This is unfortunate, God speaks against this in the Bible, We are to love our neighbors and help them! Pray for our Brothers and sisters in Israel People!

Half of Israelis don’t want anything to do with mentally disabled

More than a quarter of Israelis say intellectually challenged shouldn’t have sex, 40% don’t want to live next to them, survey finds

 

A narrow majority of Israelis — 52 percent — would prefer not to meet people who are mentally disabled, according to survey released by a leading Israeli organization that advocates for the intellectually challenged.

In addition, 40% of those interviewed said that they would not want to be the neighbors of a mentally disabled person, and some 25% said they would not want to work in the same room as such a person, or even receive service in a coffee house from one.

The survey, which was published on Wednesday by AKIM, the National Association for the Habilitation of Children and Adults with Intellectual Disabilities, was based on a sample of 605 people and was conducted in conjunction with the the B.I. and Lucille Cohen Institute for Public Opinion Research of Tel Aviv University.

Some 25% of the people interviewed believe that mentally disabled people could be dangerous, and 31% said they should be kept separate from the general population.

Beyond complete separation, many of the people interviewed believe that some of the rights enjoyed by most Israelis should not be granted to the mentally disabled. Thirty-seven percent of respondents said they should not be allowed to vote, 15% believe they should not be allowed to marry, and 28% said they should be prevented from having sexual relations.

Israeli law not only allows the intellectually disabled adults to vote, but also permits them to have a companion with them in the booth when they cast their ballot.

Sigal Peretz Yahalomi, the director-general of AKIM, explained that, in Israel, the classification of a person as mentally disabled is done by a Welfare Ministry expert committee.

The definition includes those with an IQ of less than 70, she said.

According the to AKIM website, there are currently some 12,000 children and 22,000 adults in Israel who are mentally disbaled.

Yahalomi attributed the survey results more to ignorance than to blind hatred, saying that the majority of Israelis don’t know people with disabilities. Her assessment is shored up by the fact that more than two-thirds of the people surveyed said that they would not know how to respond, in a conversation, to a person who was mentally disabled, while 48% admitted that during such an encounter, they would not know what was expected of them.

Yahalomi added that, in her experience, “these negative feelings end as soon as people get to know the disabled. This is the way to break through and tear down the walls of prejudice. An inclusive society is a prosperous society. We demand that these people be an inseparable part of society.”

AKIM services include kindergartens and nurseries, after-school activities, group homes, vocational training, recreational programs and special holidays for adults, as well as support and education for parents. The group also runs an advocacy program for the rights of the intellectually disabled.

AKIM chairman Ami Ayalon submitted the report to President Shimon Peres, who called on all Israelis “to help those with disabilities.”

“In doing so, you make Israel more beautiful, more humane and more noble,” he said.

 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/half-of-israelis-dont-want-anything-to-do-with-mentally-handicapped/

 

Wow, I don't know where to begin with this!

3,000 ultra-Orthodox receive IDF draft notices, to be called up by August

 

 

Some 3,000 ultra-Orthodox Israelis have received call-up orders to the IDF and will be enlisted for active service by August 2013, the army announced on Thursday.

The young men who were slated to join the military had until recently deferred their service due to their religious beliefs, Maj. Gen. Orna Barbivai, the head of manpower in the IDF, told Israel Radio.

2013 will be the first year in which the number of ultra-Orthodox draftees will be in the thousands, she said.

Barbivai also expressed concern regarding the inordinate number of Ethiopian soldiers currently serving out sentences in military prisons. She said that approximately 20% of inmates came from families of Ethiopian immigrants — far more than their representation in the army – despite the fact that members of the community are highly motivated when they first enlist in the IDF.

In February, the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the Tal Law, which granted sweeping exemptions from military or national service to ultra-Orthodox Israelis.

Following the ruling, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the Knesset would draft a revised, more equitable law within months.

In July, Netanyahu disbanded a committee headed by Kadima MK Yohanan Plesner to draft a resolution to the issue, after some right-wing legislators resigned from the panel, citing its failure to institute a universal draft for Arab citizens as well as ultra-Orthodox.

After Plesner publicized his committee’s recommendations, Netanyahu teamed him up with Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon to hammer out a bill that would incorporate all of the committee’s principles while also taking into account the objections of those who had left the committee. That attempt also failed to produce results, prompting the Kadima party to bolt the coalition.

In early December, the Cabinet approved a plan to draft some 1,300 ultra-Orthodox men into the national service corps, where, according to the Government Press Office, some 2,000 religious men currently serve.

 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/3000-ultra-orthodox-receive-idf-draft-notices-to-be-called-up-by-august/

Obama to 'Quickly' Go for Immigration Reform and Gun Control

President Barack Obama will go for immigration reform and gun control this month, the White House tells the left-leaning Huffington Post. Obama's actions will reportedly be done "quickly."
"An Obama administration official said the president plans to push for immigration reform this January. The official, who spoke about legislative plans only on condition of anonymity, said that coming standoffs over deficit reduction are unlikely to drain momentum from other priorities. The White House plans to push forward quickly, not just on immigration reform but gun control laws as well," reports the Huffington Post.
"The timeframe is likely to be cheered by Democrats and immigration reform advocates alike, who have privately expressed fears that Obama's second term will be drowned out in seemingly unending showdowns between parties."
The outlet claims that it is "unclear what type of immigration policies the White House plans to push in January."
No details on what sort of gun control legislation the White House will seek were offered in the article.
As Politico reported last month, a "Gang of Eight," a conference of 8 senators from both parties, "has begun to meet to discuss immigration reform." But it is not at all clear what progress this group has made and what immigration laws it might propose.

 

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-quickly-go-immigration-reform-and-gun-control_693547.html

U.S. military cuts budget, pulls one carrier group from Middle East

ABU DHABI — In late 2012, the U.S. Navy reduced its presence in the Gulf.

 

 

 

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said the Navy would operate one rather than two aircraft carrier groups in the region over the next few months.
Panetta, the first U.S. defense secretary to visit Kuwait in nearly five years, has met with sheikdom leaders. He said Washington wanted to enhance defense and security cooperation with Kuwait in an effort to counter regional threats.
Nevertheless, the Obama administration has declared its intention to maintain what officials termed a strong presence in the Gulf in 2013.
Officials said the military presence in the Middle East would mark a priority amid plans to significantly reduce the U.S. defense budget.

Read more: http://www.worldtribune.com/2013/01/01/u-s-military-cuts-budget-pulls-one-carrier-group-from-middle-east/

Israeli special forces under cover inside Syria

 

 

Israeli special forces continue to operate inside Syria to track the country’s nonconventional weapons as well as any such weapons that may be in possession of the rebels, according to informed Middle Eastern intelligence sources.
The sources confirmed a London Sunday Times report from last month that also noted Israeli special forces were on the ground in Syria working as spotters to track the regime’s stocks of chemical and biological weapons.
“For years we’ve known the exact location of Syria’s chemical and biological munitions,” an Israeli source told the Times last month. “But in the past week we’ve got signs that munitions have been moved to new locations.”
Last month, WND reported Iran had passed nonconventional weapons to Syria for possible use in the event the regime of Bashar al-Assad faces imminent collapse, according to knowledgeable Middle Eastern security officials.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta three weeks ago told reporters the Syrian government seems to have slowed any preparations for the possible use of chemical weapons against so-called rebels fighting Assad’s forces.
“At this point the intelligence has really kind of leveled off,” Panetta said. “We haven’t seen anything new indicating any aggressive steps to move forward in that way.”
U.S. officials had announced the previous week there was evidence indicating Syrian forces had begun preparing sarin gas, a nerve agent, for possible use in bombs.
Syria vehemently denied the chemical weapons charges and instead accused the U.S.-backed rebels of preparing chemical weapons themselves for use against civilians.
The Syrian foreign ministry released a statement that terrorist groups “may resort to using chemical weapons against the Syrian people … after having gained control of a toxic chlorine factory” east of Aleppo.
Last month, members of the al-Qaida-affiliated Al-Nusra, which makes up the top leadership of the rebel fighters, reportedly seized control of the Syrian-Saudi Chemicals Company factory near the Syrian town of Safira.
A YouTube video even purportedly showed Syrian rebels testing chemical weapons, although the veracity of the video is in question.
Syria “is defending its people against terrorism, which is supported by known countries, with the United States at the forefront,” Syria’s foreign ministry said.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/israeli-special-forces-under-cover-inside-syria/#T6EX6UpmdpmBjvBM.99 

IDF preparing hospitals for chemical attacks

Military official says Home Front Command preparing hospitals for range of security threats including large-scale missile attacks.

The IDF Home Front Command is preparing all hospitals in Israel for a range of security threats, including large-scale missile attacks and chemical attacks, a senior military source told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

The preparations have been planned three years in advance, and bear no relation to current events or recent threat assessments. Exercises include training hospital staff to deal with conventional missile attacks, mass-casualty incidents and “mega-mass casualty incidents,” – involving 1,000 or more injuries.

“We train a lot for chemical weapons,” a Home Front Command source said. “This is our business, and only ours. There is no room for error.”

The drills form the only basis for dealing with a chemical weapon attack, the source stressed, “since we have no experience with this.”

The threat of a chemical attack from neighboring Syria is very low, but the defense community’s contingency planning includes steps to both prevent and cope with such a threat.

The Home Front Command’s medical department – under the jurisdiction of the Health Ministry – has been tasked with preparing hospitals for all possibilities.

All 27 hospitals in Israel have undergone intensive chemical weapons incidents drills – including surprise exercises.

The hospitals undergo a total of 25 emergency drills per year.

During the drills, people simulating patients are rushed into hospitals with notes attached to them explaining their particular scenario. On average, hospitals deal with 200 “patients” during the simulations – though on some occasions, the number has been as high as 700.

The Home Front Command has also created underground areas in major hospitals such as Ichilov in Tel Aviv and Rambam in Haifa, so intensive care and pregnancy wards can be transferred there in the case of missile attacks.

During Operation Pillar of Defense, the Home Front Command sent crews to four hospitals to create daycare centers for the children of doctors and nurses, to allow them to focus on treating patients.

According to Home Front Command evaluations, even in the event of wide-scale rocket and missile attacks, a low casualty rate can be expected.

The source noted that the 11,000 rockets fired from Gaza between 2000 and November 2012 (before the Gaza conflict) resulted in 22 casualties.

“That’s a casualty rate of one per 500 projectiles,” he said.

“The more than 4,000 projectiles fired by Hezbollah during the Second Lebanon War of 2006 resulted in 44 casualties in Israel,” he added. “In the 1991 Gulf War, [then-Iraqi leader] Saddam Hussein fired 40 Scud B missiles at central Israel. There was one casualty, from a door blown off a safe room. Some people are fear mongering. The numbers should be studied.”

 

http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?ID=298232&R=R1

Syrian rebels claim capacity to produce chemical weapons

The Free Syrian Army has all the components for producing chemical weapons and the knowhow to use them if necessary, said the political adviser of the FSA, Bassam Al-Dada to the Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency. “If we ever use them, we will only hit the regime's bases and centers,” Al-Dada said, stressing that the Syrian opposition would only use chemical weapons if the ruling regime did so first. Their expertise came from army officers with technical knowledge who had defected from the government side, he said.

 

http://www.debka.com/newsupdatepopup/3363/