When is the Last Time You Were Hugged?

Please take a few minutes to watch and think about this experiment. Notice at the beginning when these young people try to give away "free hugs" how people back away and look at them like they are "not quite right". 

Now keep watching as gradually people are won over--then watch the smiles. I dare you to watch to the end without a smile coming to your face and a bit of moisture in the corners of your eyes!  May God Bless those young folks for going out there to spread some joy--for free!

If only there were more people in this world willing to give free hugs and even more willing to accept free hugs. Have you hugged anyone today? Has anyone hugged you? Regardless, from all of us at Israel Vision to all of you out there--here is your hug :)

Free Hugs in Sondrio, Italy~Wow!

Australia's Dangerous Problem With Islam

This may seem a bit slow, but you Must Listen all the way through to the end. Listen to the voice of the woman as she describes the attack on her and three children. Listen to the fear in her voice and to her closing words...

...They've found us haven't they?

 

Katzav Found Guilty

Former president of Israel, Moshe Katzav has been found guilty of two counts of rape and one count of an indecent act. 

The judges said among other things that:

* Katzav's testimony had been "replete with lies," 

*he should not have accused the media of "trying him publicly," because he himself "used the media to his advantage whenever he could,"and

* he should have accepted the plea bargain that was offered him.

Moshe Katzav is a proven liar, a rapist and a sexual predator apart from the complete shame and disgrace his has brought to the country and the government of Israel. As an immigrant from Iran he sullies the name of all who come to Israel with a desire to make a better life and become a part of the country. 

One can only hope that he is given an appropriate punishment of jail time and  be made to undergo counseling for sexual predators. Being as how he denies any wrong doing I somehow doubt this disgusting little man will ever do the right thing. I wonder if the two women will sue for damages?

You can read the story here at Arutz 7.

ZAKA~Chesed Shel Emet (True Virtue)

David Rawlings & ZAKA Team

About a year ago Israel Vision.TV created a promotional video for ZAKA (a Hebrew acronym for Disaster Victims Identification). David Rawlings spent time following and filming ZAKA in action and interviewed some of their volunteers.  When the earthquake stuck in Haiti David was with the team at Ben Gurion airport as they prepared to leave. You can  watch these touching interviews on the Israel Vision.TV website. These amazing men speak of their experiences and the strength that it takes to carefully sift through every disaster to insure that no human remains--no matter how small--are left behind. There are also links you can follow to the ZAKA home page.

The following information was posted on Israel 21C by Abigail Klein Leichman on 21 December 2010. Do visit their excellent site for many other interesting reports about Israel.

Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, Founder of ZAKA

In a special Knesset gathering in November, Israeli Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz presented an award to ZAKA Rescue and Recovery Organization founder Yehuda Meshi-Zahav for raising awareness and promoting road safety. The moment was noteworthy not just because it acknowledged ZAKA's role in responding to thousands of car accidents and encouraging safer driving, but also because it underlined the warm relationship between Israel's secular officials and Meshi-Zahav, an ultra-Orthodox (haredi) former anti-Zionist agitator. Yehuda Meshi-Zahav evolved from an anti-Zionist firebrand in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood into the founder of ZAKA, a unique rescue and recovery organization.

Since founding ZAKA in 1995, the 51-year-old father of seven has gained a reputation as an international rescue authority and as one of Israel's greatest champions of tolerance among both Jews and Arabs. His post-9/11 work in New York earned him an invitation to participate in a special commemoration on the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attack, and he chose to take along Sheikh Akel Elatrash, commander of ZAKA's Bedouin Unit in the Negev. "We slept in the same room, ate our meals together, and toured Manhattan together," Meshi-Zahav tells ISRAEL21c. With one sporting a black velvet skullcap and long gray sidelocks and the other in traditional Arab robe and headdress, the two caused quite a stir. "People asked if we were part of a film," he recalls. 

Though Meshi-Zahav's life story could easily be mistaken for a screenplay, he is as real as the flesh and blood he encounters at the scenes of accidents, crimes and terrorist attacks. Brought up in the insular Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim, he was ingrained to distrust "the other" and to disdain Zionism as evil.

Arrested 34 Times for Anti-Zionist Agitation

"The haredi community is set up with 'walls' to protect us from outside influences" Meshi-Zahav says, speaking in Hebrew translated by his foreign media spokeswoman, Lydia Weitzman, and ZAKA development director David Rose. "I never knew there were Jews who act and behave differently and that they are also good people." The 11th generation Jerusalemite was taught that there was a correct and incorrect way to do things, "and if we did something the incorrect way, we were called Zionists." This same man, who proudly lit the torch ushering in the State of Israel's Independence Day celebrations in 2003, was arrested 34 times at anti-Zionist demonstrations as a youth.

At some point, the young Meshi-Zahav developed an affinity for the police who apprehended him time and again. "I began to see them as regular people who wanted to go home to their families after a day's work," he relates. "I started to see that a lot of things could be settled more easily by just sitting and talking to one another."

With this revelation as a backdrop, on July 6, 1989 Meshi-Zahav heard the explosion and subsequent screams emanating from a bus driven into a ravine by a terrorist. He and some friends rushed to the scene, determined to help tend the wounded and collect scattered body parts and blood for burial.

Though his mother had set a volunteering example with her regular visits to terminally ill patients, Meshi-Zahav knew neither first aid nor forensics. But he knew Jewish laws regarding human remains, and he discovered that no organization in Israel was authorized to do this gruesome but sacred work.

Free Access to Palestinian hospitals

His life took on a new purpose: "Even though we Israelis have different opinions about how the state should be, the time had come to live together." Over the next six years, he lay the groundwork for ZAKA--the only group of its kind worldwide, it is recognized by the United Nations as an international volunteer humanitarian organization. Donations make up most of its funding; about 10 percent of the budget comes from the government.

ZAKA in Haiti

During the Arab uprising or intifada from 2000 to 2006, Meshi-Zahav and about 600 volunteers rarely slept, constantly on alert for the next call. Working knee-deep in blood, Meshi-Zahav was fortified by his faith. "At the time, I thought we were dealing with kavod hamet--honoring the dead. By the end, I realized that we were actually honoring the living, because a family whose loved one cannot receive a full Jewish burial has no rest."

ZAKA developed an avenue for transferring the remains of terrorists to the Palestinian Authority. "Our humanitarian message is the key that allows us to open doors to all communities," Meshi-Zahav says. "Even during [those years], we were going into Palestinian hospitals when we needed to."

ZAKA in Haiti

Today, some 1,500 Jewish, Muslim and Druze ZAKA volunteers carry out lifesaving, rescue and recovery operations in Israel and around the world, garnering numerous awards including a citation from New York City for assistance following 9/11. The organization was one of those from Israel that was active in Haiti after the earthquake. Awareness of ZAKA's mission has grown in Israel and abroad.

I have no strikes or vacations

"Before ZAKA, if there was a traffic accident in Israel, paramedics would take care of the injured and a private ambulance would come to take the dead...but if there were body parts, nobody collected them," says Meshi-Zahav. "The firemen would wash down all the blood and that was the end of it. Now it is in the Israeli consciousness to call us instead."

ZAKA has also changed attitudes in the haredi community, now one of its largest pools of volunteers. In the early years, Meshi-Zahav's children were derided at school for their father's close cooperation with official Israeli agencies. But even when the social pressure eased, the time pressure did not. Calls come day and night from ZAKA's hotline or from the army, emergency services, police, firefighters, Homefront Command or foreign governments.

"My typical day's schedule is not fixed by me, but by the angel of death," Meshi-Zahav says. "I have no strikes or vacations."

ZAKA at Burned Bus in Carmel Fire

The Carmel Forest fire earlier at the beginning of December was a case in point. ZAKA volunteers rappelled down a hill to reach the site of the burned bus carrying prison guards and sift through the charred wreckage to uncover all human remains before the victims were buried. Another team worked to identify the charred bodies. "The people of Israel owe you much gratitude for the holy work that you have been doing," Interior Minister Eli Yishai told them. While awaiting better times with perfect faith, Meshi-Zahav remains dedicated to his twin missions of disaster response and bettering society. "In the same way that enemies don't distinguish between different types of Jews, we too must be for everyone," he says. "Our guiding principle is our belief that all men were made in the image of God."

Joy and Grief~Update to the Carmel Fire

After fighting for his life for two weeks, Danny Hayat became the 44th victim of the disastrous Carmel fire on the 19th of December. On Tuesday, ten days after he succumbed to his burns, his widow, Hofit gave birth to a healthy girl at the Afula hospital--mother and daughter are both doing well.

Danny Hayat, his partner Uri Samandayev along with 16-year-old volunteer fireman Elad Rivan were called to the scene where the bus was trapped. The three fought the flames that engulfed the bus which had been carrying cadets to help with the evacuation of Damon Prison, which held terrorist prisoners. Samandayev and Rivan died at the scene, while Hayat was rescued in critical condition, suffering from burns to 65 percent of his body. He was hospitalized for two weeks at Rambam, and only recently had begun receiving artificial skin grafts. Family and friends had felt that he was getting stronger and would recover.

Danny Hayat was the founder and commander of the Jezreel rescue unit. The unit's flag hung outside the intensive care room while Hayat was in the hospital. In addition to his wife and baby daughter Danny left behind two sons.

A Bad Year for Israel

As we near the end of 2010, Israel has much sadness to bear. Terror attacks on public roads that left four dead--including a nine months pregnant woman, an horrific forest fire that had taken the lives of forty-four people--many of them young men and women just starting their lives. On Sunday another fire broke out near Maoz close to Mevesseret Zion but is under control, and today a train traveling between Haifa and Tel Aviv caught fire.

According to Arutz 7, the train was traveling from north to south on the Haifa-Tel Aviv tracks when it caught fire in the rear engine as they neared Shefayim, opposite the Ronit Farm. The fire spread to passenger cars causing passengers to shout for the driver to stop the train. 

When the train stopped the emergency system that was supposed to throw open the train's doors failed to operate, trapping the passengers. The windows in the cars are supposed to be broken in case of an emergency, but the emergency hammers for breaking them were all gone. 

Thankfully there was a fast-thinking Border Guard policeman on board who quickly loaded his weapon and fired at the windows to break them and allow people to get out. 

The rear engine car had caught fire, possibly due to an electrical malfunction. At least four cars on the passenger train were in flames, trapping passengers inside--injuring at least seventy-six people. Five people were evacuated in moderate condition and the rest are described a being lightly hurt suffering from smoke inhalation and minor cuts from trying to exit the windows.

Picture of the Day

Thanks to Elder of Ziyon for this wonderful poster. Do visit his site.

Christmas Greetings from PM Benjamin Netanyahu

PA Claims: Mary is Palestinain & Jesus was the First Shaheed

The Palestinian Authority always looks for ways to incite Christian hatred of Jews worldwide and this year is no exception. In 2009 Arutz 7 ran this post which claimed similar baiting comments. The incident that started things off this year was an AFP report that  a mayor in Nazareth objected to Christmas trees in the squares.

The story in its entirety can be read on Arutz 7 here. Here is an excerpt:

The suburb in question, Nazareth Illit, was established for the express purpose of creating a Jewish neighborhood next to Arab Nazareth. Over the past decade, however, thousands of Arabs have taken advantage of Israeli democracy to move  into the Jewish neighborhood, and it has become dangerous for Jews to walk down certain streets due to Arab harassment. Mayor Shimon Gapso and many of the Jewish residents see the demand by Arabs to put Christmas trees in public squares as just another act of Arab-nationalist chutzpah.

Of course, what they always fail to report is that in the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, Christians have been murdered, tortured, and intimidated into leaving ever since the PA took over. Nowhere is this more evident than in Bethlehem, a city which Christians hold sacred as Jesus's birthplace--although PA authorities are happy to receive tourist revenues during the Christian holiday seasons. If you are in doubt just check the population drop in Christians since the PA has been in charge! In Bethlehem, the Christian population went from a 60 percent majority in 1990 to a 40 percent minority in 2000, to about 15 percent of the city's total population in 2008. That figure continues to drop with threats and persecution. The same is true of Gaza where the Christian population is down to about 3,000 and don't forget that Hamas had Christian graves dug up because they were "contaminating the ground".

Christians are welcomed and protected by the Israeli government. As long as they are not trying to proselytize, Jews don't pay much attention to the tens of thousands who walk through the streets to visit their Holy Places. In fact, if you go to Ben Yehuda street in Jerusalem on most nights (including Motzei Shabbat--when Shabbat ends) you will find Christian groups singing their songs. Crowds gather to listen and some take pictures, but nobody bothers them.

Let's be honest here, if Israel were to be taken over by the Islamists every Christian and Jewish site would eventually be a mosque. These are the facts. Don't fall for propaganda. 

The Same Old Lies

A Blessing to All from Israel

For Israel, as in countries all over the world, this has been a tumultuous year. To many it seems that the world is getting closer and closer to the end of days. In Israel, particularly in Jerusalem,  the air is always "heavy".  There is a spiritual intensity that is always present. The sages say that it is because the Temple Mount is the center of all things:

"As the navel is set in the centre of the human body, so is the land of Israel the navel of the world...situated in the centre of the world, and Jerusalem in the centre of the land of Israel,  and the sanctuary in the centre of Jerusalem,  and the holy place in the centre of the sanctuary, and the ark in the centre of the holy place, and the foundation stone before the holy place, because from it the world was founded"...Midrash Tanchuma, Qedoshim. 

But for many this weekend the center of the world is the tiny town of Bethlehem, for it was there that their world, their salvation was born on a Holy night over two thousand years ago. All over the world this night is observed--or at the very least it is known. Some mark the day with reverence, some with decorated trees and gifts, and others with hatred--what do they fear? The message of Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All Men? How strange, that a gift of peace to the world, brought in a package of love can be feared by some. What is it about a tiny baby that strikes fear into the hears of some? Think about it...

There have been rumors that in the town of Bethlehem this year the symbol of the cross is banished because of fears of Islamic fundamentalism. Always there are those who think they can stifle the Holiness. You can read about it HERE but this post is not about aggression. Meanwhile, on the occasion of the celebrations for Christmas, the Israeli military has ordered troops deployed in the occupied Palestinian territories to facilitate the passage of Christian pilgrims at checkpoints--Bear in mind that this year Christmas Day falls on the Jewish Sabbath--these troops work on their Holy Day to insure Christian Pilgrims are safe.  Now that, is the true spirit that we hope will spread to the world.

David was filming a concert in Bethlehem this week, and we hope to have some postings for you after the weekend. He did say he had no problem entering and driving through the city. He said he could feel the "spirit" in the air and it was a wonderful evening.

As always the days fly by and the news is to great to cover. This blog is new and in the coming days and months with help from above we hope to bring you news from Israel as it happens. We want to share with you the daily living, good and bad. 

But, for today--for this weekend celebration of the Holy Birth--we at Jerusalem Vistas / Israel Vision send to you our friends and partners our heartfelt wishes for a Safe, and Holy Christmas Day, filled with Peace, Goodwill, and the love of your family.