THIS IS NOT A CLOUD

Israel Matzav: Menachem Begin on Israel's 'right to exist'

AISH: A Time to Fight; When an Arab terrorist tried to kill Yael Mitzafon, she had three choices: fight, flight or freeze. She fought.

At first Yael Mitzafon, 36, thought the mysterious footsteps walking across the living room must be her husband, Doron Re'em, 

a career

 IDF officer. Hours earlier, he had called from his base in the center of the country to say he'd be sleeping there, rather than making the hour-and-a-half drive home to Sde Avraham, a small moshav located just a few kilometers from the tri-regional border between Israel, Egypt and the Gaza Strip. There was nothing out of the ordinary about that – Doron regularly stayed on base once a week, and it was a routine that the family was well adjusted to.

But she quickly realized that it wasn't her husband creeping towards her bedroom. It wasn't like Doron to surprise her after saying he wouldn't be home, especially at 3:40 am. Even more telling, the rhythm of the footsteps just didn't sound like her husband. Frozen with fear, the mother of four listened as the intruder make his way across the house, push open her bedroom door and flip on the light. At the door stood an Arab man in his 20s, holding a sawed off steel pipe.

"What do you want?” Mitzafaon asked the man, but she saw he did not understand Hebrew. In Arabic, he told her to get out of bed (the Hebrew and Arabic commands for “get up” are similar enough to understand). She protested that she wasn't dressed, but she quickly realized she had no choice. She got out of bed and complied with the man's demand to cover up her lower half.

He pushed her onto the bed, climbed on top of her, dropped the steel pipe onto the 

floor

 and brandished a previously-concealed knife.

Without thinking, she threw an arm to block his attempt to slash her throat, deflecting the knife away from her esophagus. The blade sliced her cheek and shoulder but the wounds were not life threatening. As the knife penetrated her shoulder, Mitzafon used the release of physical pain to dig deep inside her soul to locate a primal burst of energy to shove the man off of her and to get back to her feet.

"For the life of me, I cannot understand why he started talking to me when he pushed open the bedroom door, but it allowed me to stall for time,” Mitzafon told Aish.com when recalling the attack. “My two younger 

kids

 had crawled into bed with me earlier in the night, as they often do when Doron doesn't come home. So I think the critical element here is that the terrorist got flustered because he didn't encounter what he expected. When he flipped on the light in our room, he expected to see a sleeping couple, not a wide-awake single woman with two kids in bed with her. Then, when he told me to cover up my lower half – apparently, he had no qualms killing me, but if he’d see a woman in her underwear he’d be damned to hell – it gave me even more time to size him up, and to recall a lesson I'd learned in my ninjitzu training years ago: fight, flight or freeze. I decided to fight, and he panicked.

“In hindsight, I don't even want to think what would have happened if he would have attacked me straight away when I was still a bit blurry.”

Dripping with blood and having shoved the would-be killer off the bed, Mitzafon rolled off the bed and grabbed the steel pipe off the floor. The terrorist escaped into the en suite bathroom a few meters away; Yael closed the bathroom door, grabbed the by now wide-awake children and physically threw them out of her bedroom and into the adjacent bedroom where her eight-year-old daughter had somehow remained asleep.

She closed the door to her bedroom, ran across the single-story house to grab the cordless phone to call her husband and the community security officers, and began ringing an enormous ranch-style bell to alert the neighbors. Then, she returned to her bedroom to continue to fight the Arab intruder who by now must have realized that he not actually locked in the bathroom.

"Look, I really don't want to come away from all this looking like a hero,” Mitzafon told Aish.com. “I can't really say that I used the techniques I learned in martial arts. More than anything, I was home alone, with four kids, and I managed to keep a clear enough head to make a decision not to let this guy do another mass family slaughter if there was anything I could do about it. I was also lucky that I happen to be physically strong.

“I think the other factor that worked in my favor was that the whole event took place just three days after the ceasefire went into effect following Operation Pillar of Defense. I think that's why my two-year-old son, Ben, had been having trouble sleeping. Our sleep had been interrupted by rocket fire from Gaza for many nights over the previous month. So the attacker picked the wrong time to sneak up on me – he caught me at a time when I sort of had my guard up anyway.”

By 3:47 the attack was over. After Mitzafon had freed herself from the terrorist's grasp and gone to call for help, the assailant had escaped out the bathroom window. Looking back, Mitzafon says she does not remember actually speaking to her next-door neighbor, Tomer, the moshav's director of security, but by the time he arrived the house was quiet. Together with a third neighbor, they entered the bedroom and the bathroom to discover that the terrorist had pried open the bathroom window and fled. Within 15 minutes, IDF officers had arrived, and Bedouin trackers had set out to follow the footsteps leading from the scene of the crime. An hour later, word arrived that the terrorist had been killed outside Moshav Dekel, several kilometers from Sde Avraham.

Pioneering spirit

In many ways, Sde Avraham is a far cry from Herut, the mid-sized moshav near the coastal city of Netanya where the Mitzafon-Re'em's moved five years ago. At the time, the couple knew it would be hard for them to buy a home in the center of the country, and that Yael certainly wouldn't be able to realize her dream of owning and operating a horse riding stable. Sitting in her spacious 

kitchen

 with light streaming through the door where her attacker entered the house, Mitzafon says the incident 

has

 not changed her feeling that the moshav in Israel's southwestern corner is the ideal place for her and her family.

"What happened to me was terrible,” she says with a wan smile, “but you've got to look at the overall lifestyle here: It's the only terror attack here in the 30-year history of the moshav. Even more, you could not imagine safer, more secure for my kids to grow up in: I know that my neighbors are looking out for me, as I do for them. I don't worry if my kids disappear for a few hours on a Shabbat afternoon. Those are the elements of life that make us feel safe and secure. I'm certainly not making light of the attack, but the unfortunate truth of the matter is that people's homes get broken into all the time, in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and everywhere else. That's what happened here, and luckily I was able to defend myself and my family.”

Following the attack, life returned to normal. For most of the family, the trauma of November 26 quickly receded. Doron has only recently resumed spending one night a week on base, and it took their four-year-old daughter who witnessed the attack two months before she would agree to be in any room in the house alone. Yael continues to maintain a stable with six horses, where she teaches riding lessons, and the girls enjoy the freedom that comes along with growing up on a moshav.

“I've made sure my girls understand that we live in a pretty terrific place, with a terrific community support network,” Yael Mitzafon says. “I wouldn't trade it for any place else.”

Glenn's special message for Israel

I want to tell you what it's like to live in most of Israel right now.
A missile is fired by Hamas in Gaza...
A siren goes off.
You get 15 seconds to find shelter.
I want Americans to think about what that means.
If you lived in a place where missiles were fired at you...
Hundreds a day...
And you would get just 15 seconds to hide...
How would you live?
Stop what you're doing. Run to a basement. A shelter.
And if you can't make it inside...
Lie flat on the ground with your arms over your head.
That's life in Israel right now.
None of us would be willing to accept this.
None of us would have to.
Every country has a right to defend itself against terror.
But they keep telling Israel... "don't overreact!" "don't fire back!" "be careful!" "don't ramp things up!"


Let me get this straight...
If Mexico fired a missile into El Paso, you know what we would do?
If Japan fired a missile into Beijing, you know what China would do?
So why does Israel have to hold back?
Why does every country get to defend itself...
But not Israel?
Why could that be?
I think we know why.

A Jewish man was walking down the street in midtown Manhattan over the weekend.
He passed by a group of people protesting on the street.
They were holding up signs, criticizing Israel.
He was wearing a yarmulke.
So they called him a "dirty Jew."
We've seen this move before.
We've seen the terror before.
We've seen the sirens...and the bombs... and the threats.
We've even seen the insults.
"Dirty Jew."
Nothing original there.

So I think we know what's really going on here.
It has nothing to do with embargoes... or borders... or anything else that CAN be solved.
It's because Israel exists. And it's a Jewish state.
Let's be honest with ourselves.
There are some people who can't get past that.
The world's oldest hatred.
Anti-Semitism.
It's alive in our time. And it's not hiding.
It's right there in Gaza.
Gaza is the new Nuremberg.
The epicenter of Jew-hatred.
The birthplace of a million young haters.
And they all want the same thing.
Kill the Jews.
That's all they know.
All they ever will know.
In every generation that came before us,
They would beat up the Jews.
Harass the Jews.
Chase the Jews.
Kill the Jews.
Always the Jews.
And usually, they got away with it.


But not this time.
No more.
This time, we will stand with Israel.
We will stand for the truth.
We will stand for freedom.
We will stand for life.
And so I want to say something.
Something for those kids in the bomb shelters.
The kids who can't keep their sheets dry at night, they're so scared.
The kids who are just like my own kids.
They just want to play with their friends.
See them at school.
They don't want to hide in holes in the ground.
We are with you.
We will always be with you.
You have many, many friends here in America.
And this is a message for Israel's leaders.
We will not forget you, nor forsake you.
We are brothers.
The nation of Israel lives... forever.

Israel's right to self-defense against Hamas; The media and international community's failure to distinguish between the Israeli military and Hamas terrorists is not only immoral but encourages terrorism and erodes the basic principles of just warfare. by Alan Dershowitz

There is absolutely no comparison between the murderous war crimes being committed by Hamas and the lawful targeting of terrorists by the Israeli military. Targeting civilians is a calculated Hamas policy designed to sow terror among the Israeli population. Hamas supporters celebrate the murder of Jewish civilians. Every rocket fired by Hamas at a non-military Israeli target is a war crime that should be universally condemned by all reasonable people.
    Israel's response - targeting only terrorists and Hamas military leaders - is completely lawful and legitimate. It constitutes an act of self-defense pursuant to Article 51 of the UN Charter and universally accepted principles of international law.
    Some in the media insist on describing the recent events in Gaza as "a cycle of violence," without distinguishing between the war crimes committed by Hamas and the lawful actions undertaken by Israel to protect its citizens against such war crimes. It would be as if the media described lawful police efforts to stop illegal drug-related murders as a "cycle of violence."
    The international community and the media must begin to differentiate between war crimes committed by terrorists and legitimate acts of self-defense engaged in by a responsible military. The writer is a Professor of Law at Harvard. (Ha'aretz)

What Gives Israel the Right to Defend Itself?

Israeli envoy tells Security Council Israel won’t play Russian Roulette with its citizens’ lives; Palestinian envoy slams Israel for ‘malicious onslaught’ of Gaza during closed door meeting on conflict

The United Nations Security Council held a closed-door meeting on Wednesday evening to discuss the escalating conflict in Gaza and Israel’s south

Both the Israeli and Palestinian envoys were given permission to attend and speak in the emergency session, which was convened at Egypt’s request.

Israeli envoy Ron Prosor defended Israel’s decision to launch an offensive on Gazan terror groups following a four-day volley of rocket fire on towns in the south of Israel.

“We have demonstrated maximum restraint for years, but the Israeli Government has a right and a duty to respond to these attacks,” he told the council. “Israel will not play Russian Roulette with the lives of our citizens.”

He added no one complained when Palestinians were “raining rockets on Israeli civilians,” and that no nation would tolerate that.

“Hamas has turned Gaza into a dump of ammunition and weapons supplies brought in from Iran,” he said.

Prosor said some of the representatives on the council support Israel’s “right of self-defense and condemned the indiscriminate shooting of rockets upon innocent Israeli citizens.”

Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour slammed Israel for its offensive against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. Some 50 airstrikes were carried out against military targets in the Palestinian enclave, leaving at least 10 dead, including Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari.

Mansour said Israel was “vulgarly and publicly boasting about its willful killing of Palestinians” after taking out Jabari, whom Prosor had characterized as a “mass murderer” hours earlier.

“Once again the international community is witness to Israel’s malicious onslaught, using the most lethal military means and illegal measures against the defenseless Palestinian civilian population,” Mansour, told the Security Council, according to a text of his speech given to reporters.  ”A direct firm message must be sent to Israel to cease immediately its military campaign against the Palestinian people and to abide … by its obligations under international law.”

He added that Israel was preparing a ground offensive and fear and panic were spreading throughout the Strip.

The council’s Arab bloc, led by Sudan, called for the body to condemn Israel.

Any such move is likely to be vetoed by the United States, which earlier Wednesday issued a statement condemning Hamas and standing behind Israel’s right to defend itself.

US Ambassador Susan Rice spoke in favor of Israel, saying it was not right for Hamas and other groups to terrorize Israel’s populace.

Both Prosor and Mansour earlier turned to the 15-nation panel to condemn the other side for the latest round of fighting.

Mansour, the Palestinian envoy to the UN, sent a letter to the Indian president of the Security Council Wednesday, calling on the body to stop Israel before he said it launched a ground offensive.

“This escalation, which continues at this moment, demands the attention of the international community, including the Security Council, with the aim of averting the further deterioration and destabilization of the situation on the ground and the fueling by Israel of yet another deadly cycle of violence and bloodshed,” Mansour wrote.

Prosor defended Israel’s actions, which he said were needed in the fact of “indiscriminate rocket fire against Israeli citizens, children, women.”

Prosor added that Israel had shown restraint for a long time and that the IDF’s actions in Gaza were “well defined.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the situation, which he described as “alarming.”

” [Ban] expressed his concern about the deteriorating situation in southern Israel and the Gaza Strip, which includes an alarming escalation of indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza into Israel and the targeted killing by Israel of a Hamas military operative in Gaza,” a statement from his press office read. “The secretary general reiterated his strong condemnation of rocket fire out of Gaza and noted his expectation that Israeli reactions are measured so as not to provoke a new cycle of bloodshed that could cause additional civilian casualties and have dangerous spillover effects in the region.”

Ban also spoke with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi “about the worrisome escalation of violence in southern Israel and Gaza and the need to prevent any further deterioration,” a statement read.

On Saturday the Cairo-based Arab League is to hold an emergency meeting on the situation in Gaza.

Yishai: If Sderot Can’t Sleep, Then Neither Will Gaza

The head of the Shas Party, Interior Minister Eli Yishai, made it clear that Operation Pillar of Cloud, currently underway in the Gaza Strip, will not end until Israel can be sure that Israelis can be assured of their safety after terrorists have shot hundreds of rockets into Eretz Yisroel. "The IDF action was inevitable,” Yishai said. “The state cannot allow over one million citizens to live in bomb shelters. If Sderot cannot sleep, then they won’t sleep in Gaza either.” Yishai says that he hopes the Operation Pillar of Cloud will ultimately bring calm to the region.

Qatari PM: Israel's 'Vicious Attack Must Not Pass Unpunished' Qatari Prime Minister warns that Israel's retaliatory strikes on terrorists in the Gaza Strip must not go unpunished.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani warned that Israel's retaliatory strikes on terrorists in the Gaza Strip must not go unpunished, state news agency QNAreported on Thursday, according toAFP.

"This vicious attack must not pass unpunished," QNA quoted the premier as saying at a Wednesday meeting in Saudi Arabia of the six Gulf Arab nations and Russia.

"The UN Security Council must take up its responsibility to secure peace and security in the world," he said, adding the latest escalation of violence in Gaza is likely to "promote extremism."

"We reject extremism and terrorism but such irresponsible and unjustified attacks must be condemned by the world," he said.

In October, Qatar's emir was the first head of state to visit Gaza since Hamas seized control from the Palestinian Authority in 2007.

Israel launched Operation Pillar of Defense on Wednesday-- beginning with the targeted assassination of Hamas military chief, Ahmed Jabari-- as terrorists in theGaza Strip continue launching rockets that pulverize Jewish communities in the South.

More than 200 rockets have been fired from Gaza in the last 24 hours, killing three people and wounding two others in the southern Jewish community of Kiryat Malachi.