The Birthday Party that Captured Israel’s Heart

Hydrotherapist Abbe Gindin (C) holds Maria Amin during a therapy session at a rehabilitation hospital in Jerusalem August 29, 2007. An Israeli rehabilitation centre is defying an order from the Defense Ministry to transfer Maria, who was paralysed from the neck down after Israeli attack on militants in Gaza in May last year, to a Palestinian hospital in the West Bank. She had been travelling in a vehicle with her mother, grandmother and older brother, who were killed.

REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis

Date posted: September 01, 2007
By Eric Silver

Maria Amin, a chubby-faced Palestinian girl with gleaming brown eyes, celebrated her birthday yesterday like any pampered six year old. Doting aunts decked her out like a princess in a gauzy white chiffon dress, spotted with pink hearts and topped with a toy tiara.

A make-up girl primped her hair, rouged her cheeks and painted her lips. With a pout and a shake of the head, Maria rejected a plain lipstick and demanded a glittery gold one. She insisted on being sprayed with a favourite scent. When the make-up girl held up a mirror, she cooed: “How pretty!”

But Maria was no ordinary birthday girl. She came to the party in a wheelchair, which she navigates with her chin against a joystick. She was paralysed from the neck down in May last year when the car she was in was caught in an Israeli missile strike on an Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza. Her mother, grandmother and older brother were killed.

She celebrated her birthday party in the Israeli Alyn hospital and rehabilitation centre for handicapped children, where she is hooked to the respirator she will need for the rest of her life.
Her father, Hamdi Amin, who is on call 24 hours a day, supervised the festivities. The Israeli army allowed his father, grandfather and sundry cousins to visit from Gaza. The hall, overlooking the Jerusalem forest, was awash with balloons.

Reporters who had followed Maria’s story, turned up with their own children, bearing gifts, as did Arab and Jewish friends. The birthday girl thanked them in her native Arabic and the Hebrew she has picked up from the hospital staff.

But the celebrations were overshadowed. The Israeli Defence Ministry has paid for Maria’s rehabilitation at Alyn and for a small flat on the premises for her father and younger brother. Now, however, the ministry says she must move to the Abu Raya Rehabilitation Centre in Ramallah. It will continue covering expenses.

The Palestinian doctors say that they cannot provide the care Maria needs. They don’t have the equipment; they don’t have the trained staff. The Israeli hospital is defying orders and refusing to discharge her. The case will come before the Israeli Supreme Court on 25 September.

Hamdi Amin is a father in limbo. He can’t work, even if the Israelis give him a permit. Maria needs him constantly. “Until the judges decide,” he said, “I don’t know how we’ll live or where we’ll go. Maria’s condition is still very grave. For her it’s a matter of life or death. She can’t move her arms or legs. She can’t breathe on her own. There’s nowhere in Gaza or the West Bank that can look after her. How can the Defence Ministry say the Ramallah hospital has to treat her?”

The family has seen the worst and the best of Israel. Hamdi declines to blame or to praise. “I don’t care about wars, I don’t care about Hamas, I don’t care about America,” he explained. “I grew up in a family where you worked to put food on the table for your children. I believe that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.”

A support group of Israeli and Palestinian activists has rallied to the Amin family’s side. Dalia Becker, a chain-smoking Israeli matron, said: “We’re Hamdi’s second family. Anything he needs, he turns to us. We’re paying for the lawyers who will represent Maria at the Supreme Court. It’s hard to believe that once the judges see her, they will send her away.”

Back in Gaza, the undeclared war goes on. Children are still paying a price. An Israeli shell killed two Palestinian boys and a girl near Beit Hanoun on Wednesday. A military spokesman said the troops targeted several Qassam rocket launchers aimed at Israel. It expressed “sorrow for the cynical use the terror organisations make of the active participation of teenagers in terror attacks”.

The army said yesterday that it had arrested a 15-year-old Gaza boy on his way to a suicide bombing against Israeli soldiers.

http://www.miftah.org

Walking in Palestinian Shoes

Palestinians walk through a gate as they cross at the Hawara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2007. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas tackled the biggest issues dividing the two sides at a meeting on Tuesday — final borders, Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, an Israeli official said. It was the first time the two men discussed these matters in depth, the official said.

(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Date posted: August 29, 2007
By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

Many times, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict deserves lengthy and deep analyses. There are historical, cultural, political and religious considerations that need to be picked apart before reaching some sort of theory as to why this tiny slice of earth is so tormented.

Then there are those times when a simple glance at the obvious is enough to clarify the complete injustice of the Israeli occupation. This is not even about the more significant issues such as political assassinations, home demolitions, prisoners or military operations that claim scores of lives. No, this is about everyday matters, most often taken for granted, which when one takes a moment to contemplate, show just how sinister a military occupation can be.

Take an innocuous trip to the coastal town of Herzeliya. One of the more ritzy areas in Israel, the main mall in the town center is picture perfect. Not only is the actual structure aesthetically appealing, but the spacious piazza onto which the mall opens is breathtaking, overlooking the equally picturesque port, lined with sailboats, motorboats and luxurious yachts.

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A Palestinian man picks grapes in the West Bank village of Al-Khader, where construction of the Wall threatens to separate farmers from their land.

(Haytham Othman, Maan Images)

A Palestinian man picks grapes in the West Bank village of Al-Khader, where construction of the Wall threatens to separate farmers from their land.

(Haytham Othman, Maan Images)

Can you …

Do YOUR part!!

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Gaza’s sick children

Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza, reports on the sick Palestinian children struggling to get the treatment they need at home, or anywhere else. Bearing the brunt of a choking siege and international sanctions, health care in the enclave is limited to the available, rather than the required, medicine.

Face-to-face with top Hamas leader in secret location

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Editor’s note: In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events. Here, Cal Perry describes speaking with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in a secret location in Damascus, Syria.

DAMASCUS, Syria (CNN) — Sitting in a room with the top Hamas leader — a man Israel would prefer dead — is not an easy feeling, knowing that at any second a missile could shatter the building, killing everyone inside, myself included.

And, of course, it is no surprise why Israel has Khaled Meshaal at the top of its hit list. He is known to have ordered bombings that have targeted Israeli civilians, blowing up cafés, markets and malls across Israel.

CNN senior correspondent Nic Robertson and I recently sat down with Meshaal in a secret Hamas “safe house” in the middle of Damascus. Hamas security guards were all around, their automatic rifles draped over their shoulders. The walls were adorned with the pictures of Hamas members who have carried out suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis.

We sipped coffee uneasily as we waited for Meshaal to emerge for an interview that was more than three years in the making. Suddenly and without warning, the Hamas leader appeared.

Dressed in a suit, he smiled as he greeted us. “You are more than welcome,” he said in broken English, a common phrase you hear in the Middle East.
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INTERVIEW: Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5

In my opinion …
In a conflict ALL sides must have a voice! To completely isolate one party for whatever reason is wrong. As long as there is communication, there’s always a chance, however minute, to find a solution or at least establish a foundation for future negotiations.

The ONE question always asked first is “How can you negotiate with terrorists? With people who send suicide bombers?” I say you MUST talk – silence and isolation kill every last iota of hope of ever finding a common denominator on which any future talks can be built on and can only lead to even more deterioration of the situation!

You want to solve a problem – find first of all a way to TALK!

The stand of the Israeli government and consequently her allies is WRONG – it drives all parties further apart, increases the downward spiral of hatred and violence to an irreversible point which will one day inevitably lead to another escalation!

NO PARTY wants that!

Do I support Hamas? NO, I don’t! I do not support ANYONE who uses, promotes and even encourages violence and that includes Israel. I am FOR finding a peaceful solution, however difficult and complex – nobody can tell me is NOT possible!

There is ALWAYS a way – it just has to be found!

Israel’s fourty-year long devastating occupation of the West Bank and Gaza (the so-called “disengagement” from Gaza did NOT “disengage” at all – the only difference to before is physical absence of settlements inside the Gaza Strip! Israel still controls EVERY ASPECT of life which includes ALL boarder-crossings as well as access by water, electricity and gas!) , the ever growing apartheid against Palestinians everywhere, the tightening of the economical rope around the neck, the sky-reaching injustice, the ongoing house destructions and land confiscations, the so-called “security-wall”, the horrific personal toll it takes on the people …

… who on this planet would sit still and silently suffer?
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View from America: CNN’s false symmetry

Aug 27, 2007 20:45 Updated Aug 27, 2007 20:45

Jonathan Tobin , THE JERUSALEM POST

Critics of religion like to claim that the source of most of the world’s ills can be traced to believers who wage wars in the name of their distorted, fanatic faiths.

Indeed, in the past year this thesis has led to a spate of new books advocating atheism and deriding religion.

Needless to say, critics of this trend have pointed out that the vast majority of the deaths incurred by conflicts in history’s bloodiest century – the 20th – were caused by fanatical non-believers in traditional faiths in the name of their Communist, Maoist and Nazi faiths.

But it must be admitted that violent religious extremists are, at this moment in time, the primary threat to the peace of the world. The only problem with this unpleasant fact is that the opprobrium rightly aimed at the perpetrators of this faith-based violence cannot be neatly distributed across the board to practitioners of the three major monotheistic religions.

Though present-day Jews and Christians are not all saints, there is no getting around the fact that neither of those religions has sprouted a contemporary movement aimed at world domination to be achieved by terror and war. That honor is reserved for the Muslim faith, among whose adherents Islamist terror movements have found a home in the mainstream of its culture.

NOT ALL Muslims are Islamists. Most American Muslims are nothing of the kind. But the notion that supporters of al-Qaida, Hizbullah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other assorted anti-Western and anti-Jewish terror movements are a tiny minority in the Arab and Muslim world is a delusion.

However, in this age of political correctness to single out one group for the sins of a large number of its members is considered unfair and perhaps even racist. So, instead, we are asked to pretend that there is an intrinsic connection, or even symmetry, between Christian, Jewish and Muslim extremists.

That was exactly the premise of a widely heralded three-part series on CNN last week. Titled God’s Holy Warriors and fronted by famed international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, it was a tryptich across the globe to highlight the danger from Jewish, Muslim and Christian extremists, who are all given the same treatment and air-time in the guise of even-handedness.

Thus, by its very structure of equating the three different situations, the series was nothing short of a brazen lie.

Though all parts of the series were problematic, the first, devoted to the threat from extremist Jewish settlers and the entire network of support for the State of Israel in the US, was as classic an example of a dishonest piece of biased programming as anything that has been broadcast on a major network.

Though a tiny fraction of the settlement movement, which itself commands the support of only a fraction of Israelis, has committed isolated acts of violence, the notion that this group is in any way analogous to al-Qaida is nothing short of bizarre. If anything, Jewish settlers and ordinary Israelis living inside the pre-1967 borders have themselves been the victims of the intolerance, fanaticism and violence of their Muslim neighbors.

That the broadcasts’ view of international law on the question of the legality of the Jewish presence in the territories is one-sided is an understatement. A strong case can be made that the Jews living in those places have every right to do so. Moreover, the idea that their living in these places constitutes the primary obstacle to peace in the Middle East is nothing short of fantastic, especially given the events of the past several years, which have shown how uninterested the Palestinians are in peace with Israel, no matter where its borders are.

Even worse, the show seemingly accepts the discredited canard of Israeli and American Jewish control of American foreign policy put forth by such risible figures as former president Jimmy Carter and academic John Mearsheimer, whose views were treated with respect rather than journalistic skepticism.

As such, the worldwide news network lent itself to a line of argument that has rightly been termed a modern intellectual justification for anti-Semitism.

EXTREMIST MUSLIMS are a genuine threat to both peace and the West; while most settlers are no threat to anyone and are, if anything, among the primary victims of Muslim terror.

As for Evangelical Christians, who were the targets of Amanpour’s third program, most American Jews may disagree with most of their political positions but, to date, they have launched no terror attacks, nor do they plan any. Any analogy between them and Islamists is the figment of Amanpour’s fevered imagination. If anything, their main sin, in the eyes of many Western apologists for the Islamists, seems to be their support for Jewish victims of Arab terror.

CNN cannot be allowed to get away with this sort of despicable bias. Decent persons of all faiths need to speak out against this network and make sure that it, and its arrogant star Amanpour, are made to hear of our outrage at every possible opportunity and in every way possible, including the use of economic leverage by both sponsors and viewers.

The writer is executive editor of the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia.jtobin@jewishexponent.com
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I owe you a BIG apology!

OMG – I can’t believe I did that, I am totally shocked!
I’ll tell you what happened …

I just finished to chat with a very dear friend who casually mentioned during our conversation she had commented on one of my posts but the comment never showed up and asked if there was a problem! I told her I’d not be aware of anything unusual and confided to her, I really miss to be in touch with my readers – I love interaction, dialogue and am awfully tired of holding monologues which bore me terribly.

We continued talking and all of a sudden she asked me if by chance I had enabled “comment moderation” and forgotten about it … and suddenly all I could utter was “OMG …” the sledge hammer had hit me smack in the face: that was IT, THAT’S what had happened!

I went right away to check and there were ALL your wonderful comments which I had so dearly missed!

I am no friend of comment moderation to say the least – I remember though having received several very dirty and sleezy comments which definitely have NO place on my blog and finally didn’t leave me any other choice but to moderate at least temporarily. Well – in the meantime almost three weeks passed and I had totally forgotten – and feel terribly embarassed!

I hope you all can forgive me … I’ll do my best to go back and respond to each single of your comments! Please keep on telling me your thoughts, opinion, your stand, view … your ideas!

It’s not necessary to agree to one another, it’s only natural we have different opinions – MAIN THING is to respect one another, to try to find a common denominator, if necessary to agree to disagree – and to keep on talking!

BIG PROMISE it won’t happen anymore!
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Struggles of a Pious Leader

A collection of Mother Teresa’s private letters are being published as part of the campaign for her sainthood.
(ABCNEWS)

Throughout Her Life Mother Teresa Wrote Privately of Struggles With Her Faith

Aug. 24, 2007 — ABCNEWS

In dozens of letters spanning 66 years, Mother Teresa described the “emptiness” she felt and confessed her struggles with faith and the existence of heaven in pages she had planned to have destroyed.

A decade after her death, they have been published in the book “Come By My Light” as part of the petition for her sainthood.

“The lives of the saints are personal, but they are not private,” said The Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, who is publishing the letters. “The documents are really are quite valuable in that they speak of her own holiness and the value & to people who can relate to what she was going through.”

They offer surprising revelations, including one instance in which she writes, “no faith — no love — no zeal — [The saving of] souls holds no attraction — Heaven means nothing & it has been like this more or less from the time I started ‘the work.’”

Her work began when she heard God tell her to open a mission in Calcutta. The book includes her Jan. 13, 1947 letter in which she wrote to the Archbishop of Calcutta to request permission to found her own order, the Missionaries of Charity.

Several years later, she composed a letter as an exercise from her spiritual adviser to express her devotion to Jesus and passionately wrote, “I want to satiate your thirst with every single drop of blood that you can find in me. Don’t allow me to do you wrong in any way.”

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Click here to read the letter (courtesy of Doubleday).
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To millions her work still shines as the example of Christlike devotion. It brought her the Nobel Peace Prize and beatification by Pope John Paul. But once she began her work in India she never heard God’s voice again. Nine years after she founded her mission in Calcutta she wrote, “What do I labour for? If there be no God — there can be no soul — if there is no Soul then Jesus — You also are not true.”

“Even the sisters around her had no idea of the length and the depth,” Kolodiejchuk said.

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Faith vs. Benevolence

As many Catholics learn how long she suffered this crisis of faith, they are even more awed by her deeds.

“Unlike the other saints, who might have been going through their day with a lot of consolation from their prayer, Mother Teresa was running on empty and doing all these wonderful works,” said Father James Martin.

But while the faithful see her struggle as inspirational, some atheists are taking it as confirmation of their own rational doubts and proof that the faithless can display enormous benevolence.

“Of course nonbelievers all over the world display compassion,” said Dan Barker of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “She was forced to go through the motions and admitted her own hypocrisy.”

Ten years after her death, her Missionaries of Charity claims to have over a million volunteers comforting the sick and orphaned in 40 countries. This book is certain to stir those who pray the Vatican will canonize the nun from the slums. If it does, Mother Teresa may just be the patron saint of skeptics.

Mother Teresa’s website

Her Words

Her Biography

A very controversial interview of Christopher Hitchens. The title:

“THE MISSIONARY POSITION:Mother Teresa’s Crimes Against Humanity”

It was published by Danny Postel on 9-15-1998 and published in the LiP Magazine[http://www.lipmagazine.org] .

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TIME MAGAZINE Thursday, Aug. 23, 2007: “Mother Teresa’s Crisis of Faith” … A MUST READ!!!

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In order not to have to call myself a hypocrite, I have to add a few words of my own …

I have visited Calcutta in summer 1981 during a train-trip criss-crossing the Indian subcontinent. In order to get a picture of the dimensions – the city itself has a population of almost 4.5 million, with an extended metropolitan population of over 14 million, making it the fourth-largest city in India.

I was determined not to leave the city for before visiting “Nirmal Hridai” or “Kali Gat“, a temple for the godess Kali – that’s what it actually was before Mother Teresa had bought it. Among many it is simply known as “Death House“, a word which triggers goose bumps in every Westerner but that’s what it was inteneded for – a house in which the poorest of the poor, the ones who had absolutely nothing and nobody found a place to die in dignity!

Christopher Hitchens may have all kind of prove of Mother Teresa having accepted funds from the Duvaliers family in Haiti and Charles Keating of the Lincoln Savings and Loan or laid a wreath at the tomb of the Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha – it doesn’t impress me NOR does it lessen the tremendous POSITIVE impact Mother Teresa had in this city and ultimately country and even worldwide!

I remember very well my arrival at Kali Gat. I had not called before nor had I notified the nuns of my arrival. I simply rang the doorbell and there I was. Right away and in a very friendly way I was asked to enter and found myself before long inside a very large room.

I remember a very large cool place with dark-green stretchers placed throughout, about two feet apart, the few empty ones with neatly folded blankets at the footend. A nun explained me about their patients.

Amost every single one had Tuberculosis at a final stage, some were emaciated to almost a skeleton, some sleeping. I remember seeing a nun bent over an old man, feeding him with the tenderness of a loving mother taking care of her baby, in his face I could see the gratefulness to have someone during his last hours taking care of him! He smiled – it was a sight full of love and serenity. I was handed a bowl of food and asked to feed another person as well as give an injection which as RN I had no problem taking care of.

During those few hours I was there I was like mesmerized. I wanted to absorb as much as possible of this atmosphere of serenity and peace – it was so intense, almost tangible. I learned an invaluable lesson about humanity, one I never forgot!

With all due respect to Mr. Hitchens’ research – I am sure the world would be a lot poorer today without Mother Teresa’s invaluable impact.

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