Egypt has not only turned Gaza into an "open-air prison." It has prevented the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip before and during the war.
Last year, more than 100 Muslim scholars signed a petition accusing Egypt and Arab countries of participating in the siege of Gaza by keeping Egypt's Rafah border crossing with Gaza closed and preventing medical and humanitarian aid.
Egypt does not want anyone to talk about its blockade of Gaza. At the cease-fire discussions taking place in Cairo, the Palestinians have been asked not to talk about the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
The Egyptians want the world to blame only Israel for the "siege" on the Gaza Strip, and turn it into an Israeli, and not an Egyptian, problem.
While Egypt continues to impose strict restrictions, hundreds of trucks of food and basic supplies — and ambulances and medical staff from Israel — are being transported into Gaza through border crossings with Israel.
Whatever is ultimately decided, Hamas's leaders will find ways to smuggle weapons into Gaza: their goal is to destroy Israel.

Much of the US aid to Yazidis “useless” because it was dropped from 15,000ft without parachutes and exploded on impact

Robert Spencer 
As far as the mainstream media is concerned, this doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that Barack Obama is made to appear as if he is doing something for the Yazidis and against the Islamic State. That he actually do something effective is not required. “Iraq crisis: ‘It is death valley. Up to 70 per cent of them are dead,’” by Jonathan Krohn, the Telegraph, August 10, 2014 (thanks to David):

Mount Sinjar stinks of death. The few Yazidis who have managed to escape its clutches can tell you why. “Dogs were eating the bodies of the dead,” said Haji Khedev Haydev, 65, who ran through the lines of Islamic State jihadists surrounding it.
On Sunday night, I became the first western journalist to reach the mountains where tens of thousands of Yazidis, a previously obscure Middle Eastern sect, have been taking refuge from the Islamic State forces that seized their largest town, Sinjar.
I was on board an Iraqi Army helicopter, and watched as hundreds of refugees ran towards it to receive one of the few deliveries of aid to make it to the mountain. The helicopter dropped water and food from its open gun bays to them as they waited below. General Ahmed Ithwany, who led the mission, told me: “It is death valley. Up to 70 per cent of them are dead.”

Iran calls on “Palestinians” in Judea and Samaria to take up arms against Israel

Robert Spencer 
“We believe the West Bank, too, should be armed just like Gaza…” This will come, if Barack Obama and John Kerry get their way.
“Iran Calls on West Bank Palestinians to Take Up Arms Against Israel, Encourages Violence,” by Joshua Levitt, Algemeiner, August 11, 2014:

Brigadier General Massoud Jazzayeri, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, on Monday called for Palestinian Arabs living in the Israel’s regions of Judea and Samaria, dubbed the West Bank, to take up arms against Israel, according to semi-official state news agency Fars.
Much of the region’s sovereignty is in the hands of the Palestinian Authority government and its local mayors and city councils, but Israeli border police behind its security barrier, erected in 2005 to end the suicide bombing attacks that killed hundreds of Israelis each year since the Palestinian Intifada began in 2000, continue to be a visible point of contention.
Rather than work for closer political integration and trust building projects on each side, the Iranian Army, which has been supplying Hamas, in Gaza, with Fajr-5 missiles and Ababil drones, is calling for “more serious fighting in the occupied territories.”