Another Live Report From Israel

The Perspective: Today I have another live report from my friend Joel, who is over in Israel helping distribute aid to the Israeli people. So just go ahead and read it and as always enjoy.

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(Sderot, Israel) -- Israeli warplanes continued to pound Hamas targets in Gaza today as Hamas fired 30 rockets at Israel. Three of those rockets hit the town of Sderot just before I arrived to participate in a relief project that The Joshua Fund helped finance. By the grace of God, no Israelis were killed as a result of any of the rocket attacks, though several were wounded. Separately, three Israeli soldiers died during fighting deep inside Gaza today.

It was an incredible honor to work with several dozen Jews and evangelical Christians to bless the poor and needy and victims of war and terror just a kilometer or two from the Gaza border at any given moment. Together, we met at about 10:30am and assembled bags of hot meals (chicken, rice, and steamed vegetables, along with several loaves of bread); bags of dry food goods (such as milk, cooking oil, noodles, tunafish, and chocolate wafer cookies); and bags of toiletries (such hand soap, shampoo, body wash, toothbrushes, cleaning wipes, and facial tissues) for needy Israeli families, mostly elderly folks. We also assembled bags of toys, games, coloring books and trading cards for the children who remain in Sderot because their families don't have enough money to evacuate them.

Then, after a lengthy security briefing telling us what to do if we are caught in the middle of a missile strike, we fanned out across the town to deliver these "bags of blessing" to lists of pre-selected families, all of whom live under the poverty level. Some were native Hebrew-speaking Israelis. Some were Ethiopian immigrants. Most were Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants from Russia and the former Soviet republics.

say that those we met and delivered the food and supplies to were deeply grateful doesn't even begin to capture the story. Some had tears in their eyes. Most were simply stunned that we had come as no one told them that they were going to be recipients today of such gifts. All of the elderly folks and families I had the privilege of visiting today eagerly invited my Jewish and evangelical colleagues into their flats. They wanted to sit and talk. They wanted to know why in the world we had come from all over Israel - and all over the world - to bless them. They also wanted to talk about what it's like to live under a near-constant barrage of rockets, missiles and mortars. And we were eager to listen. All told, about 150 Israeli families in Sderot were blessed today.

The project was organized by the Israel Leadership Institute which is run by Eeki Elner, a leadership trainer and social activist who lives in Sderot, and the Jerusalem Institute of Justice, which is run by Calev Myers, a partner in one of the leading law firms in Israel. Several organizations helped finance the project and provide volunteers. Last week, The Joshua Fund paid for all the hot meals that were distributed.

This week, we paid for all of the bags of dry food goods that were distributed, all of which were purchased from a local supermarket to help bless the beleagured, war-torn economy. We have multiple additional projects in motion to bless needy Israelis on the Gaza border. More details coming soon. Thanks so much for your prayers and generous financial support. We are so grateful for your help at this critical moment.

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Everyone have a good weekend. Next report on Monday.

Very slow news day

The Perspective: Its a very slow news day(minus the Blago bullshit) so I'm just going to talk about the a few things that just seem to stand out.

1) In 2008 America lost 2.6 million jobs.
2) Illinois Gov. Rod. Blago...was voted to be impeached. The trial now heads to the Illinois State Senate.

3) Hamas and Israel are still at it. Hamas did not agree to a U.N. cease-fire and the conflict continued. I don't expect it to end anytime soon.

4) In NASCAR Elliot Sadler will drive the #19 car next year even though GEM tried to failed to fire him

And for the hell of it, we all need a good laugh. Watch Youtube's Chad Vader Turkey Bowl.

I've got a Live Report From Israel

The Perspective: Just read it. I'm not going to talk about what I think or anything along those lines. I will say this. Israel has now been attacked by missiles from Lebanon in an attempt to expand the war to a second front. Israel has responded with air strikes in Lebanon. Lets hope that the war doesn't grow, although I think that it will. Now the report.
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From an E-mail sent to me by fellow JoshuaFund member and founder Joel Rosenberg.

"When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you. When you are approaching the battle, the priest shall come near and speak to the people. He shall say to them, 'Hear, O Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. Do not be afraid, or panic, or tremble before them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you." (Deuteronomy 20:1-4) Please forgive me for not writing for the past few days. I flew to Israel on Sunday and arrived Monday morning, joining several colleagues in southern Israel to assess the situation and help direct The Joshua Fund's relief efforts. It's been an intense 48 hours, and it's currently 5:54am Wednesday morning Israel time. Allow me, therefore, to make a few brief observations, and I will write more later.

* First and foremost, the situation is very intense here. Hamas has fired more than 500 rockets at innocent Israeli civilians over the past ten days or so. They are coming in at 40 to 50 rockets a day. More than 500,000 Israelis live within range of these instruments of terror, and many are traumatized by the fear of injury and death, not only for them but for their children as well.

* Six Israeli soldiers have died in the fighting so far. Israelis throughout the country are mourning their loss, name by name, family by family. That said, Israelis are also overwhelmingly relieved that their government is finally taking strong action against Hamas after some 2 1/2 years of doing virtually nothing.

* Some 1.5 million Palestinians who live on the Gaza Strip are being held hostage by Hamas. Hundreds are dead and thousands have been injured because of Hamas' evil reign of terror that finally provoked an Israeli response. The latest example came Tuesday when Hamas fighters fired mortars at Israeli forces from a U.N. school. This forced Israel to bomb the school to suppress the attacks. In the end, some 42 Palestinians - including the terrorists - died, and more than 50 were injured.

* Where is the world outrage against Hamas? The Palestinian people desperately want and need to be liberated from Hamas, and would privately welcome Israeli success against the terror leaders.

* Rather than mounting pressure on Hamas to stop the rockets, international pressure is steadily and aggressively mounting on the Israeli government to agree to a temporary ceasefire before the Hamas leadership and terror infrastructure in Gaza are crushed. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and French President Nicolas Sarkozy met in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh yesterday, teaming up to push for a ceasefire resolution they hope will end the fighting immediately. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice immediately said the U.S. supports the Mubarak-Sarkozy plan.

* Hamas is increasingly desperate for a ceasefire. Its top leaders are being killed. Scores of its best trained fighters are being killed. Its arms depots and government buildings are being bombed to smithereens. So are its vital smuggling tunnels along the Egyptian border. Reports the Jerusalem Post: "Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip said on Monday that the general feeling was that Hamas does not exist any longer as a governing body. 'All their government institutions have been destroyed,' said a Gaza City reporter. 'The Hamas leaders are now behaving like al-Qaida's Osama bin Laden and [his deputy] Ayman Zawahiri. Their only public appearances are through recorded messages aired on Arab TV stations.'"

* Preciously for this reason, now is no time to let up on Hamas. Israel should absolutely refuse to agree to the Mubarak-Sarkozy plan. As currently drafted, the agreement does not even suggest -- much less mandate -- the creation of an international force to prevent Hamas from re-arming. Even if it did, why should Israelis believe such an international force would be effective? The U.N. force in southern Lebanon is doing absolutely nothing to prevent Hezbollah from re-arming. To the contrary, it is now believed that Hezbollah has more than 30,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel, far more than ever before.

* The Israeli public has been duped by such international nonsense before, and thankfully they want no part of it. A new poll here by Channel 2 news finds that 81% of Israelis believe their government has done the right thing by sending ground forces into Gaza to stop the rockets and crush Hamas, and a stunning 60% of Israelis oppose talking to Hamas to obtain a cease-fire.

* That's certainly the sense I have after talking to Israelis here -- they want victory and they define victory as the destruction of the Hamas military and political leadership and the liberation of southern Israel from the constant threat of Hamas rocket, missile and mortar fire. Anything less than the accomplishment of these goals, they tell me, would make the situation worse because it would effectively be a victory for Hamas a defeat for Israel. Israelis don't want to see a single soldier of theirs die, but they believe now is the time to intensify the attack on Hamas, not let up.

* Regardless of how the public feels, however, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his government may very well accept a temporary and premature ceasefire. They accepted a premature ceasefire in Lebanon in 2006, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak signalled from the earliest hours of this conflict he wanted a quick ceasefire. The next few days will be critical to see what kind of resolve the Olmert government has this time around.
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If I get anymore reports from Joel, I will be sure to share them with you.

Mr. Panetta...

The Perspective: Presidential Elect Barack Obama is going to appoint Mr. Leon Panetta as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency(CIA). This is Mr. Obama's first big mistake.

Mr. Panetta has ZERO experience in the field of Intelligence. When your nation is involved in 2 wars(that the public knows about) and with the ever rising tensions in the Middle East with Iran, Israel and Russia returing to its bullying ways. We need a man who knows what the fuck he's doing.

This is not that man. This is a man who should be placed somewhere in the White House Office and work directly for Mr. Obama, not as the Director of the CIA.

The man that he should choose is someone inside the United States Military. I'd personally choose Former CENTCOM and SOCOM Head General Tommy Franks.

He is a man who knows what the fuck in going on in the world and a man who can return the United States Intelligence Community back to prosperity.

For once, I hope the Senate does not confirm this choice...make Barack choose again.

Good Ol' Russia

At least two Bulgarian cities were totally without gas Tuesday, and nations like Turkey were turning to Iran to bolster their supplies, as a natural gas crisis looms over Europe after a contract dispute between Russia and Ukraine led Russia to shut off gas supplies to seven countries and reduce gas deliveries to several others.

<------BLAME THIS GUY!

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The Perspective: Well, well. It seems that former Russian President, now Prime Minister Putin just can't let people live their lives. If you've been reading you know how much of an asshole that this guy can be. From selling weapons to known terrorists and nationalizing business this guy has done it all...now this.

Lets sum this up for you. Putin in all his wisdom decided to cut off a number of nations with their needed supply of natural gas. But to give him a little credit it is believed that the Ukraine did "steal" some of Russia's natural gas.

But tell me this. Why would you let nations like Turkey, and the many other nations in Europe suffer because of one nations alleged theft of your natural gas? Oh...almost forgot about Iran.

Yes Iran gets to play their hand into this as well. So, what does Iran get out of this situation? Oh nothing really, unless you count that they'll make natural gas revenue on the sale of their natural gas to Europe.

That's pretty important. And its important of a couple of reasons.

One: They need money to finish creating and building the nuclear weapon they say that their not making.(we all know that they are and what they plan to do with it)

Two: Russia and Iran are allies(I've mentioned this many times before) and Russia is again just giving Iran a little help.

And Three: Russia wants to acquire their former Soviet States...(if you think I'm crazy refer back to the Georgia incident)

So what do ,the United States need to do? Nothing. And that's because we can't do anything. If we try to, nothing good will become of it. So we'll just sit back and watch...and let Putin be President again in 2012.(its going to happen trust me)

Okay Folks...

Alright, so lets just start off today with me saying that I'm back and I should be back for good. I will likely update this blog everyday round 4pm eastern everyday except on Sundays. So lets just get down to business.
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The Perspective: I'm going to do something a little different today. Usually I'd start off by giving you some news and then giving you my Perspective on it, but today its all me.

The topic of course is: Israel.

As we all know by now Israel began attacking Gaza ten days ago. This all began with Hamas(a known terrorist organization that has been in charge of Gaza since June) broke a cease-fire that had been in affect for the past 6 months.

So, what did Israel do? They attacked. First by simply using airstrikes to attack key targets of interest in an attempt to limit the amount of rockets being fired into their nation. That didn't work. So the Israelis decided to send troops into Gaza in what is expected to be a long campaign against Hamas.

While the United States and the EU in cooperation with the United Nations are trying to create a new cease-fire agreement the most recent draft was turned down by the United States because it didn't force Hamas to stop the rocket attacks into Israel.(that was kinda a no brainer in my opinion)

So, we continue to wait and see what happens. Over the past ten days over 500 have been killed, and 3,000 injured. At this time my DoD contacts say that only 1 IDF soldier has been killed. While the numbers on the Hamas militants killed is roughly a dozen(12-15) the exact number at this time is unknown.

One thing is certain in all of this, this time Israel is not backing down. The IDF has learned their lesson from 2006's confrontation against Hezbollah. They no longer feel that they can't be beat. They know that the way the Iranian trained and Russian, Syrian and Iranian funded fight and how to beat them.

The IDF is currently planning an assault into Gaza city; population 500,000. Again according to my DoD contacts the city is home to roughly 15,000-20,000 Hamas fighters. The current Israeli numbers in the are are around 5,000-7,000. When they make the assault in the next 48-72 hours, the numbers are expected to be near the total of 10,000 wanted IDF forces.

The fight itself will be long and hard. If you want constant updates on the situation just send me an e-mail at captaincgray@yahoo.com and I'll add you to my list.

Thanks guys, and girls. I hope you enjoy the read. And as always....enjoy The Perspective.