Town Hall Meeting - US Senator Chris Murphy - Israel's Right To Self Defense

Joel Leyden: "Israel wants peace, not rockets."

Town Hall Meeting - US Senator Chris Murphy 

"Senator Murphy, thank you for creating this Town Hall meeting. My name is Joel Leyden, a resident of both the US and Israel. My message for the US Senate is simple. Israel wants peace, not rockets.

My young children who live north of Tel Aviv hear air raid sirens multiple times a day. They have 15 seconds to find shelter. They then hear explosions above them and around them. My children have the basic human right to ask their parents and the Israel Defense Forces to defend them from Islamic terrorism. From Hamas missiles being launched unprovoked from Gaza into Israel. 

In my hand I am holding a copy of the Quran. No where in this Quran does the word Jerusalem appear. 
This is not about Israel, Gaza or so-called occupied land. 

This is about hatred for Jews and Christians. 

But more frightening than what we are experiencing in Israel is the pro-Hamas flag which is being held by "protesters" outside this High School in Connecticut.
Terrorism has arrived in New England. 

What is the US Senate going to do about this real and present threat?"

Hamas Creates Devastation In Gaza, Double War Crime

By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem --- July 21, 2014 ...Why do parts of Gaza appear to be devastated?

Because Hamas refused to accept several ceasefires.
Israel wants peace. Hamas wants war. Is that simple!

Because as Israeli troops move in searching for rockets, guns and tunnels, they were attacked by Hamas snipers. You don't take out a sniper with an M-16, you use a tank shell and smash him and those supporting him.

Civilians should not be there - they were warned by leaflets, text and phone messages to evacuate. Hamas created this disaster by attacking an innocent, Jewish, civilian population in Israel for years with rockets.

They have no one but themselves to blame for Israel defending herself.

Hamas has created a double war crime. Using Palestinians civilians as human shields as they attack Israeli civilians with rockets.

European Protesters Against Israel - Where Are You?

Dear European protesters against Israel: 

Over 150,000 Muslims were murdered by Syrian President Assad over the past two years. 
Where were you? 

Thousands of Christians are being killed in Africa. 
Where are you?

Russia shoots down a Malaysia Airlines civilian airliner over the Ukraine, killing 300 innocent people.
Where are you?

Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, wants to live peacefully in our ancient homeland.
 
What do you want?

Israel PR - We Need Your Help!

By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem ... July 2014 --- I have worked in Jewish PR and public affairs since the 1980's. Have worked directly for and with the Israeli government since the 1990's. There's very little that I have not seen.

Today, Israel is engaged in defending herself once again from Islamic Jihad.
It's a war of bullets and words.
The war of words define public opinion and Israel can do much better.

Many will say that Israel's PR is weak, ineffective and just plain bad.
I totally disagree.

This may have been the case before Internet arrived.
Because of this cheap and inexpensive medium - Israel is making progress, but we are not quite there.

The Israeli government has very little money for PR.
Our money goes first to aircraft fuel, Iron Dome and boots for our soldiers.

What little money we do have is being used as well as it can be.
Although severely understaffed, the Prime Minister's Office is functioning well under Mark Regev.
But we need at least two more Mark Regev's there.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a very limited budget, but is doing truly wonderful things with the Internet.
They are also able to enlist the support of volunteer organizations - and this is where they truly shine.

Such non-profits as the Israel Project, StandWithUs, CAMERA, MEMRI and HonestReporting are getting the messages out.

We must also take our hats off to Ambassador Ron Dermer, who is doing an outstanding job. And to UN Ambassador Ron Prosor who is doing all he can with the limited resources he has.

Israeli basketball legend Tal Brody, serving as a good will ambassador, is burning up his keyboard.
And Consul General of Israel, Ido Aharoni is hitting both local and national TV / radio in the US.

And then we have the Israel Defense Forces.
Truly a great, potent job they are doing online.
Thank you Avital Leibovich for creating the infrastructure and Peter Lerner for using it so well!
But they can only go so far and do so much being a governmental organization.

This morning I watched CNN with pride as they took on a Palestinian leader in the US.
CNN was armed with our soundbytes: "Israel uses missile defense systems to defend it's civilians, Hamas uses civilians to defend their missiles."

And then we have some of the Israeli media such as The Jerusalem Post and Times of Israel.
They sparkle. Under the leadership of Steve Lindy and David Horovitz, our messages do get out.
Then we have Haaretz.  No really quite sure which nation they represent. Not quite sure they know either.

And many thanks to William Daroff of the North American Jewish Federations.
I don't think Daroff sleeps as my Facebook and Twitter feed has more of him than Victoria Secrets sales!

We need your help.
We need your help to reach the global Christian and Muslim populations.
We are almost on mark in reaching our Christian brothers, but as for the Muslims - our PR is a complete failure.

The majority of Muslims around the world are brainwashed against Israel and the Jews. But that does not mean they do not want peace. And there are many moderate Muslims out there who will help us create a bridge.

Israel is not at war with Islam. We are not at war with the Muslims.
We are at war with Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

These are political groups, not religions.
When you smear a Muslim, you are no different than those who smeared Jews before and during the Holocaust.

Don't do it!

Target Hamas and Islamic Jihad - not all Muslims.
If you continue to target all Muslims we risk alienating ourselves from the moderates, really good people who ask me sincerely what is going on. As long as we can communicate and get the facts out to Muslims, it reduces moderates joining extreme, terrorists groups.

The most important thing you can do is engage.
This morning one Muslim from Indonesia joined one of my many Facebook groups.
He was one of dozens who tried to enter the room and he got past my firewall.
But that worked out OK.

His opening comment was: "Fuck Israel, I am Muslim."
My knee jerk reaction was to delete the comment and ban him.
But instead, I thought, this guy is part of the global, brainwashed Muslim crowd.
Try to engage. And I did. He went from blindly attacking Israel to listening to what we have to say.
And that's where we need PR and our public affairs.

Both the media and global journalists need to know that we are not at war with Gaza or "Palestine" - we are at war with Hamas, a political group funded by Iran which many Gazans are now beginning to hate.

I ask you to do three things.

1. When you hear anything biased or inaccurate on your local TV or radio news - call them!
Ask for the news desk and politely correct them.
Tell them Israel is not at war with Palestine (don't even start to discuss that there is no Palestine) but is at war with Hamas, a political, terror group in Gaza. Keep your comment short - no more than ten seconds. They will listen to you and most often change how they present the local news. They don't want to lose market share and advertisers.

2. Email your local TV and newspaper's news desk the Red Alert app stating that this will place them in the know regarding real time violence between Israel and Hamas.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/red-alert-israel/id873642097?mt=8

3. ENGAGE Muslims online.

Take our speaking points from the MFA and the IDF and place them on Christian, Arab and UN Facebook pages. Engage beyond the converted. 

When Muslims attack, ask them why?
Engage them and tell them the truth that Israel wants peace. Educate them.
Use examples of Israeli Muslim Arabs who support democracy and Israel.

Lastly, don't give up.
You, our volunteers, are the ones who will make the ultimate impact.
You, the volunteer, is the one who will defend my children and the children of all Jews in a wonderful, magical place called Israel. 

And if you do your job successfully, you will be defending Jews beyond the borders of Israel.

VIDEO: Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Pilot Calls Off Airstrike After Children Spotted Near Target

Edited by Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem --- July 14, 2014 ... As Israel continues to defend it's civilian population from a daily barrage of Hamas terror rockets coming from Gaza, the IDF maintains the highest humanitarian values. 

Making certain to avoid civilian casualties, something that Hamas wants and has even ordered Palestinian civilians to become human shields, the IDF makes spit second decisions in the field to differentiate military targets from civilian targets. 

Netanyahu: International Pressure Will Not Reduce Our Determination To Defend Israel Against Terror Rockets

"No country would accept its civilians 

being fired at without a harsh response."

Edited by Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency 

Jerusalem --- July 11, 2014 ... The following was communicated by the Israel Prime Minister's Media Adviser to the Israel News Agency.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today at the Israel Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, issued the following statement:

"This is the fourth day of Operation Protective Edge. The Israel Defense Forces, the Israel Security Agency and the security forces are fighting Hamas with increasing intensity. As of now, we have hit over 1,000 Hamas', Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations' targets, and we are still busy.

The pace of attacks in this operation against terror targets is double that of Operation Pillar of Defense and the military strikes will continue until we can be certain that the quiet has returned to Israeli citizens. 

I would like to make it clear that no terrorist target in the Gaza Strip is immune but it must be pointed out that Hamas's leaders, commanders and activists are hiding behind the residents of Gaza and they are responsible for any injury to them. The difference between us is simple. 
Israel develops defensive systems against missiles in order to protect our civilians and Islamic terrorists use their civilians to protect their missiles.

And this is the entire difference: Hamas and Islamic Jihad fire indiscriminately at our civilians and our cities in order to attack them. Sometimes they hit soldiers by mistake. We strike at their armed forces and sometimes we hit civilians by mistake.

I made this point – and many others – clear in recent days in the conversations I have held with major world leaders. I had a good conversation last night with US President Barack Obama, also with Russian President Vladimir Putin. I had good talks with all of them, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and British Prime Minister David Cameron, and of course with French President Francois Hollande. 

To all of them I said something simple – no country would accept its civilians being fired at without a harsh response. I said that I would not allow Israel's citizens to live in this reality. 

No international pressure will prevent us from operating with full force against a terrorist organization that calls for our destruction.

Israel will continue to strongly hit all those who try to attack us and we will continue to take determined and prudent action to protect our home front, the citizens of the State of Israel. 
Iron Dome is a great asset to our national security and I think that it is additional proof of the technological superiority of the State of Israel. This is one of the more impressive developments in defensive war materiel in recent decades. In recent years, my governments – this is my second government – have invested billions in home front defense; Iron Dome was a considerable portion of this sum, and we are working to cover the entire country with systems that can intercept missiles from any distance.

And perhaps the most important defense in the end, with certainty, is your strength, citizens of Israel. 

The strength that you have been showing helps us in conducting this operation in a responsible and sagacious manner. I ask only one thing of you – continue to listen to the instructions of IDF Home Front Command, they both save lives and prevent Hamas from realizing the goals that it has set. 

The government of Israel will continue to do whatever we need to guard over you but I also ask you to do what is necessary in order to guard your lives and those of your children. I am proud of the way in which you have been conducting yourselves and I am proud of your support. I am proud to be your Prime Minister."


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Hamas Celebrates Murdering Jewish, Christian Civilians

Hamas sends a graphic message to Israel. All your cities are close to Gaza. 

We will murder your civilians. We will murder your children.

A video on official Hamas TV calls for Allah to kill Jews, Christians and their supporters.
The video asks Allah to "count them and kill them to the last one, and don't leave even one."

Not Death To Arabs, Rather, Support The Israel Defense Forces

By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem --- As Israel buries three innocent Jewish children who were murdered by the Islamic terrorist group Hamas, tears fall, anger rages. But that anger must be kept in check. 

Israel is not Hamas or Islamic Jihad. Israel does not consist of a bunch of savage, wild animals. You will find those wild, barbaric animals in Iran, Syria, Qatar and Gaza.

Israel is a democracy that believes in the rule of law.
As such, never utter death to Arabs.
There are many Arabs - Christian and Muslim - who support Israel and the Jewish nation.
Rather - speak out against Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Ya want to yell and say something?
Let it be: Support The IDF. Let The IDF Do Their Job!

Go to a security checkpoint and give our men and women a pizza and a hug.

No one has said this better than Israeli pioneer, President Shimon Peres:
President Shimon Peres called today for an end to incitement and respect for the rule of law.

“I call upon every citizen, all citizens, with a serious request,” said Peres.  “Now is a time for two things: To respect the law and to avoid incitement. We weren’t born to hate, we weren’t born to speak in a hateful language. A few days ago we all behaved as one with dignity, even during our sorrow but together we called for restraint, we called for investigation, we were careful with our words. “It’s time to stop incitement, it’s time to be respectful and to respect the law. It’s in our hands. People who are engaged in incitement are not always aware where it can lead, to more sorrow, to more dangers. It’s time for all of us to show restraint, to show understanding and let us as human beings, all of us, be true to our morality, to our hope to live together in peace.”