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Actor Jon Voight continues to be a beacon of light in the darkness that is Hollywood.

Oscar winner Jon Voight is coming to Israel next week for his first solidarity visit to salute the Jewish state in honor of its 60th birthday.

World-renowned for his roles in “Midnight Cowboy,” “Coming Home,” “Deliverance,” “Mission Impossible,” “Ali and National Treasure,” among others, Voight will welcome Chabad’s Children of Chernobyl’s (CCOC) 80th rescue mission airlifting children from irradiated regions in Ukraine, Belarus and Western Russia to Israel; visit Sderot, which has endured 7,000 Hamas missiles and numerous casualties; comfort terror victims; and, go to Yad Vashem.

“I’m coming to salute, encourage and strengthen the people of Israel on this joyous 60th birthday,” said Voight. “This week is about highlighting Israel as a moral beacon. At a time when its enemies threaten nuclear destruction, Israel heals.

“Israel is a haven from nuclear horrors for thousands of Chernobyl survivors who suffer the consequences of the worst environmental disaster in history. I personally want to welcome the youngsters aboard Chabad’s Children of Chernobyl’s 80th Rescue Mission—it is a great honor to help save a child’s life.”

Giving back to society has long been a priority for Voight, having volunteered with and contributed to numerous charities and causes at home and abroad. His deep humanitarian values direct him to Sderot and to Chabad’s Terror Victims Project (CTVP).

“I want to meet the people of Sderot,” said Voight. “I want to tell them: ‘Every day you have rockets falling on your city. We care about you. We have not forgotten you!’ And I want to underscore Israel’s magnificent contributions to mankind.”

Voight will also attend President Shimon Peres’ Presidential Conference: “Facing Tomorrow.”

CCOC, a non-profit organization established by the Lubavitcher Rebbe in 1990, has airlifted 2,500 children to Israel. The children live in Kfar Chabad, Israel, where they receive medical care, education, and support. Most CCOC alumni settle in Israel following the eventual aliyah of their parents.

And let’s not forget what he said a few months ago:

“There would be peace on Earth if all people would appreciate the Jewish people.”

If only the Jews in Hollywood had even half of Jon Voight’s love for Israel and the Jewish people.

She may have a name that sounds like a disease, but Greek singer Glykeria is all that.

When Greek singer Glykeria performs the song “Shabechi Yerushalaim” in Israel, she receives heavy applause. But recently, when she sang the hit in Greece, the reactions were completely different.

Glykeria is extremely popular in Israel. She performs in the Jewish state and sings in the Hebrew language on a regular basis.

A group of Israeli businesspeople, who were present at a Glykeria gig at a nightclub in Athens last week, sent her a bouquet of flowers and asked her to sing the Hebrew song “Shabechi Yerushalaim.” Glykeria accepted.

The performance was held while the IDF was operating in the Gaza Strip. The club was packed, not only with Greek and Israeli fans, but also with a group of Arabs, some of them Palestinians.

As Glykeria started singing the song in Hebrew, the Arab viewers started shouting, whistling out loud and booing in an attempt to stop the show.

“Glykeria was terrified. The Arabs caused a mess, and it was really unpleasant. We felt as if the conflict is chasing us to Athens,” said Amnon Angel, one of the businesspeople who watched the show.

According to Angel, the security guards jumped on the Arab viewers and dragged them outside. “They had a lot of hatred in their eyes. They were frantic. We sat there quietly and did not enter any conflicts,” Angel said.

But the incident did not end at this point. At the end of the gig, when Glykeria arrived at her room, she found a letter saying that “while Palestinian children are murdered in Gaza, you collaborate with the Zionists.”

‘Nothing will damage her love for Israel’

The club owners filed a complaint with the police, and Glykeria was given a bodyguard.

“She is surprised, but not afraid,” her husband said. “Glykeria loves Israelis and feels great visiting Israel and singing in Hebrew.”

The singer’s personal manager, Zion Kedem, confirmed the report, stressing that “nothing will damage Glykeria’s love for Israel.”

Last week, Glykeria released a new album in Hebrew titled “Matana” (”Gift”). The album includes a song written by President Shimon Peres and a duet with Israeli singer Chava Alberstein.

Glykiera has sold 400,000 copies of her albums in Israel. She says she feels a special connection to the Jewish state, which she has often paid a price for in her homeland.

The Greek media has criticized Glykeria over her admiration for Israel while many other Greek artists usually express their solidarity with the Palestinians.

It’s good to know not everyone in the Greek music business is a nasty piece of work.

So said Jon Voight at the L.A. benefit concert for Sderot I blogged about here.

Besides this, click on the video if you want to see Sylvester Stallone tackle the question”What Rambo would have done to solve this problem?,” as well as appearances from Larry Miller, and Valerie.

One man’s “fat lunatic with sagging breasts” is another man’s mensch.

Los Angeles is proving to indeed be a “city of angels’”. A host of Hollywood stars, including Paula Abdul, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight**, will be participating Tuesday in a charity and solidarity concert for the rocket-battered town of Sderot in Beverly Hills.

The concert, entitled “Live for Sderot”, which will include a performance by Israeli singer Ninet Tayeb and will be attended by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, will also launch the celebrations of the State of Israel’s 60th anniversary in the city.

Guests of honor at this special concert will be a delegation of 10 teenagers from Sderot which were flown to visit Los Angeles and share their experiences of life in Sderot with local American youths.

The 15-year-old teens arrived in LA this weekend and have already managed to paint the town red.

Israeli Leadership Club (ILC) Chairman, Eli Tene, surprised each of the teens with $100 in spending money and a new iPod. The teens were also treated to a tour of the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame, as well as to dinner with Ninet Tayeb and Consul General of Israel in Los Angeles Jacob Dayan.

The Sderot delegation also attended a hockey game during the weekend, and will also be treated to an NBA basketball game and a tour of Universal Studios during thier week-long stay. The teens will also visit Beverly Hills High School, the inspiration for the “Beverly Hills 90210″ TV show, and meet with its sudent body.

The Highlight of the teens’ visit, however, will be the benefit concert for Sderot to be held Tuesday night. Paula Abdul has volunterred to host the concert, during which a videoclip entitled “Color red”, which tells the tale of the Qassam-weary town, will be screeened.

Attneding the concert will be the Los Angleles mayor, a wealth of dignitaries from the city’s Jewwish leadership, the ehads of the prominent movie studios in the city, and well as a whole host of celebrities and movie stars.

Heck, if the other side can have a big bicep guy, why can’t we?

* See here

** Paula Abdul is Jewish, and I have mentioned Jon Voight a number of times before.

Here’s someone I bet wasn’t invited to speak at Israel Apartheid Week.

At first glance, Fayce (not his real name), looks like a normal, young Tel Aviv resident. His native sounding unaccented Hebrew - complete with all of the Israeli slang - and his mannerisms bear all the hallmarks of someone who has lived in Israel for a long time.

 

But Fayce is actually a Muslim Moroccan from a poor Casablanca district, who arrived in Israel in 1997 on a student visa, to study at Tel Aviv University.

 

His remarkable story has been turned into a book in French, which he authored, and which is being published by Beni Issembert, an Israeli journalist who made aliyah from France.

 

Since arriving in Israel, Fayce has quickly adopted what he calls “the hutzpa here,” which he has come to admire.

 

He has fallen out with Israeli Arabs after defending Israel in political arguments, and come close to being a victim of a Palestinian suicide bomb attack on the Tel Aviv Dolphinarium club, which killed 21 Israelis, mostly teenagers. He met his girlfriend while she was serving as an IDF soldier, and fell in love for the first time in Israel.

 

Fayce has also formed a close knit group of Israeli friends. “I feel completely Tel Avivian,” he declares proudly. “Tel Aviv and Casablanca are two sides of one large Mediterranean culture, and I have both of them in me. I’m neither here nor there,” he adds.

 

Now, an employee for a Tel Aviv hi-tech company, two years after his student visa has run out, he is facing an uphill struggle against the Ministry of Interior to have his visa extended, so that he can pay off his student debts and leave “with my head proudly held up,” he says.

 

“My story began when I went to a Jewish school in Casablanca,” Fayce explains. “My mother worked for a lawyer who was the president of the Casablanca Jewish community, and she arranged for me to go to that school as it gave me a real edge and a potential to succeed in the future,” he adds.

 

That already marked him out as different in Morocco, Fayce says. As he grew up, Fayce became interested in medicine, but was rejected from a Paris institute. He heard about Tel Aviv University’s medical course, and decided to give it a shot.

 

“When they accepted me, my mother immediately arranged my air ticket and packed all of my cloths. She knew I would not return, but she wanted me to have an opportunity to make it in life,” Fayce says. “Next thing I knew, I was flying, for the first time in my life, out of Morocco.

 

After a stop over in London, I landed at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.” During his first night in Israel ‚Äì hungry, scared, and completely disoriented - Fayce was checked by security guards at the airport several times, as he was wearing a jacket in the summer.

 

After realizing he was not a terrorist, each guard told Fayce, Baruch Haba (Hebrew for: Welcome). “I thought it was a curse,” Fayce recalls. “I didn’t understand why the security guards in Israel cursed after examining me, so I cursed back in Moroccan Arabic, which they didn’t understand. They nodded me through.”

 

Fayce received a helping hand to manage his degree financially from the Institute for Higher Education, and also took on a job to help pay for his education.

 

On Tel Aviv University’s campus, Fayce said, he encountered Israeli Arabs who found it difficult to understand what he was doing in Israel. “One of them asked me, ‘why did you choose to study here? Why not go to Egypt?’ I replied: Why should I go to Egypt, the education here is much better. He was very insulted, and called me a ‘traitor.’ I asked him who I was betraying, and he said, ‘us,’” Fayce recounted.

 

“I told him, ‘let me say something that you don’t know. You are the only the Arabs in the world who know what democracy is. There is no other place that can you criticize so openly like this. If you did it in Morocco, you’d find yourself in jail. If you don’t like it here, why don’t you go study in Egypt,” he added.

 

“Only people who live here have a right to make comments about the situation,” Fayce said, recalling how close he came to being killed in the 2001 Dolphonarium bombing. Fayce was on his way to the club when the suicide bomber attacked, and was saved because he was a few minutes late. “I saw the horrific after-effect of that,” Fayce said, moving uncomfortably.

 

“Before I came to Israel, I saw the Arab TV coverage. In the Arab world, they are taught to think that it’s all armed Israelis against rock throwing Palestinians. Of course, it’s not like that at all,” he said.

 

As he quickly learned Hebrew, Fayce became acquainted with the Sabbath in Israel. “I once asked shopkeepers why they were closing the stores early on Friday afternoons. Was there a war or something? They would say, ‘Did you fall on your head? It’s Shabbat!’ I was embarrassed, so I’d say, I know, just kidding,” Fayce recalls with a smile.

 

“During the first Yom Kippur I experienced, I had no idea where everyone went. The campus suddenly became empty. I was mystified,” he adds.

 

Fayce’s book has an introduction by Vice Premier Shimon Peres. “For him, Fayce represents the true meaning of peace ‚Äì someone who goes out to look for an education, and finds it irrespective of race or religion,” Beni Issembert, the book’s publisher says. “This story is outstanding, literally, it completely stands out among stories,” he adds.

 

“I was attracted to the book because it represents real peace ‚Äì between people ‚Äì and I hope its message is absorbed in France, where there are tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims,” he says.

 

“Fayce’s story also has all the elements of struggles represented by immigrants, irrespective of any country,” Issembert adds.

 

“Israel is centrally important to me,” Fayce says. He is now planning a trip to India and Nepal with his girlfriend, “to relax a little.”

 

“Wherever I go from here, I’ll thrive and survive, because I made it here in Israel,” he says.

“Most importantly, I made a major contribution to Israel a number of years ago, and they named a park after me: the Donald J. Trump Park. And I wanna see my park!”

Ha’aretz reports on how the Black Eyed Peas wowed fans with their Zionist sentiments.

Just when it seems too late by far, something hits us upside our calloused shell of a head, and there it is. From a direction we could not expect, something comes to fan long-buried Zionist faith back to life.The Black Eyed Peas, for example.

We didn’t know what hit us. The expectations of the thousands in that stadium, and the tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands following the live concert broadcast on Army Radio, ran in a very different vector, pointing squarely at the hip hop nation of the City of Angels, a mesmerizing funk-til-death backup band, by-your-throat rhythm cascades, assault rifle bursts of knowing, glowing, mow-down rhyme riffs and inexhaustible energy in human motion. That’s what we’d come for.

What we didn’t expect, was Zionism.

“We’ve been here for five days,” vocalist-rapper Will.I.Am called to the crowd. “And that’s been the best five days of our lives.”

“Check this out,” he went on, ticking off the ways he found himself loving the country, from the landscape, to the tight-knit character of family life, to “the most beautifullest women on the planet.

They stopped at nothing. They spoke about the possibility of moving to Israel to live. “Y’see, I brought my mom and my grandma. You know, we’re Christian, but I think I’m gonna convert to Judaism …”

The audience, which came knowing every syllable of every infinitely complex song, was caught entirely unprepared. They were witnessing a full-blown Revival Meeting of that old time Zionism, and it was their turn to testify.

Testify they did.

In seconds, they were delirious.

The band broke into a horn driven, Mussel Shoals-seasoned “Hava Nagila.” The crowd, already bananas, roared so loud it would have surprised no one had it been capable of levitating itself through sheer animal delight, and a peculiarly local version of loud, proud, surprised, oddly patriotic, unedited love.

Fergie, the group’s woman singer, flew in the face of every conceivable assumption, as well as every tenet of political correctness, by calling Israel “one of the most fun places on the planet.” But the crowd, knowing exactly what she meant, loosed yet a larger paroxysm.

I have been a fan of the Black Eyed Peas’ music for quite a while. Now I count myself a fan of the Black Eyed Peas.

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom slipped while stepping off the runway in Switzerland Saturday fracturing two ribs, but was compensated by a visit from actress Sharon Stone.

 

Shalom tripped on the ice-covered sidewalk after stepping off a plane in Davos, Switerzland. He had arrived to take part in an economic forum.

 

However, he was more than fairly compensated receiving a sick call from actress Sharon Stone.

 

Stone was participating in the same economic forum to raise money for starving children in Malaysia and Tanzania.

 

According to the International Herald Tribune, Stone pledged $10,000 to combat malaria in Tanzania and urged other participants to “be on a team with me.”

—-

According to Yedioth Ahronoth Stone visited Shalom at his hotel for an hour. During the visit she said she could identify with his pain, as she had a similar accident more than 13 years ago.

 

Once their hot drinks arrived, Stone helped Shalom with his drink to ease his pain.

 

Shalom invited Stone to visit Israel and she responded by saying she would take him up on his offer. She is planning to come in a month and a half.

American Indians Aren’t Like Palestinians
by David A. Yeagley
Originally published at FrontPageMagazine.com on April 9, 2002

 

Many people see a similarity between American Indians and today’s Palestinians. I’m Comanche Indian. I see no similarity whatsoever.

 

Comanches were once “Lords of the South Plains,” (Wallace & Hoebel, 1952). Arabs living in Palestine have never dominated anything but goats. Comanches were independent, and certainly not supported by two billion other Indian ‘brothers,’ like the Palestinian Arabs claim they’re supported by the Arab world.

 

There’s no similarity in the land claim issue. Comanches, never numbering more than six or seven thousand, were simply strong enough to take over the American southwestern plains, first from other Indians, then from white people. Palestinians have accomplished nothing but suicide bombings.

 

Palestinian Arabs are not indigenous to Palestine. They are leftover Arabs, residual of another age. Knowing Arab history is vital to understanding the situation in the Middle East. (Joan Peters’ From Time Immemorial (1984) is a ‘must read’ on this subject.)

 

Arabs are from Arabia. Beginning in AD 622, under Mohammad, Arab “prophet” of Medina, the Islamic religion became a war machine and aggressively expanded from the Arabian Peninsula to all directions until AD 750 when it controlled North Africa westward to Spain and southern France, northward to Palestine and Armenia, and eastward 400 miles past the Indus River.

 

It was spectacular achievement, one which clearly proved Islam to be not a religion of peace, but of dominance. Arabs intermarried, enslaved, and otherwise lorded over every culture they encountered. Arabs established the African and Asian slave routes, which are still used today for slave trade out of India and Nepal, as well as Africa and the Far East.

 

European Christians finally fended off Islamic dominance to the east and west. By the 15th century, Muslims were ousted from Spain and from most of the Balkans by the 17th century. Mongolians broke Islamic dominance in the Orient. The last phase of Islamic political dominance, the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), ended in 1840 when Constantinople submitted to terms of Western powers in its dispute with Egypt. Turkey’s government declared itself secular by 1922.

 

During all this time Palestine was little more than a wilderness of nomads, loosely associated groups of provincial subdivisions with frequently changing administrations. The people were a “pan-Arab” mix of gypsy-like leftovers, whom the General Syrian Congress of 1919 declared to be “the southern part of Syria.” It wasn’t considered “Palestine,” a separate Arab nationality, until the 1967 Six-Day War of Israel’s boundary expansions.

 

A ‘Palestinian Arab nationality’ was something Musa Alami began asserting after 1948, as a political reaction against Israel. As R. Sayigh wrote, “A strongly defined Palestinian identity did not emerge until 1968, two decades after the expulsion [of some Arabs living in parts of Palestine],” (Journal of Palestine Studies, 1977). In twenty years, Alami’s myth took effect.

 

But the land-by-residence claim gives Palestinian Arabs even less right. In 1950, United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) defined a Palestinian Arab as one who had lived in Palestine a minimum of two years before 1948. This is no ancient claim.

 

The ancient, indigenous inhabitants of Palestine are long perished from the earth. Canaanites, Phoencians, and then Philistines, all were dominated by the Israelites before 1060 BC. Most of these cultural identities dissolved completely by the neo-Babylonian age, or, the 6th century BC.

 

Arabs weren’t even in Palestine until the mid-7th century AD, over a thousand years later, after Palestine’s 1,300-year Jewish history. Arabs later living in Palestine never developed themselves or the land, but remained nomadic and quasi-primitive during their 1,200-year stay.

 

Then a stronger people ―? modern Jews who’d been expelled from their homes in Europe and in Arab countries ―? came in and conquered (without annihilating) the Palestinian Arabs.

 

As a Comanche Indian, I’m sensitive to this history. I believe the conqueror has a right to what he has conquered. No one owns the land. Only he who is strong enough to possess it will control it and the people living on it. That’s the law of war.

 

Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Let sentimentalists say what they will, the man who puts the soil to use must of right dispossess the man who does not, or the world will come to a standstill.” (W. T. Hagan, Theodore Roosevelt and Six Friends of the Indians, 1997). The land developers, the agrarians, have become stronger than the hunters.

 

In the case of Comanches, we lost a magnificent hunting empire, and a lot of ego with it. In the case of “Palestinian” Arabs, what is lost? Why their sense of humiliation?

Shall Israel Die For “Peace”?
by David A. Yeagley
Originally published at FrontPageMagazine.com | February 4, 2002

 

Many people believe that if the state of Israel were abolished, all the problems of the world would vanish, like magic. This irrational notion was created by Muslim terrorists. How did an unholy few succeed in making the whole world hate Israel?

 

Muslim terrorists attack American freedom as if it symbolized Israel herself. Many Muslims believe the September 11 attacks were Allah’s punishment on America for supporting Israel.

 

In view of the dire consequences, sacrificing Israel might seem a small price to pay for peace.

 

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon understands this temptation. That is why he adjured Israel, “We can count only on ourselves.”

 

When the Bush Administration attempted to restrain Israel’s response to Palestinian terrorism, Sharon responded defiantly, warning that Israel was not a pawn in America’s economic game with the Arabs.

 

Sharon compared the Arab world with Hitler’s Third Reich, and warned America not to sacrifice Israel to the Arabs as English Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had sacrificed Czechoslovakia to Hitler in 1938. Chamberlain thought Germany would cease its aggressions if Czechoslovakia were surrendered. But of course, Chamberlain’s appeasement only emboldened Hitler to want more.

 

“Israel will not be Czechoslovakia,” Sharon asserted. “Israel will fight terrorism.”

 

When Palestinians assassinated former Israeli cabinet member Rehavam Zeevi October 17, Sharon’s office said Palestinians “crossed a red line.” He ordered re-occupation of certain Palestinian territories, vowing to apprehend the killers.

 

On October 22, U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker condemned Sharon’s move, and demanded immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops. Then President Bush reasserted the Palestinian state idea, while Colin Powell assured everyone this was not meant to threaten Israel.

 

Despite Powell’s soothing words, it was clear that Washington considered Israel the problem, not the Palestinians.

 

Such an outrageous view is not new. Historically, the Jews have always been viewed as the problem in times of international duress. Jews have held center stage during major world changes, from the time of ancient Egypt to the present Islamic conflict. It seems irresistible to blame them for everything.

 

But how can such a tiny minority be so incredibly significant, and draw such hatred?

 

Perhaps an answer lies in their ancient scriptures.

 

The Jews entered Canaan (ancient Palestine) with a rather unique assurance from their God. Deuteronomy 2:25 states, “This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee.”

 

That’s certainly an emotional reaction well-known to many anti-Semites. The very thought of Jews causes hysteria and fear.

 

But who would ever admit such fear?

 

People instead find fault with the Jews, and accuse them of immorality, or infidelity to God. This exonerates and justifies their hatred of them.

 

In fact, moral failure of the Jews, whenever it exists, is the world’s only hope of escaping their domination. After all, Moses promised the faithful Jews, “The Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail.” “And all the people of the earth … shall be afraid of thee.” Deut.28:13, 10.

 

The problem is, who wants second place to the Jews, or to anyone else?

 

My Comanche people always considered themselves superior. Most Gentile “tribes” likewise fight viciously in defense of their own preeminence. For Jews to have God-given superiority seems unfair. To be “chosen” seems like cheating.

 

The name of God Himself draws animosity toward those who carry it. Jews carry that Name in a way no Gentile ever can. Many Gentiles respond with fear, then envy, then hate.

 

Leftist Jews realized their dilemma in the ‘20s and ‘30s. They offered a social philosophy to elude their predicament. Marxists like Isaac Deutcher envisioned a social revolution abolishing all differentiation and borders, thus eliminating anti-Semitism once and for all.

 

Marxism waged war against Jewishness, Zionism and scripture, all in a profound attempt to deflect world hatred away from Jews. It advocated racial “equality,” undermining any special value in any race, particularly the Jews.

 

Yet, we Gentile tribesmen rather fancy ourselves, even if that means pitting our identity against the Jews. So God put fear of the Jews in all of us, to ensure we will never win. The Jew will always be present.

 

We’re supposed to make room for the Jew, and learn from him.

 

Yet, many Americans would betray their own Judeo-Christian foundation, would betray their own identity by betraying Israel.

 

They should consider the fact that sacrificing Israel might incur the “wrath of God” in ways more unexpected than September 11.

 

“I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse,” said God to Abraham, in Genesis 12:2.

 

Should America tempt history just for the superficial appeasement of Israel’s enemies – and of our own?

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