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August 30, 2005
Be Different!
You have two choices in life: you can dissolve into the main stream, or you can be distinct. To be distinct, you must be different; you must strive to be what no one else but you can be.
~Alan Ashley Pitt
Posted by Grant at 11:08 AM | Comments (1)
August 24, 2005
Exodus - The Sound
I have put the Main Title to the movie "Exodus" on this blog, as I thought it fit for this heart-rending time that the Jews are in, much like depicted in the movie.
It's one of my most treasured and favorite pieces of film music ever, and the sound has such a lifting and lovely power.
Enjoy!
Posted by Grant at 12:04 PM | Comments (1)
August 16, 2005
A Costly Roadmap
It's surprising what people will do when they have the real facts and the cold, hard statistics.
100% of the Gaza Strip will be evacuated and handed over to the Palestinians.
300 square miles in Samaria will be evacuated.
21 Israeli communities will be uprooted in the Gaza Strip.
4 Israeli communities will be uprooted in Samaria.
48 graves in the Gush Katif Cemetery, including six graves of area residents murdered by terrorists, will be uprooted.
9,000 is the approximate number of Israelis, including 1,700 Israeli families, currently living in the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria. All of them will be expelled as part of the withdrawal.
38 synagogues will be dismantled in the Gaza Strip.
5,000 school-age children will need to find new schools.
42 daycare centers will be closed in the Gaza Strip.
36 kindergartens will be closed in the Gaza Strip.
7 elementary schools, and 3 high schools will be closed in the Gaza Strip.
45,000 Israeli soldiers and policemen are expected to participate in the Gaza withdrawal.
$1.7 billion is the approximate cost to the Israeli government for the withdrawal initiative.
166 active Israeli farmers will be moved out of Gaza.
800 cows, comprising the second largest dairy farm in Israel, will be moved out of Gush Katif.
$120 million in flowers and produce exported annually from Gush Katif will be lost.
10,000 people employed in agriculture and related industries in Gush Katif, including 5,000 Palestinians, will need new employment.
60% of Israel's cherry tomato exports come from the Gaza Strip. Israel's withdrawal from Gaza will extinguish this economic resource.
3.5 million square meters (almost 1,000 acres) of greenhouses will be abandoned in Gaza.
70% of Israel's organic produce is currently produced in Gaza. This is another economic resource that will be lost.
60% of the herbs exported from Israel come from Gush Katif.
15% of Israel's agricultural exports originate in Gaza - exports that will be lost following Israel's withdrawal from Gaza.
$870 million is the approximate cost for Israel to facilitate the resettlement of former Samaria and Gaza residents elsewhere in the country.
$500 million is the amount of money Israel's security establishment will spend in order to relocate Israel Defense Forces bases outside the Gaza Strip and build new border crossing facilities.
So as you can see, this Roadmap really is a shining example of economic and social breakthrough! My friends, with peace like this, the world would be dead.
We must show the world that tearing up economy and making thousands homeless and jobless isn't the way to peace, but to dissension, hatred, grief, and yet more violence.
Please sign the petition that the Jerusalem Prayer Team has established, to let the world know you stand against this eviction and with the Jewish people.
Posted by Grant at 11:59 AM | Comments (4)
August 15, 2005
The Grief of a Nation
My heart is so full, I cannot speak. I cannot give utterance to the words that burn in my soul and cause my heart to sob with grief. This strange burden for a people I have never met, and the love I bear for them, is all-consuming and drives my impassioned heart to cry forth in condemnation on the stagnant and foul treachery of what our modern world calls diplomacy.
Imagine being ordered to walk up to your neighbor's door and under the authority of armed force, tell them they have forty-eight hours to leave their schools, homes, and towns.
Imagine standing in the sun-baked doorway of your shattered home, dazed with shock and grief as your sobbing wife clings to you, her sobs drowning in the roar of bulldozers tearing the home of your heart down, a pitiful bargaining chip in the relentless bickering of disinterested nations.
For the first time since 1967, Israel has ordered that Jewish settlements in areas captured in the Middle East War be destroyed and their inhabitants relocated to other areas.
My heart and prayers are with the nation of Israel at this horrendous time! Oh for the power of an army to protect this small and shattered people! However, the Jews have God on their side. The Rock of Ages shall be their Rock, their home, and their protection. May God be with them, and vindicate them!
My friends, join with me and pray for the fathers and husbands whose wives and children groan in distress. Pray for Adi Levy and his wife.
The above picture of Levi and his wife speaks more eloquently than any news documentary or book. It is the face of Israel throught the years. It is the pain that knows no end, the pain that only digs deeper. Pray for the soldiers who weep as they are forced to force their own countrymen from the land of their fathers. Pray for the children! Pour your heart out to the Lord, and beg His mercy that this will cease!
I agree with Netanyahu's resignation. I see, as he does, that this is not peace or progress, but defeat and last mintute attempts at a false peace. My friends, diplomacy is the resolution of every issue without force being used; it does not involve evicting families from their homes. This is not diplomacy, but yet another police act of the world against the Jews.
To my Jewish brethren, I say, may God protect and sustain you.
Shalem alochem!
Posted by Grant at 12:49 PM | Comments (1)