This issue looks at Israeli aid to Gaza and preparations to defend against a massive attack, Iranian border provocations, Chinese war games attack on America, the arrest of a Muslim Marine, anti-Semitism in Scotland, and CAIR’s loss of tax-exempt status.

OUR ISRAELI CONNECTION

Israel Provides Aid to Gaza
The Israel Project reports that Israel approved the delivery of $100 million of materials needed to build 1,200 new homes and 18 new schools in Hamas-ruled Gaza Tuesday. The step was lauded by United Nations officials. Gaza responded with more rockets fired into Israel. Israel transports 50,000 tons of goods to Gaza every two weeks, but the media don’t see this as fit to report.
 
IDF Launches Massive Civil Defense Exercise
David Zauber reports that Sunday saw the launch of “Turning Point 5,” a week long Israeli civil defense exercise with over one third of the country’s municipal councils participating. The exercise includes the simulation of bombardments from Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and Iran, and is created in order for Israeli emergency services to understand where they are most vulnerable. Matan Vilna’i, Israel’s Homeland Security Minister, explained on Sunday that, “the exercise regards extreme situations such as massive firing (of missiles) deep into the State of Israel; I look around the world and nowhere are there exercises of this scope. It and its success are our security.” According to IDF estimates, more than 800 missiles and rockets could be fired on Israel every day for several months in the event of a future war on several fronts.
 
Iran Encourages Syria to Continue Border Provocations
Jerusalem Prayer Team reports: Israeli intelligence officials have revealed that Iran is encouraging Syria to continue to provoke confrontations along the border with Israel in an effort to distract attention from the ongoing crackdown by the Assad government in Damascus. Reports say that Syria has killed well over one thousand of its own citizens and injured thousands more as Assad struggles to cling to power. Opposition leaders said the government was paying protestors $1,000 each to march on the border with Israel. Iran hopes for a two-fold gain: first, to shore up the shaky Assad government and second, to force Israel to focus on Syria rather than on possible action to halt Iran’s nuclear program.

IT’S NEWS TO ME

Chinese War Games Target America
The Chinese have some new war games: “Kill the American Capitalist Pig.” They loan us money, gladly accept “Most Favorite Nation Status,” and come up with this. Will we never learn? WorldNetDaily reports: Soldiers in China’s People’s Liberation Army are training for a possible future conflict through the assistance of a video game featuring U. S. soldiers as the enemy. A report by China’s CCTV television shows PLA officers in front of screens that have M16-wielding soldiers and Apache gunships as potential targets. Read more.
 
Muslim Marine Arrested
One Jerusalem reports: You will not see this headline anywhere, because the media has been careful not to divulge the religion of this possible terrorist because he is Muslim. James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal calls this reportage, “Losing his religion.” While his notebook contains positive references to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban one of the major news sources says there is no indication that he was interested in committing a terrorist act. That he was acting suspiciously and said that he had explosives while near the Pentagon does not sound like he was an innocent bystander. Of course, the other knee jerk reaction is that his being a Muslim is not relevant to this story. We beg to differ. 
 
Scottish Municipality Bans Israeli Books
According to the Jewish Tribune, A Scottish municipality has banned from its libraries books by Israeli authors, along with books that were printed or published in Israel. The West Dunbartonshire Council, consisting of towns and villages west of Glasgow, ordered new books by Israeli authors to be banned from the council’s libraries, according to reports. The ban reportedly was ordered after last year’s raid by Israeli commandoes on a ship attempting to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza that led to the death of nine Turkish nationals. The ban followed a decision made two-and-a-half years ago following the Gaza war to boycott goods produced in Israel. According to that law, the council and all its public bodies are forbidden to sell goods that originated from Israel.

I would like the West Dunbartonshire Council members to read my “Pharmacist article” in my Blog Post 203 and then see what they have to say.
 
Hamas-Linked CAIR Loses Tax-Exempt Status
According to Jihad Watch, Donations to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) no longer are tax deductible after the organization was among 275,000 tax-exempt organizations purged earlier this month by the Internal Revenue Service. The groups failed to file required annual reports, known as form 990s, detailing their revenues and expenses, for three consecutive years. CAIR had been a non-profit on its own, but in 2007, the IRS approved a separate tax-exempt CAIR Foundation. The foundation never filed any subsequent reports. Both the foundation and CAIR national are on the purge list.

RELATED ARTICLES

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
ASTRONOMER:
Rearrange the letters and you get
MOON STARER