UNM Israel Alliance

Welcome to all the new people who signed up during the UNM Welcome Back days last week!

The first meeting of the semester will be on Wednesday, Sept. 1 at 5:30 pm at Mannie’s on Central.
We’ll have an Israel Alliance sign at the table so you can find us.

This is a planning meeting for the semester, so bring your ideas!

The war is coming, but it is a war from within just as much as a war from without. Self-perception defines Israel’s posture as she stands against a massive array of enemies who seek to destroy her body andher soul. Should Israel appease or stand tough, compromise or stand alone? What is the practical approach? Do realpolitik and pragmatism conflict with idealism, nationalism, and patriotism? Is the United States helping or hindering Israel’s survival? What is the future of Jerusalem, Bethel, Hebron and Tel Aviv?

Join Yishai Fleisher as he tackles Israel’s unique challenges and articulates a vision for a winning direction forward. If you care about Israel, you won’t want to miss this talk!

If you want to be a part of Yishai Fleisher’s and ZOA NM’s effort to spread the message of a strong Israel, please contribute at Eye on Zion, the official tour page.

In New Mexico:

Wednesday, July 28, 7 pm at Chabad in Santa Fe

Thursday, July 29 at 10:30 am with Ari Abramowitz and John Sandager on Christian TV, from KCHF, Son Broadcasting in Santa Fe

Thursday, July 29 at 5 pm at Congregation B’nai Israel in Albuquerque. Meet and talk with Yishai at the ZOA dinner. RSVP to dinner@zoanm.org. $5 suggested donation for non-members.

Thursday, July 29 at 7 pm at the Albuquerque JCC: Joint presentation with Ari Abramowitz, sponsored by Yad B’Yad. $5 suggested donation.

Life doesn’t have to be boring and our efforts don’t have to be tiny, far off and almost futile…we can be more than sandbags in a tidal wave. We could do or join projects like this and many other efforts in Israel. We could put our feet on the ground and can actually make a difference where it counts. It’s within our grasp to do that. Think about the possibilities…

“FREE GAZA FROM HAMAS” BOATS DEPARTED ASHDOD FRIDAY, MAY 28

(Standwithus.com – ASHDOD, ISRAEL) — Six StandWithUs International boats departed today from the port of Ashdod on Friday, May 28 at 1pm each including journalists from major international outlets. The boats had a massive banner draped on the side “FREE GAZA FROM HAMAS.” Those on board were wearing blood-stained t-shirts that say “FREE GAZA FROM HAMAS.” SWU handed out copies of it’s Hamas charter booklet, among other literature. They did on-board interviews in English, Spanish and Hebrew. They carried signs to “Release Gilad Shalit,” the IDF soldier captured by Hamas in 2006.

Michael Dickson, StandWithUs Israel Office Director

Footage from their trip is available from JCS in Jerusalem. Contact Nili at JCS:

Lior Meir, StandwithUsInternational Fellowship Alumni Coordinator was overwhelmed by the “tons of support we received from people on the dock. They are so grateful that we went out to sea to confront these self-styled European human rights activists. It is so clearly evident that the world needs to see what the situation really is.”

StandWithUs is opposing the group of activists in nine boats who are due to arrive on Saturday off the coast of Gaza to break what they call Israel’s “illegal Israeli blockade” of the Gaza Strip. “We were there today with our own flotilla of boats and signs that expose the real human rights problem—Gaza must be freed from the chains of the Hamas dictatorship and its Iranian sponsors. This has become a duel at sea of facts versus propaganda,” said flotilla organizer Roman Baron, a StandWithUs Israeli Fellow.

Coalitions of anti-Israel activists have organized several other similar boat trips to Gaza, but this will be the first time StandWithUs organized a full-fledged counter-demonstration at sea.

The “Free Gaza” movement claims its concern is humanitarian suffering in Gaza, but in fact the boats are a media stunt to get international attention, according to StandWithUs. “If the activists were really interested in delivering their donated goods, they could easily do it through legal channels. The Israeli government offered to deliver them through approved crossings and procedures, but the anti-Israel activists’ purpose is to smear Israel and support Hanyieh’s Hamas regime, not help Gazans,” explains Baron.

StandWithUs Staff and volunteers prepare the signs for counter demonstration at sea

“Our mission is education, and the anti-Israel flotilla has created an excellent educational opportunity. Our signs will expose how Hamas oppresses Palestinians, and has been the major enemy of peace. The activists are either misguided or hypocritical in calling themselves pro-peace or pro-human rights when they support this Iranian-sponsored group that terrorizes its own population and Israelis. If these groups were pro-Palestinian and pro-coexistence, they would join us to fight the Hamas-caused disaster,” said Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO of StandWithUs.

Hamas’ cruelty and repression informed the signs, according to StandWithUs. Hamas staged a violent coup in June 2007, torturing and murdering hundreds of its political rivals in Fatah, and established a virtual police state that continues persecuting and murdering rivals, summarily executes alleged “collaborators,” intimidates journalists, and enforces strict Islamist “virtue” codes on women, internet use, dancing and music. Hamas steals humanitarian aid and bombs the crossings where goods are transported because it refuses to cooperate with “the enemy.” Hamas refuses to end its war against the Jewish State. Its founding charter calls for the murder of Jews, the “obliteration” of Israel and its replacement with a Taliban-like theocracy. Since Israel left Gaza for peace in August of 2005, moving nearly 9000 Israelis from their homes in Gaza, Hamas has launched over 8,000 rockets at Israeli civilians, uses human shields, and mounts its attacks from Gaza’s schools, mosques, hospitals, and other civilian centers.

Hamas is open about its close ties with Iran whose President Ahmadinejad regularly makes genocidal threats against Israel. “Iran is our mother…She gives us information, military supplies and financial support,” said one Hamas Commander on March 9, 2008[i]

StandWithUs Staff and volunteers prepare to leave the port in Ashdod, Israel

“These so-called human rights activists who plan to meet Haniyeh are directly supporting Iranian president Ahmadinejad and his genocidal threats against Israel. They are either uninformed or they are enemies of peace and human rights,” said Michael Dickson, Director of the StandWithUs Israel office.

“If the activists had done their homework instead of believing Hamas propaganda, they would also have found out that their assistance isn’t needed,” added Dickson. The Financial Times just reported that there is such a “glut” of goods in Gaza that prices for food, luxury items, and clothing is plummeting. Other media report that an Olympic sized swimming pool has just been built on the Strip, and that fancy restaurants and luxury goods are doing brisk business. This activity was in addition to the over 94,500 tons of goods and medical supplies that Israel transferred to Gaza just between Jan. and March of 2010. “This just further underlines that the ‘humanitarian mission’ is not what it claims to be.”

“Ending Israel’s restrictions on Gaza could be easy. Hamas just has to end its war, accept Israel’s existence as the Jewish State, stop teaching the children in Gaza hatred and murder, and agree to the past PLO-Israel peace agreements. Our flotilla will educate the public and hopefully pave the way for a better future for Israelis and Palestinians,” said Baron.

[i] “Palestinian Hamas Groups Admits that Its Fighters are Trained in Iran,” Times [UK], March 9, 2008 at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3512018.ece