Monday, July 31, 2017

MY PARENTS WERE BURIED IN CARDBOARD BOXES


My parents denied themselves even the simplest things of life. My father didn't even buy himself a pair of new shoes for decades. I can't remember him wearing any new clothes. They saved everything for their children.

My father's will leaves his house and all his life's savings to his children and grandchildren, equally, specifically naming each one.

My parents were both buried near Montreal - in cardboard boxes.

Dawn McSweeney stole everything - with the help of a Montreal Police officer.

THE RAPE OF A JEWISH FAMILY
http://phylliscartersjournal.blogspot.ca/2017/06/the-rape-of-jewish-family.html

EVIDENCE THAT DEMANDS A VERDICT

MICHAEL APPLEBAUM, MAYOR OF MONTREAL, WAS FOUND GUILTY ON SEVERAL CHARGES OF CRIME AND CORRUPTION, BUT NO ONE EVER INVESTIGATES CORRUPTION IN THE MONTREAL POLICE DEPARTMENT. SENTENCED TO A YEAR IN PRISON, MICHAEL APPLEBAUM HAS ALREADY BEEN SET FREE.

THERE IS NO JUSTICE FOR CRIME VICTIMS IN MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA.  JUSTICE IS IN NOBODY'S JURISDICTION IN CANADA.


Sunday, July 30, 2017

CANCER PATIENTS MURDERED BY GREED IN VERACRUZ


Mexican governor: Cancer children given water instead of chemotherapy.


Veracruz governor Miguel Angel Yunes Linares said the fake medicine was used in state hospitals

Mexican authorities are to investigate allegations children battling cancer were given "distilled water" instead of chemotherapy.

An "in-depth investigation" will look into claims made by Veracruz governor Miguel Angel Yunes Linares on Monday, the Ministry of Health said.

He alleged fake medicine had been bought and used in state hospitals under his predecessor Javier Duarte.

Mr Duarte has been on the run from the authorities since October, 2016.
The former governor, who was elected in 2010, has not been seen since a week after he stepped down amid allegations of corruption.

Where is Veracruz's governor?

He has been charged with organised crime and money laundering, but there are calls for the Attorney General's office to file criminal charges relating to the latest accusations.

On Monday, Mr Yunes Linares told a press conference that an investigation into malfeasance and corruption under Mr Duarte had uncovered medical fraud.

The fraud allegedly took place under former governor, Javier Duarte, who is currently on the run.

`We have tests on a medication given to children, a paediatric chemotherapy that wasn't really a medication, it was an inert substance, practically distilled water,'' he said.

"This really seems to us a brutal crime, an attempt against the lives of the children. We're finishing our analysis and, at the appropriate time, we'll be filing legal complaints."

Mr Yunes Linares also alleged there had been inadequate tests for HIV detection and the existence of outdated medicines.

The allegations have shocked Mexico.

"It is absolutely inhuman, criminal," Senator Roberto Gil Zuart said, according to Mexican news site Quadratin.

Mexico's Secretary of Health José Narro Robles has promised to act on "the persons or companies involved" if irregularities or responsibility is found, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.


BBC News


HERR DRUMPH HAS A HEALTH PLAN. IT IS CALLED "EUGENICS", OR "THE TRUMP DON'T CARE ACT". YOU ELIMINATE THE OLD, THE SICK, THE HANDICAPPED, THE POOR, THE WEAK, THE UNEDUCATED, THE NEWCOMERS, THE UNEMPLOYED AND UNDER-EMPLOYED AND ALL "IMPERFECT" PEOPLE - ALL MUST SUFFER AND DIE UNDER THE TRUMP REGIME. IT IS ETHNIC CLEANSING, GENOCIDE, EUGENICS - IT IS THE NAZI WAY.
 
LOOK TO CANADA. WE HAVE MEDICARE.

NO INSURANCE COMPANIES TO DEAL WITH.
NO FORMS TO FILL OUT.
NO LISTS TO SEARCH.
NO LEGALESE.
 
WE CHOOSE OUR OWN HOSPITAL AND OUR OWN DOCTOR AT WILL.
 
EVERYONE PAYS ACCORDING TO THEIR MEANS AND EVERYONE RECEIVES HEALTH CARE ACCORDING TO THEIR NEEDS.
 
WHY DO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ACCEPT SUCH ABUSE?
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE SHOULD ASK WHY THEIR GOVERNMENT REFUSES TO OFFER THEM THE SAME MEDICARE THAT CANADIANS HAVE. IN CANADA, IF YOU ARE POOR AND SICK, YOU LIVE. IN AMERICA, IF YOU ARE POOR AND SICK, YOU DIE.

TOO SIMPLE FOR AMERICAN MINDS?

CORPORATE GREED IS KILLING CANCER PATIENTS

NAZIS ON THE RISE IN EUROPE - ENCOURAGED BY TRUMP


Jan Bencik's name appeared on a list of "opponents of the state" after he

began blogging to expose his country's neo-fascists.



Europe's Neo-Fascists Are Re-emerging
CAKAJOVCE, Slovakia — Head bowed in reverence, Robert Svec gently placed a bouquet of blood-red flowers at the foot of the only known statue of Jozef Tiso, Slovakia's wartime fascist leader, in a weedy monument park known as the Pantheon of Slovak Historical Figures.
 
For years, Mr. Svec's neo-fascist cultural organization, the Slovak Revival Movement, was a tiny fringe group. But now his crowds are growing, as 200 people recently gathered with him to celebrate the country's fascist past and call fascist-era greetings — "Na Straz!" or "On the guard!" Mr. Svec is so emboldened that he is transforming his movement into a political party, with plans to run for Parliament.
 
"You are ours, and we will forever be yours," Mr. Svec said at the foot of the statue, having declared this as the Year of Jozef Tiso, dedicated to rehabilitating the image of the former priest and Nazi collaborator, who was hanged as a war criminal in 1947.
 
Once in the shadows, Europe's neo-fascists are stepping back out, more than three-quarters of a century after Nazi boots stormed through Central Europe, and two decades since a neo-Nazi resurgence of skinheads and white supremacists unsettled the transition to democracy. In Slovakia, neo-fascists are winning regional offices and taking seats in the multiparty Parliament they hope to replace with strongman rule.
 
They are still on the edges of European politics, yet offer another reminder of how turbulent politics have become. Just as the rise of far-right parties is forcing many mainstream politicians to pivot rightward, so, too, has the populist mood energized the most extremist right-wing groups, those flirting with or even embracing fascist policies that trace back to World War II.

"Before, pro-fascist sentiments were kept hidden," said Gabriel Sipos, director of Transparency International Slovakia. "Parents would tell their children, 'You cannot say this at school.' Now, you can say things in the public space that you couldn't say before."
 
Although nationalist parties have thrived across Europe in recent years, only a few - Golden Dawn in Greece and the National Democratic Party in Germany, to name two - embrace neo-fascist views. Some, like Jobbik in Hungary, are extremist in their right-wing views but stop short of outright fascism.
 

Instead, the broader impact of these groups has been measured in how they have pushed mainstream parties in a more firmly nationalist direction — especially on immigration - to slow the defection of supporters.
 
"Now, extremists and fascists are part of the system," said Grigorij Meseznikov, president of the Institute for Public Affairs, a liberal research group.
 
In Slovakia, neo-fascism has established something of a beachhead. Mr. Svec is joining a political field where a party with an established neo-fascist leader, Marian Kotleba, demonstrated surprising strength in last year's parliamentary elections, winning 14 seats in the 150-member chamber.
 
Pre-election polls showed his party getting less than 3 percent of the vote, but his result - 8 percent - was built on strong support from young people and other first-time voters. More recent polls show his support nearing 13 percent. He had already stunned Slovakia in 2013 by winning the governorship of Banska Bystrica, one of Slovakia's eight regions.
 
Mr. Kotleba, 39, who recently renamed his party Kotleba - People's Party Our Slovakia, used to appear in uniforms reminiscent of those worn during the wartime Slovak State. Once he and his party got into Parliament, the uniforms disappeared and he shifted his attacks from Jews to immigrants and the country's Roma minority.
 
"They used to turn up at gay pride parades, show their muscle, turn up the heat," said Michal Havran, a television talk-show host and political commentator. "Now, they don't go; they are worried about their image."
 
But the underlying message of groups like Mr. Kotleba's and Mr. Svec's has not shifted - Slovakia was better off under a fascist government.
 "Something very dark and very troubling from the past is coming back," Mr. Havran said. "They feel they are fighting for something very pure, something very old and sacred. A few years ago, they were ashamed to talk about it. Now, they are proud."
 
In Banska Bystrica, Mr. Kotleba's powers as governor include overseeing schools, cultural institutions and some infrastructure projects.
 
"If you are a white, heterosexual man, you probably don't notice any difference living in a place where Kotleba is governor," said Rado Sloboda, 26, one of a group of Banska Bystrica activists opposing Mr. Kotleba under the banner "Not in Our Town." "If you are a minority, like a Roma, you feel it more keenly. There is a feeling that they are even less welcome in the center city."
 
The Interpreter Newsletter

Understand the world with sharp insight and commentary on the major news stories of the week.

The muscular receptionist outside Mr. Kotleba's office said this month that no entry was possible without an appointment, although the governor almost never grants interviews. When told that repeated calls had not been returned, he asked the name of the newspaper. "Oh," he said. "That explains it."
 
Mr. Kotleba's party has been especially effective on social media, with more than 140 interconnected Facebook pages. When a local retiree, Jan Bencik, 68, began blogging to expose the country's neo-fascists, his name appeared on a list of "opponents of the state."
 
"They called me a Jew, said that I should die, die, die," Mr. Bencik said. "They said that people like me would be dealt with in the future."
 
One of the ironies of Mr. Kotleba's coming to power in Banska Bystrica is that it was the center of the anti-fascist Slovak National Uprising during the war and is home to the national museum commemorating that event.
Banska Bystrica, one of Slovakia's eight regions, was the center of the anti-fascist Slovak National Uprising during the war and is home to the national museum commemorating that event. Ironically, it is now governed by an established neo-fascist leader, Marian Kotleba.

Credit Akos Stiller for The New York Times

Stanislav Micev, the museum director, characterized Mr. Kotleba's message as "fascism with elements of Nazism," mixing Mussolini's strongman rule with Hitler's demonization of minorities.
 
"They are against Americans, Hungarians, Jews, black people and yellow people," Mr. Micev said. "His current positions are right on the edge of what is legal."
 
As a newcomer on the neo-fascist political scene, Mr. Svec regards Mr. Kotleba as a potential rival for the same angry vote. At the Jozef Tiso memorial ceremony, the top officials in Mr. Svec's movement wore matching dark suits with white shirts and bright red ties. A table in the back of the room did a brisk business selling Slovak Revival Movement patches, stickers, key rings, calendars, cookies and bottles of wine (white only) labeled "Year of Jozef Tiso."
 
"The people in power want Slovaks to be ashamed of their history," said Martin Lacko, a historian and supporter of Mr. Svec. "They want them to keep apologizing. That's why they keep talking about deportations of Jews during the war and other negative things."
 
A group of gray-haired singers in folk costumes, accompanied by a clarinet and an accordion, performed a series of patriotic favorites. "Slovak moms, you have beautiful sons," they sang.
 
A pair of university students with floppy hair and denim sat in the back corner, whispering during the speeches and snatching pastries from a nearby table during breaks. Both said they considered themselves devout and conservative, and did not believe Mr. Svec and Mr. Kotleba were extremist in any way. They also pointed to the election of President Trump as a good thing.
 
"I have to say, the U.S. election results made me extremely happy," said Martin Bornik, 23.
 
In an interview after the ceremony, Mr. Svec rejected the notion that his group is neo-Nazi.
 
"When Americans bring their flags to parks or to public events, nobody says anything," Mr. Svec said. "When we do it, they call us neo-Nazis. You know, labeling someone is the easiest thing to do."


After Trump Win, Anti-Soros Forces Are Emboldened in Eastern Europe

MARCH 1, 2017
 
New York Times

Saturday, July 29, 2017

EXCELLENT CARE AT THE JEWISH GENERAL HOSPITAL - IF …


I woke up in a cold sweat. I was shaking. I was quite sure it was a side effect of my cancer medication. I didn't want to call an ambulance. I didn't want to go to the hospital - again. But it seemed foolish to risk a more serious problem.

I decided to call a taxi and go to the hospital cancer clinic for a blood test.

I arrived at the main lobby of the hospital at about noon, Saturday July 29, 2017.

I was not able to get a wheelchair as all the chairs were gathered behind a closed door. I managed to reach the security desk using my walker and I phoned for a porter on the telephone designated for internal calls.

Answering machine. No one here to take your call.

The security guard told me I couldn't go to the cancer clinic - where I am a patient and well known through more than 20 years of care there. He said I would have to go to Emergency.

I told him I didn't want to sit for hours in Emergency. I didn't want to take up the valuable time of doctors and nurses, and orderlies bringing me a commode, and people bringing me meals, and people filling out forms on computers. I knew the problem and I just needed a blood test.

He said,
"YOU DON'T HAVE A CHOICE."

This is not the first time I have bumped heads with this particular security guard. See detailed reports below. I am the patient. I know my case. He does not. But he tells me that I have no choice.

I waited on the bench trying to think what to do.

I went back to the phone and called the Operator. I asked to speak to the head of security. The same security guard answered. I guess he is the "head". Oh, my !


What do you do when the person who is the problem is the person in charge?

So while I sat on the bench trying to figure out where I could get help, security guards - about three men and one woman in uniform, plus another woman in a white coat, stood around the security desk laughing and talking and talking and laughing.

I managed to get back to the phone leaning on my walker. I called the Operator and asked for the Oncologist on Call. She called back promptly. I told her the problem.

She told me that the Oncology department is closed on the weekends and I should go to Emergency.

I told the security guards that I had to go to Emergency. They stood around and laughed and talked while I lay on the bench.

Finally, I called the hospital on my cell phone and asked for Emergency. I told them the problem and they sent someone to bring a wheelchair and take me to Emergency.

Once there, I was well treated. A blood test was taken. A doctor came to see me. She assured me that the results were normal for me, and I was on my way home.

$38.00 for taxis.  A lot of unnecessary aggravation. You just have to be able to endure the system, the red tape that doesn't deal with people, and the arrogance and irresponsibility of men and women given uniforms without proper training.

Years ago, I was a security guard for Pinkerton. Then I was a Pinkerton detective supervising security guards and other investigators. Many of the men who become security guards - and even investigators - would just as gladly become criminals. It is all about power over other people. The power of the uniform - and the union.

You find similar problems with some priests, police and politicians. Given unlimited power, they can cause severe suffering - and their victims have nowhere to turn because the abusers cover for each other.

http://phylliscartersjournal.blogspot.ca/2017/07/what-is-security-guard-jewish-general.html

Friday, July 28, 2017

TWO BRAVE YOUNG WOMEN TAKE ACTION AGAINST OIL


THE HOPE OF THE WORLD 
RESTS IN THE MORAL COURAGE OF THE FEW.

Two Iowa-based Catholic Worker activists revealed they secretly carried out multiple acts of sabotage and arson in order to stop construction of the controversial $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. We speak with Jessica Reznicek and Ruby Montoya about how they set fire to heavy machinery being used to construct the pipeline. They say their actions were inspired by the anti-nuclear Plowshares Movement which used nonviolent direct action to target nuclear warheads and military installations.

DEMOCRACY NOW

AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to Iowa, where two Catholic Workers have revealed they secretly carried out multiple acts of sabotage and arson in recent months in order to stop construction of the controversial $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. Jessica Reznicek and Ruby Montoya said that on Election Day last year they set fire to five pieces of heavy machinery being used to construct the pipeline. The two then taught themselves how to destroy empty pipeline valves, and moved up and down the pipeline's length, destroying the valves and delaying construction for weeks. They say their actions were inspired by the anti-nuclear Plowshares Movement, which used nonviolent direct action to target nuclear warheads and military installations.

RUBY MONTOYA: Some may view these actions as violent, but be not mistaken. We acted from our hearts and never threatened human life nor personal property. What we did do was fight a private corporation that has run rampantly across our country seizing land and polluting our nation's water supply.

AMY GOODMAN: Jessica Reznicek, how did you know where this pipeline was?

JESSICA REZNICEK: Well, I knew exactly where this pipeline was, because it—it's not more than 15 miles from this studio. It runs right here through the county I was born in, Polk County, Iowa. I definitely took a lot of inspiration from what I saw up at Standing Rock. But Iowa is impacted greatly by this, and my home city's drinking water is to be destroyed when this pipeline breaks. And so it's not a matter of having to find it. It's right—it found me.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain what Plowshares actions are, for those who don't know? You're both Catholic Workers, Jessica and Ruby, living at the Catholic Worker House in Des Moines. Can you explain what the Catholic Worker movement is all about?

JESSICA REZNICEK: We have a rich tradition, started by Dorothy Day in the 1930s. And we have a rich tradition both in assisting underprivileged people in our communities, via soup kitchens, hospitality, shelters for homeless people who we live with in our communities, and we also have—on the flipside of that, we also recognize the resistance that is needed to help bring underprivileged people back up to the same level as the people who are taking the money from them.

And so, in essence, Ruby and I focus on the resistance aspect here in the Des Moines Catholic Worker. And we have followed suit, and I believe that we are inspired by Mr. Phil Berrigan—the house that we live in is named after. And we do understand the need to dismantle infrastructure when it poses a threat to human life and liberty.

AMY GOODMAN: So, let me talk about and ask you about that tradition of the Berrigan brothers, of Father Dan Berrigan and Philip Berrigan, who helped launch the international anti-nuclear Plowshares movement. Father Dan and seven others poured blood and hammered on warheads at a GE nuclear missile plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, in 1980. I asked Father Dan Berrigan about this during an interview I did with him around, oh, a decade ago.
 
DANIEL BERRIGAN: We went in with the workers at the changing of the shift and found there was really no security worth talking about, a very easy entrance. In about three minutes, we were looking at doomsday. The weapon was before us. It was an unarmed warhead about to be shipped to Amarillo, Texas, for its payload. So it was a harmless weapon as of that moment. And we cracked the weapon. It was very fragile. It was made to withstand the heat of re-entry into the atmosphere from outer space, so it was like eggshell, really. And we had taken as our model the great statement of Isaiah 2: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares." So we did it, poured our blood around it and stood in a circle, I think, reciting the Lord's Prayer until Armageddon arrived, as we expected.

AMY GOODMAN: And, of course, Father Dan Berrigan and his brother Philip Berrigan and others, the Catonsville Nine, in 1968, burned the draft files of people in Catonsville, Maryland, using napalm that was used in Vietnam. Do you consider this a Plowshares action?

JESSICA REZNICEK: It has been characterized by Ruby and I as what we call a rolling Plowshares, yes. An extended Plowshares action, yes.

Excerpts from Democracy Now - July 28, 2017
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/7/28/meet_the_two_catholic_workers_who

FR. DANIEL BERRIGAN
https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2016/04/30/poet-and-prophet-peacemaking-legacy-daniel-berrigan-sj

PAKISTAN'S PRIME MINISTER TOPPLED - ECHOES TRUMP SCANDALS


Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's Prime Minister, Toppled by Corruption Case

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Nawaz Sharif, the tycoon and party leader who helped define a turbulent era of Pakistani politics, stepped down as prime minister on Friday after the Supreme Court ruled that corruption allegations had disqualified him.
 
Coming with less than a year to go in his term, his ouster adds to a grim and long list of civilian governments cut short in Pakistan — including two of his own previous terms as prime minister. And it will further roil the country's tumultuous political balance, as his rivals vie to exploit his fall.
 
When Mr. Sharif returned to office in 2013, it was as a widely popular party leader with a deep grudge against the country's powerful military establishment. He moved quickly to try to establish civilian dominance over policy areas that had long been dominated by the generals, especially foreign policy.
 
But Mr. Sharif, 67, is exiting with none of those ambitions realized.
 
The Pakistani military has seldom been able to wield as potent a mix of policy control and popular acclaim as it does now. The fragile democratic system in this nuclear armed nation of almost 200 million people again appears to be on shaky ground. And Mr. Sharif's own political legacy stands further tarnished.
 
The governing political party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, must now choose an interim prime minister to replace Mr. Sharif until the next general election, which is scheduled for mid-2018.
 
Announced by the five-member Supreme Court, the verdict on Friday caps more than a year of high political drama, breathless court proceedings and a piercing investigation into the finances of the Sharif family.

The charges against Mr. Sharif and three of his children - two sons and a daughter - stemmed from disclosures last year in the Panama Papers leak. Those documents revealed that the children owned expensive residential property in London through offshore companies.

The justices, drawing on a constitutional article that allows the courts to disqualify a member of parliament who is found to be dishonest, said that they were acting because Mr. Sharif had tried to conceal his assets. And they ordered the opening of a criminal investigation into the Sharif family.
 
Watching the courtroom drama was the country's powerful military, which has traditionally decided the fate of civilian governments. There had been hushed speculation that the court, in coming to its decision, had the tacit, if not overt, backing of powerful generals.
 
Now, Imran Khan, the opposition politician who has been spearheading the campaign against Mr. Sharif since he took power in 2013, stands to gain the most politically from the prime minister's removal. Mr. Khan has doggedly and almost obsessively led the charge against Mr. Sharif and rallied a wide swath of the public against him through a mix of street agitation and court petitions.
 
The Supreme Court had asked the members of the Sharif family to provide a paper trail of the money they used to buy their London apartments. Investigators found that they were "living beyond their means."
 
Despite repeated court exhortations, Mr. Sharif's family and its lawyers failed to provide satisfactory documentation, the justices said. Several of the documents they produced were declared fake or insufficient.
 
Nawaz Sharif served as prime minister an unprecedented three times. All his terms were cut short. Here's how they played out.
 
First term - In 1990, Mr. Sharif was ushered into power as head of the Pakistan Muslim League. As his business grew, suspicions of corruption surfaced. He was dismissed by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in 1993. The Supreme Court eventually deemed his dismissal unconstitutional, but Mr. Sharif resigned under pressure from Pakistan's powerful military.

Second term  - Mr. Sharif was elected again in 1997. Two years later, a military coup ended his term after he fired the army chief, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and then, according to reports, kept the general's return flight to Pakistan from landing. Troops loyal to Gen. Musharraf seized the Karachi airport and overthrew the prime minister. Mr. Sharif was tried and found guilty of hijacking and terrorism and sentenced to life in prison.

Third term - After spending seven years in exile in a deal brokered by the Saudi royal family, Mr. Sharif returned to Pakistan in 2007. He was cleared of criminal charges and deemed eligible to run for office. Mr. Sharif was again elected prime minister in 2013, but he was met with opposition and faced large protests in 2014. He was tried on corruption charges after the 2016 Panama Papers revealed that his children owned expensive homes in London through a string of offshore companies.

A representative of the governing party said that although Mr. Sharif was stepping down, the party had "strong reservations" about the verdict and was contemplating "all legal and constitutional means" to challenge it.
 
Mr. Sharif has called the inquiry into his family's finances a conspiracy and has asserted that in his three terms as prime minister he had not been tarred by a major corruption scandal.
 
The ruling, while expected, leaves undecided the long-term fate of the man who has been a dominating force in Pakistani politics for the better part of three decades.
 
"I did not expect Nawaz Sharif to go scot-free," said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a prominent political analyst who is based in Lahore.
 
"If he has a long-term vision, he will sit back and guide his political party," Mr. Rizvi added. "He and his supporters will portray the court verdict as victimization and a grave conspiracy involving international powers."
 
Mr. Sharif's removal from office throws his political succession plans into disarray. His daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif, 43, who was being groomed as his political heir, was also implicated in the case.

Political insiders say there are several possible contenders to replace Mr. Sharif as prime minister in the immediate interim. Names being discussed as the immediate choice include Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, the speaker of the national assembly; Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the minister of petroleum; Khurram Dastgir Khan, the commerce minister; and Khawaja Muhammad Asif, the defense minister.
 
"Whoever they bring will be a weak prime minister, as Nawaz Sharif would want to have someone who is more or less in line with his thinking," Mr. Rizvi said.
 
Longer-term, though, speculation is focusing on Mr. Sharif's brother Shehbaz, 65, who is the chief minister of Punjab Province and a prominent and divisive political figure in his own right. He would first have to take his brother's Parliament seat in a spot election.
 
Mr. Sharif in February. The charges against him stemmed from disclosures in the Panama Papers, including his family's residential property holdings in London. 

But the stubborn scandal over the London real estate holdings sullied the reputation of his family.
 
Mr. Sharif's political party nonetheless hopes that his achievements can bring it another electoral success next year even if Mr. Sharif cannot run for office.
 
"We will make a comeback," Khawaja Saad Rafique, a party leader, said Friday afternoon at news conference flanked by other senior figures. He said that Mr. Sharif's "crime was that he stood for civilian supremacy."
 
He urged party workers to remain peaceful and said that the party respects the country's institutions. "There will be no chaos,'' he said. "We will move forward with wisdom and not emotion."
 
During his most recent tenure, Mr. Sharif had an uneven relationship with the military. His overtures of more openness toward India, Pakistan's longtime foe, backfired as generals spurned his efforts.
 
More recently, relations with the military took a darker turn after news reports detailed how civilian officials confronted the military over what they called a failure to act against Islamist groups. Mr. Sharif had to fire his information minister and two top aides to placate the army.
 
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, said the Panama Papers ruling was "a real test of our system."

 Excerpt -New York Times


THIS MONTREAL CRIME CASE WILL NOT GO AWAY


THE MONTREAL CRIME CASE THAT WILL NOT GO AWAY.
http://phylliscartersjournal.blogspot.ca/2014/08/the-montreal-crime-case-that-will-not_16.html - 
(Includes photo of the thief, Dawn McSweeney.)
THE CRIMES OF DAWN MCSWEENEY AND THE MONTREAL POLICE
http://phylliscartersjournal.blogspot.ca/2017/05/the-crimes-of-dawn-mcsweeney-and.html

WHAT HAPPENED TO MY MOTHER, LEONIE RUBIN?

MONTREAL POLICE REFUSE TO INVESTIGATE THESE CRIMES

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

TERRORISM - CLOSE TO HOME


Victoria Seni shared Batsheva Davis Adamit's post on Facebook



Tragedy strikes...what purpose does the killing really serve? I don't like to share or even read bad, negative or anything sad. Reality can be...tragic. It's not that I don't know it exists. I'd rather see good things. May they rest in peace. And may the world be better.
 
Batsheva Davis Adamit

July 25, 2017 at 6:28am · Hallamish, Israel 

Here is a long post. My most vulnerable post I've ever written of my account which happened 3 doors away from my home this past Friday night. Terror in Neve Tzuf/Halamish.

I don't usually (ever) post anything private but this serves a different purpose. 

Am Yisrael Chai. May we feel strong and be strong and know no more horrifying sorrow.
 
Let's get this down on paper. Not just for you, but for me, too. I haven't processed and I don't know how to. I keep bursting out in hysterical 1 second weeping and then it stops. I'm scared to feel all I feel, inside and out loud, because I don't want the grief to overtake me. 

What happened Friday night.. 

My in laws were with us for shabbat and a Hebrew University study abroad student and her friend from America. 

Gilad came home from shul all excited because the soldiers who were on duty in our yishuv accepted his invitation to come and eat shabbat dinner with us. He rushes in and quickly says, "shev, there are 4 chayalim here, is that ok if they eat with us? let's put all the food on the plata". I was excited. We all were. We've been wanting to have the soldiers for a long time but never know when they're going to be around and if they would come. They came. With all their guns, their equipment, and their smiles and gratitude.
We sang Shalom Aleichem, not knowing that the angels of peace won't be visiting this shabbat rather the devil will be.

We sat down, ate, drank, sang, ate dessert, started singing some more and in the middle of our shabbat song the commander's military phone was alerted and ringing. He answered and before we knew it all The soldiers jumped up, grabbed their guns and bolted out the door. This wasn't how we envisioned the too abrupt end to our beautiful shabbat meal. They were trying to say thank you while running out but needed to run while the commander was saying "yalla, karah mashehu, karah mashehu. maher!".
I thought maybe something was going on right outside the yishuv, maybe the all too standard molotov cocktail throwing or something. But within about 10 minutes the yishuv's warning siren started going off. This meant that we all had to be inside our homes on complete lockdown. Lock all your doors and windows. Put down the trisim (hard plastic shades which block out any light) and turn on your phones to follow security procedures and directions.

The 2 girls staying at my house are not observant and went to their room to their phones to check the news. I went in there to check on them and they didn't want to tell me what they saw.. after a minute they told me that 3 people were critically injured inside our yishuv by a terrorist who infiltrated and barged into someone's shabbat dinner and started stabbing with his knife. 2 were already dead, completely slaughtered. WHAT?!?!?!?! WHO?????? WHERE??????? WHAT IS HAPPENING?????!?!?!? The fear was paralyzing. The worry, the anger, the fear was all growing and swelling and getting too big. I was exploding inside. Our phones kept going off telling us to stay inside, lock everything, and stay alert.


The ages of the victims first mentioned in the news were a mistake, we kept going through the lists on people in our heads who fit those descriptions. Finally a message came from the yishuv- "a devastating stabbing incident at Salomon's house. Stay in your homes. The incident is not over." NO! NOOOO! NO!!! THIS IS NOT HAPPENING!!! PLEASE GD! HELP!!! NOOOOO!!!!

Yossi and Tova Solomon live 3 doors away from us. They had a new grandson born a few days earlier and the family decided to come to the grandparents to celebrate and have a Shalom zachar on Friday night at 10pm. The new baby and his parents stayed in the hospital for Shabbat, celebrating from afar. But in the house was Yossi and Tova (70 years old), their daughter Chaya (45 years old), their son Elad (35 years old) with his wife and 5 children. Everyone was invited to their home at 10pm.
At 9:50pm, a palestinian animal terrorist barged in the door knife in hand. The slaughter began. And wouldn't have ended had the neighbors not heard all the screaming. My close friend's parents live across the path and heard the screams. Her father ran over to check and saw from outside that there was a terrorist violently murdering their beloved friends and neighbors. Her brother was home for shabbat. He ran to his gun, ran across the pathway, stood outside at the window of the house, took one shot and brought the terrorist down. He then started searching around the rest of the house to make sure there wasn't other terrorists while his mother called for help and security started arriving and attempting to save who could be saved. Yossi, Elad, and Chaya had no chance. They were slaughtered. There is no other word to use. They started working on Tova. Tova is no longer in critical condition fighting for her life. She is being treated at the hospital. But her dear amazing happy incredible sweet sweet husband Yossi is no longer. And her 2 precious children are no longer. This is not a reality that can be digested or understood or accepted.

Before the terrorist burst in, Elad's wife, Michal, and the 5 kids were all dressed and excited for the guests to start coming and witnessed the the most horrific devastating catastrophic thing beginning. Michal jumped into action. She grabbed all the kids and ran to a room and locked themselves in. She literally saved all the children. But her husband, her soul mate, the father of her gorgeous children was being murdered right outside the room.
We started receiving messages that there might be another terrorist (because the initial screams heard were "mechablim!!"- plural for terrorists) and to stay put and turn on all external house lights. Soldiers were all over the yishuv, police, military, mada, zaka, hatzala, every security force were in every corner of the yishuv and were searching every single house, yard, field, bush, garbage can, playground, construction site, forest with helicopters hovering overhead and searching everywhere. They brought search dogs, special units. For the first few hours we kept getting a knock on our door by different soldiers, with dogs and without that they were searching our yard and we shouldn't be alarmed. We were told to report ANYTHING different. 


I camped out in our living room. Obviously no sleep was going to happen, and my kids are on the 2nd floor. if anyone is breaking in, they're not getting to my kids. So we "slept" at the entrance to the house. Gilad and I stayed in the living room until messages came in that the nighttime search was over- maybe 3 or 4am. I dont know. But they said searching will be happening until minyan starts at 8:30am, so until 8:15am no one is still allowed to leave their houses or unlock their doors. 

This was supposed to be a beautiful shabbat. It was the most horrific shabbat.

After we ate lunch, there was a knock on our door with more soldiers. My throat went dry and my heart dropped into my knees until I saw their faces. The same soldiers came back from the shabbat dinner the night before. They wanted to come and properly say thank you. "No, No! Thank YOU!" We sat with them in our yard, with our children and guests and they started rehashing details from the night before. They needed to for them. We listened and spoke and ate and drank. How surreal. So calm. So peaceful outside. But no peace at all. Just broken. The heart, the mind, the soul, the breath, broken.

This yishuv is amazing and resilient and strong. It's been through so much. Recently and not so recently. The community made a pot luck seudat shlishit and everyone brought something. People spoke, leaders of the community, people sang and ate and hugged each other and cried. People were together. And we're coming together and moving forward in our security demands and all of our demands as a beautiful, growing, strong and passionate yishuv. 

At Shabbat lunch, Lavi (my almost 4 year old son) wanted to sing a song. He opened the bencher and pointed to some words (yes, the bencher was upside down) and said "Eema, sing this one!" pointing randomly at some words. I said okay not knowing what I'd start singing and what came out of my mouth was "Kol ha'olam kuloh, gesher tzar me'od" (the whole wide world is a very narrow bridge). Lavi knows it and he was excited and starting singing along more loudly when we got to the 2nd part of the song "v'haikar lo lefached klal!" (the most important thing is is to have no fear at all). The fear is so strong, its awful, it can paralyze. But we can't be afraid. Then we can't move. I keep telling myself this. I don't want to be afraid. I want to feel strong and not intimidated or scared, and powerful and warm and loving and fierce. We're supported and supportive and are strong together. 

Thank you for the messages and calls of love and concern. Each one really means a lot. 

We are davening and acting so that this should never happen again anywhere, ever. We are davening that Tova bat Chaya Esther will have a complete refu'a- physically and davening extra hard for the emotional part. Who could imagine.
 
The song we were in the middle of singing with the soldiers on Friday night is called "Agaldelcha"- a sfardic song which has beautiful words. the ending signs off with a sort of kaddish "v'yitgadal b'goy kadosh v'elyon. V'yitkadash shmei rabah b'alma". That night ended in the biggest kaddish. Yossi, Elad and Chaya are with Hshem now and we will fill their void here in Olam Hazeh with kedusha.
 
One last thing before I sign off. Last shabbat our yishuv hosted 56 special needs children (and some older) for an entire shabbat. Each child had a counselor accompanying him/her. Families were asked to sign up to host a participant and counselor for sleeping and eating one meal. We had a 5 year old girl and her 15 year old counselor with us. It truly was a special Shabbat. In shul, a participant, a boy, maybe 20 years old, in a wheelchair, asked Gilad if he could find someone to say kaddish for his grandfather. Gilad of course said yes and went over to Yossi and asked him to say Kaddish for this boy's grandfather. Yossi didn't hesitate for a minute. Of course he'll say kaddish for him. 

And now we're saying kaddish for Yossi. And his 2 children. Just beyond devastating. 

We should learn from Yossi and always smile, be friendly, help when we can and sometimes even when we feel we can't, be positive and be holy. Fill the void in this world by acting and speaking and living with kedusha and purpose.

 
With a lot of love,

Batsheva 

REFUGEES THEN AND NOW - MUSLIMS DEMAND QUEEN ELIZABETH CONVERT

Image may contain: 1 person, smiling, text


IS THIS A HOAX?

REFUGEES – THEN AND NOW

WE MUST NOT ALLOW LUNATICS TO INFLUENCE OUR OWN BEHAVIOR AND TURN US AGAINST EACH OTHER.
 
THERE ARE THOSE WHO HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAN TRY TO GET PUBLICITY. GIVE THEM JOBS REPAIRING THE ROADS.
 
THERE ARE FANATICS WHO HOPE TO FLY UP TO THE SKY AND RAPE VIRGIN CHILDREN WHO ARE THERE WAITING TO ENJOY THEIR SEX ACTS.
 
THERE ARE OTHER MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE WHO SHOULD BE HOSPITALIZED.
 
ANYONE ENTERING A COUNTRY AS A REFUGEE SHOULD BE GRATEFUL AND KISS THE HANDS THAT PROTECT AND FEED THEM.
 
WHEN MY ANCESTORS CAME TO CANADA MORE THAN A HUNDRED YEARS AGO, THEY FACED POVERTY AND BIGOTRY, BUT THE COMMUNITY HELPED EACH OTHER. THEY BUILT SCHOOLS AND FACTORIES AND PROVIDED JOBS FOR IMMIGRANTS AND THE LOCAL POPULATION.
 
THEY CREATED SOCIAL SERVICES, HEALTH CARE CLINICS, LIBRARIES, OPENED LITTLE GROCERY STORES AND DRESS SHOPS AND PUBLISHED INTELLECTUAL AND LITERARY NEWSPAPERS AND LATER BUILT HOSPITALS WHERE PEOPLE OF EVERY NATIONALITY, RACE AND RELIGION ARE STILL WELCOME.
 
THEY PRACTICED THEIR RELIGION QUIETLY AT HOME AND IN SYNAGOGUES AND IN HEBREW SCHOOLS. THEY NEVER TRIED TO CONVERT ANYONE.
 
THERE WAS NO WELFARE, NO BENEFITS, NO HANDOUTS. THEY WORKED, ACHED, SWEATED, SENT THEIR CHILDREN TO SCHOOL. FED THEM, CLOTHED THEM - OFTEN WITH HAND-ME-DOWNS. THE CHILDREN WENT TO SCHOOL, CLEAN, FED - EVEN IF THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH FOOD FOR THE PARENTS.
 
THE CHILDREN STUDIED OBEDIENTLY, DILIGENTLY. THERE WERE QUOTAS TO KEEP THEM OUT. THEY HAD TO STUDY HARDER, GET BETTER GRADES THAN ANYONE ELSE TO GET INTO UNIVERSITY.
 
THE CHILDREN OPENED BUSINESSES, BECAME PROFESSORS, ARTISTS, LAWYERS AND DOCTORS.
 
IF YOU ARE A REFUGEE, DON'T TRY TO IMPOSE YOUR RELIGION OR YOUR CUSTOMS ON OTHERS. DON'T CAUSE DIVISIONS AND CHAOS. IF YOU DON'T LIKE YOUR HOST COUNTRY, MOVE TO A PLACE WHERE YOUR CUSTOMS ARE WELCOME.

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

THE "AFFORDABLE" COST OF JOHN MCCAIN’S SURGERY


Arizona Sen. John McCain's office announced on Wednesday that he was diagnosed with brain cancer after a tumor was discovered following his surgery to remove a blood clot on Friday. Observing whether McCain's surgery would be covered under Trumpcare offers some much-needed insight into the repercussions the health care plan could evoke on the average citizen. Considering all we don't know about McCain's condition, the answer is a little bit complicated.
 
As ThinkProgress' Zack Ford noted, shortly after McCain's office first released word of his surgery, the initial clot (which ultimately led to the tumor being discovered) was found during a routine physical . That kind of physical is the sort of preventative care that has been expanded under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and is on the chopping block under Trumpcare. Already, many uninsured Americans go without those routine checkups.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price said the Republican plan would essentially call for insurance companies to return to pre-Obamacare business as usual. This means health insurers would be allowed to once again sell insurance plans that do not cover the 10 "essential health benefits" outlined in Obamacare's requirements. Those requirements, again, were a huge reason more Americans stopped skipping the visits to the doctor.

McCain's procedures, so far, already have an intimidating price tag. Vox estimated that his care would cost an uninsured American about $76,000, with average Medicare payments ranging from $25,932 to $33,958. Considering the estimated millions of people who would been left without insurance under Trumpcare over the next decade, the plan could leave countless Americans in McCain's situation in the lurch.

Additionally, Sen. McCain's previous experience with melanoma could also put him in the category of Americans with preexisting conditions who, under Trumpcare, would be at risk of being charged higher premiums. As the Kaiser Family Foundation noted in its list of pre-existing conditions, "Cancer within some period of time" was on the list of "Declinable Conditions In the Medically Underwritten Individual Market, Before the Affordable Care Act."
 
While McCain himself never fully committed to supporting the Republican bill, he remained critical of Obamacare and just about any plan birthed entirely from one side of the political spectrum. As he said in a statement on Tuesday, following word that Sens. Mike Lee and Jerry Moran wouldn't support the bill:
 
One of the major problems with Obamacare was that it was written on a strict party-line basis and driven through Congress without a single Republican vote. As this law continues to crumble in Arizona and states across the country, we must not repeat the original mistakes that led to Obamacare's failure. The Congress must now return to regular order, hold hearings, receive input from members of both parties, and heed the recommendations of our nation's governors so that we can produce a bill that finally provides Americans with access to quality and affordable health care.

https://www.bustle.com/p/would-john-mccains-surgery-be-covered-under-trumpcare-the-costs-could-be-atrocious-71427

John McCain Surgery Would Cost $110,979 Without Insurance -
Mayo Clinic

by 2Paragraphs in Daily Edition | July 17, 2017

Sen. John McCain has survived things few men have, and the surgery he had on Friday to remove a blood clot was first reported as being a run-of-the-mill sort of thing for the 80-year-old lawmaker from Arizona. McCain's surgery was mainly news for its effect on the GOP healthcare bill, which majority leader Mitch McConnell has delayed voting on until McCain returns to his Senate seat.
 
Subsequent reports, however, say that the "minimally invasive craniotomy" with an eyebrow incision (as McCain's site described it) is possibly more serious than first reported. A craniotomy, of course, is an opening of the skull. A blood clot in the frontal lobes, where McCain's evidently was, could be cause for major, not minor, concern. And not just health concerns - for the average citizen a craniotomy would also cause serious financial concerns. It's worth noting, as McCain's condition delays the healthcare bill, that a craniotomy at Johns Hopkins Hospital costs $45,077.75. That's a lot of money. But McCain was treated at the Mayo Clinic. Using the Mayo Clinic-provided online cost estimator, a craniotomy like McCain's would cost an uninsured patient at the Mayo Clinic an average price of $110,979 - with an estimated range of between $95,877 and $169,468.

http://2paragraphs.com/2017/07/john-mccain-surgery-would-cost-110000-without-insurance-mayo-clinic/

WAKE UP ! JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN WITHOUT VOICES


I URGE YOU TO  CHECK OUT -

JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN WITHOUT VOICES.

THERE IS SO MUCH GOING ON THAT WE NEVER HEAR ABOUT ON THE COMMERCIAL NEWS - NOT EVEN ON PBS NEWSHOUR OR DEMOCRACY NOW.

ALL WE HEAR ABOUT DAY AND NIGHT IS "TRUMP, TRUMP, TRUMP". 

WE CANNOT PROTECT FAMILIES IF WE DON'T KNOW ABOUT THESE DANGEROUS CRIMINALS.


https://www.facebook.com/JFCWOV/

Also, look up
CRIME WATCH DAILY.

THE UNITED NATIONS STEALS HISTORY FROM HEBRON


Hebron: A Jewish Presence for 3,800 Years
 
Eliaou Attlan has, along with his wife and their five children, lived in Kiryat Arba for over 25 years. Here, in the City of the Fathers, he works as a history teacher and tour guide.  Attlan is the author of a comprehensive book on Hebron's history published in French entitled 'Le livre de Hebron.' The following essay is his from the book Hebron: Rebirth from Ruins edited by Dr. Michal Rachel Suissa.

 Archaeology and the Book of Genesis both show that Hebron is an ancient city. It was here one man, Abraham, attempted to establish a moral foothold for mankind among the children of people who had turned away from mercy and tolerance. Abraham, the wanderer, laid the foundation for humanism's history.

From him, a family grew into a tribe and then to a new people who wrote their founder's message on their banner. In time, the Jews settled in Hebron, approximately 700 years before David chose the city as his capital. Such continuity is unique in history. Hebron can be proud of this, which is without parallel when it comes to the Jewish presence. When considering the question of what the Jews have to do with Hebron, the answer comes quickly: Here are the root, trunk and branches of the Tree of Israel!

During the First Temple period, Hebron lay in the shadow of Jerusalem. But during the Shivat Zion period, following the Jews' return from Babylon, many settled in Kiryat Arba – another name for Hebron. Here, around the tombs of the Matriarchs and Patriarchs, Israel began a new building of its national strength.

During the Hashmonayim period, around 150 B.C.E, the first building around the graves of the Matriarchs and Patriarchs was built. During Herod's time, fabulous buildings were erected in Judea and Galilee; one is the wall around the graves – a building still standing today. This wall has become the symbol of the lifeforce of the Jewish people through the ages.
The wall has been a silent witness to many great conquerors: the Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Mongols, Mamelukes, Ottomans and others. If the stones could speak, they would testify to how the conquerors disappeared, while the People of Israel outlived them all.

According to the collective Jewish memory, Hebron was the first Jewish property in the Land of Israel. It was here Abraham purchased the Machpela Cave as a burial site and thus planted his roots in the Land which was promised to his children. 
 
The Bible gives a detailed account of this real estate purchase. The name of the seller, the price and the name of the buyer is given. It is not for nothing that the scholars of the Talmud have looked upon this transaction as a most important event. In a peaceful manner, Abraham bought this land and the seller received a very high price for it. "The actions of the Fathers are a guide for the children," they said, and this is how the children of Abraham went forth thousands of years later when they reestablished Jewish sovereignty over the Land.

Hebron became the symbol of the Jewish people's connection to Eretz Ysrael. It may have been for this reason that Emperor Hadrian decided to build a slave market in Hebron, following Shimon Bar Kochba's failed uprising. This war, in 135 B.C.E., was a bitter war in which thousands of Roman soldiers lost their lives. When Hadrian eventually won, he decided to make Judea "Judenrein."

Hadrian committed three crimes against the Jewish people: 

* He renamed Israel "Palestine" after the Ægean "Philistines" who, by that time, had been extinct for around one thousand years.

* He tore down Jerusalem and built a heathen city on its ruins, Ælia Capitolina.

* It was from Kiryat Arba, Hebron, the place where G-d said to Abraham: "To you and your descendants have I given this land...," that he sold numerous Jews as slaves to all corners of the World.

During the Byzantine period, Hebron suffered, just as the rest of Israel, under the yoke of the latest occupiers. The Byzantine Empire became Christianized and turned against Judaism. In the fifth century, one of the Church fathers (Suzinius) wrote of a common summer festival for Jews, Christians and heathens. The description contains a lot of praise for the mutual respect the different religions had amongst themselves.

Around 600 C.E., camel caravans began penetrating Israel. They stole and plundered, while examining the possibilities for a possible conquest. City after city was occupied by Arabs who came out of their lands intent on occupying the entire World.

Following the occupation of Kiryat Arba, Islam as a religion was indifferent to this city. Descriptions of the occupation don't mention Hebron with a single word. This is proof that Hebron was of no importance to the original Islam.

During this time, Islam was searching for its own identity and shifted between the various powerbases within itself. It is absolutely clear that this religion, despite being born in Hidgaz in the heart of the Arabian Desert, was based on elements of Judaism and Christianity. It is therefore natural that this new religion couldn't remain indifferent to the Biblical landscape and the Biblical sites. Some of them are also mentioned in the Koran.
 
This was a very interesting transitional period. After attaining many victories on the battlefield, the Arabs realized that they would have to administer enormous areas containing many different peoples.
With this in mind, they became adept at showing tolerance and wisdom: They made use of the peoples' administrative knowledge, including the Jews.

In the beginning, the Jews viewed the Arabs as liberators, almost as a sign of the Geula (Redemption, arrival of the Messiah), which the Jews had awaited from generation to generation. From the Jews, the Arabs learned to treat holy sites with respect. For 500 years, both Jews and Muslims came to the tomb and arranged various welcoming celebrations for adherents of other religions who visited.

This idyll ceased when the Mamelukes came to power, around 1250 C.E.
The Mamelukes brought a new dimension to Islam, a fundamentalist and extremist dimension that was based on the hatred of all non-Muslims. Baberas, Sultan of the Mamelukes, forbade Jews and Christians to enter the Machpela Cave. The closest the Jews were allowed to come to it was the seventh step of the building, no further.

One could have hoped that this change within Islam wouldn't achieve such a grasp on the religion after 500 years of relatively high tolerance.

Unfortunately, it went the wrong way and the prohibition took on a religious shape. It is due to this that the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were denied access to their forefathers' grave for around 700 years.  
It is interesting and worth mentioning that Muslim scholars claimed that only Mohammed's grave was holy, and was therefore the only grave a Muslim could pray at. This is why, to start, it was forbidden to build mosques over gravesites. Up until the 19th century, there were Muslim scholars who were strongly opposed to turning the Machpela Cave into a Muslim prayer site.

Muslims probably saw the Jews praying at the tomb and eventually did the same. However, it is important to remember that, today, Hebron is the fourth holiest city for Muslims, after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.

The Muslim attitude to the holy sites of other religions can be seen as a process in three stages:

* Indifference to non-Muslim holy sites.

* Coexistence with other religions.

* Takeover through deportation of other religions from their holy sites, which are then used only by Muslims.

We see the same phenomenon at the Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It is only in the last few years that this site has been transformed into an area containing many mosques. At times, though, these serious actions take on a humorous twist.
 
One example is a tourist brochure which the PA (Palestinian Authority) has made. In it, it says that Herod built the Ibrahim mosque in Hebron in 100 B.C.E.. Yes, you read correctly. Herod built mosques 700 years before Islam arose!

We are witnesses to a ridiculous, historical revision, but at the same time, a dangerous revision, because its aim is the eradication of the Jewish past.
In 1517 C.E., the Ottoman Empire brought an end to Mameluke control. This was the beginning of the longest occupation of Israel. During the first years, the Turks distinguished themselves by bringing order and safety to the region.

The Jewish community made use of the opportunity to start a new period where important rabbis greatly contributed to the evolution of Kabbalah. The Jews who had been deported from Spain came to Hebron and purchased a farm to renew the Jewish Quarter.

Rabbi Malchiel Ashkenazi founded a congregation around the Abraham Avinu (Our Father Abraham) synagogue. The Jews of Hebron sent their best rabbis to congregations in the Diaspora to teach the Torah of Israel. These messengers awoke messianic expectations amongst the Diaspora Jews, such as the false prophet Sabbatai Zevi. In this way, Hebron held a leading position in the belief in the Geula.[4]

It is important to understand that for many Jews, who for generations had lived without a sovereign state of their own, Jewish belonging became only a conceptual belonging. But the messengers from Hebron reminded the Jews that they are all one people with the same father and a country waiting for them. They reminded each other that the day would come when their prayers would be answered and they would again return to their Land. Modern Zionism is not always aware of just how much these messengers have contributed to preserving the Jewish national identity down through the generations. Messengers from Hebron reached remote Jewish congregations, also in the U.S. where Rabbi Haim Zvi Sneersohn was received by President Ulysses S. Grant as a representative for the Jews in Hebron.

The break-up of the Ottoman Empire was followed by nationalistic phenomena in the Middle East. Both Jews and Arabs established active, nationalistic movements. The Arabs saw Zionism as their archenemy.
There were two Jewish groups in Hebron. The majority belonged to the established community (Hayeshuv Hayashan) which was primarily concerned with prayer, studying Judaism and waiting for the Messiah. The new community (Hayeshuv Hahadash) had a clear goal of building a new society in Israel, based on Jewish work and Hebrew as the day-to-day language.  

The Arabs didn't attack the Hebron Jews when the pogroms started in 1920–21. Good relations between the religious leaders of these two groups.
The third wave of pogroms was led by Haj-Amin Al-Husseini. His Jew-hatred made him blind and he believed every Jew should be murdered. This is why the pogrom in 1929 was the most murderous of them all. The Jewish congregation in Hebron was dealt a severe blow, and at least 67 Jews [both of the established community and the new community] were butchered amid indescribable torture. Women were raped in front of their families and corpses were violated.

This happened in the 20th century, under the British Mandate administration. The rest of the congregation was spared, not by the British, but by few Arabs who bravely placed themselves between the killers and the Jews.

An attempt to bring the murderers to justice failed, because the British weren't interested in having the extent of the pogrom exposed. Not only did the Hebron Jews not receive any significant reparation or compensation for the killings and plundering they'd endured, but the British also decided to forcibly move the Jewish community to Jerusalem on the grounds that the British could no longer guarantee their safety in Hebron.

It was then the Arabs understood that violence pays. It should also be mentioned that the British tried to cleanse the town of Safed of Jews following a similar pogrom there, but the community refused to move since it would reward the Arab terror. Today it is a matter of course for all of Israel's citizens that Safed is an inseparable part of Israel, but not everyone in Israel is aware of the fact that the Jews also have the right to Hebron.
The U.N.'s partition plan didn't take into consideration the historical roots of the Jews, so the holy city of the Jews, Hebron, was placed outside of Israel's borders in 1948. During 1947–1967, the Jordanians continued the destruction that started with the 1929 pogrom. Jewish property was transferred to Arab hands, synagogues and community houses were either torn down or turned into public toilets. The cemetery was destroyed and large portions of it turned into farmland.

The IDF's surprising victory in the 1967 war got many Jews thinking. The return to the "water wells" and the Temple Mount were the strongest aspects of this. It was in the meeting with precisely Hebron, the City of the Fathers, that the desire to initiate a grand settlement movement in Judea and Samaria was awoken in the hearts of idealistic youth. The return to Hebron was the first major push to re-establish lost communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

Even though Israel won the war, this didn't lead to Israel's leaders sharing the same view. The political establishment quickly adopted the empty phrase: "Land for Peace", even though the majority in Israel saw this as a golden opportunity to again populate Judea, Samaria and Gaza and thereby contribute to fulfilling the Biblical verse: "And the sons shall return to their borders."

Hebron was the first rebuilt Jewish neighborhood. It all started with a small group of families around Rabbi Moshe Levinger who renewed the Jewish congregation in Hebron. Following a bitter struggle, Israel's government decided to rebuild Kiryat Arba in 1969. The community has never received any type of aid from the government, but was the result of grassroots pressure. One example is Moshe Dayan, Defense Minister at the time, who refused to allow Jews to pray at the Machpela Tomb. It is thanks to the Jews of Hebron, who insisted on equal rights for both Jews and non-Jews, that, today, prayer is allowed at this holy place.

Hebron and Kiryat Arba have experienced innumerable terrorist attacks and disasters. Most of the cases where the government has granted building permits, have come in the wake of serious episodes were Jewish blood has been shed. Like what happened in the neighborhood of Beit Hadassah. Only after six Jews were murdered there in 1980, did Prime Minister Menachem Begin allow the Jews to return. Kiryat Arba, the Jewish neighborhood in Hebron, quickly became the symbol for the populating of YESHA (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) with Jews. Kiryat Arba is the mother of settlements. From here, small groups of people have gone forth to establish new settlements.

Soon we will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the rejuvenated Jewish community in Kiryat Arba – Hebron. This is, according to Jewish tradition, the age of maturity. Let us hope that everyone will realize that Hebron has been, and will forever be, a Jewish city that, under Jewish sovereignty, always will be open to all religions that wish to fulfill our father Abraham's message of peace.

http://en.hebron.org.il/history/690