THINK-ISRAEL
THINK-ISRAEL  features essays and commentaries that provide context for the continuing crisis in Israel. We report on global anti-Semitism. The war Islam is waging against Israel and the West is our top priority. We aim to make sense of what's going on. 
 
Featured Stories This Month's Readers' Blog-Eds Background Information News On The Web Media Addresses
NOTE: CLICK Items In The White Box Above To Go DIRECTLY To The Featured Articles And The Latest Blog-Ed Page, etc. Or scroll down until you come to the Featured Articles and Blog-Eds.

This search box uses standard Google. It doesn't do partial words or wildcard expressions or find every possibility. It does do limited booleans using AND or OR. If a and b are searchwords:
  * a AND b finds files that include both searchwords.  a OR b accepts any file with either or both searchwords.
  * A set of searchwords separated by spaces is an AND search.  A phrase in quotes is a single searchword.
Google Think-Israel WWW
   We are told that there is a difference between extremist Islam and peaceloving normal Islam.
   Judging by their behavior, Muslims are anti-West, anti-Democracy, anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, anti-Buddhist, and anti-Hindu. Muslims are involved in 25 of some 30 conflicts going on in the world: in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus, East Timor, India, Indonesia (2 provinces), Kashmir, Kazakastan, Kosovo, Kurdistan, Macedonia, the Middle East, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Somalia, Sudan, Russia-Chechnya, Tajikistan, Thailand, Uganda and Uzbekistan.
   Doesn't this mean that extremist Islam is the norm and normal Islam is extremely rare?
"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism.
     "For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa. While as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."   (PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein, March 31, 1977, interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw.)
It should be remembered that in 1918, with the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Britain and France were handed >5,000,000 square miles to divvy up and 99+% was given to the Arabs to create countries that did not exist previously. <1% was given as a Mandate for the re-establishment of a state for the Jews on both banks of the Jordan River. In 1921, to appease the Arabs once again, another three quarters of that <1% was given to a fictitious state called Trans-Jordan. (Jack Berger, May 31, 2004.)
The total for all the 22 Arab League countries is 6,145,389 square miles (SM). By comparison, all 50 states of the United States have a total of 3,787,318 SM. Israel has 8,463 SM, about one-sixth of that of the State of Michigan. Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Afghanistan are Muslim but not Arab and are not included.
     World Arab population: 300 million; World Jewish population: 13.6 million; Israel's Jewish population: 5.4 million. (reference: Dr. Wilbert Simkovitz,
http://dehai.org/archives/dehai_news_archive/ apr04/0223.htmldehai.org/ archives/dehai_news_archive/apr04/0223.html)
"It has no heart. It has no spine. Its mouth serves as its anus. It has a diffuse net of nerves instead of a brain. Is it a jelly fish or an Israeli politician? Pick one. Whichever one you picked, you were right." (Eliezar Edwards, June 20, 2005)
"There are Muslim moderates. Islam itself is not moderate." (Ibn Warraq, author of Why I am Not a Muslim.)
To Israeli Secularists: You want a normal country, like everybody else? I will tell you how. Forget ads featuring bikini-clad hotsies. Forget promoting "alternative" life styles. The secret is to adopt the right attitude. A normal country doesn't give up an inch of land that belongs to it. A normal country doesn't let its citizens go hungry while it feeds its enemy and gives them medical care. A normal country doesn't let foreigners take over its holy sites –– Hebron, the Temple Mount, Joseph's Tomb. Looking at what counts, it's the religious Jews of Samaria and Judea and the Golan that are acting normal, not you. (Eliezar Edwards, March 20, 2008)
Disregarding the fact that Gaza, Judea and Samaria are part of the land which was allocated for the creation of the Jewish state by the League of Nations, the US pressures Israel to negotiate with the enemy and expedite a two-state solution. Strangely, president Bush does not negotiate with Mexico the return of Mexican land occupied by the US including his own state, Texas! (Steven Shamrak, May 19, 2008)
Livni is well loved by the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Andrea Merkel, Prime Minister of Germany, because Livni has been so malleable. Whatever they say, she repeats like a wooden lap dummy. Most Israelis know she is a slow thinker, but obedient, which is why she was added to Sharon's staff and kept on by Olmert. Her decisions have been notoriously problematic and dull-witted –– especially when she worked with the U.N. and Rice to end the Lebanon War of 2006 on the worst terms possible. (Emanual Winston June 1, 2008)

 

Nationwide White House Call-In for Jonathan Pollard
White House Telephone Number: 1-202-456-1414

Every call is tallied by subject matter.
Every time you say "Free Jonathan Pollard" it counts!
Take a minute for Jonathan Pollard and call now!
Click here for the facts.


 

FEATURED STORIES

May-June, 2008

We celebrate Israel's 60th! Except for the first essay, we examine the Arabs' take on the founding of the Jewish state. They see it as the disaster in which they were forced to flee for their lives. A pathos-filled story. But a phony one. A highly-creative myth. These essays provide us with the truth about the birth of the "Palestinian refugee".

PERFECTION DEMANDED ONLY FROM LITTLE ISRAEL
by Chris Powell

  Starting in the late 1800s there was a surge of settlers into Israel, who, added to the Jews who had never left, slowly reclaimed their homeland. Around the time Israel was granted statehood, it needed to bring in refugees from Arabland and survivers of the European Holocaust. Israel took in people almost guaranteed to hold back development –– the elderly, the traumatized, the weak, the demoralized, the unskilled. If that wasn't enough of a handicap, Israel was a poor country with no natural resources –– no oil, few minerals, young forests, a poor water supply. And fending off Arab neighbors was a constant distraction. Yet, sixty years later, Israel is in the first-rank in advancing the quality of life for humankind. It has Nobel prize winners, engineers and computer scientists developing and improving global communications; physicians and biologists crafting medical innovations; agriculturalists growing wonderful fruits and vegetables with a scant water supply. During this time, the Arab states have become bloated with spending money but they have scarely moved forward towards modern times. So how is it the miracle of Israel is not appreciated? Chris Powell provides an interesting answer.
 READ MORE
 

1948, ISRAEL, AND THE PALESTINIANS –– THE TRUE STORY
by Efraim Karsh

  Efraim Karsh writes of the beginning of the Arab refugee extravaganza. During the 1948 invasion of Israel by the Arab states, the local Arabs fled. Arab propaganda claimed that they fled because the Jews forced them out. Using newly declassified documents to determine what happened in what is now the State of Israel between 1920 and 1948, Karsh shows that the flight of the Arabs and their consequent resettlement as unwanted refugees in the Arab countries was the result of the Arab leadership instructing their people to leave their homes so the Arab armies could destroy the new state of Israel.
 READ MORE
 

SELF-MADE NAKBA
by Barry Rubin

  Barry Rubin adduces four reasons why the Arabs rejected partition and attacked the fledgling state of Israel: namely, 1) the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hitler's buddy, wanted to destroy the Jews, not live next to them; 2) the Arab laity wanted war; 3) the Arab countries envisioned looting and grabbing land; 4) they foresaw an easy victory. They haven't changed much, have they?
 READ MORE
 

UNRWA: REFUGE OF REJECTIONISM
by Barry Rubin, Asaf Romirowsky and Jonathan Spyer

  This report, recently released by the GLORIA Center, details how UNRWA, nominally a humanitarian effort to help Palestinian refugees, uses its huge budget to hamper resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict and blocks the resettlement of its ever-growing number of charges. Oh, and it also furnishes finances, facilities, and recruits for terrorist groups –– but that it does for free.
 READ MORE
 

THIS IS AN ONEROUS LIFE?
by Steven Shamrak

  Aside from the fact that many of the Arab refugees were locals living near the refugee camps (they actually improved their lives signing up as refugees), their lives are pretty good. It might be boring but they won't starve and they are better educated than Arabs in most of the Arab countries. And for excitement, the various terrorist organizations are there –– as UNRWA staff –– to inculcate them with an exciting mission: KILL THE JEWS.
 READ MORE
 

US CONGRESSMEN DEMAND UNRWA REFORM
by Etgar Lefkovits

  Israel Zwick of CN.net gathered these interesting facts from UN official sources: UNHCR handles all the UN-supported refugees and stateless people in the world except the Palestinian arabs; in 2007, UNHCR cared for 32.9 million people in 110 countries. UNHCR requested a total of 1.673 billion –– regular budget and supplemental funds –– for 2008. Of their clients, the vast majority returned home or were resettled within 5 years. UNRWA's clientele is exclusively Palestinian arab; in 2007, UNRWA cared for 4.5 million people in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. They requested 1.09 billion for 2008. To sum up: to cater to 14% of the number of people that UNHCR cares for, UNRWA's non-supplemental 2008 budget is almost 2/3 of what UNHCR spends for all other UN-supported refugees in the world. UNRWA has resisted resettling clients for some 60 years, insisting that –– unlike other refugees –– these arabs can not go anywheres except to Israel.

The United States is a major UNRWA sugar daddy. So it is appropriate that it be the one to say: Enough's enough. As Etgar Lefkovits writes, several U.S. Congressmen are demanding reform, pointing out that "UNRWA was actually designed to perpetuate the festering sore of the refugee problem."  READ MORE
 

Thanks to the Sharon-Olmert government, Israel also has refugees. In August 2005, the Jews of Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip were made refugees by their own government. They are forced to rely on each other and on Jews with a conscience in Israel and the Diaspora. To date, UNHCR has not contributed a cent to their welfare. Nor has their own government provided them with adequate compensation for the houses and greenhouses and businesses they were forced to leave. They live in shoddy trailers due to disintegrate in the near future and are unemployed or underemployed. This is shameful!

IT'S NOT GUSH KATIF
by Ann Goldberg

  Ann Goldberg describes a trip taken to visit some expellees from Gush Katif, who are now living in a section of Kibbutz Ein Zurim. The refugees have renamed the area Nezer Hazani, the name of their hometown in Gush Katif in the Gaza strip. If there was a compelling reason for the eviction, the Olmert government never made it clear. What is clear is that the major tangible return Israel got for the expulsion is the constant barrage of missiles coming from the Arab terror community that now inhabits Gush Katif.
 READ MORE
 

1000 DAYS WITHOUT A HOME
by Dror Vanunu

  The exiled Gush Katif communities has created superb graphics that will in short order fill you in with what's happened to the productive, patriotic and proud Jews that lived in Gush Katif, Gaza. Dror Vanunu reminds us that they need your help now to recover from the trauma inflicted on them by the Sharon-Olmert government. They need your financial and moral support. You need their conviction that the all of Land of Israel belongs to the Children of Israel. You need their spiritual strength. Help them for their sake. Help them for your sake.
 READ MORE
 

GOODBYE 12, UPWARD AND ONWARD
by Moshe Saperstein

  Moshe Saperstein in his sardonic fashion continues to explore recovering from a trauma inflicted by the petty bureaucrats and gross ideologues that were supposed have his interest at heart. These administrators destroyed his beloved community in Gush Katif, Gaza, and they continue to destroy the country he loves. He began his current set of essays –– the Goodbye series –– in March 2008. Goodbye 1-4 and 8-10 are to be found in "Gloom, Doom –– And Yet..." in the Think-Israel's March-April 2008 issue. Goodbye 11 is on the April 2008 Blog-Ed page. This issue we present essay "Goodbye 12 and onward."
 READ MORE
 

RAPTORS IN LACHISH; WEDDING IN SUSSIYAH
by Rachel Saperstein

  Two short essays, deceptively simple. Raptors make a stopover in Israel on the way to Europe. On land needed by people who need housing. How do you prioritize? Rephrase the question and the answer changes. In the second essay, we learn how some of the Israeli young are connecting themselves to their people's history. Rachel Saperstein always leaves us with much to think about.
 READ MORE
 

THE MISTAKES THAT LAUNCHED 3,000 ROCKETS
by Richard A. Baehr

  Richard A. Baehr reminds us that not so long ago Israeli leadership made a disasterous error –– forcing all the Jewish Israelis out of the Gaza strip. He recalls all the supposedly sound reasons for vacating the land –– demographics, not having to worry about protecting the Gazan Jewish civilians. public relations, peace, and letting the Arabs run their own show. As we know, the actual result was a rain of missiles from Gaza. So why are they dredging up the same old arguments to leave Samaria and Judea (aka the West Bank)?
 READ MORE
 

THE TWO-PRONGED ASSAULT ON RELIGIOUS ZIONISM
by Caroline B. Glick

  Caroline Glick makes clear what many have long suspected –– driving Jews from their homes in Gaza had little to do with peace or security and much to do with the hostility the far-left Israeli secularists feels toward religious Zionist Jews because they want to be Jews, not Marxists. The expulsion "...wasn't about peace with the Arabs. It was about cultural supremacy within Israel." In doing so, the secularists demoralized some of Israel's most productive and patriotic citizens; gave the Arab terrorists now in control of Gaza more confidence as well as more unmonitored space in which to assemble and hurl their missiles; and weakened the state of Israel to further military and diplomatic attacks. The irony is that the Left strives to be like everyone but picks wrong and/or inadequate implementations. It is religious Zionism that is revolutionary, nationalistic and above all, normal in its desire to hold onto its own land and live its own version of the good life. Unfortunately, it has acquired another opponent –– the non-Zionist Jewish religious establishment, which is comfortable in the attitudes and habits of powerlessness that it developed to survive hostility in the diaspora. Yet, as Glick concludes, "Israel and the Jewish people need Religious Zionism more than anyone will ever admit." [For another facet of the consequences of the Jewish incorporation of the need to keep a low profile, to be politically powerless, see Seth J. Frantzman, "Jews, Power And The Creation Of The Palestinians" below.]
 READ MORE
 

Jewish leftists academics and professional "humanitarians" seem particularly prone to self-hate. They blame Jews, in particular Israeli Jews, for anything and everything. Arguments defending the Jewish state are never strong enough; arguments defending Arab terrorism can be ridiculously weak but they are solemnly accepted. The last article in this set discusses what may be the root cause of this Jewish self-hate.

THE LIZARD NAMED OZ
by Lee Kaplan

  Lee Kaplan draws us a character sketch of Avraham Oz, a professor of theatre and drama studies and a darling of the Israel-hating press, both at home in Israel and abroad. He can always be counted on to see Jews as bad, their terrorist neighbors as good, or at least as justified in their despicable behavior. "The Arabs keep claiming they are being ethnically cleansed as their population in Gaza and Yesha increases almost exponentially." The Arab choir has a stock set of derogatory phrases to condition people to despise Israel, its army and its citizens. And Oz is one of their lead singers, mouthing their words and specializing in demoralizing his own country.
 READ MORE
 

HRW'S POLITICIZED CHARACTERIZATION OF THE BEDOUIN ISSUE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
by NGO Monitor

  Human Rights Watch (HRW) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that routinely accuses Israel of war crimes. It can be counted on to overstate, exaggerate, distort and invent atrocities Israel is supposed have committed against the Arabs. When their spokesmen are caught out –– as they were in Jenin and Qana –– far from being embarrassed, they shrug it off and move on to their next bout of indignation. This essay from the NGO Monitor carefully analyzes the distortions in their report on their latest cause –– the "plight" of the Bedouins in the Negev. Clearly, their cause may have changed, but their shoddy research and muddled writeups haven't. What makes HRW different from other vicious anti-Jewish NGOs? Its executive director is a Jew, whose father is a holocaust survivor. It seems to be the only difference.
 READ MORE
 

JEWS, POWER AND THE CREATION OF THE PALESTINIANS
by Seth J. Frantzman

  Seth Frantzman has written a singular and brilliant essay. He sums up the components and evaluates the essentials of the Jewish attitude against taking political responsibility –– an attitude initially conditioned by the need to maintain a non-threatening profile in order to survive in a hostile diaspora. Unfortunately, the Jews internalized the need not to challenge the prevailing political and religious powers. They developed ways of surviving, but achieving independent political power was not one of them. Before Israel became a state, this attitude took the form of denying the virtue of having a Jewish state. In recent years, this has translated into a moral stance by Jewish leftist intellectuals, who created the notion of the indigenous Palestinian and want to give away Israel's birthright, its very identity, to these Palestinians. This would put the Jews right back in the role of an impotent minority group. The leftist Jews see this rootlessness as good; disembodied, so to speak, Jews could concentrate on being a "light unto the world." Unfortunately, it would also put them at the mercy of an irrational majority group intent on destroying Jews –– but that doesn't appear to concern the Jewish leftist intellectual.
 READ MORE
 

These essays provide us with the history and character of the Palestinian Arab and make clear that the vision of two people living side by side in peace will never happen –– not while one of them is the Palestinian Arab, a fabricated people designed to usurp Jewish land.

Why shouldn't there be yet another Arab state carved out of land belonging to Israel? Because the West Bank is Biblical Israel. It belongs to the Jews by way of the Bible, by history, by the Palestine Mandate, by international law, by decency and morality. If you insist that land can only be acquired by conquest –– because that's how most countries became states –– then, OK, Israel conquered the area in 1968, taking it from Jordan, who took it in 1948, when she, together with Israel's other neighbors, invaded the newly-created state of Israel. Before that? It belonged to the Ottomans for some 400 years. Then when the Ottomans had the misfortune to back the wrong side in World War 1, England was entrusted with the territory to help the Jews turn it into a state.

THE INVENTION OF PALESTINE
by Tsafrir Ronen

  Tsafrir Ronen bluntly provides us with some historic facts that are usually ignored by diplomats formulating a fantasy of two people living side by side in peace, when the reality is that one of these people –– the Palestinian Arabs –– is not an authentic people. They were invented as a way to challenge the Jewish people's return to their land. As Ronen writes, "[t]his is the essence of the Arab propaganda war, which is intended to steal the identity of Eretz Yisrael and to transform it into Palestine, and by such means to turn the Jewish people into occupiers of Eretz Yisrael. That's the whole story." Who says so? Their very own leadership. Openly. And in print. Read some of their statements in this article.
 READ MORE
 

CAN WE PLEASE CUT THE QUACKERY?
by Jack Engelhard

  We are often told that Palestinian Arabs really want peace –– they are being misled by some of their leaders. It isn't true. The motive force for the Palestinian Arab psychopathy comes from the Arab laity. It comes from the mothers who jump for joy when they learn their children have massacred Jews while blowing themselves up. Jack Engelhard points out they voted for Hamas, they wanted Hamas. Unfortunately, the Israeli Jews aren't stopping their Prime Minister from giving away Jewish land. And, as Engelhard says, "[t]hose of us (like AFSI) who favor a strong Israel, unconditionally, are finding ourselves outnumbered by our own Jewish brothers and sisters who, along with our politicians and media elites, have bought the jihadist narrative."
 READ MORE
 

DEATH OF A VISION
by Uri Elitzur

  Uri Elitzur asks why the Israelis continue to cling to the two-state solution, especially, when one of the groups, the Palestinian arabs, desires to obliterate the other group, the Jews. "Why, he asks, "do logical people cling to such an unrealistic vision, which has crashed time and again against reality, and always with bloodshed and suffering? The answer is fear and despair. Fear of the Arab population about to drown us in a dark demographic sea, and despair over the State of Israel's ability to rule and control its own fate." He advices Israel to stop being afraid. Recent demographic figures show the Arabs aren't going to become a majority in Israel and the territories now or in the future. What Israel needs to do is to put its own interests first, not try to represent both us and them [the Arabs], both the UN and the International Court of Justice."
 READ MORE
 

WHAT IS AN IRRECONCILABLE ENEMY? EXAMINING HAMAS AND HEZBOLLAH
by Nicholas Guariglia

  The Jihadists of the Middle East have declared us of the West their enemy, and no softsoaping, no bribes, no diplomacy, no appeasement will deter them. Their if-thens are not our if-thens. They aren't just talking nasty. They mean to take over the West, starting with Israel and then going big time. Using a personal experience, Nicholas Guariglia makes us understand what it is to have a group make themselves your irreconcilable enemy "... even if you are unaware of their lethal intent. You are their enemy, and thus they yours, and they, not you, have made it so." Why in the world would we give Hamas, created by the Muslim Brotherhood and which now rules directly or indirectly over the Palestinian Arabs, or Hezbollah, which controls much of Lebanon for the Iranians, more land to use to develop more ways to murder people?
 READ MORE
 

The diplomats and much of the media continue to try to square the circle, to put a hostile group of Arabs plonk inside of Biblical Israel and label it an independent state, but a dependent state –– an independent dependent state (now that's an Obamaism), where Israel continues to be their nanny, providing them with water, electricity, food, jobs and medicine and they continue to do what they do best: murder Jews. In the longer version, this is to continue until enough Arabs pour into Israel to wipe out its Jewish character and probably its Jews. In the fast-forward version, Israel and the Arabs start off by sharing a single state, including any Arab from all over Arab land that claims he's a Palestinian and any Jew that survives. The Jewish character of the State is immediately wiped out.

These essays suggest a third way. Tiny Israel is too small for two states, especially when the Arab group takes joy in massacring Jews. The Arabs own 99.9% of the Middle East. They have the space to place ALL the Arabs who claim to be Palestinian –– without cramping. They have the money to settle the Palestinians, especially if the money now spent on the Arab "refugees" is added in. And why should there not be room in the Middle East with its 22 Arab states for a single Jewish State? In fact, when you think about it, the major question is: where should the Palestinian arabs be resettled? That's what this group of essays mostly discusses –– that and the need for Israel to stand firm and look out for its own interests for a change.
[See also: Martin Sherman's "A New Paradigm For The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: From The Political To The Humanitarian," here.]

REB HOROWITZ AND A TICKING CLOCK
by Dov Kahn

  We are always being told Israel has to make some new painful decision for peace. They can all be summarized as: share Jewish land or give it away; risk your future and the future of your children. And they have all have the same result: no peace and less security. In this essay, Dov Kahn suggests an agonizing decision that differs from the previous peace plans in that it actually could lead to peace. It would at the least make Israel a safer place to live.
 READ MORE
 

THE SOLUTION: DUBAI
by Moshe Feiglin

  Moshe Feiglin outlines why Dubai would make a good place to resettle the "80% of Gazans [who] are now begging to leave. In Judea and Samaria 60% of the Arabs would prefer to live elsewhere." Dubai is thriving and has a booming economy and gigantic construction projects. It could use the help of the Palestinians. He points out that "all that we need to do to solve the Kassam problem is to allow the Gazans to leave and then to annex Gaza to Israel. It is that simple."
 READ MORE
 

THE LAST FANATIC
by Rabbi Benny Elon

  Rabbi Benny Elon's Israeli Initiative plan has several components: (1) the refugee camps will be dismantled and the refugees will be absorbed as citizens in various countries; (2) Jordon will replace the PA as the representative of the Palestinian arabs; and (3) Israel will extend its sovereignty over Samaria and Judea (the West Bank). He has advocated this plan for several years and is winning support from both Israelis and Americans. In this essay he encourages you to view some explanatory videos and download software that will aid you in promoting the Israeli Initiative.
 READ MORE
 

IT'S TIME TO RECONSIDER A FEDERAL ARRANGEMENT
by Israel Zwick

  Israel Zwick bases his plan in part on the minority opinion of the 1947 U.N. Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) which pointed out the area was too small for two independent states. They recommended a Federal State, with Arabs and Jews having "full powers of local self-government". Zwick suggests there be a Federal State that includes Israel, Judea, Samaria, Gaza and the Golan Heights. Arabs in the Territories would be offered financial incentives to relocate. The Arabs within Israel's borders would have a choice: they could become part of their own semi-autonomous government, rather like Puerto Rico vis-á-vis the U.S.A. Or they could choose to be Israeli citizens "with full personal rights, but not national rights" –– exactly what was proposed in the original Mandate.
 READ MORE
 

It is a common –– though incorrect –– belief that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the linchpin of all the conflicts in the Middle East (ME). Solve it, it is claimed, and all turbulance in the region will evaporate. Not so. At most, the argument provides an excuse for Israel's neighbors so they don't have to come to cordial terms with the Jewish state. The first essay addresses the issue of linkages and lists some nine conflicts that are simultaneously taking place in the region. They intersect dynamically and to different degrees over time. The other essays demonstrate features of the instability and shifting alliances in the ME. For example, even putative friends of Israel and the West, whether they be Moslem secular or Moslem religious, see nothing bizarre in spewing out hate statements against the West, particularly against Jews. Jordan publishes articles and cartoons specializing in Jew-hate. And as Turkey becomes more illiberal politically, the more it views the Koran as the only authority and guide in all matters. Iran has designs on Lebanon, controls Syria and dreams of destroying Israel. Similarly, Al-Qaeda, a "non-state actor" in Martin Kramer's terms, berates Saudi Arabia, has discovered sympathy for the Palestinians and makes plans to nuke America.

THE MYTH OF LINKAGE
by Martin Kramer

  Martin Kramer disassembles the insidious and incorrect notion that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the cause/root/essential condition that keeps the Middle East turbulent. As Walter Reich wrote in a comment to this article: "Martin Kramer's post is a superbly-executed and much-needed act of intellectual hygiene about "linkage" and the "Middle East conflict." It's a corrective –– to use a phrase that others, alas, have invented –– to "stinkin' thinkin'" about one of the most important dimensions of international affairs.
 READ MORE
 

THE HATE INDUSTRY: THE JORDANIAN PRESS CONTINUES TO PUBLISH ANTI-SEMITIC ARTICLES
by Dr. Reuven Erlich

  Dr. Reuven Erlich provides us with examples of Jordanian hate publications and cartoons. They are blatently anti-Jewish, with the usual equation of Zionism and Nazism. The same swill is served up in secular Marxist publications as in fundamentalist publications associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. A curious occupation for a country that wouldn't last long were it not propped up by Israel and America.
 READ MORE
 

TURKEY TURNS BACK TO THE BOOK
by John David Lewis

  Turkey, the most secular of the Muslim countries, is becoming more religious. This is being hailed as "reform." John David Lewis sets us straight. "This is not reform," he writes. "It is a call for a new fundamentalism on the authority of a thirteen-hundred-year-old vicious fairytale, and for a ceaseless struggle against those who would criticize it. Indeed, the use of terror in fighting the enemies of Islam is directly sanctioned by the Koran. ... Any 'interpretation' of Islam that is consistent with the Koran as a revealed, unquestioned authority will end in a reversion to its brute, fundamental meaning: the subordination of women and non-Muslims to dictatorial rule by a clerical elite." Wise words.
 READ MORE
 

THE IRANIAN ROOTS OF HIZBULLAH
by Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli

  Just as the Muslim Brotherhood created Hamas, so did Iran create Hizbullah. Both are characterized by adherence to fundamentalist Islam. Both are barbaric, with no scruples about jeopardizing their own women and children to protect their soldiers. In this essay Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli describes some of the early history of Hizbullah. He concludes that with Iranian financing, Hezbullah was able to build an educational, political, social welfare and military network and "now serves as an extension of Iran's strategic expansion into the Mediterranean." Moreover, Iran would not have been able to gain entrance into Lebanon "without the collusion or approval of the Syrian regime. Syria is also the main conduit of arms from Iran to Hizbullah."
 READ MORE
 

AHMADINEJAD'S PAST TELLS IT ALL
by Olivier Guitta

  Olivier Guitta recounts the early history of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's current president. He was –– and is –– a very pious Muslim. He was –– and is –– a brutal murderer, one who, like so many nazis, thoroughly enjoyed work when torturing people. Would he be repelled at the idea of killing millions of Jews and Arabs in an atomic blast? Unlikely.
 READ MORE
 

AMERICA IN ASHES?
by Christopher S. Carson

  While Ahmadinejad is set on erasing Israel no matter what it takes, Osama bin Laden is said to be planning a "nuclear hell storm" in America. Christopher Carson uses information obtained from "Khalid Sheik Mohammed, (KSM), mastermind of 9/11 and chief operating officer of al-Qaeda," to describe how al-Qaeda plans to develop the means to build a nuclear device and bring it to a target. He develops a plausible sequence of events that can, sooner or later, bring the threat of nuclear attack to America. "The question confronting American policy makers is: Are we prepared to stop this threat before it becomes a terrible reality?" Are we?
 READ MORE
 

The Muslims who see a chance of conquering the world are active in England and Europe. Except for the occasional bombing and the now-routine tire and car burnings, their tactics are gentler than in the Middle East, but just as persistent. Their aim, as always, is to install shari'a law and replace the law of the land. As their numbers grow, they inspire and/or actively help revive Europe's traditional anti-semitism, which, after World War 2, was beginning to wane.

EUROPE SHALL BLEED, ONCE AGAIN
by Amil Imani

  Europeans are generally devoted to the idea of multiculturalism and try to accomodate the alien Muslims, who reciprocate by scheming to impose Islam and control the lives of their unsuspicious hosts. Amil Imani provides us with a list of cities where the percentage of Muslims is disturbingly large. It is a truism that when their numbers grow, Muslims begin demanding that the natives begin doing thing the Muslim way. Amin Imani has seen freedom repressed in his native Iran, and is alert to the early warning signs of danger. He believes the longer Europe ignores the danger, the bloodier it will be should Europe decide to fight the sharia takeover in the future.
 READ MORE
 

EUROPE AND ISRAEL: WORLDS APART?
by Robin Shepherd

  This is a thoughtful article. As Robin Shepherd points out, "Europe's relationship –– perhaps relationships might be a more appropriate term –– with Israel is multi-layered." And rocky. Trade and technology are blossoming but traditional anti-semitism remains, reinforced by new hostility from a Europe that increasingly has become pacifist, secular and disapproving of nationalism. Leftists, despising Western capitalism, can sympathize with Islam's rejection of western power. For rightists, "[t]he quasi-feudalistic, traditionalist character of much of the Arab world resonates with old right values in a way that 'upstart' Israel never could. There is certainly a sense in which anti-Israelism unites people and ideological viewpoints which feel that they have lost out in the modern world." But nationalism seems to be making a comeback. Shepherd concludes, "It remains to be seen how Israel will fare when one or other of the continent's various potential futures finally comes out on top."
 READ MORE
 

These next essays discuss the growing anti-semitism in the world

HOW SECURE ARE JEWS IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD?
by Dr. Irving Kett

  Irving Kett writes that we Jews must face up to an unpleasant reality about our situation in the world; there is "... a serious worldwide recrudescence of anti-Semitism, the likes of which has not existed since the 1940's." In Europe, which is fast becoming judenfrei, Arab funding and "large scale immigration of fanatic Jew-hating Moslems" have fueled a surge of life-threatening anti-semitism. If that weren't enough, we have rejectionist Jews, "... Israeli academics who are in the forefront of international anti-Zionist, anti-Israel propaganda." It is important that Israel be encouraged to reject foreign aid, so that she is not under obligation to appease the arab terrorists at the cost of her own security.
 READ MORE
 

ISLAM'S HISTORY OF ANTI-SEMITISM
by Raymond Ibrahim

  Raymond Ibrahim uses data from Andrew Boston's new book The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism to decide whether Islam was itself anti-Semitic or did it just take Jew-hate over from European, particularly German, sources. He concludes that "[t]he historical documents make clear that, from day one, Jews and Christians have been systematically treated as second-class citizens, dhimmis, in the regions conquered by Islam." "...far from being a by-product of Western anti-Semitism or the creation of Israel, animosity toward the Jews has a firm doctrinal base tracing back to Islam's most authoritative texts." What makes this hate source [the Koran] particularly troubling is that "... it is not just history, but immutable theology, which transcends time and space and needs to apply today no less than yesterday." In other words, there is no polite way to modulate or change Islamic anti-semitism.
 READ MORE
 

HOLOCAUST HYPOCRISY
by Brad Macdonald

  Brad Macdonald observes that there is a certain irony in that while Western governments pay lip service and honor the victims of the Nazi Holocaust, they "actively, to one degree or another, condone, even promote, the demise of Jewish statehood", which can surely lead to another holocaust. "...Hitler attempted to destroy the Jews as a race: Today that same anti-Semitic spirit is being directed, subtly, at the Jewish state." The U.N. spends much of its energy and most of its indignation in scolding the State of Israel. The Roman circus it sponsored at Durban in 2001 was advertised as promoting tolerance among nations; instead the only important item on the agenda was throwing Israel to the lions. Bemoaning the previous holocaust and creating conditions for another is hypocrisy and many western countries are guilt of it.
 READ MORE
 

In America, the under-the-radar battle to impose sharia law continues. Muslims have made massive inroads on the American campus, and are just beginning to use the lower grade classrooms for tutorial sessions on Islam appreciation. They bank on the greed of the bankers to accept Shari'a banking without examining what societal committments shari'a banking demands of us. And we revisit a long ago prominent assassination that just being reexamined to see if it should have been linked to Muslim terrorists.

THE FIFTH GENERATION WARFARE
by Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A. Lappen

  Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa Lappen give us the very good advice that winning the war against radical Islam requires more than a winning military strategy; it "requires understanding the role of shari'a and the Muslim Brotherhood in developing a global ideological and political movement supported by a parallel 'Islamic' financial system to exploit and undermine Western economies and markets." They set about to educate us on what we need to know about what they rightfully call "financial jihad" so that we can protect ourselves from this insidious route Muslims use to infiltrate our social structure in order to overide our financial system with their's and to win acceptance for the strings attached to shari'a –– their ideas on the status of women; their ideas on how to treat minor infractions of the law; their ideas on which religous group should dominate; ideas that would restrict our political independence and lose us our freedom of action.
 READ MORE
 

DISTORTED HISTORY LESSONS
by Robert Holland

  There have been sporadic attempts to persuade schoolchildren of the beauty and superiority of Islam by having them role-play being a Muslim, dressing Muslim, praying Muslim, eating food politely according to Muslim etiquette. Now we are discovering that a one-sided flattering view of Islam is being promoted in the classroom by way of common ordinary textbooks. Robert Holland points out that "[m]odern textbooks shy away from presenting a positive picture of Christianity and Judaism as important influences ..." but the same censorship apparently doesn't hold when discussing Islam. The American Textbook Council examined some 10 textbooks and concluded that they "present an incomplete and confected view of Islam that misrepresents its foundations and challenges to international security." Islam is portrayed as tolerant, Christianity as aggressive. Holland suggests that the ideology of multiculturalism contributes to this distorted view of reality. "Its most ardent proponents in academe depict the European-rooted common culture as evil and oppressive and Third World cultures as universally heroic."
 READ MORE
 

SLAYING GAVE US A FIRST TASTE OF MIDEAST TERROR
by Sasha Issenberg

  In the last issue we presented an article by Andrew McCarthy entitled "When Jihad Came to America" that suggested that the assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane in 1990 was an early example of Islamic Jihad operating in America. Rabbi Kahane was killed by an Arab who was part of a jihadist cell training for various acts of terror. In this issue, Sasha Issenberg recounts the assassination of Bobby Kennedy in 1968. The Arab who shot the then presidential candidate said he did so because Kennedy favored Israel over the Arabs. At the time, the shooting was seen as the act of a loner; it seemed part of the "civil turmoil" of the time. We now understand there was a pattern of well-planned Arab political terrorism outside of the Middle East even before 9/11. It included the killing of the Israeli athletes in the Munich Olympics; the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro, when an elderly man in a wheelchair was thrown overboard; and the first attack on the World Trade Center. If the assassination had happened today, the various Arab terrorist groups would be on the top of the list of suspects.
 READ MORE
 

In this issue of Think-Israel, the media section features articles on some specific bizarre behavior in the news and entertainment fields. One of the essays explains why truth in news presentation is important to keep us safe in a world where Jihadists have vowed to conquer us and have explosively shown they are serious. There is also an article that will teach by example how to analyze a speech objectively.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE SMART MEDIA MOGULS GONE
by Burt Prelutsky

  In this essay the witty Burt Prelutsky bemoans the of absence of the old time Hollywood moguls and newspaper publishers whose bottom line was making a profit. Crass? Uncouth? True. But it saved having producers who insisted on producing ideologically-motivated bummers that the public –– with good and sensible reasons –– rejected. And as far as newspapers go, it doesn't make sense to so slant the news leftward that you lose all objectivity. No wonder so many people have tossed their newspapers in the garbage for the last time and get their news from more reliable sources.
 READ MORE
 

THE FORWARD TAKES ISRAEL BACKWARD
by P. David Hornik

  The Forward newspaper has the same set of beliefs as Peace Now and other groups that are certain that removing Israeli settlements in Samaria and Judea will hasten their version of the Messiah: the coming of an yet another Arab state in Biblical Israel. Discrediting Jewish settlements is so important to them that they don't mind substituting belief for fact. In this essay David Hornik answers each of their allegations.
 READ MORE
 

DO LIBERALS KNOW THERE IS EVIL?
by Richard H. Shulman

  Newspapers such as the New York Times don't so much report the news about Israel as act as advocate for the Palestinian Arabs. "... false statements, misleading figures, or omissions that survive readers' correction and are one-sided in favor of the Arabs, in headlines, photographs, news items, and editorials. Too much one way for coincidence." Richard Shulman analyzes the Times' propaganda techniques, how they mislead readers who look to them for objective assessments and for facts set in context. What the Times is doing goes well beyond michief-making when it helps determine foreign policy. Worse, when it keeps us passive while our enemies grow in strength; or, as Shulman puts it, "They turn us into sitting ducks for an Islamist death cult."
 READ MORE
 

BREAKING DOWN OBAMA'S AIPAC SPEECH
by Sultan Knish

  Sultan Knish doesn't waste his time trying to decide whether Barak Obama meant it when he said blah, blah or when he said aha-ah-blah, blah, the two being completely contradictory. Instead he shows us how to boil down some typical political speeches to extract the meager supply of actual information they contain.
 READ MORE
 

The History Section this issue has a biograpy of a remarkable historian and remarkable man. And some events during the time Britain held Mandated Palestine...

JAMES PARKES: A FINAL RECKONING
by Haim Chertok

  James Parkes was an Anglican clergyman and a historian of Jewish history, both ancient and modern. Haim Chertok paints a portrait of his life and provides an assessment of his writings. James Parkes was an unusually gifted historian, who was capable of true love and appreciation of the Jewish people without allowing that to veer him from scrupulous accuracy. He was able, too, to look with clear eyes on Christian treatment of Jews throughout Church history. Chertok writes of Parkes, "For over fifty years, promoting what he had the wit and courage to recognize as the main thing, the overriding purpose of his life –– his Christian duty ... to render justice to the Jewish people –– he never lost focus or faltered in determination. In the process he became one of the authentic intellectual and ethical heroes of our time."
 READ MORE
 

TRIPLE CROSS: HOW BRITAIN CREATED THE ARAB-ISRAEL CONFLICT
by Rachel Neuwirth

  In 1917, Britain was entrusted by the League of Nations to strive to "secure the establishment of the Jewish national home," (national home was Nordau-talk for state.) When the authority of the League was transferred to the U.N., Mandated Palestine continued to be in perpetual trust for the Jewish people and was so written into the the U.N. Charter. [See here and here. ] But it is also true that England, perhaps having senior moments, promised the area to both the local Arabs and the Syrians. Rachel Neuwirth writes of this triple-cross. Under the guise of having the Jordanian Hashemites administer the area, she also helped the Kingdom of (Trans)Jordan eventually to come into being. But that's another story.
 READ MORE
 

READERS' BLOG-EDS

  This is where our readers get a chance to write opinions and editorials and share articles they find informative. The Blog-Eds page for the month is updated every few days.

A Blog-Ed page has a quick list of the articles from which you can access any of the articles immediately. To go to the list, click the "Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page.

May 2008 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE
June 2008 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE




March-April, 2008

Next month Israel will be 60 –– a youngster as countries go. An anomaly in so many ways. A young country with an ancient history. A Jewish state where many of its elite long only to be "like every other country." A state with a firmer right to its real estate than most others but the only state where people continue to question its right to exist. The tiniest state in the Middle East but the only one with Nobel prize winners in anything but "Peace". The tiniest state in the Middle East but the only one that is a world leader in medicine, scientific innovation, engineering development, agriculture, managing water resources, etc., etc., etc. The only state in the Middle East that allows its academics to advocate its demise in favor of erecting another Arab terror state. The only one that manages to live joyously while worrying that its monomaniac neighbors will again erupt with malice and this time cause devastation. These next essays look at the new state's beginning in 1948 and how it's been harassed by internal enemies –– the revisionist historians.

LETTERS FROM JERUSALEM, 1947
by Chedva Margolit; foreword by Steve Kramer

  As Steve Kramer writes in his foreword: "Nothing is more appropriate on the 60th anniversary of Israel's Declaration of Independence than reading the words of a young Jewish wife who left America and came to Israel for love of Eretz Yisrael." This essay is to be treasured.
 READ MORE
 

WHO DID WHAT FOR ISRAEL IN 1948?
by Norman Berdichevsky

  It is appropriate as we celebrate Israel's 60th to examine some of the received wisdom about those days. Norman Berdichevsky demolishes the myth that the USA was Israel's only friend and made Jewish statehood possible, supplying "money, manpower and arms". While the U.S.A voted for partition, it was primarily Czech arms, East European and Soviet manpower and East Bloc political support that enabled Israel to decisively win the military and diplomatic battles. If you think this reads like the novel 1984 –– with flip flopping alliances –– you may be right.
 READ MORE
 

THE 60-YEAR WAR FOR ISRAEL'S HISTORY
by Efraim Karsh

  One sometimes wonders if Israel's Arab enemies aren't overkill –– her internal haters do such a good job denigrating Israel's accomplishments, rewriting her history and denying her right to exist as a Jewish state. Efraim Karsh writes of the "new historians ... who systematically rewrote the history of Zionism, warping the saga for Israel's survival." They didn't just reevaluate the facts; in many cases, they invented them or distorted their meaning by omitting key information. Unfortunately, though their tactics have been exposed, the new historians are not yet history.
 READ MORE
 

This month we celebrated Passover. The first essay reminds us of some real bitter herbs that have historically accompanied the festival. In the second, the Passover seder serves as an allegory for how Jews should be living their lives in Israel today.

BLOOD LIBEL –– PART I
by Patricia Berlyn

  We look forward to Passover but it brings with it some baggage we'd like to think was left behind in the Dark Ages –– the Blood Libel, the accusation that the Jews killed Christian children for blood for their matzohs. The Jews. Of all people! A people whose religion forbids ingesting blood! As Patricia Berlyn writes, the Libel hasn't died; it lives on in Muslim mythology –– the Arabs have taken it up and, as authentic modern-day medievalists, they need no evidence to propagate the lie as literal truth. Abetted by a friendly media, they have concocted other libels centered around the conviction that Jews target children for killing. It seems that the more the Jews attempt to minimize loss of Arab lives, the more grotesque the lies the Arabs invent.
 READ MORE
 

A PASSOVER STORY FOR ISRAEL TODAY
by Steven Plaut

  Using as parable a tale about a Pesach guest too impatient to wait past the symbolic seder food for the later feast, Steven Plaut makes an important point: Israel had just about defeated the first Arab intifada and there was little sympathy for PLO barbarism, when, in the early 1990s, the Israeli leadership was foolish enough to step onto the slippery slope of the Oslo "Peace" Accords. This commitment has not led to peace or even to an increase of tranquillity. "The Oslo era was accompanied by a massive assault upon Israel's pride, morale and confidence by its own leaders and intellectual elites." Is it too late to bring back "an understanding of Jewish heritage" and the pre-Oslo achievements?
 READ MORE
 
These essays examine a dysfunctional government: the U.S.A. In the twilight of its power, the Bush administration is pushing Israel to make concessions that will severely weaken –– if not destroy –– America's only friend in the Middle East.

BUSH-RICE BIRTHDAY PRESENT TO THE JEWISH NATION
by Emanuel A. Winston

  The reasons given for Bush's sudden rush to establish a Palestinian state are (1) to establish a legacy for Bush and (2) to sacrifice Israel for Arab cooperation in extricating the U.S.A. from Iraq. Neither makes sense –– in that it is unlikely the Palestinian Arabs will maintain a facade of civility long enough for either to happen. Realistically, you can't make a viable and peacable state from a bunch of hate-filled savages eager to kill and loot, savages led by a bunch of thugs who make a profit from promising peace while collecting the weaponry for another try at eliminating Israel. Emanuel Winston speculates on how the Bush administration proposes to start dismantling Israel.
 READ MORE
 

YOUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AT WORK ... FOR PALESTINIANS
by Anne Lieberman

  The Arab population in Gaza, Judea and Samaria is reportedly going hungry, with only a trickle of electricity and no clean water. Yet, when it comes to getting foreign funding, the PLO –– and its more recent incarnation as the P.A. and Hamas –– has been outstandingly successful. It has received billions of dollars from the European Union, the United Nations, Arab and non-Arab countries, non-governmental organizations, church groups and private "charities." And –– as Anne Lieberman shows us –– the United States government.
 READ MORE
 

There is the story of the man watching to make sure the workmen didn't steal. He watched them leaving and made sure their wheelbarrows were empty. They were stealing the wheelbarrows. So it is, we worry about dirty bombs and mass explosions –– and so we should –– but meantime, in the West, we have "isolated" killings of Jewish groups by crazies that just happen to be Muslim, and manipulation of our workplaces, banks, libraries, schools and universities by Sharia-activists. Some stories are dramatic, but many are just small items, Islamic creepage that stays pretty much below the radar.

MURDEROUS MOTHERS: THE HIDDEN FEMALE FACE OF HONOR KILLING
by Phyllis Chesler

  This is the story about an honor killing. It isn't really novel that it happened in America. It isn't even unique that it happened in the U.S.A. and the mother helped slaughter her own daughters. But it is an absorbing story that Phyllis Chesler tells us. As she concludes, the victims "... were American citizens. America was their culture. Their desire to live as Americans, and not as Arab Muslims in Egypt is precisely what doomed them."
 READ MORE
 

"SHARIA CREEP" AROUND THE WORLD
by Kathy Shaidle

  Kathy Shaidle writes about some small nibbles Sharia-activists are taking out of our democratic structures. They're small, they push the envelop, they encourage our universities and workplaces to be "sensitive" to what are claimed to be Islamic requirements –– even if every one else is discomforted. More to the point, they soften us up –– each concession we make makes us more compliant, more likely to agree with the next demand request.
 READ MORE
 

SHILLING FOR SHARIA AT HARVARD
by Hillel Stavis

  Noah Feldman is a respected member of the Harvard Law School Faculty and an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Who better to flog Muslim Sharia law, claiming it represents the highest state of "the rule of law"? Hillel Stavis describes Feldman's conclusion this way: "In Feldman's revisionist account, the evolution of Islamic law echoes the Western experience and is compatible with it. To Feldman, Sharia evolves from 'higher law' to 'the rule of law' in a neat conflation of the secular with the holy that places the Islamic code alongside the West's rigorously evolved concept of secular justice." Stavis concludes, "And it can only be a matter of time before the professor, having asserted that Sharia law is desirable, will assure us that its introduction in the United States is inevitable."
 READ MORE
 

A TALE OF TWO ARCHBISHOPS
by Daniel Mandel

  In Great Britain, the Sharia banking system is courted by the banking community and "sensitivity" to Muslim needs is a top priority in the educational system. Too often, Christian national and religious symbols are banned while Muslim "requests" are respected. Giving legal status to sharia courts means allowing Muslim women to be treated as chattel –– not exactly a feature of democracy. Daniel Mandel contrasts the statements of the past and current archbishops of Canterbury to illustrate how high the tide of sharia compliance has reached. "[The previous Archbishop] Carey sees democracy as tender and in need of consolidation; [the current Archbishop] Williams sees it as something rigid and in need of modification." As Mandel points out, "the prevalent reaction, as the events of recent years show, has been to opt for the Williams model of modifying democracy, rather than the Carey model of consolidating democracy, to flee the Islamist challenge rather than confront it."
 READ MORE
 

These essays write about another dysfunctional country: Israel. Israel's government –– trying to stave off corruption charges –– is actively working for another Arab state to be located in the heart of the Jewish state. It is aided by an inadequate electoral system, an unrestricted judiciary and a politicized media.

ISRAEL'S ELECTORAL COMPLEX
by Amotz Asa-El

  The Israeli government has shown itself to be both corrupt and inept –– a combination unlikely to win respect from the voters. In this important article, Amotz Asa-El argues that the problem is more complex and unlikely to be solved by a change in leadership. He discusses the structure of the Israeli electoral system itself. It is based rigidly on proportional representation of the parties, with no local representation. It has encouraged talented people to avoid politics, leaving the field to the self-serving, to the mediocre, to people who are the least competent to deal intelligently with Israel's most important matters. He argues convincingly for the need for electoral reform.
 READ MORE
 

HOW I DEFEATED ISRAEL'S DUAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
by Steven Plaut

  Steven Plaut has the distinction of being slapped with a frivolous libel lawsuit in an Israeli court, having the presiding Arab judge rule against him –– she based her opinion on her own prejudices –– and finally winning out, thus striking a blow for democratic free speech. A harrowing experience but a blow for fairness that will benefit all who are tried by a judiciary system that creates rules on the fly. This is his fascinating account.
 READ MORE
 

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE SUICIDAL KIND: CRIMES AGAINST JEWISH HUMANITY
by Boris Celser

  Boris Celser writes about the Israeli media and academics who protect Israel's wrong-way politicians. As a case in point, he writes of the Israeli newspapers that protect Israel's recycled politicians, thus helping to perpetuate government by the incompetent and to encourage Israel's policy of appeasement. He points out that "the game ends when one side runs out of land" –– a real possibility given official Israel's suicidal policy of giving up real land for paper peace. The tone of the article is cynical but the words are sober and wise. As Celser write, "can anyone deny that since Oslo the politics of yesterday and today have not worked, are getting worse by the day, and are not going to work tomorrow?" And in acceding to dememberment, Israel harms not only herself but all of Jewish humanity.
 READ MORE
 

LIES BEGGING TO BE EXPOSED
by Evelyn Gordon

  Evelyn Gordon identifies one element in Israel's poor public relations –– "Israel's persistent failure to refute Palestinian lies." As example, a recent poll was misinterpreted as proof that the Palestinian arabs shows increased support for violence because of the Israeli offensive in Gaza. "Far from being unprecedented, however, that figure is almost identical to what it was 18 months ago..." But the Arab lies are not refuted and so they stand, unchallenged. As Gordon points out, "It would be nice if journalists, world leaders and international human rights organizations consistently noticed such lies on their own, but the reality is that they rarely have the time, energy or interest to do the necessary research. For Israel, however, exposing Palestinian lies is a vital interest." But, thanks to her defeatist Government, Israel doesn't.
 READ MORE
 

EX-GUSH KATIF RESIDENTS MARK 1,000 DAYS OF WANDERING
by Hillel Fendel

  With Iran, Hamas, Fatah and Hezbollah making serious preparations for another attack on Israel and with the American administration preparing to plant an Arab terror state in Biblical Israel, the Olmert government is focusing on what it does best –– trying to kick the religious Jews of Sameria and Judea out of their homes. This would be farce if it weren't tragic. The same administration that hasn't been able in 1000 days to resettle some 10,000 Israeli citizens is working to uproot another 250,000 to 500,000 Israeli Jews. The Jewish refugees from Gaza in this article by Hillel Fendel warn the potential refugees: don't let the Government do to you what they did to us.
 READ MORE
 

These next articles are about Jewish refugees –– old and new. The first group fleeing from Arab countries was welcomed by Israel; the second was destroyed by the Israeli government.

These are some You-Tube clips about the Gazan Jewish refugees.
You Tube: The Expulsion of the Jews from Gush Katif Part 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8goaeVJNxQ
You Tube: The Expulsion of the Jews from Gush Katif Part 2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv5VGXl0In8&feature=related
You Tube: "Palestinians" are burning synagogues in Gush Katif
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydtJqFcRtGc&feature=related

THE PALESTINIAN REFUGEE ISSUE: RHETORIC VS. REALITY
by Sidney Zabludoff

  Curious, isn't it, that according to received wisdom, the attack of the Arab States in 1967 resulted in hundreds of thousands of Arab refugees and not a single Jewish refugee. In reality, as Sidney Zabludoff writes, there were many more Jewish refugees –– they fled for their lives from the Arab countries, many of them to Israel. Despite the Arab countries crying crocodile tears for their Palestinian brethren, the Arab refugees are still with us. And there really are no Jewish refugees –– they have become full-fledged citizens of Israel and the western countries to which they fled.
 READ MORE
 

THE CAROB TREE IS WAITING FOR US
by Nadav Shragai

  We know that the Jews who were expelled from their homes and farms and orchards in Gush Katif, Gaza in August 2005 by their own government are still in refugee status. We know they live in paper trailers and temporary shacks. We know that they are demoralized and many are unemployed. We know they don't have the resources to recreate the innovative agricultural techniques that made their vegetables and flowers world-renowned. We know that the government has probably spent more money pretending that all is A-Ok than in resettling these people. Nadav Shragai writes of their emotional response –– of their longing for their old homes and the sense of community they once had.
 READ MORE
 

OF CONCERTS AND CRIMINALS
by Rachel Saperstein

  Rachel Saperstein writes of the irony that the Gush Katif orchestra gave a concert at towns that were indifferent when the Gush Katifers were kicked out of Gaza. Now that these towns are being constantly struck by missiles from Gaza, they sing another tune. And she writes of a wonderful man, a rabbi who founded AMISHAV (My People Return) to help returnees to Judaism. His grandchild was murdered in the Yeshivat Merkaz Harav massacre "because he was a Jew.".
 READ MORE
 

GLOOM, DOOM –– AND YET...
by Moshe Saperstein

  Moshe Saperstein writes a frighteningly honest account of his bitterness at all the phonies who contributed to the people of Gush Katif becoming dispirited refugees in their own country. And he's none too pleased with the gullibility of the general public, which is so easily duped by the anti-Jewish Israeli government.. And yet, there are the everyday chores to do, there's family, there're the cats to worry about, and there's the dream of returning to his personal paradise –– Gush Katif –– to make it as it was before the Arabs uglified it.
 READ MORE
 

TO BE OR NOT TO BE –– THIS YEARS PASSOVER QUESTION?!
by Anita Tucker

  Anita Tucker was a successful farmer in Gush Katif, Gaza. She was one of the many Jews that made that desert bloom. Now she is a refugee, made homeless by her own government. It is the Passover. And she asks: why? why? why did this happen? It is the Passover. She vows, with the help of caring Jews, to rebuild, and to preserve "the community and the values we have held onto for dear life for the sake of the People of Israel, the Land of Israel, the Torah –– for us." What a remarkable woman!
 READ MORE
 

These next essays compare Jewish and Arab cultures, and how this affects Israel's ability to fight its self-labeled enemies effectively. Jews rationalize and some look for a non-existent symmetry between Arab and Jew. Arabs riot. Jews fight libel with sarcasm and ironic humor. Arabs riot. Jews try to avoid injuring the Arab civilians who shield the terrorists. The Arabs consider it a virtue that their own people die so long as Jews die with them. And that ain't funny.

MERCAZ HARAV AND THE G-WORD
by Richard Landes

  This is a brilliant essay –– it is as if we are allowed to examine the essayist's thoughts as he thinks them while he engages in mental conversation with people who objected to SPME (Scholars for Peace in the Middle East) characterizing the murder of the young students at the Mercaz Harav as genocidal. Richard Landes cogitates on the massacre and makes us understand why others who object to this characterization as too strong have missed the mark –– they don't yet understand that the attack wasn't a random act of violence but was part of the concerted genocidal assault by Jihadist Islam on Judaism.
 READ MORE
 

MAYBE IT'S TIME TO FESS UP
by Jeff Dunetz

  Jeff Dunetz takes hold of a lively canard –– Jews own/run/control the WORLD –– and, metaphorically speaking, he beats it to a well-deserved death. Admittedly, he has his work cut out for him, given that tenured academics and even an ex-president have pickled, smoked, salted and marinated this duck, preserving it in fancy lies. Next time some stupido sounds off that the Israel Lobby sent us to make war against Iraq or that the anti-Semitic New York Times is Israel-friendly because its founders were Joowish, remember this essay.
 READ MORE
 

THE HEARTBREAKING REALITIES OF TODAY'S ISRAEL
by David Pryce-Jones

  Israel no longer has the luxury of taking the moral high ground yet maintaining her edge against the Arab hordes. Unfortunately, she seems stymied by her own moral sense, a failing the Islamic countries do not have. David Pryce-Jones quotes a military strategist who argues Israel needs to exterminate the terrorists in Gaza before they become even more capable. But her unwillingness to harm the Arab civilians who shield the terrorists prevents her from doing what is necessary. Iran, run by deeply religious Muslim mullahs, on the other hand, is perfectly willing to sacrifice millions of Muslims in destroying Israel. Willing or not, "[i]n the new Cold War shaping up between Islamism and the democratic West, Israel holds the front line." To hold that line, she needs to stop denying the reality the Muslims have created.
 READ MORE
 

ISRAEL'S FEAR OF WORLD OPINION
by Edward Bernard Glick

  Edward Glick points out bluntly that Israel's virtues work against her. Her pride in her noble restraint awake no respect in "world opinion" and especially not in her enemies –– they have a different set of values. As Glick puts it, " Those who wish and work for Israel's destruction do not shrink from killing innocent civilians. So they are unimpressed by Israel's failed policy of limiting and apologizing for such casualties, and then begging for forgiveness from a world that masks its politically incorect anti-Semitism with politically correct anti-Zionism." He suggests a more realistic approach to winning the war the Arabs have been waging for a very long time.
 READ MORE
 

Characterizing Islamic Culture

REFLECTIONS ON HAMAS JIHADI DEPRAVITY –– THE BRUTAL TRUTH
by Tom Carew

  Tom Carew reflects on depravity –– as manifested, for example, in the massacre of the eight young Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva students –– and provides us with a useful list of the features that characterize depravity. Unlike TV shows of depraved criminals, it isn't just the individual Arab murderer who is depraved but his entire culture, which finds joy in depriving others of life. An obscene death lust has permeated all of Palestinian Arab culture. "All those who celebrate such Depraved Crime are also morally corrupting and gravely abusing their own children, and as such not fit to have or retain or influence or teach any children." As front-line people "in the struggle for humanity," Israel has an obligation to stop the depraved behavior of their depraved neighbors –– for all our sakes.
 READ MORE
 

SHAYKH YUSUF AL-QARADAWI: PORTRAIT OF A LEADING ISLAMIST CLERIC
by Ana Belén Soage

  In his article on the Muslim Brotherhood's infiltration of the West (January-February 2008 Issue), Fjordman described Yusuf al-Qaradawi, spiritual leader of the Brotherhood, as one who "exploits democracy as a Trojan horse." In this article Ana Belén Soage rounds out the picture of Qaradawi as a prolific writer who can find Koranic justification for whatever innovative position he wants to take. He is a persuasive ideolog respected by Islamic theologists; yet he is a man of action –– he is credited for creating the riots over the Danish cartoons of Muhammed (See Danish Cartoons.) All he wants from the West is for it to convert to a higher truth –– Islam –– and he has the financial, theological and people resources to put his ideas into action.
 READ MORE
 

PATHWAYS TO JIHADI TERRORISM
by Dr. Babu Suseelan

  Over the years, Dr. Babu Suseelan has explored various components of the Jihardi Muslim value system and how Muslims conceptualize the world. In this article he rejects the comforting but wrong notion that jihadi terrorism is the result of "unjust social forces" –– that terror acts are the "frustrated responses to political injustices". Instead, he identifies the roots of Muslim terrorism: "religious, psychological, educational, and historical factors", which evolve into terrorism because of the faulty thinking Islam encourages. This thinking is hard to correct because, as he points out, "Islam is a closed dogma and Muslims are forbidden to test its validity or utility..."
 READ MORE
 

WHY A TERRORIST STRATEGY?
by Barry Rubin

  It's almost seven years after the Islamists declared war on us –– the 911 unprovoked attack by Muslims on American government and financial centers –– yet most of the media are still too finicky to call people who commit acts of terror terrorists. They describe terrorists as militants or freedom fights and immediately find excuses for their vile behavior. The problem with this tactic, Barry Rubin points out, is that "[while] honest grievances can be resolved by mutual concessions... [w]ith determined, ideologically clear, mass-based revolutionary movements you can only defeated them or surrender." Maybe we should start calling a terrorist a terrorist.
 READ MORE
 

REASSESSING OSLO

Have you noticed how Israel's peace negotiations keep shrinking in concept and in ground covered. First, Israel was trying to make peace with her Arab neighbors. Then she was persuaded with the Oslo Accords to make peace with just the PLO, reeincarnated as the P.A. Now Hamas's Gaza is out of range and she is being pressured to make peace with Arafat's one-time crony and now putative head of the P.A., Mahmoud Abbas, who continues to bleat he'll accept nothing less that everything. And yet the Olmert government keeps spending money and energy making peace noise and making miserable the lives of the patriotic religious Jewish citizens who live in Samaria and Judea. I could have taught a mouse to go for the food and not the electric shock in less time that it is taking Olmert to learn that striving for peace isn't going to give Israel peace. Striving to trounce Israel's enemies strongly will. More and more Israelis understand this. Unfortunately, while Olmert fiddles around with "peace" and bribes, the Arabs grow stronger and more confident.

The Oslo Accords have proven to be the Jewish state's biggest mistake. These next essays look at different aspects and consequences of the Oslo Accords –– when Israel officially adopted blindness, stupidity and appeasement as official objectives. Their message to Israel: Forget peace; go for victory.

HOW ISRAEL GOT TRASHED
by Isi Leibler

  Isi Leibler notes that the change from passionately repudiating Arab falsehoods to diffidence and appeasement came with the Oslo Accords. Diplomats were directed to plead the Arab case, not their own. Many of Israel's newspapers followed suit. One reader pointed out that "[c]oncepts like eternal refugees, blatant revisionism and even the concept of 'Palestine' are symptoms of the denial of reality." Yet these became constant staples in the diet Israeli newspapers such as Haaretz have fed their readers. "Haaretz effectively provided the mainstream Western media with a kosher certification to incorporate the most extreme anti-Israeli content. 'If Israeli papers can publish this, why should we be less inhibited?' became the standard response of numerous editors when accused of anti-Israeli bias and double standards."
 READ MORE
 

SHELVE THE SHELF AGREEMENT
by David M. Weinberg

  The latest magic trick for making peace between Jews and Arabs Palestinians Fatah Mr. Mahmoud Abbas is to write out a "if you're good, you get this for Ramadan" document, which spells out the goodies the Arabs get should they learn to contain their hostility long enough to claim the prize. David Weinberg tells us why even this mild request for some commitment to peace on the part of the Arabs won't work. "Israel is negotiating against itself in a vacuum with a phantom Palestinian partner." And as American negotiators with the Palestinian Arabs have painfully discovered, "Experience attests that with the Palestinians, negotiations are never over..." The Arabs never stop bargaining for yet another concession, without fulfilling any of their commitments. In sum, the Shelf agreement is a shell game in which only the Arabs win and the Jews lose bigtime.
 READ MORE
 

IMAGINED PARTNERS
by Jonathan Spyer

  "Given the title of this article, it is not surprising that Jonathan Spyer argues that "the emergent reality of regional cold war necessitates sober strategic thinking. One of the results of this –– in reality if not immediately on paper –– is likely to be the reversal of the 16-year-old Israeli wrong turn of seeking peace with an opponent that neither sought nor was able to accept coexistence with the Jewish state." A very sensible assessment.
 READ MORE
 

NEW IDEAS

FORGING A MODERN VIABLE ECONOMIC UNION IN THE MIDDLE EAST
by Jaff Sassani

  This is an unusual offering –– Jaff Sassanian is the nom de plume of a spokesman for the Sassanians who live in Iran. His essay is a reminder that it isn't just Jews that dislike the notion of living as second-class citizens under Islam. The Sassanians are an ancient people who were conquered by the Arabs. Like the Jews they have held onto their culture and traditions. Read what Jaff Sassanian has to say. If he's right, perhaps the debate about going into Iran or not isn't the issue. Perhaps we should be giving more support to Iranian dissidents. If –– of course –– if there's enough time and the Iranian leaders haven't jumped ahead in developing their nuclear power while our "intelligence" services lulled us into complacency.
 READ MORE
 

THE THREE REVOLUTIONS
by Henry A. Kissinger

  Henry Kissinger points out that there are several different revolutionary forces at work today globally. [The] "three simultaneous revolutions occurring around the globe [are]: (a) the transformation of the traditional state system of Europe; (b) the radical Islamist challenge to historic notions of sovereignty; and (c) the drift of the center of gravity of international affairs from the Atlantic to the Pacific and Indian Oceans." Kissinger writes that "Today it is radical Islam that threatens the already brittle state structure via a fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran as the basis of a universal political organization. Jihadist Islam rejects national sovereignty based on secular state models; it seeks to extend its reach to wherever significant populations profess the Muslim faith." The lesson here is that the Islamist reach is global. We won't reduce its virulence by believing that sacrificing Israel's integrity by planting a Palestinian Arab state in Biblical Israel addresses the problem of resurgent Islam in any meaningful way.
 READ MORE
 

THE GOLAN HEIGHTS PEACE PLAN
by Moshe Feiglin

  Moshe Feiglin takes what happened in the Golan in the Yom Kippur War as a model for how to achieve peace in the Territories –– Gaza, Samaria and Judea. There are five essential elements: 1. Encourage Arab emigration; 2. Conquest; 3. Israeli sovereignty; 4. Settlement; and 5. No peace accords! He writes, "Israel declared sovereignty over the entire Golan, settled it and most important of all –– never signed a peace treaty with Syria. This is how we have prevented the war under the guise of peace that we suffer on our border with Egypt from repeating itself on our border with Syria." It's hard to argue with success, particularly when every concession for negotiated "peace" with the Arabs has led to a weakened Israel and a more hostile Arab response.
 READ MORE
 

THE HISTORY SECTION

Several of the articles here center on the size of the Palestinian population. The Muslim population in Palestine west of the Jordan river in 1691 is estimated at 219,000, the Muslims having gained 74,000 in population between 1539 to 1691; and another gain of 27,000 from 1691 to 1800, indicating a very low population growth. From 1800 to 1890 –– during which time the Jewish aliyah had seriously begun –– they gained 186,000 people, suggesting an influx from the neighboring countries. It fits with what is known about the people living in that desolate region of the Ottoman Empire that was to become the western portion of Mandated Palestine: most of the Arabs in Palestine were dirt poor, with poor nutrition, a high infant mortality and a short life span, made shorter by untreated diseases and constant fighting between tribes. Yet according to Arab mythology, this group of people grew to 6-9 million (different estimates) "Palestinians" –– in Israel, Jordan, in refugee camps in the Arab countries and abroad in Europe and America –– by natural growth of the original indigenous population in around 100 years.

"A LAND WITHOUT A PEOPLE FOR A PEOPLE WITHOUT A LAND"
by Diana Muir

  In 1890 there were some 500,000 people (some 50 ethnic groups, including Jews, Christians, Arabs and other Muslims) in the desolated Ottoman territory that would become the portion of mandated Palestine west of the Jordan river and that included today's Gaza, the Golan, Israel, Samaria and Judea. A staple in the Arab list of grievances is that the early Zionist immigrants were shocked to find that the land wasn't empty –– implying there was a thriving Palestinian population, a "Palestinian people", that Israel subjugated. Diana Muir concludes that certainly it was known there were some people on the land. A land without people means the territory "was without a national character". The notion of a Palestinian national identity "only developed in reaction to Zionist immigration." She tracks the origin of the phrase and its use as anti-Zionist propaganda.
 READ MORE
 

ON THE RIGHTS OF 'SETTLERS'
by Shmuel Katz

  When Shmuel Katz writes history, he writes from his own knowledge and experience –– he's been there, done that. Here he cuts through the claims by the Arabs and their sympathizers that the major obstacles to peace are the Jewish settlements in the Territories. Very simply and very accurately, Katz explains that these settlements are indeed legitimate: "the Mandate remained the defining document for governing Palestine." As he puts it, "From the point of view of international law these settlers are as legal as any resident of Manhattan or of Shreveport, Louisiana."
 READ MORE
 

THE PALESTINIANS: A PEOPLEHOOD BASED ON A BIG LIE
by Eli E. Hertz

  This is a very excellent review of the facts about the "Palestinian People" and their short but violent history. Eli E. Hertz notes that "[m]ost so-called Palestinians are relative newcomers to the Land of Israel." How true. If they were indigenous, their huge jump in population in a relatively short time under poor environmental conditions would be the biggest demographic miracle in history. So why the recent creation of an indigenous "Palestinian people" when Israel conquered the Territories after it was invaded by the neighboring Arab countries? As Hertz writes, "Suddenly a separate Palestinian peoplehood appeared and claimed it deserved nationhood –– and 21 other Arab states went along with it."
 READ MORE
 

COLUMBIA, AHMADINEJAD, AND NAZI GERMANY: ROUND TWO
by Rafael Medoff

  Some Columbia University faculty are planning to accept Iranian president Ahmadinejad's invitation to visit his country. Rafael Medoff reminds us of a historical parallel –– in the 1930's, "Columbia was among the U.S. universities that sought to forge warm relations with Nazi-controlled German universities." In what Medoff calls "Totalitarian Tourism', the Nazis made elaborate preparations for foreign visitors from universities, the press and the Red Cross, providing them with selected, camouflaged and prettified views of what was actually happening in Germany. These efforts paid off –– the visitors went home to broadcast how pleased they were with what they saw. After visiting some of Iran's sanitized universities, will the present-day Columbians come back with similar enthusiasm?
 READ MORE
 

READERS' BLOG-EDS

  This is where our readers get a chance to write opinions and editorials and share articles they find informative. The Blog-Eds page for the month is updated every few days.

A Blog-Ed page has a quick list of the articles from which you can access any of the articles immediately. To go to the list, click the "Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page.

March 2008 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE
April 2008 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE



January-February, 2008

The Peace Process –– briefly resurrected in Annapolis –– is dead. Well, at least it's back on the respirators, even if Condaleezza Rice is chalking up enough fly miles to last her the rest of her life. All that survives of it in Israel is a government that still wants to give away the store to the Arabs to win favor with "the world", while harassing some of its very loyal citizens –– could Olmert's timing be worse? In many ways, things are grim for Israel. She looks weak. She acts weak. Her enemies are enboldened.

But thats not the whole story. We may actually be in a time of transition –– when people drop the Land For Peace mantra and more realistically assess what's going on in the world. Initially, the predation of violent Islam on a western world was met with little resistence –– our opinion makers had benevolently adopted moral relativity and multiculturalism as their equivalent of the Ten Commandments and it was –– and is –– important to them to defend this image.

But more and more people in Israel and Europe and America are recognizing that their tolerance has allowed in a large number of Muslims intent on making shari'a law substitute for the laws of the host country; and if this continues, it will lead to the death of the native culture. Moreover, there is a –– still minimal –– awareness that without oil, the implementation of the war Islam is waging will dry up, so we need to find alternative sources of energy.

So backlash has started, both in the growing anti-Islamist media and in technological advances.

The real question is: can we of the West fight back soon enough and strong enough before the monomaniac Islamists overwhelm us with their usual tactics: suing and harassment of officials; terrorism; high birth rate, overwhelming the social services of the host country; an uncompromising certainty that they know best, which usually makes diplomats urge the less fanatical other side to do all the compromising; murder of targetted Jews and Christians and anti-Islamic Muslims; bribery and intimidation of news media people; bribery and intimidation of politicians and diplomats; rioting; blackmail that they will riot if their demands aren't met; bribery and intimidation of academics, etc, etc, etc.

SECTION 1. This issue of Think-Israel starts with an assessment of the condition of Jews, especially in Israel. Israel seems to have been chosen –– without its consent –– to be among the first countries to do sustained battle with Muslims intent on taking over the world.

MEMO FROM GULFISTAN
by Martin Kramer

  Martin Kramer provides us with a realistic assessment of where the Peace Process stands. Bottom Line: it's out of steam. Posturing maybe, but no real pressure. And even among themselves, the Arabs are not doing kissy-kiss and make-up. Saudi Arabia may from time to time support both Sunni and Shiites, but there's no united front against Iran. What is puzzling then: what –– or who –– is fueling Olmert's monomania to destroy the Jewish communities of Samaria and Judea?
 READ MORE
 

WINOGKATIF
by David Wilder

  David Wilder puts the current appeasement of the Arabs in historic context, pointing out that Israel's first crumbling was after the 1967 Six Day War, when in their hunger for peace with their Arab neighbors, Israel acted as if it were the defeated side and destroyed Jewish settlements that had been started in the Sinai. The attitude that Israel must make all the concessions for peace plus a Marxist educational system that teaches the lie that Israel really doesn't belong to the Jews plus an IDF that is taught it isn't nice to win have all contributed to the parlous state in which Israel now finds itself. It is an excellent summary not only of what is going on in Israel but it points out: "the aim of Islam is not only the end of Israel; rather it is the Islamization of the entire western world and culture, including a takeover of Europe and North America."
 READ MORE
 

ON THE PRESENT DANGER FACING ISRAEL AND ALL JEWS
by Rachel Neuwirth

  Rachel Neuwirth does a masterful job summerizing the dangers Jews face around the world. Terorism, particularly in Israel, has not abated since the 1993 Oslo Accords; instead it has increased and the terrorists are stronger than ever. Terrorism against Jews in the diaspora is still minimal –– which means this is the time to stop it –– but the FBI refuses to connect the dots. The diplomats find it more rewarding to pressure Israel, which has been willing to make concessions, that to deal with the Arabs, who won't budge from their position. The propaganda attacks against the Jews continue. And what really drains our strength is that "[t]housands of Jewish journalists, academics, filmmakers, artists and 'intellectuals' in the United States, Canada, Europe, and within Israel itself have actively participated in the campaign of vilification and lies against Israel. Neuwirth's essay is not happiness-making. But it is impossible to improve a situation until you understand it.
 READ MORE
 

These next essays are about Israel's legal rights in Gaza and an assessment of Mahmoud Abbas, their "peace partner"

INTERNATIONAL LAW AND GAZA: THE ASSAULT ON ISRAEL'S RIGHT TO SELF-DEFENSE
by Abraham Bell

  One of the Dr. Seuss books chronicles the ever more disasterous results of trying to correct what started as a single stupid mistake. As analog, we have Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in the mistaken belief that Israel could thus separate itself from the nasties who live in the Territories. The Government has been generally indifferent to its own displaced Gazan Jews, a demoralized group of once proud and productive citizens. But their plight has received little attention. On the other hand Israel is held responsible for the welfare of the Gazan Arabs, and there is much media indignation if she cuts back on services. The new owners of Gaza are too busy to worry about their own infrastructure –– they are occupied making bombs and distributing them for free to as many Israeli cities as they can reach. They've also mucked up the water supply and –– now that they've broken the barrier with Egypt –– are bringing diseased animals in from Egypt. As Israel tries to deal with the worsening situation in Gaza, the pro-Arab press has taken up a new version of an old mantra: it's all Israel's fault. Abraham Bell explains the legality of what Israel is doing. I wonder if it will have any impact on those who want Israel dead.
 READ MORE
 

PALESTINIAN CONDITIONAL NON-VIOLENCE –– DENYING THE FUNDAMENTAL BASIS OF THE GAME
by Dr. Aaron Lerner, with translation from the Arabic by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Cook

  America trains Arab terrorists to fight; Israel gives them guns and Abbas smiles –– all of them, it is claimed, are determined to defeat Hamas and establish a peaceful Palestinian state inside Israel. The reality: Abbas turns over the weaponry to Hamas, sometimes willingly; Israel releases prisoners who return to killing Jews; and Abbas announces that peace with Israel is not really what he is after. Extermination is a closer fit to his plans. Dr. Aaron Lerner succinctly summarizes Abbas' actual plans, not the misty nonsense American and Israeli politicians spout. The article includes some direct quotes from Abbas' latest interview from the PMW website. The reality is: (1) we help Abbas and he gets strong, then joins Hamas to fight Israel openly; or (2) we don't help Abbas and in high dudgeon he joins Hamas to fight Israel openly. Why is Israel waiting while its enemies gather strength?
 READ MORE
 

FATAH AS MODERATE. A HARD LOOK POST-ANNAPOLIS
by Arlene Kushner

  Arlene Kushner asks whether Mahmoud Abbas and his party are moderate and whether they are legitimate peace negotiation partners. This divides into several subquestions, starting with: (1) are they able to control Samaria and Judea? The answer is NO. Is Abbas corrupt? The answer is YES. Is he a strong leader. The answer is NO. (2) Does Abbas intend to be a Peace Partner? All the signs say NO. This is a fact-filled logically-presented discussion on whether the Palestinian state Olmert is so intent on creating has any chance of being a viable structure and a peaceful neighbor.
 READ MORE
 

By his own words, P.M. Olmert is dedicated to creating another Palestinian state –– which means expelling up to half-million Jews from Samaria and Judea and Jerusalem. Ignoring for the moment the brain-damaged notion of giving up Biblical Israel, it is time to examine how well the Government was able to accomplish a much smaller task –– relocating the 9000 Jews they expelled from Gush Katif, Gaza, rehousing them in permanent homes and getting them the resources to live as a community and farm their marvelous organic vegetables. The government and its horde of incompetent petty bureaucrats completely flunked the small task. How in the world will they be able to handle something this size? The next essays are about the Jewish refugees of Gaza.

THE WILL TO SURVIVE; SURVIVING WITH HOPE
by Rachel Saperstein

  The latest from the journal of that remarkable couple, the Sapersteins, previously part of the proud, productive and patriotic community of Neve Dekalim, Gush Katif, Gaza and now part of a demoralized, underemployed community living in paper caravans, a community struggling to survive the afflictions inflicted on them by an uncaring government. This reads like a HOW-TO survive as menchen.
 READ MORE
 

GUSH KATIF REFUGEES CONFRONT RAIN, RATS AND A RIDICULOUS BUREAUCRACY
articles by Gil Ronen, Hillel Fendel and Michael G. Bard

  This is a compilation of recent items on the plight of the people of Gush Katif, Gaza that were converted from a productive and thriving community into a bunch of unemployed refugees. And this by their own government, which had spent time training the army and police to oust the people but had not bothered to plan how and where to relocate them and provide them adequate housing, jobs and schools. As we've read over the years from the Sapersteins (google "saperstein" Think-Israel, top of home page), the temporary paper caravans that serve as their new homes were badly set into position. The latest rains have helped the rats; but they haven't pushed the do-nothing bureaucracy into doing anything except maybe moving their jaws a bit more vigorously.
 READ MORE
 

People automatically assume the Israeli Arabs are treated as second-class citizens –– after all, BBC and CNN have told them so, over and over again. The truth is there is discrimina