No, Israel and the USA have a special relationship, as does the UK and the USA.

Face facts - every country spies on each other, it's always been done, and always will be done.

Yes, you have a gripe with your country in the midst of a recession, and me too, but we have to think what is right and just, and aid to Israel to purchase weapons for self-defence from the USA is unfortunately the order of the day.

If the arabs drop the hate from their agenda all would be hunkydory, but they haven't so Israel needs weaponry which it purchases in the main from the USA.

Oh by the way, did you know that the Israeli military trains with the US Marines from time to time inside Israel giving them their expertise and learning from the US Marines? No? Well, you learn something new every day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mG89iJnQVA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoT8T_AEzJs&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL83AC813EBFD1A2B8

Welcome to the forums.


What feature of your phone are you addicted to?

Haha, I wonder if people say to them, "is that a carrot in your trousers or are you pleased to see me."

A few Islamic countries punish or put to death people who have been found out as being homosexual. It is not a crime in Israel though to be homosexual.

I know only too well.

I saw a clip taken of a whipping because the woman was wearing trousers under her black long clothing, (I don't know what it's called) and therefore the punishment was a whipping in public with an audience. The poor woman was begging and crying in pain.

There is no equality and the husband is instructed in how to beat his wife according to sharia law.

What about the men feeling a couple of soft juicy melons?

Aww, you think I have the Wow Factor. I would like to say the feeling is reciprocated.... but I can't. Sorry about that. Anyway, it is obvious who lies and who tells the truth on these antisemetic threads, so in the words of you pardner, you loose!

Hmm interesting. 19 minutes between Conrad's post and yours here, and yet you still twist to suit yourself don't you. I am still waiting for an answer to my question above as well.

It was getting boring!

Tell me, who is doing the strip searches in Gaza. Who is blocking the freedom of movement in Gaza.

You posted this several months ago elsewhere and I proved to you there is NO HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN GAZA. Even Hamas state there is no humanitarian crisis there, and so does the Red Cross. The Gazans are at the mercy of Hamas who constantly fire rockets into Israel and the dispute is not about land but about obliterating Israel. I told you yesterday with proof from COGAT that there is co-operation between Israel and Gaza on medicine, agricutural, engineering schemes. Gazans are free to travel into Israel for advanced medical care given by Arab and Israeli doctors.

You know the facts - why do you keep denying it.

Gazans are ranked 8th in the world for obesity. So not only are they getting fresh food, but also the junk stuff as well.

Open your eyes and stop twisting things to suit your hatred of the Jews.

Of course it was. Mr Tom has never hidden his anti-semetism here or elsewhere.

Why not ask Jenniebean, she will tell you!

Muhammed was a self-obsessed power-hungry individual who heard voices. He wrote the koran together with his wife, his daughter and a couple of converts from Judiasm to Islam.

Yep, taxes sure are high in Israel. The weather is too hot as well. Still emigration to Israel keeps continuing so sorry Mr Tom, much as you would love to see the Jews leave Israel they will just keep on coming, and tourism figures are rising too. Drat, you just can't win can you

Good afternoon to you too

It's quiet on these antisemetic threads for a change!

Maybe they have 'seen the light.'

There are a few missing ones:

Inability/unwilling to grasp simple facts

Paranoia

Gullibility to false propaganda

Hmmm I am sure there may be one or two more!

What Is the Jewish Festival of Hanukkah?

Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday celebrated for eight days and nights. It starts on the 25th of the Jewish month of Kislev, which coincides with late November-late December on the secular calendar. This year it starts on 20 December and the last night is 28 December.

According to Jewish law, Hanukkah is one of the less important Jewish holidays. However, Hanukkah has become much more popular in modern practice because of its proximity to Christmas.

Hanukkah falls on the twenty-fifth day of the Jewish month of Kislev. Since the Jewish calendar is lunar based, every year the first day of Hanukkah falls on a different day – usually sometime between late November and late December.

Because many Jews live in predominately Christian societies, over time Hanukkah has become much more festive and Christmas-like. Jewish children receive gifts for Hanukkah – often one gift for each of the eight nights of the holiday. Many parents hope that by making Hanukkah extra special their children won't feel left out of all the Christmas festivities going on around them.

Hanukkah Traditions

Every community has its unique Hanukkah traditions, but there are some traditions that are almost universally practiced. They are: lighting the hanukkiyah, spinning the dreidel and eating fried foods.

• Lighting the hanukkiyah: Every year it is customary to commemorate the miracle of the Hanukkah oil by lighting candles on a hanukkiyah. The hanukkiyah is lit every night for eight nights. Learn more about the hanukkiyah in the article, What Is a Hanukkiyah?

• Spinning the dreidel: A popular Hanukkah game is spinning the dreidel, which is a four-sided top with Hebrew letters written on each side. Read The Hanukkah Dreidel to learn more about the dreidel, the meaning of the letters and how to play the game. Gelt, which are chocolate coins covered with tin foil, are part of this game.

• Eating fried foods: Because Hanukkah celebrates the miracle of oil, it is traditional to eat fried foods such as latkes and sufganiyot during the holiday. Latkes are pancakes made out of potatoes and onions, which are fried in oil and then served with applesauce. Sufganiyot (singular: sufganiyah) are jelly-filled (jam-filled for those in UK) donuts that are fried and sometimes dusted with confectioners’ sugar before eating. Learn more about Hanukkah food traditions in the article, Hanukkah Food Traditions.

Source of this article and traditional Hanukkah recipes can be found on:

http://judaism.about.com/od/holidays/a/hanukkah.htm









The Roots of Historic Hanukkah

A Minor Holiday Marks A Political Event

Each year starting on the 25th day of the month of Kislev, Jews celebrate the eight-day festival known as Hanukkah, a Hebrew word that means "to dedicate." While some misinformed Christians liken Hanukkah to a Jewish Christmas, nothing could be further from the truth.

The Historic Hanukkah Commemorates A Jewish Revolt

Hanukkah is actually a minor festival for which there is no basis in the Jewish Bible. Instead Hanukkah is a more of a nationalistic, historical holiday that commemorates the defeat of Syrian Greeks in the Seleucid Empire by a priestly family called the Maccabees in 165 B.C.

The Maccabees were a family of priests from the Judean countryside, not part of the Jewish priestly caste that inhabited Jerusalem. Hence, unlike the urban priests who tried to assimilate and get along with their occupiers, the Maccabees resisted domination by the Seleucid Empire.

The Jerusalem priests essentially had traded Jewish national sovereignty for the right to worship as they pleased at the Second Temple, the heart of Jewish life. Even this meager sop to Jewish identity was lost during the reign of the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who claimed to be a god and demanded that all his subjects worship him. His soldiers took over the Temple in Jerusalem and erected a bust of Antiochus there as a religious idol.
Worse still, the Seleucid soldiers sacrificed pigs to the god-king in violation of Jewish religious dietary laws known as kashrut (kosher), which classified pigs as unclean animals because they ate offal and other refuse. According to Jewish law, the soldiers' actions defiled the Temple and made it unfit for worship.

Slaughter of the Innocents

The greatest blow however, came when Antiochus forbade the Jews to circumcise their newborn sons. For centuries circumcision had been a visible sign of Jews' relationship with God, a symbol of the covenant between the Almighty and the people known as Israel.
In one gruesome episode, Antiochus' soldiers slaughtered newborn sons they found circumcised and then hung the babies' corpses around their mothers' necks as a warning. It's hardly surprising that such an outrage would spur the Jews, under the leadership of Judas Maccabees, to rebel against Antiochus and retake the Jerusalem Temple by force.

As they gained more power and prestige, the Maccabees became the Hasmonean (pronounced "hash-mo-knee-an") dynasty of priest-kings. The Hasmoneans ruled Judea from around 160 B.C. until A.D. 70 when Roman legions under Titus, son of the Roman emperor Vespasian, destroyed the Second Temple and crushed Jewish independence.

The Maccabees' exploits are recounted by historian Flavius Josephus in his tome, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 12, Chapter 7, and in an extra-biblical writing known as the Book of Maccabees. In the Apocrypha of the Christian Bible, the book is divided into 1 and 2 Maccabees, but the book is omitted completely from the Jewish Bible. Biblical historians consider 1 Maccabees the more reliable of the two books because its events can be verified from other historical records.

The Omission of Hanukkah and the Maccabees for Political Reasons
The Book of the Maccabees probably was eliminated from the Jewish canon for political reasons, according to David Shasha, executive director of the Sephardic Heritage Center in Brooklyn, NY.
Shasha wrote in the center's newsletter, Sephardic Heritage Update:
"The rabbis who canonized the Hebrew Scriptures at Yavneh circa 100 CE neglected to include the Book of Maccabees in their Bible. ... The rabbis saw the Hasmonean dynasty as usurpers to the Priestly offices in the Temple and the monarchy. The Hasmoneans ... did not come from the Zadokite lineage and took it upon themselves to lead the rebellion against Antiochus and the Syrian Greeks."

In other words, the rabbis who canonized the Jewish scriptures thought the Maccabees had no right to revolt and reclaim the Temple. Consequently the rabbis sought to discredit the Hasmonean influence on Jewish culture during the time of the Pharisees, Shasha noted.

The Non-Historic Hanukkah Holiday Is a Talmudic Legend

While the rabbis could discredit the Maccabean records, they couldn't eliminate Hanukkah as a holiday because it had become so popular. Instead, Shasha wrote, the rabbis developed an after-the-fact tale that a single bottle of sacred oil -- barely enough to keep the Temple candelabrum lit for one day -- lasted through the eight days of re-dedication ceremonies in 1 Maccabees 4:42-56.
This story was included in the Talmud, the Jewish collection of wisdom and interpretation, to give the Jews some rabbinic sanction, if not biblical authority, for the eight-day festival that remains popular today.

Source:
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/biblicalhistory/a/The-Roots-Of-Historic-Hanukkah.htm

Gaza is not a as you call it "prison."

Any maritme blockade is absolutely and totally LEGAL according to International Law because Israel and Gaza are at WAR.

If peace were declared by Hamas then there would be no need for a maritime blockade.

Gazans very often cross over into Israel for medical treatment because Israel's hospitals have excellent facilities and Gaza and West Bank together with Israel co-operate with each other in medical expertise, agricultural expertise, etc., etc.

Things have improved much more since this 2010 video, now with construction materials being imported into Gaza.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9zwP4LDUYM

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Another:

Despite the naval blockade on the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ensures the daily transfer of nearly 6,000 tons of goods and roughly 260 truckloads via Kerem Shalom, an Israel-Gaza land crossing.

Lawfully enforcing the naval blockade on the Gaza Strip allows the Israeli Navy to halt rocket and missile attacks into Israel by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPd_cLpjShY&feature=channel_video_title

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And another: (I have at least a hundred clips!)

In order to protect Israeli civilians from attacks by the terrorist organization Hamas, the IDF lawfully enforces a naval blockade on the Gaza Strip. Given previous attempts by the terrorist organization in smuggling weapons via land and sea and the inherent difficulties in conducting inspections at sea, it is critical that Israeli forces inspect all goods and material marked for Gaza prior to their transfer into the Strip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-Mh4cuLQ8w&feature=channel_video_title

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SO THAT IS WHAT I LOVE ABOUT JEWS - EVEN TO THEIR ENEMIES THEY GRANT COMPASSION!

There are no rockets in prisons! Now that 1000 or so convicted murderers and terrorists have been released they have vowed to return to their terrorist ways in the Palestinian Authority area and Gaza.