100 Child Victims of Gaza Terror Attacks to Participate in Jewish Agency Passover Camp

NOTE: Something to share with the BDS "kids" on campus, in front of Zabars or online... 

from the Algemeiner 4.7.14 LINK HERE

The Jewish Agency for Israel will hold a special Passover camp experience for about a hundred children from southern Israel who have suffered as victims of rocket fire from Gaza.

In a statement, on Monday, the Jewish Agency said the program will be run by its Fund for Victims of Terror and funded by contributions from the Greater Miami Jewish Federation and private donors.

During the camp experience, the children will participate in field trips, sport challenges, archaeological programs, therapeutic sessions in nature, team-building experiences, and leadership development programs.

The children will be under the care of teenage counselors, including Rami, a teenager from the predominantly Bedouin town of Rahat, whose family members were also hurt by rocket fire from Gaza.

“It is important to me to help others integrate into the larger group and its activities, and to see them return from the camp with happy memories,” he said. Rami will be responsible for a group of Arabic-speaking children who will be participating in the camp experience.

The Jewish Agency’s Fund for Victims of Terror is funded by contributions from the Jewish Federations of North America, individual Jewish Federations, philanthropic foundations, and donors from around the world. It raises money to provide immediate and supplemental assistance to terror victims and their families.

The Fund has provided tens of millions of shekels of assistance to thousands of families since its establishment. The Jewish Agency provides immediate financial assistance in the wake of rocket attacks and other terror incidents, in order to enable terror victims to address their most urgent needs. The Fund for Victims of Terror works closely with the Israel Ministry of Defense and the National Insurance Institute

Israeli aircraft strike Gaza Strip after rocket attack Read more: Israeli aircraft strike Gaza Strip after rocket attack

Times of Israel 3/12/14 BREAKING #BREAKING

Islamic Jihad bases targeted; State Department calls heavy barrage ‘reprehensible,’ says Israel has the right to defend itself

The Israeli Air Force launched airstrikes in the Gaza Strip shortly after 10 p.m. on Wednesday in retaliation for a massive rocket barrage earlier in the day, the largest of its kind since 2012

Israeli planes struck at least five strategic points in the coastal enclave, primarily in areas around the cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.

“If there is no quiet in our south, no quiet for the residents of Israel, there will be noise, lots of noise in Gaza,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a joint press conference with his British counterpart, David Cameron.

The US State Department decried the barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, referring to it as “reprehensible,” and stressing that Israel reserves the right to protect its citizens.

“The United States condemns in the strongest terms today’s rocket attacks into Israel by terrorists from the Gaza Strip,” read a statement from spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

“There is no justification for such attacks. We call for these terrorist attacks to cease immediately. Israel, like any nation, has a right to defend itself.” READ HERE

Read more: Israeli aircraft strike Gaza Strip after rocket attack | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/iaf-aircraft-strike-gaza-targets-after-rocket-attack/#ixzz2vmfFFT5c
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Gaza left out of Mideast peace talks

Washington Post

By William Booth and Anne Gearan, Updated: Friday, February 21, 7:00 AM

GAZA CITY — This crowded bit of Mediterranean shore is a long way from the closed-door rooms where Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are holding the first real peace talks in years.
But as Secretary of State John F. Kerry prepares to publicly present outlines of a proposed peace deal, the isolated and besieged Palestinian territory called the Gaza Strip is the rarely mentioned elephant in the bargaining room — a huge obstacle to a permanent settlement of the decades-old conflict.

Kerry has confined his peacemaking to Palestinians in the West Bank, a territory on the other side of Israel, and he envisions a deal signed by the moderate leadership there. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are governed by the militant Islamist Hamas movement, which opposes talks with Israel and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, and they are not part of the negotiations.

That means that if a deal could be done right now, the 1.6 million people who live in Gaza — about 40 percent of the population in the two Palestinian territories — would essentially be left out.

“Gaza and Hamas represent the real conundrum of the peace process. You can’t do a conflict-ending deal without them, and you can’t do one with them either,” said Aaron David Miller, a Mideast scholar at the Wilson Center and a U.S. adviser in failed peace negotiations in which Gaza played a central role. 

Read Entire Article Here:

Note: pretty depressing read. Makes me want to insert head into sand and pretend things are alright. But they're not alright. Learn from this. Let's put our heads together and begin to bend the paradigm.