Randy's Corner Deli Library

31 July 2006

Always the Jew

The news out of Israel this morning is very bad.the world expects SO much
out of Israel to conduct its war as if in a surgical suite, not a
battlefield. Lebanon has become Hezb'Allah's killing field, hiding behind
women and children in civilian areas to shoot their increasingly
sophisticated and deadly rockets then blaming the Israelis for shooting
back. How cynical! How horrible!

This is just madness: Orwellian even, where all that is right and good is
wrong and bad and where the victims have to justify for the world their own
existence. Israel, alas, doesn't play the victim very well any more. Even
when fighting for its existence. To let Hezb'Allah control Lebanon and the
Northern Border is to play with fire. They must be destroyed or severely
"degraded" in DOD-speak. Orwellian in that fighting back with the ferocity
that is needed to clean out Lebanon of Arabs who mean to destroy it, Israel
seems to lose the moral authority that was "conferred" upon it by world
opinion in the beginning. Where, pray tell, was the world for the last 6
years while Israel did nothing to stop Hezbollah? Where is the world EVER
where atrocities occur? Nowhere indeed. Then the Lebanese government screams
at the Israelis to get out on the American Sunday morning news programs,
followed by soft-spoken plain truth by Shimon Peres, an 83 year old veteran
of all of Israeli history who rightly says: what kind of government is it in
Lebanon that has no control over its own land as is the case with the
present government which cannot order Hezb'Allah out of its own territory?
It's no government.

I am hoping that Israel will not be deterred by the Chamberlains of this
generation who would appease the 21st Century's madmen like the ones that
control Iran and Hezb'Allah. Ultimately, Israel is going to have to do the
rest of the world's dirty work, for in the end I can answer Mr. Peres'
questions of' Why are they shooting at us? What reason do they have?: They
hate Israel because it is Jews that run it. They hate Israel because it sits
in the middle of what might be a caliphate that stretches from Spain to
Iraq. Let there be no doubt that what is going on here is a war that is
being fought by Hezb'Allah on purely ideological grounds: the ideology of
baseless hatred, of ignorance and fear. On the basis of a reading of Islam
that is stretched and distorted beyond the recognition of right-thinking
people. It is being decided in the streets of Beirut and Cairo where
thousands, maybe millions, who have been deprived of a decent life by their
own governments which have chosen instead to blame all their worldly woes on
the Jews instead. Always the Jew. Because we are always there. And always
will be. For this fight is, from the Israeli/Jewish perspective, also about
life. We choose life. We choose to defend life. And if that choice is what
gets Israel in trouble with world opinion, then so be it. If history teaches
us one thing it is that the world, with the exception of a few, does not
care if we live or die. That is an unacceptable choice.

28 July 2006

Shameful Shaming

I've always thought this was a bad thing to do -- I've never done this,
though when people are "well known" in the community and they screw a little
guy or a small business, the temptation is very great. But it's akin to
lashon hara, speaking ill of someone. What goes around comes around, I
suppose and the person doing the screwing (screwor) eventually gets his/hers
some way, some how. It ain't up to me to blast them all over the community.
But if a screwee, as is pointed out below, can do something discreetly in
order to get paid, then I don't think that there is anything wrong with
that. And it doesn't have to amount to extortion. If everything else fails,
there is no sense in rooting around in the mud, losing your own
respectability in the process.

Shameful Shaming

By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir

Can I threaten to spread the word about someone who cheated me?

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Q: My tenant caused me a large loss by
canceling his lease on short notice. Can I shame him into making good my
loss by threatening to bad-mouth him in our closely knit community?

A: Any kind of extra-legal sanctions should be viewed as a last resort. When
you write that the cancellation "caused a loss," you must mean that it
violated some explicit clause in the lease agreement specifying requirements
for advance notice. If so, the same agreement presumably also dictates what
the penalty is for breaching this requirement. If so, then your first course
of action should be to seek a neutral forum, such as litigation,
arbitration, or mediation, to uphold and enforce your claim.

If neither contract nor custom obligate the tenant to pay a fine, then it is
certainly improper to shame him into paying one. This is no more than a kind
of extortion.

However, sometimes there may be obstacles to legal recourse. Some
obligations may be unrecorded, or informal, or not enforceable. In this
case, it is sometimes appropriate to spread the story to others in order to
enforce our rights. Rabbi Yisrael Meir HaKohen of Radin, in his classic work
on slander, Chafetz Chaim, learns this from the following story in the
Talmud:

Rav Gidel sought to buy a certain plot of land. Along came Rebbe Abba and
bought it [first]. Rav Gidel went and complained to Rebbe Zeira. (1)

Jewish law restricts buying a plot of land if someone else is actively
negotiating for it. So Rebbe Abba's purchase seems improper. Yet the
transgression is not actionable; a court could not compel Rebbe Abba to sell
the field to Rav Gidel. Thus the only recourse left open to Rav Gidel was to
complain to some respected rabbinic figures.

However, as the Chafetz Chaim is careful to point out, Rav Gidel did not
"bad-mouth" Rebbe Abba. His object was not to shame him but rather to turn
to specific individuals who could persuade Rebbe Abba to offer some kind of
settlement. The book makes clear that any intention whatsoever to shame the
supposed wrongdoer is improper; all that is permitted is to turn to other
individuals who have some specific ability to right the wrong.

"It seems to me that if he estimates that by telling other people how such a
person did him an injustice in monetary matters and the like that this could
bring him such future benefit, for example by telling people who have
influence on [the wrongdoer],... it is permissible for him to tell them and
to ask them to help him... It is permissible to tell others even though the
story will embarrass his fellow, because this is not his intention. He only
wants to protect himself so that he won't suffer any damage or sorrow or
shame." (2)

The best place for you to resolve your disagreement with your tenant is in
some kind of impartial forum. If you are convinced that you deserve some
kind of settlement but for some reason litigation or arbitration are unable
to enforce one, then it may be proper for you to turn to specific
individuals who will be able in a discreet and pertinent way to help you
attain one.

But it is certainly improper to publicly shame someone, or to threaten to do
so. As we learn from the Chafetz Chaim, even turning to others in
permissible way is forbidden if our intention is not for reasonable self
protection but rather to defame others.

SOURCES: (1) Babylonian Talmud, Kiddushin 59a. (2) Chafetz Chaim, volume I
chapter 10:13

27 July 2006

From the Front Line -13


Sent: Thursday, 27 July, 2006 6:44
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Subject: [eejh] Fw: From the Front Line -13

Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 2:22 PM
Subject: From the Front Line -13

Friends,

Yesterday was not a good day for Israel. The soldiers killed and wounded at
Bint Jbail is hard to bear. There was an ambush just like the battle in
Jenin in 2002 and because we try to save civilian lives, our boys get
killed.

Bint Jbail is not a hill with a platoon of terrorists; it is a town of
40,000 inhabitants with a huge arsenal of highly sophisticated weaponry
stored under their houses Israel dropped messages to all the inhabitants to
get out but they were held at gunpoint to stay and protect the lives of
their leaders making our entry so much more difficult. We are fighting a
highly trained, very clever enemy that has no red lines; it will take time
and cost lives. This is a very real war. A Hizbollah cleric stated quite
clearly that "we can beat Zionists because we love death and they love
life".

It was reported in the paper yesterday that "Military intelligence has
dossiers on 170 towns and villages that serve as Hizbollah strongholds
throughout Southern Lebanon. The dossiers include details and maps on the
number of fighters, their firing positions, fortifications and underground
bunkers and quantities of arms..... their (Hizbollah) defense structure is
based on fighting from within the villages.."

Consequently, I am sure that most of the "civilian" buildings destroyed,
that are capturing the world headlines will have bunkers and arms stored
underneath. But just like the Pallywood productions of the Palestinians,
Hizbollah is manufacturing "news" for foreign viewers and large news
networks gobble it up and regurgitate it, becoming in effect, branches of
Hizbollah's "El Manar" television. CNN correspondent Robertson admits:

"And I think as we try and do our job, which is go out and see what's
happened to the best of our ability, clearly, in that environment, in the
southern suburbs of Beirut that Hizbollah controls, the only way we can get
into those areas is with a Hizbollah escort. And absolutely, when you hear
their claims they have to come with more than a grain of salt, so you have
to put in some journalistic integrity. You have to point out to the audience

and let them know that this was a guided tour by Hizbollah press officials
along with their security, that it was a very rushed affair, that there
wasn't time to go and look through those buildings."
"The audience has to know the conditions of that tour. But again, we could
not get access to those areas without Hizbollah compliance, they control
those areas."

The Israeli citizens are doing a sterling job in helping the brethren in so
many ways. We will be spending the weekend with our son and his family in
Bet Shemesh and we have been told that a big meal is being sponsored by the

community in a school for all the families from the north that are being
hosted by Bet Shemesh families. Of course Hadassah/Hasja can't go empty
handed, so she is now in the kitchen cooking Lasagne for the meal..

Every day in the newspaper, there is a section advertising those families in

the "safe" parts of the country who are prepared to host families from the
north. Special events are being organized for children and toys that have
been donated are being distributed to the shelters. An organization called
Latet who prepare emergency food packages and distribute to those stuck in
the shelters in the north and Yad Sarah who are distributing essential
medical supplies.There are many other groups all pitching in to help their
fellow countrymen in whatever way they can.

I hope this spirit of togetherness gathers strength and continues after this

is all over.. The country is really united, at this moment but of course
there are still those that know better than everyone else - this is Israel,
after all. As friend quoted in her daily letter :- Q. Why don't Israeli's
make love in the street? A. Because everyone would tell them how to do it
better!

Stuart

FW: Our Ref - COM_FIELD/GVA06E407 : Re: Please visit the three captured Israeli Soldiers(;Your ref:"I. Randolph S. Shiner"

In mid July, I wrote to the ICRC to visit the 3 kidnapped Israeli soldiers
(one in Gaza by Hamas, two in Israel by Hezb'Allah). Here is their response:

-----Original Message-----
From: Sebastien Carliez [mailto:scarliez.gva@icrc.org]
Sent: Thursday, 27 July, 2006 6:59
To: I Randolph S Shiner
Subject: Our Ref - COM_FIELD/GVA06E407 : Re: Please visit the three captured
Israeli Soldiers(;Your ref:"I. Randolph S. Shiner" <irsslex 19.07.2006
1:26:30)

Dear Sir,

In response to your message, we would like to let you know that, in its
capacity of neutral intermediary, the ICRC stands ready to visit these
three soldiers, provide medical assistance if needed and establish
contacts between them and their families, for instance via Red Cross
messages.

The ICRC has urged Hezbollah to treat the two Israeli soldiers whom they
are detaining humanely and to respect their life and dignity. It has
also issued a public statement on July 13th, the full text of which you
may find on our web site (

http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/lebanon-news-130706!OpenDocume
nt
).

Furthermore, please be informed that the ICRC has issued on July 1st a
press release calling on those detaining Gilad Shalit to treat him
humanely and to respect his life and dignity, in accordance with
international humanitarian law. For the full text of the statement,
kindly refer to our web site (

http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/Gaza-news-010706!OpenDocument
).

Yours sincerely,

Communication Department
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
19 avenue de la Paix, CH 1202 Geneva
www.icrc.org

25 July 2006

Pride in Hiding Behind Civilians

Finally, finally, the NYT quotes a UN official who recognizes Hezb'Allah's
use of civilians as shields. No more discussion is needed on why there are
as many civilians dead amongst Lebanese. They have only the Hezb'Allah to
thank for their fix.

July 25, 2006
The Conflict
Border Clashes Intensify as Israel Hunts Militants
By CRAIG S. SMITH and GREG MYRE

AVIVIM, Israel, July 24 - In some of the most intense ground clashes so far,
Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants fought fiercely Monday in and around
two hilltop towns in southern Lebanon where the Israeli military is seeking
to drive the militants away from the border.

The main battle was on the outskirts of Bint Jbail, about two miles across
the border into Lebanon, where 2 Israeli soldiers were killed and 14
wounded, the Israeli military said. Hezbollah fighters were believed to have
sustained a greater number of casualties, the military added, though it did
not have figures.

The fighting came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in the
region, making an unannounced stop in Beirut, where she met Lebanon's prime
minister, Fouad Siniora. Ms. Rice expressed concern for Lebanese suffering,
and the United States said it would give $30 million to aid in the country's
recovery. "Thank you for your courage and steadfastness," she told Mr.
Siniora.

But the visit was tense. Mr. Siniora angrily described the damage to his
country, including about 380 people killed and some 750,000 displaced, and,
according to a statement released by his office, said the Israeli bombing
had set Lebanon back "50 years."

Ms. Rice said Washington would support a cease-fire once Hezbollah freed two
Israeli soldiers taken captive 13 days ago and pulled back from the border
with Israel, said C. David Welch, the assistant secretary of state for Near
East affairs.

She repeated the message in a later meeting with an emotional Nabih Berri,
the speaker of Parliament and a Hezbollah ally and presumed intermediary,
who insisted that a cease-fire come first, and then a prisoner exchange.

Passing through empty streets, Ms. Rice saw little of the damage inflicted
on Beirut, which was not bombed by Israel while she was there. Ms. Rice
arrived in Israel on Monday evening and held talks with Foreign Minister
Tzipi Livni.

Israeli military officers said the offensive on Bint Jbail began Sunday,
though they gave slightly differing accounts on how far Israeli troops had
advanced.
The military spokesman's office said the troops were on the outskirts,
fighting their way in as of Monday evening. But Capt. Mitch Pilcer of the
army's northern command, said, "We're definitely in there, we control it,
though there are still pockets of resistance."

Soldiers in a rear staging area near the Israeli border town of Avivim said
they had encountered sustained fighting and faced land mines, artillery fire
and antitank rockets.
When asked what it was like in Lebanon, one member of an armed bulldozer
crew who would give only his first name, Noam, because of the Israeli Army
policy that prohibits soldiers from talking to the press without
authorization, said there had been an enormous amount of antitank missile
fire.

He said the monstrous, olive drab bulldozers that the Israeli Army used to
clear roads and demolish buildings drew heavy fire.
"It's not Lebanon, it's Afghanistan," he said.

For a time, the Israelis were focused on efforts to rescue the crew of a
disabled tank, which had come under heavy fire. Some, if not all, of the
four crew members inside were wounded, soldiers said.

They said one of the wounded was a battalion commander and others said one
crew member had been killed. They were eventually recovered and the wounded
were sent to hospitals in Israel, the soldiers said.

At the Menara Kibbutz on a high ridge overlooking Lebanon, streams of smoke
drifted from the town of Mes e Jbail, apparently from Israeli shelling.
Fires burned elsewhere across the otherwise gentle landscape.

Bint Jbail, also smoking, could be glimpsed in the distance. Below the
kibbutz, on an outcropping, sat a United Nations observer outpost, built of
cinder blocks and concrete blast walls. The United Nations observers, meant
to monitor the border after Israel's withdrawal, could do nothing but watch.

The push for Bint Jbail comes after the Israeli forces moved into Marun
al-Ras, a smaller town closer to the border. It, too, is set on a hilltop
and Hezbollah has used it as a crucial base, the military said.

While the Israeli forces were in Marun al Ras, they continued to come under
fire from Hezbollah forces, beginning early in the morning, the military
said. Marun al Ras is just a short distance across the border, and there
have been clashes between Israeli and Hezbollah forces in the area for the
past six days.

The Israeli Air Force bombarded both towns throughout the day.

An Israeli helicopter returning from a mission to Lebanon crashed on the
Israeli side of the border, killing both crew members, the military said.
Hezbollah said it had shot down the helicopter, but the Israeli military
said it believed the crash was caused by a technical problem.

Though Israel's military and political leaders say they do not want to
undertake a major ground offensive in southern Lebanon, but only want to
clear Hezbollah fighters and weapons from the border region, the past
several days of fighting have demonstrated that doing so will take time.

One Israeli officer, who asked not to be identified because he was speaking
without authorization, said that in a full-scale war, the military would
simply bypass those small villages and push north, coming back later to mop
up when the main objective had been reached. "We're doing the opposite
here," he said.

The Israeli military has found a well-protected network of bunkers and
tunnels, with large stocks of Katyusha rockets and other weaponry. So far,
the operation has not slowed the Hezbollah rocket fire.

More than 80 rockets crashed into northern Israel as of Monday evening,
wounding about 20 people, the military said. The rockets again touched off
brush fires, turning the clear summer sky gray with smoke in the town of
Kiryat Shmona, which was hit by a heavy barrage in the afternoon.

Avi Dichter, Israel's public security minister, said the military objective
in southern Lebanon was to weaken Hezbollah to the point where it could not
seriously threaten Israel from the border area.

"From an Israeli perspective, the target is not to totally dismantle
Hezbollah," said Mr. Dichter, a former director of the Shin Bet security
agency. Israel, he said, was "hoping that somehow we'll succeed in setting
up a new situation between Israel and Hezbollah."

Responding to criticism over the large number of civilian deaths in Lebanon,
Mr. Dichter said: "A war is not a surgical operation, and air war is not a
surgical operation. You identify the targets, bombs are sophisticated and
accurate. But you see a cement truck and from the air it looks just like a
Katyusha truck. Sometimes from the air you hit the wrong target."

In an interview on the Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera, Hezbollah's
leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, said his movement would define victory
simply as the survival of the militia.
"Victory in this case does not mean that I will enter and conquer the north
of Palestine," Sheik Nasrallah said. "If the resistance survives, this will
be a victory. If its determination is not broken, this will be a victory."

He also accused Arab states he did not identify of encouraging Israel to
strike at Hezbollah.
"Some of the Arabs provided a cover and encouraged Israel to continue the
battle," he said. "Israel was told that this is a golden and historic
opportunity to annihilate the resistance in Lebanon."

In southern Lebanon, at least seven civilians were killed, including two
children, in a renewed wave of Israeli airstrikes that hit several homes
around Tyre, Agence France-Presse reported.
Overnight, two Red Cross ambulances were bombed within moments of each other
while taking wounded people to Tyre, the Red Cross said. One man who was
being transferred died of his wounds, while others were severely injured,
and six paramedics were hurt in the attack, in the town of Qana.

About 380 Lebanese have been killed in 13 days of fighting, a vast majority
of them civilians, according to the Lebanese. Israeli military officials say
they believe they have killed around 100 Hezbollah militants.

A ferry chartered by Germany docked in Tyre and delivered much-needed food
and emergency supplies. The town has been largely isolated from the north of
the country because of attacks on roads and bridges.

Also Monday, the United Nations appealed for $150 million in relief for
Lebanon. Jan Egeland, who is in charge of humanitarian affairs for the
United Nations, said the money was needed for emergency medicine, food and
other supplies for the next three months. He said approximately 800,000
Lebanese had been affected by the bombardment.

A day after criticizing Israel for "disproportionate" strikes against
civilians, Mr. Egeland accused Hezbollah of "cowardly blending" among women
and children.

"I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was
the civilians bearing the brunt of this," he said. "I don't think anyone
should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men."

Mr. Egeland said Lebanon was dangerously short of fuel and was talking to
Israel about a safe corridor to allow supplies to reach the most devastated
areas.
"It's urgent," he said at a news conference in Beirut. "Most of the schools
in the country are filling up with internally displaced persons."

One school in Beirut had six toilets for 1,000 people, he said.

There was also renewed violence in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli artillery shelled two towns in the northern Gaza Strip, killing five
Palestinian civilians, including two children, Palestinian hospital workers
reported.
Palestinian militants fired eight rockets into southern Israel, the Israeli
military said, but they caused no serious damage or injuries.
The Israeli military responded with shells, hitting an apartment building
and open spaces just outside in Beit Lahiya. Three civilians were killed,
and several people were wounded, according to Palestinians in the area.

The Israeli military said it did not single out civilians but was
investigating the possibility that one or more rockets "misfired." The
military said it regretted any civilian casualties.
Later, another Israeli attack killed a woman and a child in the nearby Beit
Hanun area, according to the Palestinians.

The military said it fired on a Palestinian cell that was launching rockets
and identified a hit. The military said it was not aware of any civilian
casualties.
Israel has been dropping leaflets in northern Gaza, warning civilians to
move away from areas where Qassam rockets are being launched.

Israel, meanwhile, put its diplomatic missions abroad on alert for possible
attacks by Hezbollah or Muslims angered by the offensive, Reuters quoted
Israeli security sources as saying.

Craig S. Smith reported from Avivim for this article, and Greg Myre from
Jerusalem. Sabrina Tavernise contributed reporting from Beirut, and Hassan
M. Fattah from Tyre, Lebanon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/25/world/middleeast/25mideast.html

24 July 2006

Residents join to back Israel

This is a fairly accurate representation of what happened yesterday, with
the exception of the demonstrators across the street. They were yelling some
nonsense about "stop[ping] the Zionist Genocide" and "Jews go back to
Poland", "Jews go back to Germany" etc. Their hatred was clearly more
directed at Jews as Jews rather than the situation in the North of
Israel/Southern Lebanon. But this is exactly the point: the terror groups
are and have been engaging in a genocidal effort when they aim their weapons
at Jewish civilians whether they are rockets or suicide bombs packed with
nails or ball bearings. One wonders if these people have a brain of their
own, or if they are just the dupes of their so-called leaders who have
encouraged them to remain as victims for the past 60 years instead of
building a new life for themselves as Israeli refugees from Arab countries
that they were exiled from after 1948 have done.

Just today, a rocket hit an old-age home in near Haifa. As I was walking out
of the rally, there was ONE guy from the rally yelling at the stupid
protesters who were at first trying to block the entrance to the parking
facility across the street. The police were soon called, and I assume that
they were told not to interfere with people or they'd be broken up, as the
situation looked more orderly on the way out than on the way in. People who
live in San Diego and who stoop to yell like this at ignoramuses should
think twice about rooting in the dirt with the Islamofascist scum that
showed up yesterday.

The report likewise did not mention the speeches of some teens from JITLI
(Jacobs International Teen Leadership Institute) which brings together
Jewish American, Jewish Israeli, Arab Israeli, and Palestinian high school
students. There were three young people who made brief remarks about their
hopes for peace in the region; none made any controversial remarks, as all
who attended the rally all want peace, but not at the end of a rope or as
hostages to terrorists. For more on JITLI, see www.jitli.org )

RS

Residents join to back Israel

38 local Jewish groups sponsored La Jolla event
By Jenny Lim
UNION-TRIBUNE

July 24, 2006

As fighting continued in the Middle East, more than 1,500 representatives of
San Diego's Jewish organizations and synagogues rallied to support Israel
yesterday afternoon.

More than 1,500 people attended a pro-Israel rally yesterday in La Jolla
with speeches by San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and Rep. Susan Davis, D-San
Diego.
The crowd gathered on a soccer field at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community
Center in La Jolla, where volunteers passed out free sunscreen, Israeli and
American flags and T-shirts that read, "Israel, We Stand With You."

Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego, received cheers when she announced the House
had passed a bill condemning the recent attacks against Israel. Israel and
the Hezbollah militia have been fighting in Lebanon since Hezbollah captured
two Israeli soldiers July 12.

Davis said some in the international community have criticized Israel's
military response as disproportional.

"I can understand and appreciate the concern for the well-being of innocent
civilians in the region," she said. "But I have seen the Hezbollah's
military capability, and I know they are not a benign force."

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, whose sister-in-law has lived in Israel for
36 years, said he understood the concern for family and friends in Israel.

"Extremists must not be allowed to continue to dictate the terms, to
continue to break the peace, to continue to harm our family members and our
allies all over the world, but especially in Israel," Sanders said.

The loudest applause greeted speaker Jacob Fine, a 20-year-old American from
Saratoga who completed a two-year stint as an Israeli Army soldier last
month. Fine's aunt and uncle, Bob and Susan Halstead of Carmel Valley, were
in the audience.

The United Jewish Federation of San Diego County coordinated the gathering,
which was co-sponsored by 38 local Jewish groups. The event was the
federation's first rally since the violence in Israel and Lebanon began.

Across the street from the center stood two dozen protesters, including
members of the Islamic Center of San Diego and the organization Right of
Return for Palestinian Refugees. As the rally ended, attendees and
protesters exchanged verbal taunts across Executive Drive.

Mona Kadah of North County said she hoped the small protest would call
attention to the need to "stop the bombing and killing" in Lebanon.

"No one here has issues with the people of Lebanon," said Yaron Lief, an
attendee who owns a water damage repair company in San Diego. Lief said his
grandmother and two sisters have relocated to a bunker in Haifa, Israel,
since the fighting started.

The conflict has stirred mixed feelings for many Israelis because Lebanese
civilians are being hurt, Lief said.

"We love the people of Lebanon, but we don't appreciate people shooting at
us from that land," he said.

Jewish agencies and congregations held similar rallies in San Francisco, Los
Angeles and Orange County yesterday, said Michael Rassler, executive vice
president of the San Diego federation.

During the rally, Rassler encouraged the crowd to call relatives in Israel
and make contributions to the federation's fundraising campaigns.

Since July 17, the federation and the Jewish Community Foundation of San
Diego have raised more than $125,000 to help programs in Israel during the
recent violence. The federation will distribute the funds to five programs,
including one that will send children in Northern Israel to summer camps
away from the fighting.

Tina Friedman, the federation's Community Relations Council director, said
24 San Diego teenagers are in southern Israel for the organization's annual
Scott Stone Israel Teen Trip. The sophomores and juniors will return from
their month-long tour of Israel on Wednesday.

Friedman's 15-year-old daughter, Aliza, is in Israel on a separate, six-week
tour until Aug. 7.

"I'm a little nervous about it, but I know that her program is taking very
good care of her," Friedman said. When Friedman spoke with her daughter
Saturday, she said teens from the north were being relocated to her dorm.

"She says she's having a great time," Friedman said. "She's living through
history. There's nothing I'm able to teach her that can replicate what she's
learning now."

Jenny Lim is a Union-Tribune intern.

03 July 2006

The Molecular Mechanism of a Diabetes Vaccine Revealed

================
GOOD NEWS ISRAEL
================

The Molecular Mechanism of a Diabetes Vaccine Revealed
******************************************************

Prof. Irun Cohen of the Weizmann Institute has revealed the molecular
mechanism of a vaccine for Type 1 diabetes - findings that will hopefully
improve the vaccine's effectiveness.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system
mistakenly attacks the body's own insulin-producing pancreatic cells,
reducing and ultimately eliminating the production of insulin - a hormone
needed to convert sugar, starches and other foods into energy.

Several years ago, Prof. Cohen and his colleagues developed a vaccine that
arrests the progression of Type 1 diabetes in laboratory animals. They had
discovered that a particular protein, called HSP60, is able to shut down the
autoimmune response causing this disorder. The vaccine is currently being
tested in clinical trials in Europe and the United States, but its precise
mechanism has until now been unknown.

"When translating these findings into a practical vaccine, we knew enough
about the mechanism to understand that this protein is able to cause a
decrease in the immune response, but how it actually works eluded us," says
Cohen. In a paper published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the
scientists have managed to identify the exact immune cells that peptide p277
acts upon.

Autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes occur when certain T cells in
the immune system attack the body's own cells and tissues. The scientists
discovered that peptide p277 directs the activity of the immune system in
two ways. First, the p277 steps up the activities of a different type of T
cell that regulates the amount of potentially harmful T cells. In addition,
T cells treated with p277 cause the delinquent T cells to secrete
anti-inflammatory substances instead of the inflammation-causing ones that
they usually make. This leads to an autoimmune disease. This double action
of the peptide weakens the damaging activities of the immune response
further.

"These findings are important, as it means that by identifying the molecular
activity of p277 with such precision, we can copy nature's own system in
regulating the immune system and therefore, help to boost the immune system
in preventing the destruction of insulin-producing pancreatic cells," says
Cohen.

http://www.gamla.org.il/english

Fat People Not More Jolly, Study Says

Darn! So what do we make of Santa Claus? Is he taking Prozac or some other
SSRI when he is not delivering presents to the boys and girls at Christmas
time? NO!! I can't believe it. He is just happy. However he is, fat or
skinny. A happy person is happy no matter their size. If a fat person is
happy, their size is immaterial. The nature of the depression that people
face with their obesity is a measure of the relentless nature of the
societal pressures that everyone faces. Our society is biased against fat
people, and those among us who are obese face those messages every day.
There is the additional concern over health. If a fat person starts to face
health issues because of their obesity, this will (as will any chronic
condition) contribute to that person's poor sense of self, feelings of
inadequacy and shame. I think the report of this study is far too
simplistic.

RS

Fat People Not More Jolly, Study Says
Jul 03 4:45 PM US/Eastern
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By LINDSEY TANNER
AP Medical Writer

CHICAGO

Fat people are not more jolly, according to a study that instead found
obesity is strongly linked with depression and other mood disorders.

Whether obesity might cause these problems or is the result of them is not
certain, and the research does not provide an answer, but there are theories
to support both arguments.

Depression often causes people to abandon activities, and some medications
used to treat mental illness can cause weight gain. On the other hand,
obesity is often seen as a stigma and overweight people often are subject to
teasing and other hurtful behavior.

The study of more than 9,000 adults found that mood and anxiety disorders
including depression were about 25 percent more common in the obese people
studied than in the non-obese. Substance abuse was an exception _ obese
people were about 25 percent less likely to abuse drugs or alcohol than
slimmer participants.

The results appear in the July issue of Archives of General Psychiatry,
being released Monday. The lead author was Dr. Gregory Simon, a researcher
with Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, a large nonprofit health plan in
the Pacific Northwest.

The results "suggest that the cultural stereotype of the jolly fat person is
more a figment of our imagination than a reality," said Dr. Wayne Fenton of
the National Institute of Mental Health, which funded the study.

"The take-home message for doctors is to be on the lookout for depression
among their patients who are overweight," Fenton said.

Both conditions are quite common. About one-third of U.S. adults are obese,
and depression affects about 10 percent of the population, or nearly 21
million U.S. adults in a given year.

Previous studies produced conflicting results on whether obesity is linked
with mental illness including depression, although a growing body of
research suggests there is an association.

This latest study helps resolve the question, said Dr. Susan McElroy, a
psychiatry professor at the University of Cincinnati and editor of a
textbook on obesity and mental disorders.

"This is a state-of-the-art psychiatric epidemiology study that really
confirms that there is, in fact, a relationship," she said.

The study was based on an analysis of a national survey of 9,125 adults who
were interviewed to assess mental state. Obesity status was determined using
participants' self-reported weight and height measurements.

About one-fourth of all participants were obese. Some 22 percent of obese
participants had experienced a mood disorder including depression, compared
with 18 percent of the nonobese.

McElroy said the study bolsters previous research suggesting that drug and
alcohol abuse are less common in the obese. One reason might be that
good-tasting food and substances of abuse both affect the same
reward-seeking areas of the brain, McElroy said. Why some people choose food
as a mood-regulator and others drugs or alcohol is uncertain, she said.

The study found the relationship between obesity and mental illness was
equally strong in men and women, contrasting with some previous research
that found a more robust link in women.