Rally for the Dead Sea?

We rallied to put Yerushalayim on the MONOPOLY Here & Now: The World Edition. Now, is it indeed time to rally once again by voting for the great natural wonder of the Dead Sea? The Dead Sea has been nominated for inclusion as one of the New 7 Wonders. The voting process requires registering an email address and voting. You have 7 votes all of which must be different (can't vote for the Dead Sea 7 times). Also in the voting is Ein Gedi, Rosh HaNikra and the Red Sea.



Now, the bad news. Since the Dead Sea is officially a "multi-national" nominee and does not have the support of all the parties, your votes may not matter. The competition rules require an OSC - {This is a multi-national nominee that needs all countries to officially support it. WITHOUT AN OFFICIAL SUPPORTING COMMITTEE FROM EACH COUNTRY IT MAY BE ELIMINATED FROM THE FINALIST SELECTION. }.

Jordan is one of those countries. Okay, so barf time, guess who the other "country" is? Sit down, take a deep breath, ready? yep - them - the barbarians who call themselves Palestinians. So in other words, the Dead Sea, which deservedly should be called a natural wonder by any accounting will probably not be a finalist, eliminated by a set of rules which requires a terrorist entity to form a supporting committee in order that the "sea" (which by historic rights belongs to and is associated with the people the terrorists seek to kill) be "official".

Well, my advice is to do your part and let Der Aibishter do his. Those who's opinions count know the truth.

Live Rankings

Dead Sea's Nomination page

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Dead Sea Floating Towards Top in Worldwide Vote
Cheshvan 14, 5769, 12 November 08 01:06 by Hillel Fendel (IsraelNN.com)

The Dead Sea has been nominated in the international competition for one of the world's New Seven Wonders - and is in the top 20 in worldwide voting.

Currently #18 in the voting, the Dead Sea is still not yet assured of its place as one of the 77 finalists for New World Wonder. This is because not all of the three entities that it borders - Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority - have yet formed an official supporting committee. The rules laid out by the New7Wonders Foundation, which is behind the New7Wonders campaign, state that this can disqualify it from being included among the finalists.

But this has not stopped Israel's Megillot Regional Council, whose towns border the Dead Sea, from nominating it as Israel's choice for New Wonder of the World. Every country is allowed to have one nominated wonder in the final voting, in addition to wonders that it shares with other countries. The final voting will begin next July.

Lowest and Saltiest
Megillot Council head Mordechai Dehan says the Dead Sea holds two worlds records: "It is the lowest place on earth, and the saltiest. It is truly one of the wonders of the world, and I hope that we will also receive confirmation from the world's population on this."

The shores of the Dead Sea, at 420 meters below sea level, are the lowest point on Earth on dry land. With 30% salinity, it is 8.6 times saltier than the ocean, and approximately three times more saline than Great Salt Lake in Utah.

This coming Chanukah, on Dec. 27, a mass bicycle ride will be held around the Israeli shores of the Dead Sea, as part of the campaign calling to "Save the Dead Sea!" The Sea has been shrinking drastically in recent years, losing approximately a meter of height each year. This is largely due to heavy consumption of water from the Jordan River, the source of the Dead Sea.

To vote in the international competition for the Seven New Wonders of the World, visit New 7 Wonders Voting.

The Red Sea Reef
Just ahead of the Dead Sea in the worldwide voting is the Red Sea Reef, shared as a nominee by no fewer than eight countries: Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. It, too, has not yet been finally approved for the finalist selection, apparently because no country has yet formed an official supporting committee.

Despite this, voters from around the world have placed the Red Sea in 17th place worldwide. A rich and diverse ecosystem, more than 1,100 species of fish have been recorded there, including about 110 found nowhere else. The rich diversity is in part due to the 1,240 miles of coral reef extending along its coastline, which form platforms and lagoons along the coast.

Barry Obama and Palestine Advocacy

Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Obama
CHICAGO -- It was a celebration of Palestinian culture -- a night of music, dancing and a dash of politics. Local Arab Americans were bidding farewell to Rashid Khalidi, an internationally known scholar, critic of Israel and advocate for Palestinian rights, who was leaving town for a job in New York.

A special tribute came from Khalidi's friend and frequent dinner companion, the young state Sen. Barack Obama. Speaking to the crowd, Obama reminisced about meals prepared by Khalidi's wife, Mona, and conversations that had challenged his thinking.

His many talks with the Khalidis, Obama said, had been "consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases. . . . It's for that reason that I'm hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation -- a conversation that is necessary not just around Mona and Rashid's dinner table," but around "this entire world."

Today, five years later, Obama is a U.S. senator from Illinois who expresses a firmly pro-Israel view of Middle East politics, pleasing many of the Jewish leaders and advocates for Israel whom he is courting in his presidential campaign. The dinner conversations he had envisioned with his Palestinian American friend have ended. He and Khalidi have seen each other only fleetingly in recent years.

And yet the warm embrace Obama gave to Khalidi, and words like those at the professor's going-away party, have left some Palestinian American leaders believing that Obama is more receptive to their viewpoint than he is willing to say.

(another nice quote)

"I am confident that Barack Obama is more sympathetic to the position of ending the occupation than either of the other candidates," said Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow for the American Task Force on Palestine, referring to the Israeli presence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that began after the 1967 war. More than his rivals for the White House, Ibish said, Obama sees a "moral imperative" in resolving the conflict and is most likely to apply pressure to both sides to make concessions.

more at LA Times (opens in new window)

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Who should tell Barry that "palestinian" is not a nationality but a regional description?

Where I think hasbara may have failed is tying the idea that supporting a non-people and a non-nation in its attempt to re-write history and steal a real people and real nation's land and culture away makes one an accomplice to the lie. I know it is old hat now to make this argument and one for which so many in the kooky left just waive off as old fashioned. But really? Why is the question not even asked? There must be wide acceptance of the leftie idea that there is a "palestinian" people because after all what matters is what one hears and sees now. If hasbara were effective, it would be easy to say, "hey look, this Obama character is out there talking about this palestine fantasy as if it were real. What's he up to?"

But today's left has a dogma which calls upon its adherents to find the so-called underdogs, oppressed, and exploited (or those who make the case that they are) and to use these causes as raison d etre de'jour in an effort to garner favor to "the state" and break apart the opponents to "big state" policies in the form of what is called in politics "cracking" (turn their interests against them). Of course, if the oppressed are oppressed by a leftist entity or communist entity, the left isn't that interested and suggesting that these groups need help too just leads to another self-serving and self-righteous waive off of denied credibility. All this means, use the pali argument as a way to reduce the influence and impact of free thinking and further the effort to empower big government. Who cares who pays the price? Why these people deserve a land! They have been oppressed you know by those Jews.

The left's approach and one where Israel has clearly paid a price as a result is the assumption that identity is what you say you are. History and evidence become irrelevant. Consider this logic. I was born in the US. As a Jew I feel obligated to frame a discussion about my ancestry in these terms, "my family made long term stop overs in Russia, Poland, Belarus and other countries prior to arriving in the US." While I am proudly American by birth and staunchly grand old flag egoistic, I also realize that by destiny, after where ever else fate takes me or my descendants (sooner or later), the final destination is back to the future, to where my ancestry began. Not Russia not Belarus or Poland, go back further. Jews came from Judea and that land under Judean authority, hence the name association, (yehud/yehuda). In a Jewish religious context, the name Israel, (yisroel or yisroelim) is also one implying unity of people to land.

What are "palestinians"? By definition, that is, a classical definition(since palestinians like to claim they are an ancient people certainly they would want to use a classical source vis a vis.. a modern source right?) palestinian refers to of or related to the area of palestine, not to a particular people or nationality. Where did the name Palestine come from?. The name originating with the Romans did not for refer to any particular people at any time until the 20th century and was out of existence during the Ottoman years, only to be resurrected by the British after WW I.

By most accounts, Arabian entry into the land they wish to call "palestine" did not occur until the mid 600s. According to What is the Arab history in Palestine? in 1099 the Christian Crusaders conquered Jerusalem but held out less than 100 years. The area of "palestine" (AKA Israel) became part of the Syrian district and a vassal state to an Egyptian empire and finally to the Turks which brings us back to the 20th century.

So what is a presidential candidate to do? Does he buy into the big lie for convenience and use his prose to play both sides of the fence or should he acknowledge history? The question isn't limited to Barry H. American policy slide from Reagan to Bush II has lead the world into believing that "peace" is attainable when the ancient palis have been "restored" to an independence in a land which was never independently their own. Two nations, living side by side in peace and tranquility, is what Bush has banked American foreign policy upon, notoriously grabbing the mantle as the first American president to call for the creation of an independant "palestine".

As the LA Times article points out, Barry excites the pali advocates. In yet another chapter in the theory, "Reading Obama by his Associates", the LA Times article describes Barry's affiliation with pali activists Ali Abunimah, Edward Said, (discredited as a liar) and Rashid Khalidi not to mention antiJews Al Sharpton and his Rev. Jeremiah Wright (not discussed in the article).

Like the lacking argument that a twenty year affiliation with a reverend and church with very racist and antiJew opinions doesn't affect or reflect one's opinions, Barry's favorable opinions of and friendships with anti-Israel activists not affecting his "pro-Israel" stance is equally unbelievable. Barry, one may predict, will take the easy road.

more history of Israel and arabians can be found here

Q & A on "The Conflict"

Quiz Yourself on the 'Israeli Arab ("Palestinian") Conflict'
Posted on 12/14/2007 5:02:54 AM CST by PRePublic

1) When was the Arab immigration to [the historic Jewish land of] Israel -"Palestine" boosted?

A When they wanted to see Jewish holy sites.
B When [anti French and anti British] Arab nationalism spread across the middle east.
C When the Zionists Jews came and cultivated the deserted land.


2) What's [Arab "Palestinian" highest "national" icon] Yasser Arafat's country of origin?

A Israel ["Palestine"].
B Jordan.
C Egypt.

3) Why were there --initially-- more Arab immigrants ["residents"] than Jewish immigrants (Arab majority)?

A Because Jews didn't attempt to enter.
B Arabs were 'invited" to come.
C Because the British restricted only Jewish immigration, to appease the Arabs


4) Why did (some) Arabs leave "Palestine" Israel in 1948?

A Because the Zionists "told" them to.
B Because the UN told them to.
C Because the Arab leaders ordered them to evacuate [their reasoning: to facilitate annihilation plans] while they attempt to 'throw the Jews in the sea'.


5) What has been the term "Palestine" always referred to?

A a country.
B a flag.
C an area, always known to be historical Israel.


6) What was Arabs' reaction to UN's partition plan for a two state solution and have their conduct since then ever been legal?

A they embraced the UN.
B they ignored and didn't react at all.
C they refused, objected to the plan and illegally started attacking the newly reinstated state of Israel.


7) How many Jewish refugees were chased out from Arab Muslim countries after Israel was re-established?

A 300,000
B 500,000
C Between 800,000 & 900,000


8) When did Arabs, Muslims start attacking Jews in the holy land?

A In the 1940's
B In the 1930's
C In the 1920's


9) Why did Arabs attack Jews so many years [even] prior to the re-establishment of Jews' homeland?

A Because of losing sports games to the Jews.
B Because of the "occupation" by... the British...
C Because they were led by such racist leaders like Haj Amin Al-Husseini the Mufti, that so shamelessly kissed Adolf Hitler's ass (while Hitler played the Arabs to his anti Jewish agenda).


10) What is synonymous with the Arab Muslim leader the Mufti?

A Spirituality.
B Peaceful religion.
C [Christian] Armenian genocide 1915, Hebron massacre 1929, pact with Adolf Hitler, Farhud massacre in Baghdad 1941, SS Bosnian Muslim brigade's crimes on Serb Christians 1943.


11) What did/do Arabs call to any lost [armed] battle to the Zionists?

A Loss.
B Mistake
C A "massacre" .


12) When did that so called "occupation" occur and why?

A In the 1948, during the war of independence.
B In the 1950's, as part of an "expansion".
C In the 1967 war when Israel decided it 'had enough' of constant Arab unprovoked attacks on its innocent citizens, the Goliath combined nations of Arabs, as always, lost the war to little tiny Israel - "David", by all legal means it was not a "theft".


13) Why did/does Israel continue to 'hold' the territories captured in 1967?

A Power hungry.
B "oil"...
C 1) Historic rights, it was always pertaining to the Jews. 2) Because of security, buffer zone.


14) What has been Israelis' experience in giving gestures to the Arabs so far?

A Arabs behave better.
B No change.
C Arabs, Muslims become more radical, more violent [example: Hamas rose right after the Gaza give away] as they see Israel's kindness as weakness.


15) When did these Arabs, (mostly) sons and grandsons of immigrants start to call themselves as "Palestinians"?

A In the 1940's.
B In the 1950's.
C In the 1960's.


16) What did/do all Arab-Muslim leaders & "fighters" openly plan to do to the Jews in their many wars?

A To occupy them.
B To oppress them.
C [To "throw them all into the sea". or a modern version of:"wiping off map", or "drinking the blood of the Jews" - aka] Genocide.


17) Who started to give equality for minorities, including voting rights for [Arab] women in the middle east?

A Jordan.
B UAE
C Israel.


18) Where in the middle east, does it exist a 100% complete freedom of speech, freedom of the press?

A "Palestinian" authority.
B Egypt.
C Israel.

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This quiz comes from "Freeper" PRePublic AKA - Free Israel Now blog (link on the right hand side). I have posted the first 18 questions. There are 66 in total which can be found be clicking back to the original post. One hint, all the answers are "C". This is an open book quiz meant to inform the reader on the arabian-Israel/Jewish conflict. While some of the questions are a little editorial in nature and some are basic facts of history, it is a good source to turn to for a quick glance at the basic nature of the arab problem and also a place to send those who are beginning to study the conflict for the first time. Yasher Koach to PRePublic on a nice job.