Yom Hazikarom - Remembering the Fallen

Israel marked Memorial Day on Wednesday morning as a two-minute nationwide siren sounded at 11 A.M. to commemorate the 22,993 IDF soldiers who have fallen while serving the nation.

Durch Nacht und Blut zur licht!

Gaza's borders

Map of Gaza, a territory wich borders both Egypt and Israel

All this emphasis on the Gaza blockade sounds rather silly when you look at the map.

Gaza has a border with Egypt, the Arab and Muslim "friends" of Palestine.

Gaza is not an enclave in Israel!

Yet, the Egyptians choose to have the Rafah border closed or on reduced flow most of the time. This applies both to people and goods. Even if the Egyptians consider most Gazans to be to unsavory to cross the border, they could choose to allow imports and exports.

So, no fleet of trucks to be sent across the Sinai desert?

All the Arab rhetoric sounds very cynical when Egypt chooses to keep its own border everything but close.

May we guess that Egypt is not terribly in love with Hamas?

... on the other hand it is scary to think that Turkey is! The AK party shows its true colours.

Rafah crossing - links Egypt to Gaza

Palestinians already have state

Cannot resist getting the bulk of a 2002 opinion piece by Noach Milgram published by University of California's "Daily Bruin":

"...
First, Palestinians are supported by over 150 million Arabs who care nothing for them personally but wish to eliminate the Jewish state and have said so all along.

Secondly, the Palestinian Authority has stated in every religious sermon and in every school textbook that Israel has no right to exist as a sovereign Jewish state. When I say they reject Israel in every statement, I mean just what I say, but of course these statements are in Arabic.

Thirdly, Palestinians already have a state, it is called Jordan and it occupies over 70 percent of the original Palestine land freed from Turkish control after World War I. Why should there be two Palestinian states side by side? Keep in mind over 75 percent of Jordanian citizens are Palestinians. If Mexicans crossed the border into Texas to kill Texans because they wished to establish a Mexican State, you would not suggest they first be allowed to establish a state and then boycott both states equally, the United States and the new Mexican state? You would say a Mexican state already exists and Texas belongs to the United States
Lastly, we Jews live in the Middle East, where militant Islam is driving Christian Arabs out of Lebanon and the Copts (six million in number, the oldest Christian sects in the world) out of Egypt. Arafat, when he is not busy inciting his people to kill Israelis, is driving the Christian residents out of Bethlehem. More than half have already left Bethlehem since he came into power. If he isn’t stopped, you will find only a few token Christians there the next time you come to celebrate Christmas or Easter in the Holy Land
...."

Land for Peace may not have been such a good idea - Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah