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ISRAEL IS BEAUTIFUL: THE MEDITERRANEAN COAST AT ROSH HANIKRA
Posted by Yehoshua Halevi, July 31, 2008. |
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Yehoshua Halevi writes: "HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Staring out across the ocean into the midday sun would probably rank last on my list of choice places and times to photograph. I often find myself in the right place at the wrong time, so when that happens, I reach deep down into my bag of photographic tricks. Rosh Hanikra is a chalky cliff along the Mediterranean coast on the border between Israel and Lebanon, known for its labyrinthine grottoes carved over the years by the pounding surf. I was en route to an assignment not far from the coast and thought I'd steal an hour admiring the aquamarine water that flows through this natural wonder. Following the dark and misty maze of tunnels, I was surprised to emerge suddenly into a very short opening with a southwestern view of blue ocean expanse. The fresh air and sunshine compelled me to stop, gaze, and, of course, preserve the moment in pixels. Actually, I shot this image on film, using my widest lens, a 20 mm Nikkor stopped down to f22 to produce the sun star, a natural optical effect of shooting with the lens at its smallest aperture. Without this tool, it's nearly impossible to shoot directly at the sun at high noon. As luck would have it, there were some pretty cumulus clouds to add interest to the sky, in particular the three directly under the sun which nicely parallel the three main rocks situated just off shore. My memory in pocket, I stepped back into the darkness and headed off to work."
Contact Yehoshua Halevi by email at smile@goldenlightimages.com
and visit his website: http://www.goldenlightimages.com
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HEBREW U PROFESSOR WHO THINKS NON-RAPE-IS-RACISM GETS BUSTED FOR RAPE
Posted by Steven Plaut, July 31, 2008. |
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What was left of the academic reputation of Hebrew University was demolished altogether July 30, 2008. The reason was the arrest of the leftist professor of sociology who had been one of the theses advisors of that notorious thesis claiming that Jews are racists because Jewish soldiers do not rape Arab women. In recent days, headlines have reported the stories of the Hebrew University president joining a call of endorsement for the activities of a far-leftist anti-Zionist group that claims Israel is an apartheid land, Arab students at Hebrew University being arrested for membership in al Qaeda, and a Hebrew University professor of pharmacy insisting on hiring a convicted terrorist to work in his chemistry lab. But these were relatively minor disgraces compared with that now infamous "rape thesis." To remind you, a Hebrew University graduate student claimed in her thesis that the absence of any history of rapes of Arab women by Israeli soldiers proves that Jews are racists and oppressors, people who do not even regard Arab women as worthy of being sexually abused. The student at the Mount Scopus campus and her "research" were then awarded a university honor for these impressive "discoveries" by the Shaine Center, a Hebrew University sociology "research" center dominated by far leftists. Nitzan had argued that abstaining from rape is just as inhumane and oppressive as "symptomatically raping" and in fact replaces it, because it just serves to reinforce the intolerance felt toward Arabs by Jewish soldiers. These racist soldiers think of Arabs as so inferior and horrid that they do not even feel a compulsion to rape them. While giving some shallow lip service to how the "question" of rape refusal is "very complex," Nitzan's own "answer" is quite simple and straightforward –– it reflects Jewish racism against Arabs. Israel, she claimed, is so racist and anti-Arab that abstaining from rape is part and parcel of its determination to enforce rigid "lines of division." She asserted that individual soldiers who refuse to rape represent an intentional policy of oppression roughly similar to when governments order mass rape, because in both cases the "policy" serves to subordinate and dehumanize the oppressed victim population. The thesis drew its "scientific" conclusions from interviews with 25 reserve soldiers, ages 23-32, who served as combat troops in the "occupied territories" during the intifada. None of the comments by any of these soldiers supports or provides any confirmation, even the most indirect, to any of the lunatic "conclusions" reached by Nitzan. Facing a storm of public outrage, the president of Hebrew University, Prof. Menachem Magidor, and the Rector, Prof. Haim D. Rabinowitch, jointly issued an announcement defending the student and dismissing those who expressed outrage over the contents of the thesis. The "Non-Rape as Racism" thesis was co-supervised by one Eyal Ben-Ari, a Hebrew University professor of sociology, who claims to know something about the sociology of the military. Ben-Ari is a far leftist with a track record of turning out anti-Israel propaganda, such as claims that Israel is an ultra-militarist society, and much of his propaganda is misrepresented as scholarly research. The other co-supervisor of the rape thesis was Ben-Ari's co-author in a book about Israeli "militarism." Israeli feminist groups never had a word to say about that "thesis" nor about Ben-Ari's role in inventing the "No rape as Racism" hypothesis. From his role in the rape thesis, it was already known that Ben-Ari had goofy ideas about sexual (mis-)behavior. But now it turns out that the ultra-feminist Israel-bashing professor of sociology practices what he preaches. The very same Professor Eyal Ben-Ari was arrested yesterday for suspected rape and sexual abuse of his students, and arraigned before the Jerusalem magistrate's court. It seems that Ben-Ari made it a habit to condition giving nice grades to and getting research grants for his female students on their sleeping with him. He was clearly not being racist though, because he is the same guy who discovered the academic finding that raping proves you are not racist. The police claim Ben-Ari had been behaving thus for the past fifteen years! This was not the first Hebrew University professor arrested for sexual misbehavior. The Jerusalem weekly Yediot Yerushalayim broke the story and claimed Ben-Ari routinely attacked his female students sexually and violently. It cited two students who claimed they had been violently raped by Ben-Ari. He is also accused of using university funds to take his female students on trips for sexual trysts. He purchased for one of them a vibrator and then submitted the bill for reimbursement to the Hebrew University's Shaine Center (the very same Center that granted an award to the "Non-Rape is Racism" thesis!). While awaiting trial Ben-Ari is subject to a restraining order preventing him from entering the Hebrew University campus, as well as an order not to leave the country. The same ultra-feminists in Israel who insisted that an (unmarried) cabinet minister be indicted because he gave a French kiss to a woman in his office have yet to say a word about the behavior of this member of the Tenured Left. Haaretz (July 31) reports that female students in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University, which claims to specialize in feminism and social justice, allege that Ben-Ari is not the only tenured lecher in the department who abuses them sexually, and that these faculty members walk about boasting of their "conquests" of the PhD students. Strangely, the university authorities never looked into their behavior. Ben-Ari had also served as a consultant to the Israeli army over the role of women in the military. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments –– both seriously and satirically –– on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. Or write him at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il This appeared today in the Jewish Press website:
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STAGGERING STATISTICS ON MUSLIMS KILLING MUSLIMS
Posted by Marc Samberg, July 31, 2008. |
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This was posted October 9, 2007 on the Waste of My Oxygen website It was written by Gunnar Heinsohn and Daniel Pipes |
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ACT has posted a set of statistics that demonstrates the real violence against Muslims, it is not Jews, Christians or even America that is leading the pack in Muslim Genocide, but rather other Muslims. These numbers (almost 10 million killed by other Muslims) defy rationality and surely anyone with half a brain can see where the real problem lies. Islam may or may not be a peaceful religion, but the people who dominate the religion and are the face that the world sees as representation of the religion, surely are far from peaceful. "some 11,000,000 Muslims have been violently killed since 1948, of which 35,000, or 0.3 percent, died during the sixty years of fighting Israel, or just 1 out of every 315 Muslim fatalities. In contrast, over 90 percent of the 11 million who perished were killed by fellow Muslims." –– By Gunnar Heinsohn and Daniel Pipes, FrontPageMagazine, October 8, 2007 The Arab-Israeli conflict is often said, not just by extremists, to be the world's most dangerous conflict – and, accordingly, Israel is judged the world's most belligerent country. For example, British prime minister Tony Blair told the U.S. Congress in July 2003 that "Terrorism will not be defeated without peace in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine. Here it is that the poison is incubated. Here it is that the extremist is able to confuse in the mind of a frighteningly large number of people the case for a Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel." This viewpoint leads many Europeans, among others, to see Israel as the most menacing country on earth. But is this true? It flies in the face of the well-known pattern that liberal democracies do not aggress; plus, it assumes, wrongly, that the Arab-Israeli conflict is among the most costly in terms of lives lost. To place the Arab-Israeli fatalities in their proper context, one of the two co-authors, Gunnar Heinsohn, has compiled statistics to rank conflicts since 1950 by the number of human deaths incurred. Note how far down the list is the entry in bold type. Conflicts since 1950 with over 10,000 Fatalities*
*All figures rounded. Sources: Brzezinski, Z., Out of Control: Global Turmoil on the Eve of the Twenty-first Century, 1993; Courtois, S., Le Livre Noir du Communism, 1997; Heinsohn, G., Lexikon der Völkermorde, 1999, 2nd ed.; Heinsohn, G., Söhne und Weltmacht, 2006, 8th ed.; Rummel. R., Death by Government, 1994; Small, M. and Singer, J.D., Resort to Arms: International and Civil Wars 1816-1980, 1982; White, M., "Death Tolls for the Major Wars and Atrocities of the Twentieth Century," 2003. This grisly inventory finds the total number of deaths in conflicts since 1950 numbering about 85,000,000. Of that sum, the deaths in the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1950 include 32,000 deaths due to Arab state attacks and 19,000 due to Palestinian attacks, or 51,000 in all. Arabs make up roughly 35,000 of these dead and Jewish Israelis make up 16,000. These figures mean that deaths Arab-Israeli fighting since 1950 amount to just 0.06 percent of the total number of deaths in all conflicts in that period. More graphically, only 1 out of about 1,700 persons killed in conflicts since 1950 has died due to Arab-Israeli fighting. (Adding the 11,000 killed in the Israeli war of independence, 1947-49, made up of 5,000 Arabs and 6,000 Israeli Jews, does not significantly alter these figures.) In a different perspective, some 11,000,000 Muslims have been violently killed since 1948, of which 35,000, or 0.3 percent, died during the sixty years of fighting Israel, or just 1 out of every 315 Muslim fatalities. In contrast, over 90 percent of the 11 million who perished were killed by fellow Muslims. Comments: (1) Despite the relative non-lethality of the Arab-Israeli conflict, its renown, notoriety, complexity, and diplomatic centrality will probably give it continued out-sized importance in the global imagination. And Israel's reputation will continue to pay the price. (2) Still, it helps to point out the 1-in-1,700 statistic as a corrective, in the hope that one day, this reality will register, permitting the Arab-Israeli conflict to subside to its rightful, lesser place in world politics. Professor Heinsohn is director of the Raphael-Lemkin-Institut für Xenophobie-und Genozidforschung at the University of Bremen. Mr. Pipes (www.DanielPipes.org) is director of the Middle East Forum. Contact Marc Samberg at marcsamberg@yahoo.com |
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"PEACE AGREEMENT" –– NOT "PEACE" –– A CRITICAL DISTINCTION
Posted by Dr. Aaron Lerner, July 31, 2008. |
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Israel is not negotiating "peace" with the Palestinians and Syrians, but instead pieces of paper. "Peace treaties", "peace agreements" and even "peace arrangements" all have a place in policy discussions. But policy arguments that posit "peace" as the pay-off are not just intellectually dishonest. They are dangerously deceptive. The hyper-optimistic "best case scenario" assumptions that all so often accompany the line of thinking that we are talking about achieving some kind of idyllic "peace" serve to dangerously underestimate Israel's needs or the risks Israel faces under the "peace" arrangements. Consider that Shimon Peres genuinely argued at one point that Israel's security interests could be secured in a deal with Syria if there were classy hotels operating on the Golan Heights. That's not to say that there isn't a value for agreements. Just that they must be recognized for what they are and what they aren't. Pieces of paper cannot guarantee peace. They can provide a framework for relations. But if a party to a piece of paper determines its interests would be best served by violating the piece of paper then that's exactly what they will do. That's the paradox of "land for piece of paper": the greater the Israeli security concessions for a piece of paper, the greater the chances that the Arabs ultimately turn their backs on the deal. Dr. Aaron Lerner is Director of IMRA, Independent Media Review and Analysis, an Israel-based news organization which provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict. Its website address is http://www.imra.org.il Write him at imra@netvision.net.il |
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HAREIDI STUDENTS PASS NAT'L AVERAGE BY FAR ON PSYCHOMETRIC EXAM
Posted by Hillel Fendel, July 31, 2008. |
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A class of 30 hareidi men scored overwhelmingly better than the national average on a recent psychometric exam –– despite, or because of, their lack of general studies schooling. Facts Belie Editorial Haaretz newspaper editorialized angrily this week against the exemption of hareidi students "from acquiring knowledge such as English and math" –– and just a few days later reported on the hareidi students' high scholastic achievements. The editorial was in response to a law passed the Knesset this week. The new law states that hareidi high schools –– "yeshivot ktanot" –– will continue to receive State funding, despite their not teaching the official "core" program of math, English and science. Successful Student Explains "If I would have learned English and math [in high school]," one student was quoted by Haaretz as saying, "it would have been a terrible waste of time. I hear from people who did matriculation exams in high school that half the time is wasted; anyway, in the end, whoever wants to get into university has to learn it all over again." The specific class of 30 hareidi students who were the subject of the article scored as follows: Four (over 13%) scored better than 700, compared with 5% of the general population, and 45% did better than 610, compared with 27% of the others. 70% received at least a "passing" grade of 400, compared with 50% of the national population. Torah Study Instead The hareidi schools teach very little or no general studies for most of the students' years in elementary and high school, and concentrate on Torah studies instead. The rationale behind this approach is based on the pre-eminence of Torah study in Jewish Law and thought, and the confidence that general studies can be made up in a concentrated and more effective manner if and when they become necessary. The Haaretz report emphasizes that the sample class represents only a tiny fraction of the entire hareidi population and can therefore not be considered a scientific model. However, its tone puts the lie to the left-wing paper's editorial of only a few days before. Haaretz Attacks Hareidim and Secularists Apparently unaware of the hareidi psychometric results about to be publicized in their own newspaper, the Haaretz editors wrote, "The hareidi manipulators 'succeeded' in achieving publicly-subsidized ignorance for their students." This was done, the editorial notes cynically, out of "fear that general knowledge would cause them to abandon the political camp that is dependent on their ignorance." The editorial acknowledges the recent upsurge of secular interest in Judaism and Jewish studies –– and attacks that as well: "Education Minister Yuli Tamir's willingness to give in to the hareidim regarding general education does not indicate tolerance, but rather sycophancy and surrender. The secularists have developed a strange fear of Jewish studies and of holiness in general, as part of their search for identity. Secularism has lost the self-confidence it had in the early days of the State, and has begun to lower its head before everything that is considered 'spiritual' or 'preserving the Jewish spark'..." Hillel Fendel is Senior News Editor for Arutz-Sheva (www.Israel National News.com). |
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ISRAEL: AMAZING THINGS OCCUR IN THE ERA PRECEDING MOSHIACH
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, July 31, 2008. |
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We are taught that at the end of days it will be a time when everyone will be a Tzadik or everyone will be a Rashah and then Ben Yishai will come. On this I once heard that it can not mean that it will be a time when either everyone will be a Tzadik or everyone will be a Rashah. What is meant is that there will no longer be the Benonim, no more fence sitters, no more compromisers. Either one will be with G-D and try the best he can to live according to the Torah or one will be against G-D. This is more and more the case these days. After the folly of the Golden Calf, Mosheh Rabbenu called out: "MI LASHEM, BO ALI!" "Whomever is for G-D, come to me!" The same call is being heard today as well. This below is from yesterday's Yeshiva World
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The Israeli secular community does not really know what to make of the new trend, but Baruch Hashem, many kibbutzim and other secular communities around Israel are requesting a shul and mikve, the very same communities that have lived for decades without the holy structures. Many of the secular kibbutzim have been ideologically opposed to the construction of the buildings, working with tenacity to remove any trace of Yiddishkeit from their communities. This year, dozens of shuls and mikvas have been constructed in secular communities and it appears the trend is gaining momentum. 50% of requests given to the Ministry of Religious Services have come from secular kibbutzim and moshavim. Permits were given to construct 37 new mikvas, and in some cases, in totally secular areas including Kinneret Rotem, Kfar Vardim, Tzur Yitzchak, Tal El and N'vei Ziv. The ministry permitted the construction of shuls in 79 communities, 80% in totally secular communities including Kibbutz Ashdod Yaakov Ichud, Gan Ner, Kibbutz Gezer, Kfar HaNaggid, and Karmei Yosef. Minister of Religious Services (Shas) stated, "Undoubtedly, there is a new trend in Israel. A growing number of Israelis are more open and more in need of religious services. This is a record-breaking number of requests from the staunch secular community." Ronny Kenan, the general manager of Kibbutz Ashdod Yaakov Ichud explains they never had a real synagogue and there are a growing number of residents wishing a formal building for prayer. The leaders of the national kibbutz movement confirm the number in the report, adding the overwhelming number of kibbutz residents are indeed secular. They add today, there is more pluralism today and less homogeny. They confirm there appears to be a growing interest in returning to "traditionalism" and prayer. A study conducted by the Shitim Institute reveals that 50% of the population fasts on Yom Kippur and 60% of the kibbutzim do have some type of community activity on Kol Nidrei night. Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel. |
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HAMAS' CHRISTIAN CONVERT: YOU (JEWS) WILL NEVER HAVE PEACE WITH HAMAS
Posted by Avodah, July 31, 2008. |
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This excerpt is from "Hamas' Christian Convert: I've Left a Society
that Sanctifies Terror" written by Avi Issacharoff. It appeared
in Haaretz |
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Masab [son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef] knows that he has little hope of returning to visit the Holy Land in this lifetime. "I know that I'm endangering my life and am even liable to lose my father, but I hope that he'll understand this and that God will give him and my family patience and willingness to open their eyes to Jesus and to Christianity. Maybe one day I'll be able to return to Palestine and to Ramallah with Jesus, in the Kingdom of God." Nor does he attempt to hide his affection for Israel, or his abhorrence of everything representing the surroundings in which he grew up: the nation, the religion, the organization. "Send regards to Israel, I miss it. I respect Israel and admire it as a country," he says. Masab, son of West Bank Hamas leader and MP Sheikh Hassan Yousef, has become a Christian. He says, "You Jews should be aware: You will never, but never have peace with Hamas. Islam, as the ideology that guides them, will not allow them to achieve a peace agreement with the Jews. They believe that tradition says that the Prophet Mohammed fought against the Jews and that therefore they must continue to fight them to the death." "An entire society sanctifies death and the suicide terrorists. In Palestinian culture a suicide terrorist becomes a hero, a martyr. Sheikhs tell their students about the 'heroism of the shaheeds.'" Is that the justification for the suicide attacks? "More than that. An entire society sanctifies death and the suicide terrorists. In Palestinian culture a suicide terrorist becomes a hero, a martyr. Sheikhs tell their students about the 'heroism of the shaheeds.'" Contact Avodah at Avodah15@aol.com |
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PETITION FOR JEWISH PARADE IN ARAB CITY
Posted by Daisy Stern, July 31, 2008. |
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This is a news item from Arutz-7. |
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(IsraelNN.com) Jewish National Front activists Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben Gvir have petitioned The High Court of Justice for permission to conduct a flag procession in the Israeli Arab city of Umm al-Fahm. The two claim that "if the police allow members of the Open House to conduct a gay pride parade in Jerusalem and leftists to conduct parades in Hevron, there is no reason why they won't let us march in Umm al-Fahm." Contact Daisy Stern at daisystern1@gmail.com |
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FROM ISRAEL: JUST SUPPOSE
Posted by Arlene Kushner, July 31, 2008. |
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Political predictions are never written in stone, and certainly I make no claims that what I'm about to write here is anything other than a speculation. But I think it's a reasonably informed speculation and worth sharing... I wrote yesterday about Netanyahu and Barak having met, and about thoughts that they might have been talking about more than defense issues. Well, just suppose that... Netanyahu has convinced Barak that he (Barak) will have a more solid political future if he throws the lot of Labor in with Likud rather than with Kadima. Suppose Barak is sold on the idea that the whole Kadima party is politically polluted and that something of their reputation would ultimate rub off on Labor (not that Barak himself is exactly Mr. Clean, you understand). This notion that Likud now seeks to represent itself as the party of integrity (no laughing out there, please) is bolstered by Uzi Dayan having joined its ranks. Dayan's Tafnit party platform had a strong plank for clean government –– his endorsement of Likud is like the Seal of Good Housekeeping (for those Americans old enough to remember that). Suppose Netanyahu has made promises to Barak about the role Labor can play in the coalition, and that Netanyahu and Barak together have decided to finish the Kadima party. It could happen: they could do it. Without Labor, it is very unlikely that anyone at Kadima's helm would be able to put together a stable coalition. ~~~~~~~~~~ All of this is by way of saying that it ain't over yet, and we cannot be certain how it will play out –– and certainly cannot be sure that the next government will be Kadima-led. Haim Ramon, an Olmert mouthpiece and a deputy PM, told Army Radio this morning that Kadima's chances of forming a new coalition are very slim. While Shaul Mofaz, also speaking to Army Radio, said he thinks he has a good chance of winning the Kadima primary, and that he intends to put together a broad-based coalition for a unity government. Right now in polls on the Kadima primary Mofaz is running just a couple of points behind Livni, who previously had a major lead. And Binyamin Netanyahu is calling for new elections, saying, "This government has reached an end and it doesn't matter who heads Kadima. They are all partners in this government's total failure." ~~~~~~~~~~ It is apparently as I had speculated yesterday. (Making this speculation was a no-brainer, really.) Police sources are saying that Olmert decided to step down now because "he recognized that the investigation evidence held by police is serious and solid....The investigation Friday is expected to be difficult and uncomfortable for Olmert. He will be confronted with evidence and documents that have accumulated against him, and it is a fair assumption that he already understands that this involves substantive evidence." (Olmert is to be questioned again, this time with regard to alleged double billing for travel.) There are actually commentators who are saying that Olmert has stepped down with dignity, doing what's right for the country. But, hey, I say he's doing what's right for Olmert, as he always does. Far better this than the possibility of being forced out after he's indicted. What's clear is that he is without humility of any sort or a sense of responsibility for what has transpired. He is, he tells us, only a hard working and innocent man who has been set upon by enemies. ~~~~~~~~~~ Most disconcerting is Olmert's pledge to keep working on peace negotiations. This raises the issue of exactly what would be tolerated in this country in terms of any commitments he might make to the PA when he is on his way out. We cannot let our guard down here. ~~~~~~~~~~ Earlier this week, Olmert told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that it was highly unlikely that it would be possible to reach a comprehensive agreement with the Palestinians by the end of 2008. While there were gaps on issues such as borders and refugees, he said the main sticking point was Jerusalem. Then, a day later, Olmert announced expectation that it should be possible to reach an agreement on everything else but Jerusalem by the end of 2008, with a mechanism set in place for how to reach a Jerusalem agreement in the following year. ~~~~~~~~~~ Yesterday the Palestinians weighed in on this. If there is no comprehensive agreement by the end of 2008, we are being told, the PA may stop negotiations. "May." I have never known a group to make so many threats, all of which turn out to be nothing but hot air. What Abbas's chief of staff, Rafik Husseni, said was, "We will negotiate until the end of the year, and then the president will review our options." But here's the key: "Without a deal on Jerusalem, there will not be a peace deal at all." Ahmed Qurei, head of the negotiating team, vociferously agreed: "There will be no peace agreement with Israel unless there's an agreement on Jerusalem. And there will be no state without Jerusalem. Olmert and the rest of the world must understand that Jerusalem is the core of the problem." Note: "Jerusalem" means a demand for all of eastern Jerusalem, with us returning to the Green Line. This means, aside from everything else, total relinquishment of the Kotel and Har Habayit (the Temple Mount). This is not going to happen. So the bottom line is that I don't believe Olmert is capable of signing off on a final deal with the PA before he leaves office. But he can do us damage by going on the record as being committed to things that will come to haunt us later. ~~~~~~~~~~ Abbas made yet another threat yesterday that is a sure sign of just how precarious the position of the PA is right now. If Israel releases Hamas members of the Palestinian parliament as part of the deal to secure the release of Shalit, Abbas would dismantle the PA. This information, according to Haaretz, came as a "personal message" from Abbas delivered to our Central Command by head of the PA's civic affairs department. Many Hamas parliamentarians were arrested by Israel after Shalit was captured and about 40 remain in our prisons. Abbas is afraid that their release would end up strengthening Hamas infrastructure in Judea and Samaria significantly just at a time when Fatah and Hamas are embroiled in conflict. The position that Abbas is taking on this might have the effect of weakening him on the Palestinian street, as Abbas is supposed to be working for the release of all Palestinian brothers. ~~~~~~~~~~ There is no progress in negotiations to secure Shalit in any event, because Israel is refusing to release all of the prisoners demanded by Hamas –– not because they will strengthen Hamas civic infrastructure, but because they are terrorists. Neither will we permit the opening of the crossing at Rafah as a precondition. But the question remains as to whether Israel might give credence to Abbas's concerns on this. ~~~~~~~~~~ Yesterday, Khaled Abu Toameh reports, PA security was put on high alert because Hamas is threatening PA officials in Judea and Samaria –– especially in Ramallah, and the threats are being taken seriously. Leaflets distributed by Hamas's military wing, Izzadin Kassam, targeted top PA leaders for "collaborating with Israel." Specifically mentioned were Abbas, PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad, PLO executive committee member Yasser Abed Rabbo, top Fatah officials Azzam al-Ahmed and Ahmed Abdel Rahman, and Tayeb Abdel Rahim, a senior adviser to Abbas. "Collaborating with Israel": Great climate for negotiating serious "peace talks," no? ~~~~~~~~~~ Eli Lake, writing in the NY Sun, discusses the fact that there is now likely to be a slow down in PA –– Israel negotiations, which will be problematic for Rice, who is pushing for an interim document. Lake cites David Makovsky, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy: "Basically, Secretary Rice would like a summation document that points to the disagreements and the points of convergence between the two parties. The problem is that no political figures like to expose to the public the concessions they make in the absence of a diplomatic breakthrough....There is not much hope for such an agreed-upon document." Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info |
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GERMAN OUTFIT GETS AROUND SANCTIONS BY BUILDING EQUIPMENT AT HOME AND DELIVERING TO IRAN
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 31, 2008. |
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News Wire –– German outfit gets Iran LNG nod-Germany gets around sanctions by building equipment at home, and delivering to Iran Germany's federal export control office has cleared the way for engineering outfit Steiner-Prematechnik-Gastec to build equipment Iran plans to use in three liquefied natural gas plants, according to reports. The Federal Office of Economics & Export Control concluded after a 12-month investigation that plans by Steiner-Prematechnik-Gastec to build equipment for converting natural gas to liquids do not violate sanctions against Iran. "Because the equipment would be built here [in Germany] and then sent to Iran, that work does not fall under any existing sanctions involving Iran," Holger Beutel, a spokesman for the government office, told the Associated Press.
Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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THE STRUGGLE FOR SETTLEMENT CONTIGUITY
Posted by Herb and Miki Sunshine, July 31, 2008. |
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This was written by Nadav Shragai and it appeared in
Haaretz
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The establishment of the Jewish settlers has joined forces with non-establishment groups to fight the Civil Administration The Jewish settlements of the eastern part of the Etzion Bloc in the West Bank –– unlike the consensual settlements of the western part of the bloc –– have not been suffering from an overdose of popularity among Israeli statesmen. On the map of the permanent status agreement drawn up by negotiating teams in the past, Nokdim, Tekoa, Kfar Elad and Ma'aleh Amos –– settlements in which about 3,000 people live –– are marked as locations destined to be evacuated. The fact that up until about a year ago the trip from the eastern part of the Etzion Bloc to Jerusalem took about three quarters of an hour, whereas the distance between the western part of the Etzion Bloc and the capital amounts to only a 15-minute trip, only demonstrated the gap between the authorities' attitude toward settlements like Kfar Etzion or Efrat in the western part of the Etzion Bloc, and the step-children to the east of the route of the separation fence. Then everything changed, or at least this is the feeling among the inhabitants of the eastern part of the bloc. After long years of struggle, the Za'atra Bypass Road was completed, a fast road 10 kilometers long that connects the settlements of the eastern part of the bloc directly to Har Homa in Jerusalem –– itself a controversial and relatively new neighborhood beyond the 1967 border. The road has whittled the trip to Jerusalem down to 15 minutes, and has changed the atmosphere in those settlements from one extreme to another. In Tekoa and Nokdim, it is now impossible to obtain a room to rent, and the prices of building plots have soared by 70 percent. Jerusalem's new suburbs Over the last few months, 20 new families have joined Kfar Eldad, where some of the houses were empty, and others have been refused because of lack of space. Suddenly the settlements of the eastern Etzion bloc have discovered that they have become suburbs of Jerusalem, like their siblings to the west. Now this new reality is ostensibly under threat by the possibility that Shadma, an abandoned military base in Area C which overlooks the new road that connects the eastern part of the bloc to Jerusalem, will be transferred to the Palestinians. Up until 1967, a Jordanian army base was located at Shadma. Then Israel established military bases of its own, but for the past two years the place has been empty and the settlers' action committees have been waging a fierce battle against the Civil Administration's plan to hand it over to the Palestinians. The latter want to establish there, by means of the Beit Sahur municipality, a neighborhood with a hospital, an amusement park and perhaps also an industrial zone. The field echelons of the Israel Defense Forces are also opposed to the plan. They fear that the settlements of the eastern part of the bloc will be cut off again. The road, they stress, is less than one kilometer distance from Shadma, in the range of light arms and machine guns. The struggle has already changed the reality on the ground, to some extent. Nearly every week inhabitants of Har Homa and the Etzion bloc visit the site. They demonstratively ignore the warning sign "Closed Military Zone" that confronts them; they hold picnics, hikes, heritage tours and Torah lessons there, and about two weeks ago they raised an Israeli flag on the water tower. The struggle for Shadma has engendered unusual cooperation between a Jerusalem neighborhood committee (that of Har Homa, which is overlooked by Shadma) and action committees on behalf of the settlers, between the settlers' establishment (the Etzion bloc regional council and its head Shaul Goldstein) and the anti-establishment action committees headed by Nadia Matar of Women in Green and Arieh and Ditya Yitzhak, and between the leaderships of the eastern and western parts of the bloc, which politicians have often sought to divide. This struggle has put on the map another point of confrontation between the settlers and the anarchist organizations that are also active at Shadma, in an attempt to ensure that the place will be handed over to the Palestinians. In Hebron, the encounter between the settlers and the anarchists led to open conflict. Here, everything is still hidden beneath the surface, and only the competing graffiti written by one side and then obliterated by the other, time after time, testifies to the potential for a similar uproar. At the beginning of this month, a meeting of the Committee for a Jewish Shadma was held at the Gush Etzion community youth, sport and culture center. Shaul Goldstein outlined two stages: the first –– prevention of the handover of the place to the Palestinians, and the second –– the establishment of a Jewish settlement or outpost on the site. He noted that Jewish settlement in the Etzion Bloc accounts for only 4 percent of the territory. "Shadma," he asserted, "is part of what is most precious to us." MK Uri Ariel (National Union-National Religious Party) proposed working vis-a-vis the Defense Ministry, the Central Command and the Shin Bet security service to ensure that they will oppose "the destructive ideas of the Civil Administration." Har Etzion Yeshiva head Rabbi Yaakov Madan spoke about "daily action, with all our might, in order to succeed in the struggle for the eastern road, which is a struggle for settlement contiguity between Har Homa and the Etzion Bloc." A distant past The struggle for Shadma has already engendered the first stirrings of a political lobby, and also a reminder from the distant past: Close to the abandoned military camp, at a place called Beit Betza, traces of the Greek siege on the Hashmoneans have been found. This is where Yehonatan, Shimon and Yohanan fled after the battle in which their brother, Judah Maccabee, was killed. However, despite the historical connection, the settlers are more interested in the present. Arutz Sheva, the settlers' pirate radio station, reported dramatically a few days ago that "the Israeli flag that was hung on the tall water tower in Shadma is visible from afar, and declares proudly that the place will not be abandoned to the Arab enemy." The flag is the sign. Shadma is one of the stops on the trans-outpost trip that the outpost youth are holding this week. A happening and a bike ride are planned for the site, and on Wednesday, a marathon of lectures in preparation for the Ninth of Av: from destruction to redemption. Contact Herb and Miki Sunshine by email at sunshine.h@012.net.il |
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U.S. OFFICIAL: IRAQIS TOLD ME WMDS SENT TO SYRIA
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 31, 2008. |
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This was written by Ryan Mauro and it appeared in World Net Daily (WND). Ryan Mauro is founder and chief editor of WorldThreats.com. |
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Former head of prisons says incarcerated ex-Saddam forces disclosed move As U.S.-led troops pressed toward Baghdad in 2003, Saddam remained defiant in a walkabout among cheering crowds in the capital A former American overseer of Iraqi prisons says several dozen inmates who were members of Saddam Hussein's military and intelligence forces boasted of helping transport weapons of mass destruction to Syria and Lebanon in the three months prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Don Bordenkircher –– who served two years as national director of prison and jail operations in Iraq –– told WND that about 40 prisoners he spoke with "boasted of being involved in the transport of WMD warheads to Syria. A smaller number of prisoners, he said, claimed "they knew the locations of the missile hulls buried in Iraq." Some of the inmates, Bordenkircher said, "wanted to trade their information for a release from prison and were amenable to showing the locations." The prisoners were members of the Iraqi military or civilians assigned to the Iraqi military, often stationed at munitions facilities, according to Bordenkircher. He said he was told the WMDs were shipped by truck into Syria, and some ended up in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. Other Iraqi military personnel, including former top Saddam associates, have made the same claim. In early 2006, Saddam's No. 2 Air Force officer, Georges Sada, told the New York Sun Iraq's WMDs were moved into Syria six weeks before the war started. WND also reported in 2006 a former general and friend of Saddam who defected alleged WMDs were hidden in Syria and said the regime supported al-Qaida with intelligence, finances and munitions. Ali Ibrahim Al-Tikriti, the southern regional commander for Saddam's militia in the late 1980s, said the regime had contingency plans established as far back as the 1980s in the event either Baghdad or Damascus was taken over. Saddam knew the U.S. eventually would come for the weapons, Al-Tikriti said at the time, and had "wanted since he took power to embarrass the West, and this was the perfect opportunity to do so." So he denied they existed and made sure they were moved into hiding, the former general said. Among other claims, WND also reported a former U.S. federal agent and counter-terrorism specialist deployed to Iraq before the war said he waged a three-year, unsuccessful battle to get officials to search four sites where he believed the former Saddam regime buried weapons of mass destruction. Bordenkircher said four of the Iraqi prisoners who separately offered to speak to the "right" people about Saddam's alleged transport of WMD later became involved with U.S. and Iraqi intelligence agencies. Some prisoners said the drivers, upon return from transporting the WMDs out of Iraq, discussed the movement. They said, according to Bordenkircher, the materials shipped out would return once Iraq got "a clean bill of health from the U.N., and then the program could be kick-started easily." Four of the prisoners –– civilians attached to the Iraqi military –– said they worked at the al-Muthana Chemical Industries site. They said the cargo included nitrogen mustard gas warheads for Tariq I and II missiles. Bordenkircher said the stories of the military personnel and the civilians matched and did not contradict one another. Bordenkircher also said prisoners confirmed al-Qaida had a presence in Iraq before Operation Iraqi Freedom began, specifically in Mosul and Kirkuk. Iraqis under the command of Uday Hussein, one of Saddam Hussein's sons, supported the al-Qaida elements in the country with training and providing safe harbor, they said. Bordenkircher also was a senior adviser to South Vietnam's correctional system during the war in Southeast Asia, from 1967-72. His task was to improve conditions for 80,000 civilian prisoners. The U.S. Department of Justice asked him to play a similar role in Iraq, sending him first to Baghdad's infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad in March 2006 to shut it down. Bordenkircher previously served as Marshall County sheriff of Moundsville, W.Va., and police chief and warden of the state penitentiary at Moundsville. Previous stories: Report: Saddam did have WMDs
Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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ISLAM AND CHRISTIANS
Posted by Christina Walberg, July 31, 2008. |
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Mi name is Christina Cederin and I have read the aritkel by
Raymond Ibrahim. The Christians are also like Islam they dont like
Jews. First many of them have not read the history about how Israel
became a state. Im very surprised why nobody tell about how Israel
was trying to help poor arabs with work better money. The problems is
and I think You know it too but my anger to the rich arabs they dont
help the own people Instead they beg money from EU Israel and USA
They have the oil and power to rule the whole Europian market. And
then the train poor and undereducated people to get a terror and war
and hate to Jews Christians and Americans. Many Christians are very
shallow about the Jewish people. They think all are Cheder and
Fundmendalisiskt and rest is a grey mass. Wrong!!!!! I get very angy
about our Swedish Press how they write about Israel. Contact Christina Cederin at cederin@hotmail.com |
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THE FACE OF THE ARAB WORLD; ANOTHER BETRAYAL BY THE U.S.?; IRAN PREPARING HOLOCAUST
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 31, 2008. |
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THE FACE OF THE ARAB WORLD Like the P.A., Lebanon is preparing a hero's welcome for grisly murderers whom Israel is releasing to it in return for Arab captors murdering, I mean, returning the bodies of, Israelis. Non-Muslim Lebanese are celebrating, too. Do they share a vicious culture, or do just the Muslims laud murder and intimidate the others into feigning solidarity? (IMRA, 7/16.) PM Olmert said, woe to the people who welcome monstrous murderers back. Does that mean he condemns Abbas, who welcomed that ilk? Abbas called the slain Muslim murderers "martyrs." Or does Olmert persist in calling Abbas "moderate?" (IMRA, 7/16.) Christians called those persecuted for their faith "martyrs," whereas Muslims call "martyrs" those who persecute for their faith. "In recent years every single time the Israeli government acted with unbelievable stupidity, it and its captive media chanted in uniformity that there had been no choice at all and no alternative. They were lying…" By trading live terrorists [and some dead ones] for dead Israelis, "Olmert today in effect murdered all captive Israelis held now or to be held in the future by the Hamas and the Hezbollah. He has made it clear that he will not avenge their murders, but will pay tribute to their murderers." (Prof. Steven Plaut, 7/16.) PRO-ZIONIST GROUP ON U.S. CAMPUSES "Over the last couple of years, the Zionist Freedom Alliance (www.zfa.org.il) has been slowly taking American college campuses by storm with a message of Jewish rights not heard for many decades. Led by veteran IDF soldiers and activists in Israel, the ZFA presents Zionism to the youth as a revolutionary struggle for national liberation." "Unlike most pro-Israel advocacy organizations that present Israel as a democracy or focus on the Jewish state's willingness to surrender territory, ZFA speaks of Israel as a Middle Eastern nation with a legitimate moral and historic right to its land." "'We tell young people about the fight for freedom from British rule,' says ZFA leader Yehuda HaKohen. ‘And we explain how we are still fighting against nearly the entire world for our right to live freely in the whole of our country. Educating young people to the history of our struggle creates a paradigm shift in how they view our situation today. If people know two basic facts –– that this really is our country and that we fought the British Empire to free it –– their understanding of the Middle East conflict is revolutionized. Suddenly the Jewish people are the natives in the story and international pressure to shrink our borders is an act of Western imperialism against an indigenous population.'" The group is leftist and anti-globalization (Arutz-7, 7/16). JIHAD IN PHILIPPINES –– AN OBJECT LESSON Islamic rebels have been fighting in the Philippines to seize Mindanao island and subject it to Islamic law. Of the island's 16 million humans, only 4 million are Muslims (IMRA, 7/17). How many Muslims want what the rebels do? This is an object less. Muslims fight to seize their countries or provinces and turn them into Islamic states. We Westerners, think of majority rule and super majorities required to change our constitutions. Muslim minorities commit aggression without waiting for majority status. An influx or other growth of a Muslim population can threaten the safety and culture of a non-Muslim country. Western multi-culturalists should rethink their assumptions about other cultures, not assume that others are like their own. "PAINFUL CHAPTER CLOSES IN ISRAEL" That was the NY Sun's caption for a photograph of PM Olmert embracing the widow of a soldier whose remains were exchanged for living terrorists. "Israeli Mourns Soldiers, Awaits Next Move by Hezbollah" was its caption for a photograph of smiling Hizbullah terrorists, including the baby-killer and another released one. Israeli officials discussed whether Hizbullah would fire at Israel its 40,000 missiles, triple the number it had before Israel blasted most of what it had in the recent war, or would it consolidate its hold on Lebanon, first (7/17). What is Israel waiting for? Why didn't it declare the Security Council Resolution a failure and the UNO counter-productive when Syria began re-supplying the missiles to Hizbullah, and start knocking out the missiles? The visual contrast was dismaying. Seeing it makes a stronger impression than reading about it. Obviously Israel lost in this exchange. Hizbullah was vindicated; its popularity in Lebanon will rise. Israel prides itself on its ethics, in this case, its effort to get its soldiers back and its refusal to kill enemy prisoners. But the result is that the enemy got back its gunmen, who soon will capture more Israeli soldiers to murder and will find and kill more Israeli babies. That is one of Hizbullah's next moves. Painful chapter closing? Olmert comforted that woman but his policy will put many more into bereavement. ANOTHER BETRAYAL BY THE U.S.? An organization of anti-regime Iranians took sanctuary with the Americans in Iraq, though their method of combat was terrorist. They gave up terrorism and provided the US with valuable intelligence. Now Iran is trying to get Iraq to extradite them for liquidation. Will the US protect them? (MEF News, 7/16). WHAT ALTERNATIVE TO ISRAELI REGIME? The cowardly and stupid betrayal of Israel by its prisoner-exchanging government was not denounced by the supposedly right-wing opposition parties, Likud and National Union. Those parties do not present much of an alternative to the regime (Prof. Steven Plaut, 7/17). The media mis-labels parties. ISRAEL DENOUNCES ARAB REACTION TO EXCHANGE Israel has produced a YouTube video denouncing the Arab reaction to the recent prisoner exchange, particularly their lionizing the released baby-killer. The video contrasts Muslim values with that Israel and of the rest of the world. PM Olmert had said that Israel would not live under the shadow of Hizbullah missiles, but now Hizbullah has three times as many. He once said that Israel is tired of fighting and winning. Hizbullah crows of victories (Arutz-7, 7/17). What does Israel mean, "rest of the world?" I did not find any revulsion against the Arabs outside of some Israeli commentators. Let this be a measure of the ethics of the "international community." One would have thought that the Holocaust would have taught the Jewish people that most governments don't much care about right and wrong. (The US does try to lead UNO efforts to correct some international oppression, but the UNO doesn't cooperate.) Israel's more prominent commentators are complicit with the terrorists. They did not oppose the deal, despite knowing its horrible result. They usually favor the Arabs. The Israeli government, which made that deal, should share opprobrium with the Arabs. Olmert does not want to win, so he should give way to a leader who would want Israel to win. IRAN PREPARING AERIAL HOLOCAUST FOR ISRAEL Just as Israel made an unhidden test flight in preparation or warning for a raid on Iran, Iran has made an unhidden test flight in preparation or warning for a raid on Israel. First, Iran launched nine missiles, some capable of reaching Israel. On TV, they showed an orange flare. Then an orange flare streaked across Israel. The Israeli media didn't acknowledge it as a meteor, which it resembled, because none were predicted. Iran is getting poison gas for missiles, from N. Korea. The government of Israel confiscated the country's gas masks and refuses to replace them (claiming they are not ready, but how many years does it take?). Barry Chamish thinks the government is in collusion with Iran (7/17). It acts as if in collusion with Israel's other enemies. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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THE GROWING THREAT OF NARCO-TERROR
Posted by Michael Freund, July 31, 2008. |
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With a great deal of attention focused of late on Hizbullah's extensive arms buildup, little heed has been paid to yet another dangerous development taking place across the northern border: the resurgence of the drug trade in Lebanon. Without much fanfare, the Shi'ite terrorist group has been presiding over an increase in the cultivation and production of illicit crops such as opium and hashish in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. And though the extent of the drug trafficking is still well below the levels reached during the heyday of the 1980s, it is nonetheless on the upswing once again. That alone should have policymakers both in Israel and the West concerned, if only because the lucrative narcotics trade plays such an important role in financing Hizbullah's network of terror and mayhem. In its recently released 2008 World Drug Report, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime noted that Lebanon continues to be one of "the most important cannabis resin producers in the Near East," along with Egypt. While production is down since the height of the civil war, when the Bekaa Valley was awash in drugs, the report found that the area used to cultivate opium poppy, from which heroin is made, and cannabis soared in 2007 to an estimated 6,500 hectares (16,000 acres). And as Reuters put it (September 26), the most recent harvest has emerged as "what locals describe as one of their best cannabis crops since the 1975-1990 civil war." Local Lebanese farmers aren't the only ones getting into the act. An article in the Yemen Times three months ago revealed that at least 20 drug lords are now operating openly in the Bekaa Valley. One of them told the paper that there was little to fear from the Lebanese army or police, as they rarely ventured into the area, and that even when they do, it is merely "to clear a few marijuana or opium fields for the press, just to show that the Lebanese government is addressing the drugs problem." Everyday life in the Bekaa, the correspondent concluded, "is dominated by the industrial production of, and trade in, drugs." Needless to say, the renewed strength of Lebanon's drug trade has had a direct spillover effect on Israel. After all, at least some of the illegal drugs being grown in the Bekaa, which is under Hizbullah control, end up in the hands of dealers and users in Tel Aviv. On March 25, 33 kg. of heroin were confiscated on the Lebanese border in what was hailed as one of the largest local drug busts in recent memory. And in February, Israel broke up a drug-smuggling ring involving an IDF sergeant. Since 2000, 24 people, including IDF officers, policemen and civilians have been arrested for involvement in the drug trade between Lebanon and Israel. But the damage doesn't stop there, for in addition to weakening Israeli society by facilitating the availability of harmful drugs, Hizbullah has also exploited the situation for military purposes. As analyst Yossi Melman noted in Haaretz (March 31), Hizbullah "allows Lebanese dealers to smuggle drugs into Israel, in exchange for which they provide Hizbullah, through their Israeli contacts, with intelligence information on the deployment of the IDF in the North, and purchase maps and equipment for Hizbullah." Like any good drug cartel, Hizbullah's ambitions aren't limited merely to the neighborhood marketplace, but extend far beyond, stretching from Europe to South America to the United States. In November 2007, for example, authorities in Los Angeles indicted a criminal gang involved in cocaine and counterfeiting activities, and at least one of the suspects had links to Hizbullah (The Los Angeles Times, November 7). And earlier this year, a report by the Bulgarian parliament's Interior Committee found that terrorist groups such as Hizbullah and Islamic Jihad were actively involved in Bulgaria's drug trade and were using it to fund their terrorist activities back home (Sofia News Agency, April 9). Likewise, Hizbullah has an active presence in the southern hemisphere, where it is said to be heavily involved in drug trafficking and other illegal activities. In remarks delivered two weeks ago at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Michael Braun, the assistant administrator and chief of operations at the US Drug Enforcement Administration, said that "the nexus between drugs and terror is growing at light speed... One of the most prominent regions where the drug-terror nexus is at its strongest is the tri-border area in Latin America, where the borders of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay join. Both Hamas and Hizbullah are active in this region." It is clear, therefore, that Hizbullah increasingly poses not just a terrorist threat to Israel and the West, but a narco-threat as well. The group's tentacles literally extend around the globe, and it is actively involved in helping to spread the poison of illegal drugs far and wide, from which it profits handsomely. Indeed, some analysts estimate that Hizbullah earns upwards of $500 million annually from the drug trade alone, which in part helps to explain its ability to rearm so broadly and quickly. It is therefore essential that steps be taken to tackle this menace. After months of political turmoil, Lebanon finally has a president, so it is high time for the US and Europe to press Beirut to take a far more aggressive stance regarding stamping out drug cultivation in the Bekaa. No more excuses must be accepted, and any further Western aid to the Beirut government should be linked to its performance on eliminating bumper drug crops that are being grown right under their noses. And at home, Western governments need to start underlining the direct link that exists between drugs and terror. Many Americans now understand that when they fill up their cars with gasoline, they might be putting money into the pockets of those who are hostile to them. The same is no less true when it comes to illegal narcotics, which often help to fund terrorist groups abroad that aim to harm the West and its interests. For by doing drugs, users are not only betraying their own health and well-being, but that of their country too. Michael Freund is Chairman, Shavei Israel (www.shavei.org). This
article appeared in Jerusalem Post
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2000 CHILDREN FROM 33 COUNTRIES HELPED BY ISRAELI SACH
Posted by Marc Samberg, July 31, 2008. |
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A 3-year old Angolan boy is the 2000th child to treated by Save a Child's Heart (SACH), the Israeli-based international humanitarian project providing life-saving heart surgeries and follow-up care for children from developing countries. A 3-year old boy from Angola underwent life saving heart surgery on Tuesday (July 29 2008), at the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon. Dalton Antonio Domingos is the first Angolan child to be operated in Israel and is the 2000th child to be treated by Save a Child's Heart. Dalton was brought to Israel, with three other children from Angola, by Save a Child's Heart and by the Israeli 'ÄúLR'Äù group, who initiated and paid for the flights and for the treatment of the children. 'Äúe;LR'Äù group'Äù operates in Angola in various fields, including agriculture, and helps the society there recover and unite after the civil war. Angola is the 33rd country from which Save a Child's Heart brings children for life saving heart surgery. Dalton will stay in Israel with his mother another month to recover and then will return to his father who is waiting for him in Angola. Save a Child's Heart (SACH) is an Israeli-based international humanitarian project providing life-saving heart surgeries and follow-up care for children from developing countries. SACH mission is to improve the quality of pediatric cardiac care for children from developing countries, who suffer from congenital heart disease and to create centers of competence in these countries. SACH is a hospital based project whose services are provided in Israel at the Wolfson Medical Center (WMC) by a team of 70 dedicated experts who, from chief surgeon to physiotherapist, contribute a substantial portion of their time without any payment from SACH. SACH patients, whose ages range from infants to teenagers, come from the "Four Corners of The Earth": from St. Vincent and Ecuador in the American Continent to China and Vietnam in the Far East; from Russia and Ukraine to Ethiopia and Zanzibar; from Jordan, Iraq and the Palestinian Authority to Nigeria and Congo –– 2000 children from 33 different locations to date. Contact Marc Samberg at marcsamberg@yahoo.com |
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"PEACE AGREEMENT" –– NOT "PEACE" –– A CRITICAL DISTINCTION
Posted by Dr. Aaron Lerner, July 31, 2008. |
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"On the day the dream of peace comes true we will all stand and wonder: How did we not achieve this sooner?" –– Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announcing he will not run in Kadima primaries –– 30 July 2008 Israel is not negotiating "peace" with the Palestinians and Syrians, but instead pieces of paper. "Peace treaties", "peace agreements" and even "peace arrangements" all have a place in policy discussions. But policy arguments that posit "peace" as the pay-off are not just intellectually dishonest. They are dangerously deceptive. The hyper-optimistic "best case scenario" assumptions that all so often accompany the line of thinking that we are talking about achieving some kind of idyllic "peace" serve to dangerously underestimate Israel's needs or the risks Israel faces under the "peace" arrangements. Consider that Shimon Peres genuinely argued at one point that Israel's security interests could be secured in a deal with Syria if there were classy hotels operating on the Golan Heights. That's not to say that there isn't a value for agreements. Just that they must be recognized for what they are and what they aren't. Pieces of paper cannot guarantee peace. They can provide a framework for relations. But if a party to a piece of paper determines its interests would be best served by violating the piece of paper then that's exactly what they will do. That's the paradox of "land for piece of paper": the greater the Israeli security concessions for a piece of paper, the greater the chances that the Arabs ultimately turn their backs on the deal. Dr. Aaron Lerner is Director of IMRA, Independent Media Review and Analysis, an Israel-based news organization which provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict. Its website address is http://www.imra.org.il Write him at imra@netvision.net.il |
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THE DIVINE POLITICAL PLAN
Posted by Moshe Feiglin, July 31, 2008. |
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"And you shall drive out the inhabitants of the land,
and dwell therein; for I have given the land to you to possess it.
This week's Torah portion provides us with the most realistic political plan that exists. The State of Israel must foster a reality in which the entire Land of Israel is in the hands of the Nation of Israel. It must not allow any part of the land to remain in foreign hands. If we give our land to foreign peoples, we will lose our own hold on the land and will eventually be forced to leave. Any political plan or solution that does not take this fact into account is nothing more than an illusion. Shabbat Shalom,
Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) is a group of people inside the Likud party who want to see Israel adopt a more Jewish character. Moshe Feiglin, its cofounder, has emphatically said he does not want a theocracy, but he does want a State based on Jewish values. The Manhigut Yehudit website address is http://www.manhigut.org. To learn more about Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) and to read their plan for Israel's future, visit www.jewishisrael.org. Or contact Shmuel Sackett, International Director (516) 330-4922 (cell) |
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ALARMING: SECRET NUCLEAR BOMB MFG DISCOVERED IN IRAN
Posted by Nurit Greenger, July 31, 2008. |
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Now there is no doubt Iran is working on the bomb. This should remove all belief of good faith negotiations. Congress should now move ahead with full force to enact tougher sanctions –– no more talks. It seems that only Israel will have the courage to attack Iran's nuclear sites; this newly discovered one is not under ground. The first one below is entitled "Secret N-plant discovered at Al-Zarqan area.'" Now there is no doubt Iran is working on the bomb. This should remove all belief of good faith negotiations. Congress should now move ahead with full force to enact tougher sanctions –– no more talks. It seems that only Israel will have the courage to attack Iran's nuclear sites; this newly discovered one is not under ground. The second one is called "The Hollow Regime: Bragging in Tehran," and was written by Michael Ledeen. |
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KUWAIT CITY : A secret nuclear bomb manufacturing center at Al-Zarqan Area in Al-Ahwaziya Region, which was first established in 2000, was discovered recently, highly reliable sources told Al-Seyassah. Sources from Al-Ahwaziya claimed Tehran has started building a secret nuclear plant for manufacturing atomic bombs in Al-Zarqan Area near Al-Ahwaz City in southwest Iran and its border with Iraq. Sources said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is not aware of this plant since it was not included in negotiations with Iran held in Geneva at the beginning of this month. Sources revealed Iran started implementing the project some time between 2000 and 2003, which led to the evacuation of a large number of Arab tribes from the area to Al-Zarqan. Sources added the Tehran administration vacated the location, destroyed all the houses, wells and farms, and started full implementation of the project in 2007. Disclosing Tehran directed international A-bomb inspectors to other places, sources warned the project poses a very serious threat to international security. Sources affirmed the Iranian authorities built a three-meter high wall around the project site, which allegedly measures thousands of kilometers. Sources added IAEA inspectors focused on other Iranian nuclear plants, such as Dour Khawain in Al-Ahwaz and Bu Shahri reactor, because the Iranian government diverted the international media's attention from the secret nuclear plant. Sources asserted the Iranian government is currently working on another nuclear program touted to be more dangerous than Bu Shahri. Intensified According to sources, intensified security efforts raised doubts on the legality of the activities in the area, especially after observing a heavy presence of Revolutionary Guards which, sources pointed out, indicates the importance of the area. Reportedly, Al-Ahwaziya –– an Islamic Sunni organization –– in coordination with National Society for Arabstan State, started investigations on the activities in the area. The organization allegedly received documents from the company in charge of the project that frequently transports employees to and from the project site. After a thorough investigation, sources said the organization uncovered plans of the Iranian regime to build an A-bomb plant in the area. Attached with a report about the alleged plant are documents from the office of the assistant of Revolutionary Guard Chief in Al-Ahwaz City Brigadier Hassan Jalaliyan –– dated April 7, 2008 –– and stamped as "highly confidential". Sources revealed 'Al-Zarqan Nuclear Reactor' was the subject of a letter from Jalaliyan to the manager of Mehab Qudus Company for Construction and Supervisory, Mohammed Kayafir. In the letter, Jalaliyan allegedly asked Kayafir to secretly transport the construction materials from the warehouse to the nuclear reactor center, emphasizing that citizens should not question the purpose and destination of the materials. Recruit Jalaliyan has also instructed Kayafir not to recruit Arabic-speaking workers from Khuzestan for the construction of Al-Zarqan Nuclear Reactor. He said employees, including the administration staff, should all be recruited from the northern parts of the country. National Society for Arabstan State took satellite pictures of the location, which looked perfect for the construction of a nuclear reactor. It is near Karoon River which, sources say, will provide water for the project in addition to increasing the capacity of Al-Zarqan Power Plant. The site is more suitable for building a nuclear reactor than Bu Shahri, which is close to American bases and Dour Khuwain Plant located in an open area and an easy target. Al-Zarqan Nuclear Reactor is in the middle of very highly populated areas, making it a very difficult target due to a possibility that the Iranian authorities will use civilians as human shields. Iranian authorities had also closed the main road between the plant and Karoon River to install main water pipes, sources added. Al-Seyassah Report "The Hollow Regime: Bragging in Tehran."
The Iranian regime has two fundamental instruments of power, whether at home or abroad: terror and deception. Both are dramatically on display. This past Sunday, 30 people were executed for a variety of alleged "crimes," and a number of whom lost their lives because they dared to criticize the regime. This wave of executions in the world's second-most active killer of its own citizens (China tops the list) coincides with the anniversary of the resumption of public hangings last August, which was viewed as "sending a message" to would-be critics and anyone in the West who might be tempted to support Iranian dissidents. This weekend's victims were convicted of drug trafficking and disruptions of public order, and so far as I can tell the mass executions mark a new grisly watershed in the mullahs' ongoing terror war against their own people. This dramatic carnage surely bespeaks a profound insecurity in Tehran. It documents the fear that dominates the rulers' nightmares, the fear of their own people, who are the greatest threat to the survival of the mullahcracy. Many of the pundits, in public print and in the oxymoronically mislabeled "Intelligence Community," would have us believe that the regime is stable, and that the Iranian people have given up their hopes for freedom. But the mullahs' decision to carry out mass executions gives the lie to that analysis, as does the recent attack on a Revolutionary Guards convoy in the country's capital city. The RG are the pretorian guard of the regime, and if they cannot protect an armed column (apparently carrying arms to Hezbollah for the next campaign against Israel), they cannot protect anything. No wonder the Supreme Leader and his viziers are worried. This assault against the symbol of the mullahs' power is only the latest such event, and news of it arrived slowly in the West. But there have been several other attacks, including a bomb in a prominent mosque, and other RG units in areas of ethnic repression such as Baluchistan and the Arab zones near the Iraqi border. The RG are also doing badly on foreign battlefields. In Iraq, its agents and officers are now routinely killed and arrested — often without putting up a fight — by Coalition and Iraqi security forces. This report from the U.S. Armed Forces Press Service is typical: ... coalition forces captured two suspected Special Groups leaders in Baghdad today. These key leaders were taken in the Rusafa district of Baghdad. Coalition and Iraqi forces continued operations over the weekend discovering a number of arms caches, capturing al-Qaida terrorists, discovering roadside bombs and attacking terror and criminal networks. In Rusafa, coalition forces used intelligence information to locate and capture an Iranian-trained senior leader of Special Groups criminals. The agent of Iran is responsible for attacks against Iraqi security and coalition forces as well as kidnappings and smuggling of weapons from Iran to Iraq. He was captured without incident. Coalition forces also captured another Special Groups criminal in a separate Rusafa district operation. He is a senior leader responsible for supplying weapons, money and logistical support to subordinate Special Groups commanders. He also provides fighters as reinforcements to areas in need — making his role crucial for sustained operations by Special Groups in the area. He, also, was captured without incident. The Special Groups took another hit when Iraqi special operations forces detained two other criminals in Baghdad, July 24 and 25. . . . One of those detained was associated with improvised rocket-assisted mortar attacks. The other man is reportedly responsible for weapons trafficking from Iran into Diyala. The mullahs know that the domestic and foreign fronts are linked, for Iran's humiliating defeat in Iraq is greatly encouraging to the dissidents at home. Khamenei, Ahmadinejad, and the others are doing everything in their power to deceive Iranians (perhaps including themselves) into believing that they are winning in Iraq and Afghanistan, that the Coalition is teetering, and that all opposition to the regime is hopeless. To that end, the mullahs routinely resort to the most shameless forms of deceit. The most hilarious — bringing back memories of al-Qaeda's claim to have captured an American soldier, only to have the "hostage" turn out to be a G.I. Joe toy — was the recent photo of a "new warplane," which on examination was another plastic toy. This was of a piece with the Photoshopped "evidence" of "new Iranian missiles," which was doubly deceptive: it was an old missile, not (as claimed) a new one, and there was only one of "them," not (as claimed) four launched simultaneously. Alongside these hoaxes, designed to convince their people and the West that Iran is a mighty military power, Iranian leaders brag about their economic power as well. It's another hoax; every Iranian knows that the country is a basket case. I doubt many simple souls were impressed (except to laugh bitterly at the outrageousness of the assertion) by Ahmadinejad's promise that Iran would soon be the world's leading economic power. They know better; they are paying a terrible price in misery for the incompetence of their kleptocrats. They know that the regime spends a fortune on the nuclear program, another fortune to support terror abroad, and pockets yet another fortune. So there's nothing left for "the economy." All these bits of deception are aimed at maintaining and expanding the power of the regime, despite its many manifest failures, despite the contempt in which it is held by the majority of Iranians, and despite its quasi-pariah status in the international community. So far, it has worked. No government in the West has seen fit to support the Iranian dissidents. Some European labor unions have given at least verbal support to the Iranian workers' organizations, but not the AFL-CIO, a pathetic shadow of the brave organization that supported freedom in the Soviet Empire. And the American government, Seymour Hersh and other fabulists notwithstanding, has done nothing of consequence to challenge the regime, and so far as anybody knows, has no intention of doing any such thing. We act in such a feckless way as to permit the mullahs to say to their people, "you see, the Americans are afraid of us. They will do nothing. You have no hope." And the hell of it is that the Islamic Republic is hollow, as its own behavior and its own results on the battlefield prove abundantly. Lots of Iranian people know that the mullahs are losing Iraq, and more of them would know if we had a more accurate and honest press, and an administration capable of explaining the world, and its reaction to it. Still, the Iranians know a lot. Iranians are among the most avid surfers of the internet; they are second in the world (to the Chinese) in the use of "anti-filtering" software (manufactured by the Chinese). So when Iranian deceptions are exposed by American journalists or bloggers, many Iranian people find out about it. And more would find out if Western governments saw fit to provide them with the tools of the modern world: laptops, servers, cell and satellite phones, phone cards, and the like. Our miserable policy, which is to chant "we don't want regime change, we want a change in behavior," is doomed, as the whole world has known from the get-go. Paradoxically, this non-aggressive policy is destined to make military conflict inevitable, whoever is the next president. This policy is a preemptive acquiescence to a nuclear Iran, with all the incalculable consequences attendant to it, and is guaranteed to bring us face to face with the Sarkozy option of "Bomb Iran, or Iran With the Bomb." And yet, the Iranian regime is hollow. So far as we know, they are without atomic bombs and a reliable delivery system. We have defeated them in Iraq and will repeat it in Afghanistan. Their economy is a shambles, their people hate them, they present us with Potemkin weapons systems. It is a political explosion ready to happen, it only needs the support of the West. Mainly, us, although I think we would get the support of the French and Italians at a minimum, and perhaps the Danes as well. But we seem bound and determined to wait until the mullahs don't need deception any more. I wrote a book about this sort of policy many years ago. It was called Freedom Betrayed; How American Won the Cold War, led a Global Democratic Revolution, and Walked Away. Still seems right. Michael Ledeen is author, most recently, of The Iranian Time Bomb: The Mullah Zealots' Quest for Destruction. |
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PEACE ACTIVISTS ––
AH TEN SHUN
Posted by Rachel Golem, July 30, 2008. | ||
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Contact Rachel Golem by email at rachelg@rachelgolem.com and visit her website: www.rachelgolem.com |
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THE THIRD LEBANON WAR
Posted by Mark Silverberg, July 30, 2008. |
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There is something to be learned from the frenzied love-fest given in Beirut in mid-July to the most notorious of the Lebanese prisoners released by Israel. Samir Kuntar was sentenced to 542 years in prison for killing four people during a raid in 1979. Kuntar executed a father (Danny Haran) in front of his 4-year-old daughter, then killed the little girl by smashing her head against a rock with a rifle butt. But to the Lebanese, Kuntar is a returning hero. He walked down a red carpet in Beirut. He was kissed by the Hezb'allah leader and cheered like a rock star. In the southern port city of Sidon, posters of Kuntar adorned the streets and walkways as children rode by on their bicycles, no doubt dreaming of the day that they too could become "heroes" by murdering "Zionist" children.
it would appear that Kuntar's return was not merely being celebrated by Hezb'allah supporters, but by the Lebanese people and their leaders. Barry Rubin of the Global Research in International Affairs Center in Israel has observed: "What horrifies me most are not radicals cheering terrorist Samir Kuntar, but that most relative moderates feel compelled to do so. At the airport to greet him were leaders of Lebanon's anti-Syrian, anti-Iranian Druze and Christian groups as well as the ambassadors from Egypt, Jordan, the UAE and Morocco. To avoid being discredited, relative moderates must affirm that anyone who murders Israeli children is a hero." It can of course be argued that Lebanese politics requires such posturing in order to create the illusion of national unity, but such posturing over the return of genocidal terrorists like Samir Kuntar may have significant consequences should a Third Lebanon War erupt. During the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006, the Siniora government was internationally recognized as a moderate counter-balance to Hezb'allah in Lebanon. That international respectability prevented Israel from attacking a broad range of Lebanese targets requiring it to restrict its attacks primarily to Hezb'allah missile launching sites, the Haret Hreik district of south Beirut where Hezb'allah and its Al Manar television station were headquartered, the major airport runways at Beirut's Rafiq Hariri International Airport (used to transit Hezb'allah military personnel and weapons), the fuel reservoirs of the power station in Jiyyeh, twenty bridges over the Litani and Zahrani Rivers, a main highway leading to Beirut International Airport and two Lebanese military airfields (as a warning to the Lebanese military to stay out of what was then seen as a purely Israeli-Hezb'allah conflict). But events in recent months have altered the Lebanese political landscape in favor of Hezb'allah, Syria and Iran –– blurring the lines between non-state and state actors. Hezb'allah together with its foreign paymasters is now seen as the undisputed power-broker of Lebanon and the Lebanese government is gradually being relegated to puppet-status. Hezb'allah holds veto power in the Lebanese parliament. The Lebanese Army is working with Hezb'allah in south Lebanon and recently refused to intervene when pro-government forces were confronted by Hezb'allah militias. The true military power in Lebanon today rests with Hezb'allah. The important decisions relating to matters of war, peace and diplomacy are being made and conducted by Hezb'allah. The border region with Israel is now being militarized under Hezb'allah, and the power to carry out acts of war against Israel such as further kidnappings and the firing of missiles from southern Lebanon into Israeli civilian population centers rests solely with Hezb'allah. In effect, by celebrating the return of Kuntar, the Lebanese have made (or at least created the perception of having made) common cause with Hezb'allah against Israel and in so doing, they risk sharing Hezb'allah's fate. The massive support shown for Kuntar throughout Lebanon, if taken at face value, has effectively re-defined the status of the Lebanese government (and, by extension, the Lebanese people) as the enemy of Israel. Giora Eiland, the former chief of Israel's National Security Council noted in Ynet News: "The only way to prevent another war is to make it clear that should war break out, Lebanon may be razed to the ground. Not only will the Lebanese government fear it, so would Hezb'allah . . . This will deter the group, if it realizes that aggression on its part would result in destruction that would outrage the population and turn it against Hezb'allah." In effect, in the event of a Third Lebanon War, a vast array of strategic targets throughout Lebanon would no longer be immune from Israeli retaliation. By making common cause with Hezb'allah, the Lebanese stand to reap the whirlwind. The destruction of Lebanon would be a horrible outcome, but to the Israelis it is doubtless preferable to the destruction of Israel. Deterrence of further conflict is the preferred alternative. If Israel makes it clear that should war occur, it is the country as a whole, not just Hezb'allah that will suffer, perhaps cooler heads will prevail in Lebanon. The costs of the Second Lebanon War in terms of $5.6B in damages, 1,200 Lebanese killed and over 4,000 injured would pale by comparison if Hezb'allah-led Lebanon engages Israel. The national celebrations for Kuntar in Lebanon, and that nation's embrace of this murderer and his genocidal compatriots, not only reveal (again) the depths of Hezb'allah's moral bankruptcy, but also the readiness of other Lebanese to follow it into the abyss. Mark Silverberg is a senior writer for The New Media Journal. He is Executive Director Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania and an attorney with Degrees in Political Science and International Relations. His works on Islamic terrorism, American foreign policy and Middle East affairs have been published in numerous scholarly journals, periodicals, newspapers and on the Internet; he is the author of The Quartermaster of Terror: Saudi Arabia and the Global Islamic Jihad (Wyndham Hall Press, 2005). |
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YOSSI EZRA'S RETURN TO HEBRON
Posted by David Wilder, July 30, 2008. |
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A few weeks ago, I bumped into some journalists in the Avraham Avinu neighborhood. Seeing me, they asked about various problems, including threatened expulsion from several buildings here in Hebron. Finishing up their interview, they concluded by saying/asking, "I guess you don't have too much to be happy about with all of these problems." My answer: "No, you are wrong. We have a tremendous reason to be in high spirits. The very fact that we are here is reason to celebrate. The fact that today there are some 90 families and well over 300 children in Hebron, in five neighborhoods, is reason to celebrate. The fact that we are still in Beit HaShalom a year after having moved in, despite all the attempts to expel us, is something of a miracle and reason to celebrate. "True, there are problems. There always have been problems and almost always will be –– but what of it? That's the way life is. True, it could be easier; but taking into consideration where we were 60 years ago and 40 years ago, as well as the kinds of politicians running the country and the pressures from so many different sources, the very fact that we are in Hebron at all is, in my eyes, nothing less than a Divine miracle. And for that, we are truly happy." One of the seeming issues we have today is the right to purchase property in Hebron, and the legitimacy of construction on Jewish-owned land. For example a couple of weeks ago, on a Friday morning, we had a special visitor in Hebron. Yosef Ezra was born in Hebron in the early 1930's. However, as he related to us, his family history in Hebron goes back over 400 years. Following the expulsion from Spain in 1492, Jews scattered all over the world. Yossi Ezra's family made their way from Spain to Eretz Yisrael, and settled here in Hebron. They lived here continuously until the expulsion immediately after the 1929 riots and massacre, but returned with a small group of families in 1931.
Most of those families were again expelled in the spring of 1936. However, one family remained in Hebron: The Ezra family. Yossi's father, Ya'akov, processed dairy products and sold them to Arabs in the city. He refused to leave. He would work in Hebron during the week and return to his family in Jerusalem for Shabbat. Many times his children would come with him, running around in the streets and alleys of Hebron and playing with Arab kids. Until November 29, 1947, that is. The United Nations approved the partition plan, dividing Eretz Yisrael between the Jews and Arabs. The Jewish leadership in Israel accepted the plan. The Arabs rejected it and declared war. Ya'akov Ezra's friends told him, "When you go to Jerusalem for Shabbat, don't come back any more." Only then was the Ezra family, 450 years in Hebron, exiled from the home. That lasted for 19 years. Following the 1967 Six-Day War, the Ezras wanted to return to Hebron and their age-old property. But all requests fell on deaf ears. Moshe Dayan and others weren't interested in Jews returning to Hebron and refused to speak to them. But today, things have changed. Yossi Ezra comes into the Avraham Avinu neighborhood like a long lost child coming home. Looking around behind the destroyed Jewish homes in the old "Arab shuk," he declares, "All this was an olive grove that my father worked. Twelve dunam (1,000 square meters –– 10,700 feet) of land –– all of it here belonged to my father. Here, you see this mosque? My father built it on his land for the Arabs who worked here, so they'd have a place to pray. All the buildings here are on my family's property." Yossi Ezra has been instrumental in assisting Hebron over the past few months. A few years ago the community built a small apartment called Beit Ezra, underneath Beit Nachum v'Yehuda, in an abandoned Arab shop –– itself built on Ezra's property. A military appeals panel recently ruled that the Arabs have no claim to that land. When the three judges visited the site, Ezra pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. "My father paid the water bill here. This is the receipt, from 1932." A few meters away, inside the Avraham Avinu shul, Yossi Ezra carefully examines an ancient Sefer Torah, explaining that it was written in the 1100's and brought to Hebron by his ancestors. Yossi Ezra is an authentic example of Hebron's fascinating history, blending the past, the present and the future. However, the following should be clear: I mentioned earlier about "the seeming issues" plaguing Hebron, as illustrated by the struggle to continuing living in "Beit Ezra." But the roots of the issues are much deeper and, in truth, have nothing to do with building or purchasing today. Not too long ago, a group of government representatives visited Hebron. While standing outside Ma'arat HaMachpela discussing various ways to improve conditions at the holy site, one of the young "legal experts" piped up, "But there's a problem here because Ma'arat HaMachpela is registered as belonging to the Waqf, the Muslim religious trust." One of the Hebron men scratched his head, looked at the lawyer, and reacted. "Gee, I remember reading somewhere that it was registered with someone who preceded Muhammad. Avraham, I think his name was." This is the real issue! When Jews in the State of Israel of 2008 can conjure up such a statement as, "Ma'arat HaMachpela belongs to the Arabs" (while keeping in mind that they wouldn't allow Jews access to this site for 700 years), it's clear that something in our national and religious psyche is tainted. On the other hand there is a cure, a medicine to alleviate all such ills. On the same day that Yossi Ezra visited Hebron, I came upon a large group outside in the Machpela garden. A group of first-graders from Efrat had come to celebrate the conclusion of studying Chumash Bereishit –– the Book of Genesis. The festivity included a wonderful play, depicting Abraham's purchase of the Caves of Machpela almost 4,000 years ago. This is the recipe to heal such a disease that threatens to destroy our roots: children outside Ma'arat HaMachpela, acting out the purchase of this sacred site. In reality, it's not only a play. It's reality! Every day, Jews who visit, pray and identify with this hallowed place are recreating and reinforcing –– with their very presence –– Jewish ownership of our land. This is our strength, our legacy, and our future. Yossi Ezra represents where we came from. These children represent where we are going. It's a good thing Abraham didn't need anyone's permission to buy Ma'arat HaMachpela. Just as Hebron is important, so much more so is Temple Mount in Jerusalem. A petition calling on the State of Israel to open Temple Mount to Jewish worship appears on the web. It's opening sentence is: The Temple Mount is the holiest place in the world to the Jewish people; yet Jews are denied the right to pray in groups, and even as individuals; this refusal is accompanied by their constant degradation, and they are granted no opportunity for any religious expression whatsoever on the Temple Mount. Anyone interested in reading the entire petition and signing it,
can view it at:
Please participate in this holy mission!
David Wilder is spokesman of The Jewish Community of Hebron. You
can contribute directly to The Jewish Community of Hebron, POB10,
Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100, hebron@hebron.org.il, 972-2-9965333 or write
to The Hebron Fund, 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230,
hebronfund@aol.com
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JEWS ARRESTED FOR RECLAIMING JEWISH JERUSALEM LAND
Posted by Lee Caplan, July 30, 2008. |
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This was written by Ze'ev Ben-Yechiel and it appeared in Arutz-Sheva (www.IsraelNN.com). |
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(IsraelNN.com) A group of 160 Jewish activists entered a Jerusalem property belonging to a Jew on Wednesday, to reclaim ownership of the property from Arabs who began to build an illegal structure there. Despite attempts by Border Guard officers to evacuate the Jews, the activists succeeded in staying long enough for them to declare the property returned to Jewish hands before some 150 were arrested and taken for questioning by Jerusalem District police. The property consists of a number of trailer homes on approximately 5 acres (20 dunams) of land in the Ras Hamis neighborhood of northern Jerusalem, between French Hill and Anata. The caravans on the property do not have electricity or running water. According to real estate agent Aryeh King, the group obtained permission to enter and take control of the property from owner Eliyahu Cohanim, a resident of Ramat Gan. The land is part of the Eastern Gate compound that the Jerusalem Municipality has planned as a Jewish residential area and industrial park. "We did this after the Arabs started this week to build an illegal structure on the spot, this is after the municipality has already demolished a structure on this property once before," King said. Although the property belongs to a Jew who gave them permission to come, and King's group notified police in advance of their arrival, a group of Border Guard police officers arrived Wednesday morning and told the activists to leave the property. The activists refused to comply with the order and remained. Several days ago Border Guard officers succeeded in preventing the group from entering the property. The Palestinian Authority has also submitted a program for construction in the area, including the plot of land belonging to Cohanim. There has been widespread illegal Arab construction throughout Judea and Samaria in recent years. According to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), a senior PA official boasted that Arabs have built 6,000 homes without permits during the last four years in Jerusalem alone, of which fewer than 200 were demolished by the city. Many of the illegal Arab homes are being built on Jewish-owned land, according to Haaretz. The JCPA reports that "in the Jewish neighborhoods, illegal construction typically takes the form of additions to existing legal structures –– such as closing a balcony or hollowing out under a building to create an extra room. In the Arab sector, however, illegal construction often takes the form of entire multi-floor buildings with four to 25 living units, built with the financial assistance of the Palestinian Authority on land that is not owned by the builder." At the same time, the Israeli government has destroyed a much higher percentage of Jewish homes that do not meet the paperwork requirements. Olmert: 'No need to demolish illegal Arab homes, eastern Jerusalem will be given to PA' In 2006, King reported that Ehud Olmert, as the mayor of Jerusalem, ordered the municipality to destroy files that documented hundreds of illegal Arab building projects throughout eastern Jerusalem. In the report, published by World Net Daily, King asked the State Comptroller at the time to investigate the situation, following the publication of a local media report alleging that Ofir May, as head of the Jerusalem Department of building permits, erased the files. The files detailed over 300 cases of Arab construction on eastern Jerusalem deemed illegal starting from 1999. The local report alleged that the files were destroyed with the specific intent of allowing the statute of limitations on home demolitions to run out, making it impossible to destroy the illegal Arab homes. "Ehud Olmert gave the order not to deal with the problem and not to put Israeli security forces to the duty of taking down the illegal Arab complexes. Senior municipal workers told me Olmert said not to bother with the illegal Arab homes because eventually eastern Jerusalem would be given to the Palestinian Authority," said King. See also:
"Palestinians violently stone Israelis"
Contact Lee Caplan at leescaplan@yahoo.com
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OBAMA: REMEMBER WHAT YOU SEE HERE
Posted by Paula Stern, July 30, 2008. |
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This was the wise advice someone called out to Barack Obama during a visit to Yad Vashem recently. Remember what you see here. What did Obama see while in Israel? The answer, sadly, is what he thought American Jews wanted him to see in order to capture their vote. He met with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and to hedge his bets, he met with Opposition Leader Binyamin Netanyahu. He had dinner with Shimon Peres and met with the deservedly-beleaguered prime minister. Beyond that, he reportedly went to three sites: the Western Wall, the National Holocaust Museum (Yad VaShem) and Sderot. Perhaps an amazing accomplishment for the whirlwind tour of about 36 hours, but a visit filled with messages sent and received, nonetheless. Do these three sites represent Israel? Certainly, that would be a message he'd want to send back to American Jews, no? Perhaps he is correct as far as the American voter is concerned, but isn't it interesting that all three sites essentially symbolize our weakness more than our strength? The Western Wall has been called our holiest site, and no doubt this is the way Obama's advisors presented it to him. A must-see and must-be-seen-at location, they'd have told him. But did anyone tell him that our holiest site is actually beyond reach; hidden just behind the Wall? It is there, just above the Wall, the Temple Mount, buried in ruins below three Arab mosques. "The Temple Mount is in our hands," Colonel Motta Gur announced over army radio in 1967. An elated country knew this was the symbol of our victory, our greatest success –– the Temple Mount, not the Western Wall. It was an amazing moment in our history. After 2000 years, the Temple Mount was finally back in our hands, and then, as we have seen too often in Israel, the Israeli government caved into international pressure and surrendered. What great idiocy allowed Moshe Dayan to simply hand the keys and the area back to the Arabs after we had recaptured it, we will never understand. The Western Wall, the last remnant of what was, is holy and special and ours, but it is not, as so many claim, our holiest site. Today, the Temple Mount is all but denied to us. Our people are arrested if they dare move their lips silently in prayer during the short time we might be allowed to visit. Days will go by when we are banned from entering and much of the world still idiotically believes that the Second Intifada was birthed in a seemingly immaculate conception after Ariel Sharon briefly visited the site in 2000. The Western Wall is a symbol of what we have lost, more than it is a symbol of what we are. Remember what you saw, Obama, and what you did not. Yad Vashem, another Obama photo op, is a very important site in Israel. We drag all our international visitors there as regularly as the clock ticks and the sun rises. There amid cameras and solemn faces, they lay a wreath and mouth platitudes of shock and shame. Sadly, it is doubtful that Obama or any of these visitors actually gain any real understanding of the Holocaust during these short visits. It's another must-be-seen-at place. By my best estimates, Barack Obama could not have spent more than an hour there, including the requisite dance of the wreath. The last time I visited, I spent almost three hours wandering through each exhibit, watching the videotaped stories, the horrible films shot during the Nazi era, the collection of pictures and personal items that remain long after the people were murdered. I have been to Auschwitz and Maidanek, Chelmno and Treblinka. I have stood in a gas chamber, faced the crematoria. I've walked the streets of the ghettos and touched the graves and still, three hours wasn't enough, though it was all I could stand. But Obama didn't have to understand the Holocaust and its significance. All he had to do was stand and have his picture taken as he gently bowed towards the eternal flames and then on with his busy itinerary. Lunch and a visit with the president, more comments and pictures. Next stop, Sderot. Another calculated miscalculation. Sderot is not a symbol of our strength, but of our ongoing shame. From the inside, it is a story of resistance and determination, but that honor goes only to those who live there. They deserve our praise for withstanding thousands of rockets and mortars, for living despite the fear. But, for the rest of Israel and the world, Sderot is about our failure to protect, our refusal to stop the rockets. It is about our ignoring the agony and danger of the people who live there because of world pressure. Sderot is about our ongoing delusion that peace can be achieved if you simply ignore reality. Remember, Obama, what you saw in Israel. But perhaps more important, remember what you didn't see. In your brief visit here, what you failed to see, essentially, was the very country you came to visit. Next time, if you wish to see Israel, ask us, not your advisors and perhaps not even the American Jews. You didn't see Masada, symbol of our commitment to stay in this land at all costs. You didn't see my son's army base, where he and others train and protect our land. You didn't see the great universities, like the one my daughter attends or the one where my mother teaches. You didn't see our new Supreme Court building or the Knesset, where democracy lives in our country. You didn't see the hustling hi-tech areas in Haifa, Gush Dan, Jerusalem and elsewhere. This is where Israelis develop amazing inventions and technologies that astound the world and save lives. You didn't go to the Golan Heights to understand how it towers above northern Israel, protecting almost a quarter of our people or see the tanks and planes with which we defend Israel. You didn't visit any of our hospitals, where Jew and Arab are treated equally by some of the best doctors in the world and where Palestinian children such as Doa'a Ayad and Farah Bacher were treated despite ongoing rocket fire and hostilities. Obama didn't go to Theodore Herzl's grave or Ben Gurion's –– both great symbols of Israel's Zionist beginnings and he didn't shake the hand of Ya'akov Asahel, a 53-year-old father of eight and grandfather of six who bravely faced and shot the second bulldozer terrorist in Jerusalem in recent weeks. The attack took place only hours before Obama arrived, and only minutes from the hotel where he would stay. Barack Obama shook the hand of Abu Mazen, who was convicted of planning the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro, during which a wheelchair-bound American Jewish man, Leon Klinghoffer was thrown into the sea. Obama shook the hand of several Israeli politicians, why not shake the hand of a Ya'akov Asahel, a man who represented bravery and honor? Masada, the Golan Heights, our hospitals and hi-tech stars all didn't rate a visit. In the end, three places did, and each in some way represents our weakness and our defeat. One could ask Barack Obama why flying over Sderot was more important than flying over the Golan; why shaking Olmert's hand was more important than shaking Asahel's hand. Why did Barack Obama and his advisors think that American Jews wanted to see Israel's weakness and not its strength? I don't know what Obama will remember of his trip here, but the greater message may well be his affinity with the sites that show our weakness. Perhaps the best legacy of the Obama visit should be to remember what he chose to see and where he chose to be seen. This is on Paula Stern's website: Paula Says. It is archived at
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FROM ISRAEL: HOW ABOUT THAT!!!
Posted by Arlene Kushner, July 30, 2008. |
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Would have sworn it wouldn't happen and it has: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has announced that after Kadima elects a new leader in its September 17 primary, he will resign from office to give his successor a chance to form a new coalition. Originally he had said that he would only step down if the newly elected head of Kadima succeeded in forming a new government and there were not going to be elections. This sounds different. ~~~~~~~~~~ Olmert went on to protest his innocence with regard to the investigations in process now, and vowed to vigorously defend himself. My own take is that he smells an indictment coming and saw this as the graceful way to bow out. ~~~~~~~~~~ The process that will unfold after his resignation: The resignation of the prime minister includes the resignation of his entire government. President Shimon Peres will then consult with various political factions in the Knesset and charge the head of one with attempting to form a new government. ~~~~~~~~~~ It is assumed that this person will be the newly elected head of Kadima, but this is not a given. As to who will head Kadima: Livni and Mofaz are both furiously vying for the position, with Olmert, who at this point despises Livni, working as he can to help Mofaz come out ahead. Others are also in the running but with smaller showings in the polls. ~~~~~~~~~~ That person, whoever it will be, will have 28 days to put together a stable government; if he deems it appropriate, Peres can extend the time by 14 days. If the selected faction head still cannot put together a coalition, then Peres will select another MK heading another faction to make the same effort to form a coalition. There are predictions –– about which I will not comment here –– that forming a stable coalition with the current makeup of the Knesset will not be easy. If no coalition is formed, the nation goes to elections, to be held within 90 days. Then after elections, a coalition must be formed to create a stable government –– and it can assumed that the head of the faction that secured the most mandates would be given the first opportunity to do this. ~~~~~~~~~~ It must be noted that, even though Defense Minister Barak is head of the Labor faction, he cannot be chosen to form a coalition now because he doesn't currently sit in the Knesset. With regard to elections, polls show that head of the opposition, Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud), is the public's first choice. Netanyahu has been quiet of late, waiting for a process to unfold. He undoubtedly is smiling tonight. If, as predicted, his party were to come out ahead in an election, he would be chosen to form the next government. Two brief political observations here: Netanyahu and Barak have held some consultations of late, presumably about defense issues, with Barak briefing Netanyahu. But it is being speculated –– and it is just speculation at this point –– that there may be some sort of political cooperation coming down the road. This would mean Netanyahu was moving his supposedly centrist-right party left, but we'll need to see how things unfold. What adds to this speculation is the fact that Uzi Dayan has just announced he was joining the Likud party and was promised a leadership role. On the basis of his political positions, I would have expected Dayan to go with Labor. This was a surprise. Dayan had formed the Tafnit party, which has a strong social agenda, but did not pass the electoral threshold for gaining a seat in the last election; presumably Tafnit backers would now support Likud. Seems Netanyahu is already building his coalition. ~~~~~~~~~~ If head of a political faction does succeed in putting together a new government within the allotted time, Olmert continues to run a caretaker government until that new government is in place. If the nation goes to elections, Olmert heads a caretaker government even longer –– until after the elections and the establishment of a coalition. And so we'll be seeing his face for some time yet, in spite of this announcement. The question remains as to how much damage he can do in his lame-duck position. Particularly is this the case with regard to negotiations with the PA. ~~~~~~~~~~ MK Aryeh Eldad (NU/NRP), speaking after Olmert's press conference, said that Olmert was "the most failure-ridden and corrupt leader in Israel's history." The fact that Olmert would be resigning his position in a few weeks' time, Eldad said, was "the only good news Olmert managed to supply in his time in office." Sadly for our nation, there is enormous truth to this. Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info |
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JOY SHORT LIVED –– OLMERT DIDN'T RESIGN
Posted by Delta Vines, July 30, 2008. |
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Oh Joy of joys! When I first heard Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, had resigned, I was elated! Oh yea, let's dance in the streets and sing at the top of our lungs! The people of Israel would not have the threat of Olmert handing over their land to those who seek to destroy them anymore! SCREEEEEEEEECH!!!!!!!! The brakes went on when I found out the truth. You see, I equated the word "resign" with "stepped down". Silly me. PM Olmert has not stepped down. He has not resigned. He has just given us his intentions. That, and took the opportunity to proclaim his innocence from serious legal charges against him. Oh, yes, and reminded the Israeli people of all his accomplishments while in office. Uh huh, a true politician! In an article from Reuters, Olmert is reported to have said "I have decided I won't run in the Kadima movement primaries, nor do I intend to intervene in the elections." Olmert was referring to his ruling centrist party from his official residence in Jerusalem. Well, the U.S., PA, and other Kadima Party members aren't worried about Olmert's participation in peace talks. Barak and Livni are in the U.S. even now holding talks regarding handing over the Golan Heights for a tissue thin promise of peace from Syria. (How quickly we forget the history of residents of the Galilee having to dodge bullets when Syria previously held the Golan). As if to reinforce how un-needed PM Olmert is to these "peace talks", Ha'aretz reported the following in one of its articles: Israeli and Palestinian negotiators plan to continue talks toward a peace deal despite Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's announcement that he intends to resign following party primaries in the ruling Kadima faction later this year, a Palestinian official said on Wednesday. If everything is a matter of business-as-usual, what doesn't Olmert proceed to stepping down immediately? Because he is using great strategy that will keep him in office longer, regardless of charges brought against him. The resignation will not be in place until AFTER the Kadima primaries in September. That amounts to members of the Kadima party will vote to appoint a new Prime Minister from within their ranks. (Likud need not apply). I wonder how many people will still want to claim Kadima as their political party? The top contenders for the Kadima party Prime Minister are Livni or Mofaz; both would be equally as dangerous regarding safe-guarding Israeli's in these peace talks. Mofaz is Olmert's preference; Livni is much like an "Olmert clone". Either one would carry out Olmert's objective of "making peace" (aka national suicide). Some conjecture that former PM Ehud Barak (Labor party) will push for earlier general elections anyway. All interested candidatea have already been salivating; walking around Olmert much like vultures circling roadkill. But PM Olmert is not going away –– not yet. Israeli law is such that Ehud Olmert will continue as prime minister even after a new Kadima party leader is elected. That new party leader will have a few weeks to form a unity government, which means including members of other political parties. Olmert would leave office after that government is formed. However, if that government is not formed within that few weeks, new General Elections would then be called for. That means that despite announcing his resignation, PM Olmert could stay as Prime Minister of Israel until March or April of 2009! This would then give him more time to give away as much of the small country of Israel as he desires...all in the name of peace. No, Ehud Olmert has not gone away. He plans to stay for awhile. G-d help Israel before mankind helps himself TO Israel. Contact Delta Vines at delta_vines@sbcglobal.net. Visit her website:
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ANTI-JEWISH POLICE IN ISRAEL; PA'S SELECTIVE READING OF AGREEMENTS; MUSLIM KING'S SLANDER UNCHALLENGED
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 30, 2008. |
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THE NEW ISRAEL On being rescued from terrorists, a candidate for President of Columbia praised her government, saying that only Israel could have equaled that feat. She is behind the times. She is thinking of the old Israel and the Entebbe rescue. Israel doesn't rescue its prisoners any more. It makes lopsided prisoner exchanges to get them back murdered. It goes in for appeasement. It engages in a peace process with them, just as Columbia did until realizing that the terrorists that phony process to fasten its control over the countryside (Caroline Glick, IMRA, 7/13). The new Israel is what Peace Now and the New Israel Fund strive for. It is an Israel that will suffer, on the way to extinction. P.A. EMULATES HIZBULLAH ON PRISONERS, TOO The P.A. admires Hizbullah for kidnapping Israelis, in order to get its own prisoners released by Israel, in exchange. The P.A. intends to emulate Hizbullah, thinking that it cannot otherwise get prisoners released (Arutz-7, 7/13). But PM Olmert has announced intent to release many P.A. prisoners, simply at Abbas' request. If Olmert has asked anything much of Abbas, we haven't heard of it and Abbas hasn't done it. EXAMPLE OF ANTI-JEWISH POLICE STATE IN ISRAEL Shimshon Cytryn is the Jewish nationalist youth framed by illogical evidence for attempted murder of an Arab, during a stone-throwing fight for which no Arabs were indicted. Three years later, and after having served his prison sentence and married, prosecutors appealed his sentence. They claimed he is a racist, endangers Israel, and should be made an example of. The Supreme Court extended the completed sentence. Back to jail for Shimshon! (IMRA, 7/14). The US does not allow appeals and arbitrary extensions of completed sentences. Few of its prosecutions are political. The racists are on Israel's Supreme Court, which is anti-Jewish and fails to recognize that the youth was framed. WILL ISRAELIS WAKE UP OVER PRISONER EXCHANGE? The IDF is making plans to bury the Israelis whom Hizbullah is expected to release. Lebanese are making plans to celebrate the release of their live gunmen. Won't Israelis feel foolish! (IMRA, 7/14). Will they wake up? "PARDONED" WITHOUT BEING PARDONED? The trade of Jewish bodies for Muslim prisoners required release before sentence fully served. This was done by issuing a pardon. Pres. Peres said it does not mean forgiveness (IMRA, 7/15). Peres should beg our pardon. "Pardon" removes the taint of a crime, finding the convict not guilty or forgiven. P.A.'S SELECTIVE READING OF AGREEMENTS The P.A. accused Israel of violating the Oslo Accords by raiding Islamist institutions in Nablus, a city to which the Accords grant P.A. rule (IMRA, 7/14). The Accords also state that the P.A. is supposed to crack down on terrorism. The P.A. doesn't. That is a severe violation, defeating the Accords' purpose. The Accords also reserve overall security to Israel. Hence Israel did not violate the Accords. The Palestinian Arabs continually violate their agreements, but falsely accuse Israel of violating them. The media usually publishes the Arab accusations without explaining their falsity. Some "news" media! Israel should declare the Accords void and the Territories open to Jewish claims. FRANCE STILL CRAZY? ""President Sarkozy is personally interested in pursuing development of strategic ties with Syria." (IMRA, 7/14.) Why would France want strategic ties with part of the evil axis? RUSSIA BOOSTS TRADE TIES WITH S. ARABIA Trade and military ties are tightening. Pres. Putin is pleased (IMRA, 7/15). Why doesn't Russia boost ties with decent countries, too? Russia cuts off oil pipeline supplies to countries that don't obey Russian demands. HOW ISRAELI MEDIA TREATS THE PRISONER TRADE Declaring, "The boys are coming home," the media depicts the returnees as live soldiers, and avoids photographing their caskets. The media is publishing misleading propaganda in support of the government (IMRA, 7/15). I find it repulsive. Same for wives who, seeking "closure," agitate for an exchange that will make more widows, others and themselves. OFFERED WEAKNESS, IRAN SHOWS TRUCULENCE The permanent Security Council members and Germany offered Iran "...civilian nuclear power plants, economic assistance, new airplanes, agricultural assistance, hi-tech transfers and a freeze on the expansion of economic sanctions against the nuclear-weapons-seeking mullocracy. In exchange for all of that, the Iranians weren't even required to end their uranium enrichment activities." The offer implies that the major powers would let Iran develop nuclear weapons, but slower, as if heeding their order to stop developing them. If Iran wanted better relations, it would have accepted. Instead, it demanded more concessions. Its leaders reject all limitation, tested missiles, and threatened to destroy enemies. EU representative Solana has been negotiating with Iran for five years. He must be too embarrassed to admit that Iran was toying with him. Iran uses diplomacy as a cover for continuing nuclear development, now at an advanced stage. Solana mistakenly claims that negotiating does no harm. There is great harm in its letting a rogue state advance war potential and embarrassing him to suggest instead that the West simply should offer Iran more Pres. Sarkozy has similar hubris. He is legitimizing Syria, pretending that its plan to open an embassy in Lebanon recognizes Lebanon's independence rather than Iran's control over it. Sarkozy demanded that Israel give Lebanon a valuable observation post in the Golan, and then pretends to be an honest broker between Israel and Syria. Syria said it would not normalize relations with Israel, no matter how much of the Golan Israel were to give it. Sarkozy is working against his national interest, thinking he is puffing up France's importance (Caroline Glick, IMRA, 7/14). The way Iran rejected the offer is like the way Arafat rejected the offer PM BArak made to him. Many Muslim imperialists prefer conquering to accepting tribute. OTHER PROBLEMS FROM PRISONER EXCHANGE We've already heard that by making lopsided exchanges and by not having a death penalty for terrorists, Israel encourages kidnapping of its soldiers. The exchanges do additional harm. They treat war criminal terrorists as if POWs entitled to Geneva protection. They accept terrorism mistreatment of Israeli prisoners who are entitled to Geneva protection. Freeing so many terrorists degrades deterrence and criminal justice and boosts terrorist organizations' prestige (IMRA, 7/15). PRISONER EXCHANGE MISAPPLIED Two principles bear on prisoner exchange in Israel. The old Jewish principle holds that it is a duty to redeem captives, but not at so high a price as to encourage kidnappers to capture more. Israel violates that principle. An Israeli principle holds the government should strive hard to get captured or wounded troops home. Israel abuses that principle, because by trading for them dead or alive, it receives them dead. They never know the feeling of coming home. They know the feeling of being murdered, their murderers having been given an incentive by the State of Israel. There really is a third principle. Leaders, in this case PM Olmert, sacrifice their country's wealth and people, in order to posture, appear to have accomplished something, and avoid admitting mistakes. The Olmert regime has two added purposes: (1) Stay prosecutors' hands by following their ideological policy of appeasement of the enemy; (2) Favor the enemy, due to one's psychological disturbance in the form of an ideology of national suicide phrased in idealistic terms not based on reality. There is a similar phenomenon in the US. The supposed idealists are among the most vicious people, in their harmful results and their callousness about it. SHOULD JEWS MOVE TO ISRAEL? The Jewish people failed to send a critical mass into the homeland in the 1920s, in time to secure it. There aren't many Jews left, and between the anti-Zionist efforts of Britain and the government of Israel, there isn't enough critical mass of homeland left to provide secure borders. The government still is trying to draw foreign Jews in. Should they go? Religious Jews have Torah reasons for going. It is difficult to move where the government restricts, corrupts, dries out, and runs down the economy and the Jewish people. Worse, that government rewards enemies for murdering Israelis they capture. NOBODY CHALLENGES MUSLIM LEADER'S FALSEHOODS Denouncing extremism, the King of S. Arabia depicted Islam as moderate. He cited as the best example of religious tolerance Islam's early period. My newspaper pointed out that Islam started with a discriminatory tax on unbelievers and that his kingdom now teaches extremism. I'd add that Islam started out by exterminating resistant tribes and still approves of deceit. The Christian and Jewish leaders at the conference let him make his false claims unchallenged. What good can emerge from their silence about genocidal jihad? Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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PALESTINIANS JUST GOT A BILLION BUT CRYING FINANCIAL CRISIS AGAIN
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 30, 2008. |
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Why are the palestinians crying financial crisis again when they just got a billion dollars (incl. $562 million from US taxpayers) over the last 6-7 months? U.S. Is Largest Donor to Palestinian Authority. (psst, They're splitting it with HAMAS) |
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State Department Press Briefing, July 2, 2008 QUESTION: A Palestinian-related question. Apparently, Palestinian Prime Minister Fayyad has appealed to the World Bank to help him get emergency funding to bridge a shortfall in donor funds to pay their public workers. And I just wonder if you're going to get involved in this in any way. Maybe you would increase your contribution to the donor fund or there's some other way that you can help them bridge that shortfall? MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah. Let me look into the specifics of it. I hadn't seen that story. I know that we are involved on a regular basis in urging donors who have made pledges to fulfill their pledges. Very oftentimes, it's the case that donors are either slow to or fail to meet their commitments in terms of the Palestinians and often –– and you do very oftentimes get to these situations or close to these kind of situations where –– the Prime Minister Fayyad has a hard time meeting his payroll. Let me see if we can –– QUESTION: Okay. Thank you. MR. MCCORMACK: –– I'll look into this a little bit more, see if we can get you some more details. You have to hand it to Mr. McCormack. He dutifully came up with the details and sent them out in a press release. (This must be almost as important as the Fulbright Scholars.) QUESTION: Reports indicate that Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has reached out to the World Bank to secure emergency funding for public works. Is the Department of State aware of any appeal to the World Bank by the Palestinians? What has been the U.S. contribution to the Palestinians? Will the United States press the donors to assist the Palestinians? [NEW] Answer: We would refer you to the World Bank and Palestinian Authority for details on their communications with each other. It has been clear for some time that the Palestinian Authority faced a serious and imminent budget crisis. This is why we have been working urgently with the Palestinian Authority and our partners in the international community, in particular with regional partners committed to peace, to do everything possible to support the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people. As Secretary Rice said in May, "states that have resources ought to be looking not for how little they can do, but how much they can do." The United States remains the largest single state donor to the Palestinian Authority. We have provided $562 million in total assistance in 2008, surpassing our pledged level of $555 million. This includes
The United States remains firmly committed to supporting the Israelis and Palestinians with the resources and resolve of the American government as they work to realize peace. We continue to urge all donors to maximize their budgetary support for the Palestinian Authority during this critical time. So out of $920 million disbursed to the palestinians in the last six (now seven) months, the U.S. has contributed $562 million, or 61%. I'm no economist, but it seems to me that all these international donor conferences are adding up to a big ripoff of the American taxpayer. At first glance this response seems to be about the Arab countries not fulfilling their pledges. The palestinians will bleed this country dry if they can, and they'd turn on us in a nanosecond. They have no loyalty to us, no relationship. Meanwhile, the Arab countries won't pay up, but it won't affect their relationship with the palestinian leadership... because that's all about family, tribal, religious and ideological loyalties. Foggy Bottom doesn't seem to realize that we have none of that "infrastructure" with these people. They'll gladly take our money, hug our president, and then do exactly as they please (most likely having to do with killing Jews). Foggy Bottom doesn't have a clue, but they certainly do have a lot of Arabs and American Arabist sympathizers incessantly courting and pressuring them. Not that that's any excuse for the Bush administration selling out Israel against the will of the Congress and the electorate. Just think, how many times do you imagine a representative of Israel's interests bangs on Condi's door? vs. the multitudes of lobbyists for 22 Arab countries (most, if not all, with oil to sell). Let's face it, the Israel Lobby just isn't all it's cracked up to be. Makes me sick –– all that American taxpayer money to palestinians, and just like with Arafat, no transparency. And they're giving what, 40% to HAMAS? PA "President" Abu Mazen, Feb. 12th, 2008: "Hamas are our brothers and part of the Palestinian people." PA Prime Minister, Finance Minister & Foreign Minister Salam Fayyad, April 5th, 2008: "There is no solution for the troubles in Gaza, or for the rockets being fired from it ... All we can do is transfer funds to the Gaza Strip." How many more days does Condi have left? And how much damage can be done? Call your representatives in Congress. Since so many are running for re-election, they might just promise you they'll shut off the faucet to these liars, cheaters and thieves.
Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com
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ENDING LEBANON'S FREE RIDE
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 30, 2008. |
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This was written by Caroline Glick
and appeared in the Jerusalem Post
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Since Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora bowed to Hizbullah's demands in Doha last month and agreed to grant the Iranian-controlled, Syrian-supported terror group control over his government, Lebanon has become an official agent of a terror group. That is, Lebanon, as a state, has become a sponsor of terror. But no one seems to notice or to care. Truth be told, on the surface the situation in Lebanon is quite complicated. There is a power struggle of sorts going on today between Saniora's pro-Lebanese sovereignty March 14th movement and Hizbullah. Even in its diminished status, the March 14th movement is seeking to compel Hizbullah to subordinate its Iranian proxy army to the government. But this is an exercise in futility. As Hizbullah demonstrated clearly during its armed insurrection in May that led to the Doha agreement, and as it continues to demonstrate in its attacks against Sunni neighborhoods in Tripoli, it is fully willing to use its militia to force its political opponents to accept its complete independence. But then, while it is clear that the March 14th movement's leaders and supporters oppose Hizbullah's independence from central authority, it is far from clear that they oppose its terrorist operations. The fact of the matter is that none of Hizbullah's political opponents in Lebanon have anything but praise for its aggression against Israel and its clear intention to continue its war against Israel for its Iranian commanders. MAKING THIS point this week, Lebanon's Finance Minister Muhammad Shatah, explained, "We are all in agreement that it will be crazy not to benefit from Hizbullah resistance capabilities, but the dispute is whether this will be done within the state or outside." The widespread support that Hizbullah's terror war against Israel enjoys in Lebanon was prominently displayed on July 16 when convicted baby killer Samir Kuntar and his fellow Lebanese terrorists were released to Lebanon by Israel in exchange for the mutilated corpses of IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser who were killed in Hizbullah's raid on their military position in Israel on July 12, 2006. All of Lebanon's supposedly moderate leaders were at the Hizbullah-controlled Beirut airport to accord Kuntar a hero's welcome. President Michel Suleiman embraced Kuntar –– who crushed four-year-old Einat Haran's skull –– and his fellow terrorists as "our freed heroes." Sa'ad Hariri, the head of the March 14th movement, referred to Kuntar's release as "an historic day of joy." Saniora hailed the corpses-for-murderers swap explaining, "The success of Hizbullah in the negotiations led by a third party is a national success for the party and for the struggle of the Lebanese because it secured national goals which Israel always refused to respect." And Druse leader Walid Jumblatt hailed Kuntar's release as "a national holiday."
HIZBULLAH'S DOMESTIC intimidation and international terrorism is enabled by the Lebanese military which refuses to confront it. And this is nothing new. During the 2006 war, when Suleiman commanded the Lebanese armed forces, the Lebanese military actively collaborated with Hizbullah units. Then, as now, Hizbullah was a coalition partner in Saniora's government. During the war, the Lebanese military guided Hizbullah in attacking the INS Hanit along the Lebanese coastline with an advanced, Iranian-supplied Chinese C-802 missile. The Lebanese military pays pensions to the families of Hizbullah fighters killed in battle. Since the war, the Lebanese military enabled Hizbullah to reassert its control over south Lebanon, to expand its control north of the Litani River and to massively rearm. Moreover, throughout the war, Saniora acted as Hizbullah's mouthpiece. He condemned all Israeli efforts to defend its territory from wanton aggression and championed all of Hizbullah's demands in cease-fire negotiations. By the same token, the Saniora government backed all of Hizbullah's attacks against Israel –– attacks which forced a million Israelis to flee their homes or live in bomb shelters for the duration of the war.
IN JULY 2006, understanding the Saniora government's collusion with Hizbullah, Israel's immediate reaction to Hizbullah's abduction of its soldiers and bombardment of northern Israel was to hold Beirut accountable. In his first press conference of the war, just hours after Goldwasser and Regev were abducted and their comrades killed, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made this point explicitly. He declared, "This morning's events were not a terror attack. They were the act of a sovereign state that attacked Israel, without reason and without provocation. The government of Lebanon, of which Hizbullah is a part, is attempting to destabilize the region. Lebanon is the responsible party, and Lebanon will pay the consequences for its actions." Israel's initial strategy for fighting the war was to disable Hizbullah's war machine by bombing Lebanese infrastructure targets such as highways, the airport, bridges, electricity grids and the telecommunication systems. All of these facilities enabled Hizbullah's war effort. It is possible that if Israel had in fact attacked Lebanon's national infrastructures, the blow to Hizbullah's war machine might have been strategically debilitating. In that event, the task of land forces charged with defeating Hizbullah forces on the ground would have been smoother. But US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would have none of it. Already in the earliest stages of the war, she began putting pressure on Israel not to attack Lebanese infrastructure. Her demand was formalized in the G-8 declaration three days after Hizbullah initiated hostilities. Rice's support for Saniora's government was so strong and consistent, that she eventually forced Israel to cave to all of Hizbullah's demands in UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which set the terms of the cease-fire at the end of the war. Rice defended her support by noting the democratic character of the March 14th movement and its success –– with US and French support –– in forcing most Syrian forces to depart Lebanon in April 2005. Despite its and the Lebanese military's open and active collusion with Hizbullah throughout the war, in its aftermath, US support for Saniora's government expanded exponentially. In the year following the war, US aid to Lebanon grew from $41 million to $520 million. US military assistance to the Lebanese military since the war has been in excess of $410 million, making Lebanon the second largest recipient per capita of US military aid. US military support for Lebanon grows even as the Lebanese armed forces demonstrate at every turn that they collaborate with Hizbullah. It was supplemented after the Lebanese military, under Suleiman's command, refused to prevent Hizbullah's coup in May. Moreover, the day before Suleiman gave Kuntar the red carpet treatment at the Beirut airport, Maj.-Gen. Robert Allardice, the US Central Command's director of strategy, plans and policy, visited Beirut and announced an additional $32 million in military aid. Since 2006, the US has given Lebanon some 285 Humvees, 200 cargo trucks, helicopter parts, assault rifles, grenade launchers, anti-tank weapons and urban warfare bunker weapons. Another 300 Humvees, mobile communications systems, several hundred anti-tank missiles and coastal patrol craft are on order. Israel has recently begun openly expressing its alarm about these weapon transfers. Given Hizbullah's now inarguable control over Lebanon and its sway over its military forces, it is all but a foregone conclusion that these weapons will likely be used by Hizbullah and its allied forces in the Lebanese army in any future war with Israel. In recent weeks, senior Defense Ministry officials have been dispatched to the Pentagon in an attempt to convince the US to stop the weapons transfers. Yet while the Pentagon was only too happy to give Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Ashkenazi an unrequested medal, it has rebuffed all of Israel's entreaties.
ALL OF this is depressingly familiar. In many ways, the Saniora government is to Hizbullah in Lebanon what the Fatah terror group is to Hamas in the Palestinian Authority. As is the case in Lebanon, the US trains, finances and arms Fatah. It supports Fatah politically against Israel, claiming that Fatah has earned its support through its moderation relative to Hamas. But as events have shown repeatedly, Fatah is a terrorist organization and is only too happy to collude with Hamas in attacking Israel and to form governments with it so long as Hamas doesn't embarrass it too much. Notably in the case of Fatah, the US cut off its assistance to the PA after it and Hamas formed their unity government last year and only reinstated it after Hamas ended the unity deal by seizing control of Gaza from its Fatah partner. In Lebanon's case, US support for the country has grown as Hizbullah's control it and its military have become more open. Indeed, today Rice is openly pressing Israel to surrender Mt. Dov and Ghajar village to Lebanon even though it has no legal claim to either. And this she does by claiming that an Israeli capitulation to Hizbullah's demands will strengthen Saniora who is controlled by Hizbullah –– and believing that this will be a good thing. With even the Olmert-Livni-Barak government calling openly for a revision of Resolution 1701 to curtail the Lebanese military's ability to facilitate Hizbullah's rearmament and assertion of control over southern Lebanon, and with even Britain finally classifying Hizbullah's militia as a terror group, the time has come to revisit US policy.
US JEWISH leaders and counterterror champions on Capitol Hill should begin a campaign to compel the State Department to place Lebanon on its list of state sponsors of terror. At a minimum, US military and financial assistance to the Hizbullah-controlled government should be abrogated immediately. The current government of Lebanon is only expected to remain in power for another year. Hizbullah is expected to be the big winner in Lebanon's parliamentary elections scheduled for next year. As Lebanese parliamentarian Samir Franjieh from the March 14th movement explained in a media interview this week, "Weapons eliminate the principle of majority [rule]. In... 2005 the March 14 [movement] won a majority of parliamentary seats in the elections. The result was practically eliminated by the use of force. Having armed factions [running for elections in 2009] would limit the freedom of voters." It is reasonable for the US to seek to support pro-Western democrats in the Arab world. It is unreasonable for the US to be bankrolling a terror-controlled regime populated by terrorists and democrats who support their aggression. This is particularly the case when the same terrorists are waging war not only against Israel, but against its own forces in Iraq. Olmert's July 12, 2006 declaration is still apt. Lebanon, must be forced to suffer the consequences of its support for Hizbullah. Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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POVERTY, IGNORANCE, HELPLESSNESS AND DESPAIR: OBAMA'S LIE
Posted by Seth Frantzman, July 29, 2008. |
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Obama penned an editorial soon after Sept. 11 in which he claimed that it was caused by the "poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair" in Muslim countries and that America's job was to raise the prospects of children around the world in order to cure this 'helplessness'. Mr. Obama would have been better served had he first learned about the lives of the 9/11 terrorists, all of whome were born wealthy and had a life of luxury and opportunity. Obama's empathy for the terrorists shows why he is such a dangerous person. |
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On September 19th, 2001 Barack Obama, who is may be the next American president, wrote an editorial in the Hyde Park Herald that claimed the September 11th, attacks stemmed from a lack of "empathy" on the part of the hijackers who suffered from "poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair." He claimed that "I must also hope that we, as a nation, draw some measure of wisdom from this tragedy...we must... engage in the more difficult task of understanding the sources of such madness...such a failure of empathy, such numbness...is not innate; nor, history tells us, is it unique to a particular culture, religion or ethnicity. It may find expression in a particular brand of violence, it may be channeled by particular demagogues or fanatics. More often, thought, it grows out of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair....we must be unwavering in opposing bigotry or discrimination directed against neighbors and friends of Middle Eastern descent. Finally, we will have to devote far more attention to the monumental task of raising the hopes and prospects of embittered children across the globe, not just in the Middle East but also in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe." This is Barack Obama. It is his essence. For all of those that have believed that rumors and accusations against him have been spread by fear-mongers this lays it all to rest. His minister's decision to say 'God damn America'. His wife's decision to say 'this is the first time I've been proud of my country.' These were accusations of guilt by association. But this editorial was not written by a friend of Obama. It was written by the man himself, just 7 days after the deaths of 3,000 Americans. This editorial expresses the essence of the Obama view of America and the world. For Obama the September 11th hijackers are the real victims. They are the ones who suffered first. They suffered poverty, ignorance, helplessness and despair. Lets just remind ourselves of who the hijackers actually were. Mohammed Atta was an engineering student who later studied at the American University in Cairo for a degree in architecture. In 1992 his father was met by two high school aid workers from Germany who offered to bring Atta to Germany. He moved to Hamburg where he stayed with these Germans, receiving free room and board. He studied urban planning in Hamburg. He received a free trip to Syria from his German professor in 1994 for an archeological dig and in 1995-1996 a German foreign exchange program, Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft, provided him with free trips to the Middle East and financial support. He arrived in the U.S in 2000 sponsored by Al Quaida. Saeed, Ahmed and Hamza al Ghamdi were all from the same place in Saudi Arabia and were all born middle class. Saeed and Ahmed both journeyed to Afghanistan in the 1990s to help the Chechans in their war against Russia (another 9/11 hijacker Mohammed al Shekri, also was there). Hani Hanjour was the son of a wealthy food supply businessman in Saudi Arabia. He was born in 1972 and came to the U.S in 1990 to Tucson Arizona where we was given a free apartment by his friend and able to enroll at the University of Arizona. In 1996 he came back to the U.S and enrolled at Holy Names College in Oakland California and stayed with a host family which provided him with free room and board. When one reads the biographies of the 9/11 hijackers and the stories of their activities in the U.S and Europe they find that these men were all born into middle or upper class families. They all attended college numerous times. They all lived plush lifestyles, frequently living for free on the dole of others. Many of them took 'time off' to go to Russia and murder Russians as part of the Chechnya war. These were not people suffering from any 'helplesness' or 'poverty' or 'despair'. They had purpose in life. They had money. They lived well. In the U.S they visited and became regulars at strip clubs. They flew from place to place and rented numerous apartments and rental cars. They lived the high life in Vegas. These were all men who had many opportunities in life, more opportunities and free-rides than most Americans. They chose to devote themselves to murder. They did so in Chechnya first, in a conflict that was not theirs, and then they chose to murder Americans. Their hatred was not 'channeled'. They choose to hate. They were not manipulated. These were men in their mid to late twenties. They were educated. Barack Obama finds only sympathy for the terrorists in his editorial. There is no sympathy for the poverty and helplessness of Americans. There is no sympathy for the helplessness of those trapped on the upper floors of the World Trade Center who had to jump to their deaths because of the heat from the flames. Barack Obama does not have empathy for them. He has only empathy and understanding for the murderers and their culture which he claims to understand. The way in which Barack Obama came to believe that the 'real' victims of 9/11 were Muslims and Arabs living in America and that 9/11 was caused by America's foreign policy and by the poverty of those in Middle East is typical of a deep hatred for the United States. His view is predicated on two radical views. The first view is that it is acceptable for people to murder others so long as they are poor. Barack Obama ascribes to this view completely. He claims the hijackers were poor in order to excuse their actions. This is an extraordinary view of human affairs. It envisions a world in which people can be randomly murdered by those suffering from 'poverty' and the world should be sympathetic to the murderer rather than the murdered. What about the impoverished people who died on 9/11. Didn't they deserve to have a full life? Why did they deserve to die just because someone else suffered from poverty? The Nazis also used this poverty excuse before they launched their invasions of various European country. According to the Nazis the impoverishment of the treaty of Versailles forced them to become nationalistic and seek 'living space'. What would Barack Obama have said in 1939? Would he have excused the Nazi crimes as stemming from 'helplessness', 'despair' and 'poverty'? The second view of Barak Obama is his belief that America is responsible for "raising the hopes and prospects of embittered children across the globe." This is an extraordinary burden that no country deserves. First Obama blames the U.S for 9/11, excusing the murder of Americans by claiming it stems from poverty and then he claims the U.S is responsible for raising the world out of poverty. This prescription views a world in which America is forever responsible for being attacked unless it can help everyone else in the world become wealthy. Once again we see the profound and extreme vision of Obama. For him the world is one in which a person deserves to be assaulted unless he can help others become wealthy. This is a world without any right and wrong, where the victim is always the murderer and the murdered person is always responsible for his own death because he has not helped the murderer. We face a terrible fate in the U.S. People are enthralled by Obama. From the 'I've got a crush on Obama' videos on Youtube to the Obamamania in Europe, the world is obsessed with this person. Yet Mr. Obama is a demagogue. He and his wife and his circle of friends constitute a very real and terrifying threat to the lives of Americans. If Obama is sworn in as the next president of the United States we must prepared to live under an administration that believes that Americans deserve to die for things they have no control over. We will have a president that excuses our deaths and manufactures the truth so that our murderers are called 'impoverished and helpless' and we are told that we are guilty for not raising our murderers out of their poverty. What more could America have done for the people of Saudi Arabia? What more could we have done before 9/11 to raise them up? Since the 1930s America has been Saudi's closest ally. We helped the Saudis during the Gulf Crises of the 1980s. We helped the Saudis in Afghanistan when they, like America, were fighting godless Communism. We helped them against Saddam Hussein. We pay huge amounts of money for oil so that most Saudis do not have to work. We have enriched the entire country so that Saudi's GDP per capita is $23,200 compared to the U.S which is $45,000. The UAE's GDP, where one of the hijackers came from, is $37,300. Out of 229 countries Saudi Arabia has the 54th highest GDP per capita. What are we supposed to do, Mr. Obama? Are we supposed to make them number 1? A gulf Arab state, Qatar, is already number one in the world with GDP per capita of $80,000. That's right, Mr. Obama. An Arab Muslim country has the highest GDP in the world. Yet they suffer from 'helplessness'? What helplessness? Is it that they are helpless in finding enough ways to waste their oil billions? Are they helpless at finding enough prostitutes from enough ethnic groups to import to give them the sexual pleasure they so require? Is it the helplessness of not finding enough extremist causes to go fight in, such as Chechnya, where they can go murder civilians from other countries? Is it that they don't already receive enough welfare and compassion wherever they go in the form of people taking them, accepting them to Universities, giving them free apartments, providing them with homestays and being interested in their 'exotic' culture? What more do they need? I am an American. I've seen poor people all my life in America. I've seen them living in the wretched circumstances. When they go to work one day and they are murdered by a Gulf Muslim Arab terrorist for no reason I am supposed to accept the fact that one of my presidential candidates will excuse their murder because America didn't do enough to make the Gulf Arab wealthier and the terrorist suffered from 'despair'? America's poor deserve better. Americans deserve better. Americans deserve a president who cares about them. Americans deserve a president who doesn't spit on them when they are dead. Never, in American history, has an American president excused the deaths of his fellow Americans. Even the worst and most mediocre American presidents, such as Milliard Fillmore, didn't excuse the murder of his own people. No man deserves to die. No man deserves death at the hands of the cowardly Muslim terrorist. There is no excuse for the murder of a human being. It doesn't matter if he is wealthy or poor. It doesn't matter if the murderer is wealthy or poor. Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense and it said that 'without the pen of Paine, George Washington's sword would have been wielded in vain.' Obama has lost that American common sense. For whatever reason he has a profound contempt for Americans and their way of life. He has a deep seated hatred for the American people and a deep empathy for other people throughout the world. How else can one judge his excusal of the murder of Americans, his lies about the lives of the 9/11 hijackers and his prescription that America must raise the 'hope' of children throughout the world. Seth J. Frantzman is a graduate student in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His master's thesis was on the 1948 war. Contact him at sfrantzman@hotmail.com Visit his website: Terrra Incognita Journal, http://journalterraincognita.blogspot.com/ This article was published July 22, 2008. |
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GAZA SMUGGLING TUNNELS ARE FOR MILK, SAY PALESTINIANS
Posted by Marc Samberg, July 29, 2008. |
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This was written by Ryan Jones and comes from Israel Today
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Palestinian officials from the Gaza Strip have distributed a set of carefully-staged photographs they say are evidence that the smuggling tunnels running under the Gaza-Egypt border are for milk and other essential goods, not weapons.
 The photographs show masked Palestinian militants lifting jugs of milk and sacks of baby food from the entrance to one of the tunnels on the Gaza side of the border. Israel insists that the tunnels, of which intelligence estimates indicate there are hundreds, are used to import small arms and advanced weapons like heavy mortar shells, anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft missiles. The tunnels are also said to be the conduit via which the Palestinians receive the material used to build their Kassam rockets.
Hamas has acknowledged Israel's position by insisting during ceasefire negotiations last month that it would not agree to halt smuggling efforts as part of the truce. "We cannot talk about stopping smuggling because it is something beyond our ability as a government and we did not give a commitment in this regard," Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh told worshippers at a Gaza City mosque on June 25 as the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire was being finalized. Egypt, too, has never tried to claim the tunnels were for anything other than arms smuggling, and has even made a show of closing a handful of tunnels and confiscating the weapons found inside for public consumption. Also backing up the Israeli assertion that the smuggling tunnels could only exist for nefarious purposes are weekly and sometimes daily summaries published by the Israeli government of the quantities of humanitarian aid entering the Hamas-controlled territory. The Palestinians, say Israel, have no need to smuggle essential goods into Gaza because there is no shortage. Between 100 and 150 trucks carrying humanitarian aid from Israel and international aid organizations enter Gaza on a daily basis. Out of that number, the 50 or so daily shipments that enter via Gaza's central Sufa Crossing contain milk and baby food, according to the manifests. The Palestinians, and in particular the Hamas regime in Gaza, have been accused of manufacturing a dire humanitarian crisis to elicit international criticism of Israel. So far it has worked, as mainstream international media outlets today routinely refer to the situation in Gaza as a disaster of epic proportions. Some have even gone so far as to parrot the Palestinian line that the situation in Gaza is a "holocaust." Hamas and its supporters were briefly called out on their lie when in April they claimed that a shortage of industrial fuel had shut down Gaza's only electrical plant and plunged the area into darkness. Israeli officials immediately pointed out that Gaza receives the vast majority of its electricity from Israel. Further betraying the Palestinian deception were a series of news photographs that showed Hamas leaders covering the windows of their offices with heavy curtains and lighting candles to give the impression of a blackout during press conferences. Israel has imposed a limited embargo against Hamas-ruled Gaza, but has
repeatedly stressed that the sanctions only limit the import of
non-essential goods and some building materials that had previously
been used to manufacture rockets. Exports from Gaza have also been
curtailed to combat the terrorists' practice of hiding bombs in
shipments of agricultural produce.
Contact Marc Samberg at marcsamberg@yahoo.com
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LAND OF ISRAEL HIKERS ATTACKED BY ARABS, POLICE STAND BY
Posted by Hillel Fendel, July 29, 2008. |
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(IsraelNN.com) Some 200 youths and adults on a week-long "Land of Hilltops Trek" were attacked by Arabs with clubs and rocks. The police arrested Jews, including one who fired in the air. The trek, which began on Sunday, is being led by veteran Yesha (Judea and Samaria) settlement pioneer Daniella Weiss, former Mayor of Kedumim. She told Arutz-7 what happened: "This is the third day of our beautiful march through the hilltops of the Land of Israel, which we began in Sa-Nur [one of four Jewish communities in Samaria that were destroyed in Ariel Sharon's Disengagement plan –– ed.], and are planning to end up in Asa'el in southern Judea. We have already been to Shvut Ami [adjacent to Kedumim], Kol Tzion near Adei Ad [just outside Shilo], and we are now at Maoz Esther, near Kokhav HaShachar. Other participants accused the police of outright cooperation with the Arabs in their ambush of the Jews. When told of a report that two Arabs were also arrested, Daniella seemed surprised and skeptical. "We saw no such thing," she said. MK Eldad: Police State in Service of Olmert Gov't MK Prof. Aryeh Eldad (National Union) said in response, "This is just another step in the police agreeing to become a 'political police' in the service of the Olmert government." Eldad noted the decisions this week to place three Shomron Jews under house arrest and restrict Jewish entry to certain areas of Samaria. "If the security forces do not revert immediately to protecting Jews instead of fighting against them alongside the Arabs, a catastrophe can be expected –– and the responsibility will lie squarely with the Defense Minister [Ehud Barak] and the Public Security Minister [Avi Dichter]." Hillel Fendel is Senior News Editor for Arutz-Sheva
(www.Israel National News.com).
This article appeared in Arutz-Sheva
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BOYCOTT DURBAN 2!
Posted by Sacha Stawski, July 29, 2008. |
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This essay is to be found at http://boycottdurban2.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/boycottdurban2-en/#more-52 |
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At the 2001 UN Conference against Racism in Durban, anti-colonialism bared its anti-Semitic face. Democracies should stay away from a repeat performance next year in Geneva. By Pascal Bruckner In September 2001 the South African city of Durban played host to the third United Nations World Conference against Racism, which was aimed at achieving recognition for crimes related to slavery and colonialism. The event's organisers hoped that the whole of mankind would use this ceremonious occasion to face up to its history and chronicle events with equanimity. These good intentions rapidly degenerated into one-upmanship among victims and bloodlust directed at Israeli organisations and anyone else suspected of being Jewish. The original intent, which was to heal the wounds of the past through a sort of collective therapy and arrive at new standards for human rights, twisted into an outburst of hatred which, in the wake of the September 11 attacks that followed only days later, disappeared from the public eye. It's time we had another look. Against the wishes of the organisers, Durban became an arena where people screamed and hurled insults at each other in a re-enactment of the comedy of damned, in the face of the white exploiter. "The pain and anger are still felt. The dead, through their descendants, cry out for justice", Kofi Annan said on August 31 of the same year –– an astounding choice of words for a UN secretary general and more a call for revenge than reconciliation. The delegates at the conference, particularly those from the Arab-Muslim states, also understood it as such and, together with the African group, they transformed the conference into a stage for anti-colonialist revenge. The West, which is genocidal by nature, should recognise its crimes, beg for forgiveness and pay symbolic and financial reparations to the victims of its oppression. Emotions ran high and anger was brought to the boil by coverage of the second antifada which was being violently quashed by the Israeli army. Zionism was condemned outright as the contemporary form of Nazism and apartheid, but so was "white viciousness", which had caused "one Holocaust after the other in Africa" through human trafficking, slavery and colonialism. Israel should disappear; its politicians should be brought before an international tribunal similar to the one in Nuremberg. Anti-Semitic cartoons were circulated, copies of "Mein Kampf" and the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" were handed out. Beneath a photo of Hitler were the words that Israel would never have existed and the Palestinians would never have had to spill their blood if he had been victorious. A number of delegates were physically threatened, there were calls of "Death to Jews". This farce came to a head when the Sudanese Minister of Justice, Ali Mohamed Osman Yasin, demanded reparations for historical slavery, although in his own country, people are being shamelessly thrown into a new slavery today. One might think that this sinister comedy would give the UN second thoughts about repeating its mistake. But there is no underestimating the extraordinary determination of dictators and fundamentalists, who have transformed the UN Human Rights Commission into a platform for their demands. A Durban II (The Durban Review Conference) is due to take place in Geneva 20 to 24 April 2009, and it promises to be a repeat of Durban 1. The reports and projects which have been mounting up over the past six years do not encourage optimism. On September 14, 2007, Doudou Diene, UN Special Rapporteur for racism, xenophobia and discrimination held a speech in front of the United Nations in Geneva. In it he repeatedly blames Western countries for using September 11 to encourage the most perfidious forms of Islamophobia. He defines this Islamophobia as a form of racism which has its roots in the first contact between Islam and Christianity, notably the Crusades and the Spanish Reconquista. He does make mention of anti-Semitism, anti-Christian sentiment and other forms of religious suppression, but his main focus is "anti-Muslim racism". Throughout Europe and the United States intellectuals and politicians of all stripes are guilty of a wide array of offences against the religion of the prophet. These include the principle of laicism, as championed by the French, the "ban on religious symbols in public schools", the "threatened ban on the burqa in England's public buildings" and stigmatisation of the veil and the headscarf: all signs of a resurgence of intolerance. Diene regrets that laicism has lead "to a general suspicion of religious belief" and he believes that "dogmatic secularism" is being used to "manipulate the freedom of religion". So it comes as no surprise to him that the West, as a "pillar of slavery and colonialism", is leading the way in a "systematic denigration of Muslim intellectuals" (here he is thinking particularly of Tariq Ramadan) and the idea of a "clash of civilisations" a la Samuel Huntington. By contrast, as he sees it, the persecution of Christian minorities in the Middle East, Africa and India is the unfortunate consequences of the missionary work of Evangelical groups from North America, who are letting their religious brothers suffer for their own bigotry. All criticism of dogma, every questioning of religious belief is, Diene says, a form of racist insult and should be punished. Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius have become untouchable icons, who must be protected against criminal attacks. Should we reintroduce blasphemy as a criminal offence like the fundamentalists of the three monotheistic religions are suggesting –– in a return to the Ancien Regime? Unsurprisingly, Diene's report has the ardent support of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and the majority of the Non-Aligned Movement where you can count the democracies on one hand. Because Doudou Diene makes it his policy to refrain from all criticism of authoritarian regimes in Asia, Africa and Latin America and reserves his munition for the States of Europe and North America, whom he accuses of fomenting pogroms against their minorities. It will also come as no surprise that in April 2007 Iran was nominated as vice president and Syria as rapporteur for the Disarmament Commission. This might be hilarious if it weren't so tragic! In a nutshell: Anti-racism in the UN has become the ideology of totalitarian regimes who use it in their own interests. Dictatorships or notorious half-dictatorships (Libya, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Cuba etc.) co-opt democratic language and instrumentalise legal standards, to position themselves against democracies without ever putting turning the questions on themselves. A new Inquisition is establishing itself, which brandishes "defamation of religion" to quash any impulses of doubt, particularly in Islamic countries. And this at a time when millions of Muslims, particularly in Europe, want to distance themselves from bigotry and fundamentalism. In a reversal of values, anti-racism is being propagated by despots in the service of obscurantism and the suppression of women! It is being used to justify precisely the things which it was formulated to fight: suppression, prejudice, inequality. In the hands of these powerful and organised lobbies, the UN is becoming an instrument of retrogression in the world, when it was created to promote justice, peace, and human dignity. Europe must take a firm stand against this buffoonery: boycott it, plain and simple. Just as Canada has done. Perhaps we should also think about dissolving the Human Rights Commission or only letting truly democratic countries in. It is intolerable that in the year 2008 –– like in the thirties –– nations which recognise justice, the multi-party state and freedom of expression are being brought before the tribunal of history by the lobbies of fanatics and tyrants. First signatures: 1. Sharon Adler; Editor-in-chief AVIVA-Berlin and photographer, Berlin, Germany
Everyone who also wants to sign the appeal is sincerely invited. Please send an e-mail with your full name, your profession and your town to boycottdurban2@yahoo.de. Afterwards your signature will be published on this website.* The appeal will result in an open letter to the German government and further governments of the EU before the Durban Review Conference starts. Therefore, this collection of signatures will be closed by February 1st, 2009. * Your E-mail-address will not appear on Contact Sacha Stawski by email at sstawski@honestly-concerned.org |
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TERRORIST-THIEF ADMITTED BACK TO SCENE OF THEFT; THE DANGER OF INTERFAITH COUNCILS
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 29, 2008. |
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TERRORIST-THIEF ADMITTED BACK TO SCENE OF THEFT An Arab doctoral student at Hebrew U. in Jerusalem stole 40 gallons of components for explosives from his lab, and recruited cell members to blow something up. After only six years, he is out of prison. He would like to resume his doctoral studies. Prof. Amiram Goldblum, who heads the lab approves, arguing that the man has served his punishment. Goldblum is a founder of Peace Now. He had excused Saddam's Scud bombardment of Israel as due to Israel not making concessions to Palestinian Arabs (IMRA, 7/14). Goldblum, an enemy of his people, pretends to be an idealist. Otherwise one might ask whether he has heard of recidivism. Terrorists, operating from an indoctrinated, religious fanaticism, are notorious for returning to crime. What a ridiculous excuse for letting a failed terrorist have another opportunity to commit the crime! It's even peculiar that Western countries let Muslims study chemistry. That criminal should have been, and still should be, expelled from the country. Only six years in prison for such a terrorist? Israel needs a Sam Adams, who stood up for his country; the government doesn't. Goldblum's suicidal act would occur only in Israel. We Jews have too many psychologically damaged people. That is the major problem in that secularist society. OLMERT ENCOURAGES ISRAELI ARABS He told them, ""Israeli Arabs are not a strategic threat. They are citizens of the State of Israel, with equal rights. You have always been part of the State and always will be." He cited having given them: educational preference, subsidy to non-Jewish veterans to buy housing sites, favors building an Arab city in the Galilee, and more civil service jobs (by preference?). He hopes those measures reduce racist expressions in Israel and improve Arab-Jewish relations (IMRA, 6/13). How much land in the Galilee did Arab squatters steal? Israel suffers from two forms of racism: (1) Action such as by Olmert; and (2) By Muslims. Ironically, the more Jews make concessions to the Muslims, the more the Muslims become contemptuous and the more they demand. This increases their racism! The government has failed to catch on to that cultural trait. What is the government doing about Muslim racism against Jews and Christians. Nothing. The government is blind to that, as well. Of course Israeli Arabs are a strategic threat! They never ended it, and are striving to take over the country in alliance with the external enemies. They are becoming radicalized. (Israel lets radical preachers come to their mosques.) Their leaders encourage foreign enemies. Their masses scoop up state land. THE DANGER OF INTERFAITH COUNCILS S. Arabia is sponsoring an interfaith conference to stress tolerance. A Saudi official said that they chose Spain as the site, because there is where Muslims, Jews, and Christians once lived under Islamic rule. That is the Muslim notion of tolerance –– let infidels live, so long as Muslims dominate. Although It is not the Jewish or Christian notion, Jewish and Christian leaders probably would not object to the reason for choosing Spain. They would not want to antagonize the Muslims and spoil the conference. Another likely unspoken problem is that although Muslim states want the West to treat Muslims and Islam like their own people and religions, they don't reciprocate. This intolerant aspect of Islam would be ignored. A third topic likely to be ignored is the Muslim attempt to denounce terrorism but claim that Palestinian Arab attacks on Israeli civilians are acceptable under some false excuse of self-defense [from people who are not attacking them; the Muslims are the aggressors]. Again, Muslims defame Israel and the US, claiming that Zionists are behind 9/11 and Israelis are responsible for the violence against them. Nevertheless, Muslims demand in the name of tolerance and harmony that the West ban criticism of Islam. We'll be told to meet Islam half way, but Islam will meet us half way. What they really are asking is that we give up some Western traditions and some of our ability to resist Islamic imperialism. Much that should be said at the conference won't be. What is said would be lowest common denominator platitudes. Ignoring the major differences between the religions would leave the false impression that all three religions are about the same. The people back home would be misled and ill served. That is the danger of interfaith councils as of diplomacy with totalitarian governments. (David Twersky, NY Sun, 7/14, Op.-Ed.). What is the point of the conference, to establish Islam as the senior partner? I think the point is to provide cover for Islamic imperialism. If that is so, then the Christian and Jewish leaders to attend would prove poor leaders. OBAMA ENDS PRO-ISRAEL STANCE Candidate Obama now "clarifies" his statement that Jerusalem should be the undivided capital of Israel. He claims he phrased it wrong and really meant it shouldn't be divided by barbed wire, as before (IMRA, 7/14). But he used the customary language for uphold Israel's claim to the city. He's just a liar. He abandoned almost every position used to seize the nomination. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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BANKRUPT? P.A. IS WORLD'S LARGEST RECIPIENT OF FOREIGN AID PER CAPITA
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 29, 2008. |
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European Union Funding for Peace Coalition [FPC] (http://eufunding.org.uk) has published an independent look at the role of European funding in the Middle East. The FPC Report exposes massive contradictions in European aid to
Palestinians. It's called "Managing European Taxpayers' Money:
Supporting the Palestinian Arabs –– A Study in Transparency." Find it
at The first article below was written by Carl in Jerusalem and
comes from his website: israel matzav. It is archived at The second article comes from Jihad Watch and was written by Robert Spencer. |
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Could it be that the world's largest recipient of foreign aid per capita with the expert suit-and-tie-clad businessman at its helm is going bankrupt? That's what the 'Palestinian Authority' is telling the Jerusalem Post on Tuesday morning. The reason for the 'bankruptcy'? No, of course it's not that they spent more than they took in. It's that they didn't take in enough. You see, many of the 'donor countries' –– especially the Arab ones –– haven't been ponying up their money now that a barrel of oil 'only' costs $126 instead of $147.... The officials told The Jerusalem Post that the PA wouldn't be able to pay July salaries to more than 150,000 public servants and may be forced to close down several government institutions as a result of the deepening crisis. I know one place they could cut back –– they could stop paying 'salaries' for all their 'employees' in Gaza who haven't come to work in over a year. At least 40% of the 'Palestinian Authority's 'budget' is spent in Gaza, which they do not even control. The officials disclosed that the deficit in the PA budget has risen in the past six months from $1.6 billion to $2b. As of January 2006, the 'Palestinian Authority' had some 140,000 employees, 58,000 of whom were employed in the 'security services.' The Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction [PECDAR] said Monday that the PA had received only $900m. of the $7.7b. promised during the December 2007 Paris Donors' Conference for supporting the Palestinians. What a shocking concept! You mean, even the Arab countries don't want to throw their money down a black hole anymore? I'm shocked. Just shocked. Call in the UN! They're always willing to throw money away! But get a load of this: "The number of households in Gaza below the consumption poverty line continued to grow, reaching 51.8% in 2007, despite significant amounts of emergency and humanitarian assistance," the UNRWA statement said. It doesn't sound like the 'West Bank' has regressed at all, does it? Hmm. Maybe if the IDF were back in Gaza keeping the terrorists in check (like they are in the 'West Bank'), Gaza wouldn't 'regress' anymore either. "UN NOTES THAT GAZA HAS WORLD'S HIGHEST JOBLESS RATE, BLAMES ISRAEL"
Remember when, during the Gaza pullout, former World Bank President James Wolfenson, Mortimer Zuckerman and others raised $14 million to buy the Gaza greenhouses and give them to the Palestinians? At that time the New York Times reported that his call for money was received enthusiastically by the American Jewish community: "Within 48 hours, Mr. Zuckerman said, he had his $14 million. And the Palestinians had a shot at inheriting relatively intact the greenhouses whose vegetables and flowers have been a major source of Israeli export income, and, not incidentally, about 3,500 desperately needed Palestinian jobs." They "had a shot." And what did they do with that shot? Palestinian jihadists destroyed some of the greenhouses. They looted others. They used some for smuggling tunnels. But the unemployment rate in Gaza? Israel's fault, of course! "U.N. Says Gaza Has World Highest Jobless Rate," from Israel National News, July 28 (thanks to Dennis): (IsraelNN.com) Unemployment in the Gaza region stands at 45 percent, the highest in the world, according to a report issued by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. It noted that nearly all of Gaza's factories have shut down in the past several years. The unemployment rate in Judea and Samaria was estimated at 25 percent. One reader commented: of course the reporter doesn't mention the reasons for the fuel restriction are because the Muslims kept attacking the fuel trucks and kept lobbing rockets daily into Israel...The Palestinians are lucky they get any fuel..The reporter also fails to mention none of the Arab oil producing nations have delivered so much as one gallon of fuel to Gaza..It seems the other Muslims don't like Palestinians either..but Allah knows whats best.. Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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ZOA ACTION ALERT: NEED CLARIFICATION OF US POLICY ON SHEBAA FARMS
Posted by Lee Caplan, July 29, 2008. |
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Urge Members of Congress to sign on the Knollenberg-Scott Letter on Clarification of US Policy on Shebaa Farms |
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Please contact your Representative now to express your support for the Knollenberg-Scott letter seeking clarification of U.S. Policy on the Shebaa Farms/Har Dov issue and urge them to sign on to the letter. The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) supports the Knollenberg-Scott letter seeking clarification from Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice of actual U.S. policy on the Shebaa farms/Har Dov issue. The ZOA applauds Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-MI, 9th District) and Rep. David Scott (D-GA, 13th District) for stepping across party lines to come together on this issue, and calls upon their colleagues in the House of Representatives to sign onto this letter as soon as possible. The full text of the letter can be viewed as a pdf here: [link to PDF to be inserted here]. The deadline for signing on to this letter is Friday, August 1st. As the Knollenberg-Scott letter states: 8 0United States and international policy has consistently stated the "Shebaa farms are not occupied Lebanese territory." Shebaa Farms/Har Dov is an area captured by Israel from Syria in the Arab war against Israel in 1967 and is not part of Lebanon. Indeed, the Israeli-Lebanese border was fully demarcated in 2000 by the United Nations, which found that Israel had completely withdrawn from Lebanese territory. Forcing Israel to relinquish this area to Lebanon is a stated objective of Hizballah, the Islamic Republic of Iran's proxy army in the region. So any call to re-open the issue is a reward for Hizballah, and thus a further reward to Iran. Yet last month U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice told reporters after meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora that "the United States believes that the time has come to deal with the Shebaa Farms issue...in accordance with [U.N. Security Council Resolution] 1701." The Knollenberg-Scott letter clearly points out just how troubling this seeming reversal of United States Policy is, explains and high lights the facts and history of the issue, and respectfully asks Secretary Rice to clarify the current position of the Bush administration regarding the Shebaa Farms. We encourage you to contact your Representative to express your support for the Knollenberg-Scott letter on the Shebaa farms issue and urge them to sign onto this letter. Phone 202-224-3121 & ask for your Member of
the House of Representatives. Alternatively, you can obtain this
information at
Contact Lee Caplan at leescaplan@yahoo.com |
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22 'NEW' POLISH JEWS REDISCOVER THEIR HERITAGE
Posted by Michael Freund, July 29, 2008. |
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Below is an article appearing in today's Jerusalem Post about a very special program organized by Shavei Israel in Jerusalem for 22 young Poles who recently discovered their Jewish roots. It was written by Jackie Len |
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A group of 22 Polish youth who only recently discovered their Jewish roots arrived in Israel this week for a three-week-long Polish-language seminar in Jerusalem. The seminar is being arranged by Shavei Israel, a non-profit organization which aims to strengthen ties between Israel and the descendants of Jews around the world. The participants will travel throughout Israel, study Hebrew daily and learn about Jewish history, culture and religion, as well as the history of the State of Israel. "In Poland in recent years there has been this awakening taking place where more and more people are discovering their Jewish roots," Michael Freund, founder and chairman of Shavei Israel, told The Jerusalem Post. "Many Jews who survived the war and chose to remain in Poland, because of the persecution they faced, decided to hide their identity. Now that Poland has become a democracy and its society has begun to open up people feel freer to identify as Jews. We are seeing this incredible phenomenon of the hidden Jews of Poland emerging from the shadows."
Rabbi Yitzhak Rapoport, one of Shavei Israel's two full-time emissaries in Poland, told the Post, "Shavei Israel has the idea that people who have Jewish roots should receive an equal opportunity to decide whether they want to be Jewish or not." "It is not their fault that they are not 'Jewish' in the sociological sense of being Jewish." The participants each possess unique stories of how they began reconnecting with their Jewish roots, but not all were able to do so without complicating their former lives. About a year and a half ago, Andrzej, one of the seminar's participants, found papers proving the Jewish heritage of his mother. She, like many other Jewish children, was given away as a baby to a non-Jewish Polish family during World War II. Andrzej has since become an observant Jew, keeping kosher and observing Shabbat. "The irony and/or tragedy of it all is that Andrzej's mother is a believing Catholic while his father is even quite anti-Semitic," said Rapoport. "Andrzej therefore made it a secret to his own family that he was going to have a brit mila [circumcision]." Another participant, Patryk Wolanowski, grew up in a Polish orphanage. "His aunt once told him that his father was Jewish. That's all he knows," [But now he is] an active member of Jewish life in Wroclaw [Poland]," said Rapoport. "The goal here is to strengthen the connection between the descendants of Jews and the Jewish people. I think there is value simply in maintaining this connection because the fact of the matter is the State of Israel and the Jewish people don't have that many friends around the world," said Freund. "I see it time and time again, when people discover that they have some Jewish ancestry, they gain a certain affinity to the Jewish people," he added. Freund has high hopes for the impact the trip will have on the participants. "Being in Israel will work its magic on them, I'm sure," he said. "There is nothing quite like the experience of seeing a Jewish country in action, of traveling to and seeing up close some of the places they have heard and read about. I'm sure that will have a big impact on them. Whether it is visiting the holy sites or simply seeing street and store signs in Hebrew." Over 90 percent of Polish Jewry, about three million people, were wiped out in the Holocaust, by far the greatest number of Jewish casualties from any one country during World War II. "I can think of no sweeter revenge for what happened there [Poland]
than if we can succeed in bringing back some of Poland's hidden Jews
to the Jewish people," concluded Freund.
Michael Freund is Chairman, Shavei Israel (www.shavei.org).
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HOPE? CHANGE? YES! HOPE OBAMA CHANGES!
Posted by Barry Rubin, July 29, 2008. |
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Barack Obama has been to the Middle East. He said he supported Israel and wanted peace. So I guess everything's ok, right? Well, if he's elected president and follows through on these words that'll be just fine. But concern about an Obama presidency is hardly dispelled, except in the media systematically ignoring the real issues. Without getting into the debate over Iraq strategy, here are the serious problems: 1. Obama claims there is a "window of opportunity" for successful Israel-Palestinian negotiations. That's nonsense. But won't Obama pretend progress and "prove" he's right: by demanding unilateral Israeli concessions? Equally, Palestinian intransigence won't prompt him to admit they're responsible for failure. This isn't a window of opportunity but a doorway to disaster. Consider this simple question: If Israel withdrew from all the West Bank would anything really change? Would the Palestinians reciprocate, alter their line, stop terrorism, and accept the conflict's end? No. 2. In this context, Obama's emerging campaign theme is especially worrisome. He criticizes Bush for not jumping into a peace process from his term's start. The reason, of course, was President Bill Clinton's discovery that Palestinian leaders weren't interested in peace. Obama doesn't understand why the 1990s' process failed or that you don't commit the president's prestige unless there's a real chance for progress. 3. Obama thinks it "pro-Israel" to argue that Israel desperately needs peace with the Palestinians above all and that he'd do Israel a favor by pressuring it into concessions. But Israel only benefits from an agreement producing stability, the conflict's end, no cross-border terrorism, and a moderate Palestinian state. Obama's approach seems likely to turn into a peace-at-any-price scenario on the pretext of saving Israel in spite of itself. Obama thinks he knows best about Israel's security needs. 4. Obama remarked that Israel's government is weak and "the Palestinians are divided between Fatah and Hamas. And so it's difficult for either side to make the bold move needed" for peace. He believes there's no problem with Fatah being eager for peace whereas its own radicalism –– not divisions –– is the roadblock. Even if one believes his thesis, since Obama can't solve Palestinian or Israeli political divisions, which he equates as the equal barriers to progress, how's he possibly going to advance peace? Meanwhile, he totally misstates –– and presumably misunderstands –– Israeli politics. If the Palestinians were willing, Israel's government could easily move ahead. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's alleged corruption is a big issue but the coalition agrees on peace steps. Far from shrinking back, Olmert and his government see making progress as the key to popularity and survival. In contrast, the PA knows that the actions needed to make a deal would be its downfall. That's the critical difference. 5. Does Obama really understand that the region's central issue is a war with radical forces who seek to overthrow every regime and seize control of the area? He emphasizes al-Qaida as the threat thus neglecting Iran, Syria, Hamas, Hizballah, and the Muslim Brothers? Are they potential allies if only treated nicely? 6. His new gimmick –– I'm for fighting harder in Afghanistan and less in Iraq –– is foolish. Whatever one thinks of Iraq, Afghanistan is far harder. U.S. policy has a chance to help create a stable regime in Iraq but not in Afghanistan. And does Obama really intend to be a hawk on the Afghan front or is this a cheap trick to show him as being tough? I'll bet on the latter explanation. 7. There's no indication Obama understands the need to defend Lebanon against a takeover by Hizballah, Iran, and Syria. Obama's last statement on Lebanon actually endorsed Hizballah's position, due either to ignorance or his philosophy of avoiding confrontation at all costs. 8. If Obama wants to make the United States and the West more independent of Middle East instability or radical blackmail, at least in the long term, he'd favor extensive oil drilling on U.S. territory, which he doesn't. 9. The real issue is not that he wants to talk to Iran and Syria but what he'll offer them and what he'll conclude when they reject or sabotage his efforts? Obama says his "willingness to negotiate" would expose Tehran by stripping "away whatever excuses they may have, [and] whatever rationales may exist in the international community for not ratcheting up sanctions and taking serious action." Isn't that what the Bush administration did last week and Europeans have been doing for years? Do we really believe Obama just wants to have talks as a trap so he then can get tough? 10. Obama says the right things on Iran nuclear but can he actually be counted on to stop Tehran? Asked about an Israel attack he replies, "My goal is to avoid being confronted with that hypothetical."? Yet his more likely avoidance strategy would be to block the attack, not force Iran to back down. He claims U.S. policy failed because it didn't "follow through with the kinds of both carrots and sticks that might change the calculus of the Iranian regime." Clearly, he's not familiar with the history which contradicts that assertion. 11. Won't radicals conclude he's so weak (or even sympathetic) that they can walk all over him and get away with it? Do we think they're wrong? Does he really understand the use of force, deterrence, the stick as well as the carrot? That doesn't fit his record and ideology. It comes down to this: Do you really believe Obama has the understanding, toughness, and worldview needed to deal with the extremists or that they will eat his poor allies for lunch and him for dinner? There are thus two options: * Option A: Obama becomes president and hope he does a good job, perhaps after a three-year, possibly costly, learning process. * Option B: We won't have to find out whether the previous sentence will come true. Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), with Walter Laqueur (Viking-Penguin); the paperback edition of The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan); A Chronological History of Terrorism, with Judy Colp Rubin, (Sharpe); and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley). Prof. Rubin's columns can be read online. |
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ISRAELI UNIVERSITY HEADS DEMAND ALL CONTROLS BE REMOVED ON PALESTINIANS ENTERING CAMPUSES
Posted by Steven Plaut, July 29, 2008. |
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Israeli universities are the occupied territories of the Far Left. The cartel that oversees and controls the universities is known as the Council on Higher Education, whose main appendage is the VATAT or Budget and Planning Committee, which allots all public funds to Israeli universities, using arbitrary and curious criteria. The VATAT consists of university professors who divvy up among their own institutions the loot taken from the taxpayer. The Israeli university system is not only corrupt and mediocre but dominated by leftist politicization. While university officials often shrug their shoulders when listening to complaints about the many tenured traitors operating out of their campuses, insisting that it is all just a price that needs to be paid if academic freedom is to be preserved, they generally insist disingenuously that politicization of the campus leadership and officialdom by the Left does not exist at all. Oh no? Consider the petition to the Israeli Minister of Defense sent by the members of the Council of University Presidents this week, as reported on the YNET news web site. These are university PRESIDENTS, not rank and file Post-Zionist academic quacks! It was part of their efforts in support of a court petition filed by "Gisha," one of the countless leftist pro-Palestinian political groups operating in Israel. "Gisha" is one of the extremist groups monitored for its anti-Israel activities by the NGO-Monitor web site. Funded by the extremist New Israel Fund and other anti-Zionist groups, it likes to denounce Israel as an "apartheid" regime that violates international law (see this and this). The University presidents denounced the Ministry of Defense for interfering with the right of Palestinians to enter freely and study in Israeli universities. It seems that the Ministry of Defense would like to restrict entry to the universities to Palestinians who are not known terrorists. After all, there have been terrorist attacks within the Hebrew University campus in which students and other living things were murdered.
The Ministry also wants Palestinian students prevented from entering certain fields, like nuclear engineering or similar fields in which Palestinians can learn to murder Jews more effectively. The University chiefs think otherwise, and see nothing wrong with teaching Palestinians the basics of constructing nuclear warheads. We are reminded of the recent story of a leftist professor of pharmacy at the Hebrew University insisting that a convicted Palestinian terrorist be granted access to lab chemicals. The University chiefs also seem to think that the six Hebrew University students recently arrested for membership in Al-Qaeda represent a protest movement that needs to be expanded. The chiefs openly endorsed the Gisha court petition. Besides the
University chiefs, those who asked to join the petition were astronomy
Professor Zvi Mazeh of Tel Aviv University, who complained that Jews
were subject to quotas for centuries and so quotas should not be
applied to Arabs in Israel Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist,
a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author
of "The Scout." He frequently comments –– both seriously and
satirically –– on Israeli politics and the left wing academic
community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com.
Or write him at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il
This article was published today in the Jewish Press
http://thejewishpress.blogspot.com/2008/07/
israeli-university-heads-join-leftist.html
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DEBKAFILE: IN SECRET NOTE, OLMERT SAYS BUSH HAS DITCHED ISRAEL ON IRAN THREAT
Posted by Dave Nathan, July 29, 2008. |
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This is a DEBKAfile report from July 26, 2008. |
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Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert this week shot off a strong secret note to US President George W. Bush, DEBKAfile's sources reveal, protesting the administration's strategic steps toward rapprochement with Iran. Israel was not forewarned, Olmert wrote bitterly, although these steps directly violated US-Israel understandings on Iran of the past year. Bush, he said, had broken the promises he gave in face-to-face meetings with the prime minister earlier this year. If nothing is done to arrest Iran's progress towards a nuclear bomb, Olmert warned, Iran will have all the components ready for assembly by early 2009, that is, in 6-8 months. This time line is tighter than the one the prime minister gave the Democratic Senator Barack Obama when he visited Jerusalem Wednesday, July 23. DEBKAfile's Washington sources add that Bush has not replied to the letter, although the prime minister wrote in a spirit of extreme alarm over the threat to Israel's security and indeed survival building up in Tehran. The US response apparently came in the way American military chiefs brushed off Israeli chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, when he presented intelligence updates on the state of Iran's military nuclear program. He was received with great honor during his week's working visit, but his hosts declined to address the working theories guiding the IDF with regard to that program. Res. Maj-Gen Yizhak Ben-Israel, former head of IDF Weapons Authority, strongly refuted Saturday, July 26, the estimate published by Time Magazine quoting former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevi (up until 2002) as speaking out against an Israeli attack on Iran, because it "could have an impact on us [Israel] for the next 100 years." Ben-Israel, a world-class expert on Iran's nuclear and missile programs, countered that Israel's failure to attack Iran's nuclear sites would "jeopardize its security." Time is working against the Jewish state," he said. As he spoke, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced his country's nuclear program had managed to double the uranium-enriching centrifuges operating in Natanz to 6,000. Contact Dave Nathan at DaveNathan@aol.com |
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IDEAS FOR POLLARD: BRACELETS, WEDDING INVITATIONS, AND MORE
Posted by Hillel Fendel, July 29, 2008. |
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(IsraelNN.com) Supporters of Jonathan Pollard refuse to allow him to drop from the news –– and have ideas as to how to ensure he is pardoned soon. Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, head of the Ateret Cohanim yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem, co-Chief Rabbi of Beit El, and a long-time outspoken supporter of Pollard, has publicized a list of 12 ideas, many of them new, as to how to keep Pollard on the agenda. The goal, he writes, is to ensure that outgoing U.S. President George Bush issues him a pardon, and the way to do that is to have the Israeli government make an official request for such –– and the way to do that is to keep Pollard high in the public awareness, so as to influence the government. On November 21 of last year, Jonathan Pollard entered his 23rd year of a life sentence for his activities on behalf of Israel. He was convicted not on charges of treason, as some mistakenly believe, but on one count of passing classified information to an ally. The median sentence for this offense is 2-4 years, but Pollard received a life sentence –– the result of a plea bargain which he honored and the U.S. government violated. On Rabbi Aviner's list of ideas are the following: 1. Talk about Pollard wherever possible –– with friends, in the store, in classes, on the radio, in written articles, and wherever possible. 2. Wear a blue Pollard bracelet. 3. Recite prayers, including public prayers in the synagogue during the Torah reading. 4. Mention Pollard in wedding and Bar-Mitzvah invitations and Grace After Meals cards. 5. Post bumper stickers and the like wherever permitted. 6. Give to the cause http://www.jonathanpollard.org/; helping to redeem captives is the best charity there is. 7. Involve non-religious people. "For some strange, illogical reason," the rabbi writes, "almost all those who have joined the struggle for Pollard are religious. If you know high-ranking secular people, please try to interest them in the struggle..." 8. Write to MKs, Prime Minister Olmert, and U.S. President Bush. 9. Write to Pollard himself, though only in English. His address: JONATHAN POLLARD 09185-016
Former officials of the U.S. government such as ex-CIA director James Woolsey and former top U.S. Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross have come out in favor of clemency for Pollard. Hillel Fendel is Senior News Editor for Arutz-Sheva (www.Israel National News.com). |
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PROPHECY UPDATE FOR AV
Posted by Avodah, July 29, 2008. |
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This was written by HaRav Ariel Bar Tzadok
and is available at
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The month of Av is upon us; a time of national mourning for the Jewish nation. During this month, more than five great national tragedies occurred throughout history, all on the same day. This strange occurrence is Heaven's way to get us to realize that there is more to life than natural occurrences. As in the past, we still fail to listen today. Therefore, I only find it right and fitting to share these words at this time. We live in very dangerous times. Torah Judaism faces today a crisis unmatched since the days of the destruction of the Temple. The unsettled situation with the State of Israel is creating international anti-Semitism. Once there were peoples who never heard about or cared about Jews, now they all know about us and are being taught to hate us. Radical atheistic secularism is on its own jihad seeking to root out and destroy anything related to G-d and religion. This secular jihad knows no borders and has no boundaries. It permeates and infects everything it touches. It poisons the minds and contaminates the bodies of all who come in contact with its media propagated "new world order" philosophy. Religion in general and the Torah specifically are being attacked from both inside and outside the Jewish nation. More Jews today have turned their backs on G-d and Torah that those who still seek to support and serve. On the surface, matters only look like they are getting worse. In many religious circles, desperation has set in and messianic fervor is rising to a pitch. This fervor is the greatest danger of them all! We all believe that Mashiah will eventually come. Yet, the more and more desperate the situation becomes, the more and more desperate the people become. If Mashiah comes today or tomorrow and we are all miraculously saved from all our present disgusting circumstances, then all will be well and good. Yet, what if Mashiah continues to tarry, as he has for two thousand years? What if Mashiah does not come when we so desperately expect him and need him to magically redeem us? Are we ready to face the possibility that what we so desperately cry out for may not come when we want it and need it most? We have to look at the facts. We must not allow ourselves the dangerous confusion between faith and desperation. Our Sages warn us not to rely on miracles, and in our desperation we are doing exactly that. Relying on a miracle of a sudden and miraculous redemption that may not come, is a sure way to kill faith in the hearts of countless desperate souls. This then is the great danger! Those who lose faith become bitter. They turn on what once they believed. The supporters and believers in Torah and Mashiah turn and become his most bitter enemies and opponents. This has already happened numerous times throughout history and it stands to happen again; this time on a national scale. Let me be very forthcoming here. The redemption is not going to come when we expect it. The redemption is not going to come how we expect it. What is going to come is going to be almost completely unexpected. It will require of each of us the greatest fortitude and determination to survive. Each and every one of us will go through a period of lose and tribulation. This period is unavoidable. It is ordained and well under way. We have a long road yet before us and we had better get focused on the reality of this. It is wonderful that messianic consciousness is spreading throughout the nation. It is dangerous that its spread is coupled with desperation for radical action. We can make it through this most turbulent of periods, yet we must face reality in order to do so. We must stop allowing ourselves to be distracted by all the fantasy myths we hold so dear and so desperately embrace. It is time for the sleeper to awaken. Messianic rumors are running rampant. We hear stories that "this Rabbi said this" and "before Rabbi So-and-So died he revealed that." One Rabbi it is alleged saw Mashiah face-to-face and yet another received a message from him in a dream. Many of these stories are outright fabrication told by lying individuals with the specific intent of spreading false hope. They intend to inundate people with such lies that when none of them materialize then they will all lose hope, abandon the land and possibly (they hope) even abandon the Torah. You must take all these stories and cast them into the rubbish. Discount them all and forget them all. If someone actually has something to say, then they will come forward personally and say it, directly. They will not need rumors to spread the information. They themselves will stand up publicly and make an announcement. So far, we have not seen any of this. Therefore, rest assured that everything, yes, everything that you hear spread in the name of this or that Rabbi is just a rumor, unless that Rabbi came out personally into the public arena publicly and declared it so. The rumors are merely false hopes maliciously spread with the intent to break hearts and destroy true faith. This is what happens because we lack leaders to inspire us with leadership and faith. The Jewish people today have no viable leadership. Everyone, in every walk of Jewish life knows this. Religious leaders have been shown to be as petty and small as their secular counterparts. Real righteousness, wisdom and courage seem to be lost. The mighty lions that once headed the great schools of Torah learning and even the mighty Israeli army have all be declawed and defanged and now "meow" when they once roared. The world watches and laughs with glee. All Israel watches and twists logic and spins truth to somehow find a justification to tolerate this deplorable state. Yet, there is no justification. Justifying the unjustifiable and tolerating the intolerable is what is so disgusting and deplorable. It only makes matters much worse when one refuses to see just how bad things really are. It makes matters all the worse when we knowingly see what is so horrible and try to spin it and say it is not so bad. This same gutless and cowardly attitude is what led numerous souls to walk into the Nazi death camps to surrender to torture and death, rather than fight for life and survival. Are you ready for another Holocaust? You had better be! Because the way things are going now, the next one is inevitable and unavoidable. Its borders will know no bounds. It will strike at Jews worldwide, all because we do nothing tangible and real to stop it. Pray all you want; this is really great and indeed powerful. But prayer is not the weapon needed to stop this onslaught. Prayers affect matters in Heaven, but it is our actions that affect matters here on Earth. Do not bother to pray if you are not willing to back up your prayers with proper righteous action. Prayer asks G-d to intervene on our behalf. This Heaven is ready and willing to do. Yet, we are Heaven's vessels. Heaven acts through us. Therefore, when we refuse to act and do what is necessary then we are in essence causing our own prayers to go unfulfilled. G-d hears our prayers and blesses the works of our hands, yet when our hands do not work, then there can be no blessings. We have in essence silenced prayer and stripped G-d of hands (G-d forbid). Granted G-d can work through whatever agent in the world He so chooses. Yet, Torah is clear that we are His chosen agents. So when we do not do our share, then we cut off our own salvation. This is exactly where we are right now. This is why things today are so desperate and dangerous. We do not realize that we ourselves have become our own worst enemy. We ourselves, with all our yeshivot and Torah are contributing more to the destruction of Israel and the death of the Torah Judaism more than any of our enemies. This is the bitter truth that we can no longer afford to deny. I assure you that this is a message direct from Heaven! We have a long road to walk before Mashiah's intervention. Much must come upon the Earth before his army comes from out of the skies and imposes a real and lasting new world order. Let me be frank, the apocalypse is coming and there is no way to avoid it and there is no way to prepare for it in such a way that you will not be affected by it. The great modern Babylon, leader and whore of the nations is destined to soon topple and fall. In a single day, in an instant, she will fall and not rise up again. She will fall to a combination of events. On one side the combined economic/social/political scene will become so terrible that it will make living in modern Babylon a hell on earth. Then "it" will come, a natural disaster beyond anything experienced in recorded history; a cataclysm that some will define as being an extinction level event. With these two together, one on top of the other, Babylon will fall. Everyone, Jew and Gentile, man, woman and child, will see such tremendous and massive change in everything that we know and recognize. Once the changes are all over, we will not even recognize our world. Everything, down to the fundamental basics will be changed. We will not need thousands of years of evolution for this to occur. It will happen over a period of a few short months. Think about what it will take to trigger such massive and sudden change and you will get a picture of what is soon to come. Do not fear! Do not despair and run away. Do not resign yourself to a terrible fate and proclaim it G-d's Will. It most certainly is not!! G-d's Will is for you to live and to thrive. Yet, in order to do this there are steps you must take in order to bring this about. You can pray all that you want, but prayer alone is not enough; now you must take the practical necessary steps to bring your prayers to fruition. Do not ask the stupid question when will this great tribulation come. There are no time schedules here, although some claim that the time is set and known to the few. While this may be so, still, it does not matter. No one knows from day to day what will be. Indeed, no one knows what will be from hour to hour. We foolishly worry about the future. Yet, we do not even know what will befall us in next five or ten minutes. If not for the Grace of G-d at every moment, we would not live to breathe our next breath. So do not worry so much about the future, rather place your focus on the "here and now." Now is the time when we have to prepare for the future. Stockpiling food and weapons might sound like a good idea, but all such survival preparations can be overturned in a moment. You can be physically separated from your supplies and then what good will they all do you. They can all be lost in a flash, in an earthquake, flood or bomb blast. Such preparations, while having their merit, are still for the most part, a waste of energy and time. Preparing for the future means to train yourself, body and soul, to be able to face and deal with the rigors of any kind of tribulation, present and future. Even those physically prepared to face disaster often crumble psychologically, ending up dead because of the fear and insecurity in the souls. Fear kills more souls than any physical force. Preparing for Mashiah means to train to become a warrior and all warrior training, ancient and modern begins with the mind/soul. We begin with disciplining the heart and mind. Afterwards, the body will follow suit. The Ba'al Shem Tov, long ago said, that prior to the great coming of Mashiah to the world, we must each psychologically actualize a personal portion of Mashiah within our individual mind/souls. Until we have a portion of the Mashiah within us, how can we expect to recognize him when he comes? As the old saying goes, "it takes one to know one." In spite of however bad things are becoming there is always hope. Our hope is not in miracles and magic, rather our hope is in the power that we already have within us. G-d has created us human beings with tremendous inner natural resources. We can overcome any adversity, no matter how great or small. We are beings created in the Divine Image. We do not need miracles and false hopes. All we need to do is what we have always been able to do so well. We need to learn to live as full human beings and stop living like animals. We desperately need to detach ourselves from the distractions of secular living, with all its pursuits of wealth, opulence and power. We need to recognize that the present new world order being built is not our world order. Indeed, the present new world order does not reserve a place for us. The secular/atheist new world order has discarded us and everything we hold sacred, so too must we discard it. We must return to explore the true Torah way. We must dismiss the present generation of leadership because they have all been compromised. Their "meows" must be stilled. We need to inspire and arouse mighty lions to again take their places at the head, the heads of yeshivot, the heads of the military and the heads of government. Yet, all these institutions are parts of modern Babylon. Therefore, I believe they are beyond repair. I do not believe that we will chance society. I do not believe that we can replace all modern day pussycats with lions. But, in spite of this, there is still great hope. There is still much that we can do. You yourself do not have to remain being a pussycat. You can learn to roar like a lion and take your place as head of your own life. This is entirely up to you. You as an individual can actualize Mashiah within yourself. You can bring to yourself personal redemption, long before the nation and the planet will experience it. It is all up to you. There is hope and salvation is already inside you, waiting to come out. G-d is already with you. All you need do is release His salvation from within your mind and heart and take your rightful place as lion at the head of the pack. Character counts for everything. Your morals and fortitude mean everything. Standing up to be the best you can be mean everything. Upholding what is right in the face of the most staunch opposition means everything. Roaring like a lion when all others around you cower with fear and meow like pussycats means everything. Be wise, be strong, be determined and most important; be honorable. Turbulent times require great leadership. Fear and the meows of pussycats will lead us down the path of death. Bravery and the roar of the lion will lead us down the path of life. We have much to do to prepare for the great tribulation to come. And the preparations begin within. The next four years will be mightily turbulent. Do not be afraid and do not crumble. Stand tall with spiritual conviction. Detach from Babylon and learn to become children of the desert as did our ancestors when they left Egypt, their ancient Babylon. The desert prepared them to enter the Holy Land. So too will it prepare us. Pay attention here to what I am saying, especially those of you living in Eretz Yisrael! Mashiah is indeed here and among us. He is waiting for us to join him in the desert. When we see him first in our hearts, only then will we recognize him with our eyes. "The lion has roared, who will not fear? The L-rd G-d has spoken, who can but prophesy? (Amos 2:8)
Contact Avodah at Avodah15@aol.com
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"FUNDAMENTALS OF JUDAISM" AND OTHER AMAZING SUMMER CLASSES AT NAALEH.COM!
Posted by Hally Goldstein, July 29, 2008. |
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Hello Everyone, I wanted to share some really exciting news with all of you –– Naaleh.com is now adding a Fundamentals of Judaism segment to their already amazing variety of online Torah video classes! As always this course is completely FREE when you sign up at Naaleh.com. While there may be many inspirational beginner courses in Judaism available on the web, Naaleh.com will be the first (as far as we know) to bring users a video course focusing on practical Halacha. Now, a newcomer to Jewish observance will have the ability to learn the basic practices of an observant Jew via the new course, "Practical Judaism". The course will cover all daily observances, from how one wakes up in the morning to how to keep kosher and how to daven. The course will be taught by Rabbi Ari Jacobson, a leader in beginner's Jewish education for over 20 years. Rabbi Jacobson has taught for over 25 years in Yeshiva University, Yeshiva Ohr Sameach in Monsey, and the JSS Summer Kollel at Camp Morasha. After Succot, Naaleh.com will also add more courses to the Fundamentals of Judaism segment –– a course on the Laws of Shabbos as well as a basic Parsha class. No prior background knowledge of Judaism is required, and the courses can be enjoyed by both beginner and advanced students.So, please spread the word to any newcomers to Torah observance that you may know or anyone wanting to review all the "basics" of living a Torah lifestyle! In addition, Naaleh.com is currently featuring some really inspiring Summer Courses relating to The Three Weeks of Mourning that we are currently in: "Collective Soul: Perspectives on Jewish Unity"
"Jerusalem, Echoes of Lament: Tisha B'Av and the Three Weeks"
"Megillat Eicha"
All classes are FREE, so sign up today at Naaleh.com and start learning! Hope to "see" you all in class soon, Contact Hally Goldstein at Hally@naaleh.com and visit the Naaleb website: www.naaleh.com |
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BLASPHEMY BY OBAMA! CYNICAL USE OF HOLY SITE AS CAMPAIGN PROP
Posted by Daisy Stern, July 29 2008. |
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This shows the DECEPTIVE character of this base Schwartze Muslim who PRETENDS to be religious, but is nothing but SCUM! –– DS I've received numerous comments about BHMO's "private note to the Lord" at the Western Wall. This appears to be the "last word" on the matter from a reputable Middle East News source. PLEASE FORWARD to those who admire BHMO's phoney "humble sincerity." (I wonder whether the fawning, pro-Obama, American Press will dare print this?) A.M. OBAMA'S "PRIVATE" NOTE to GOD WAS ACTUALLY A MEDIA STUNT! The complete story –– see below –– can be found by visiting the
IRIS blog at: |
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On Sunday I detailed to one friend and newspaper columnist how I was nearly certain that the private, humble, pious note of Barack Obama to God was a cynical publicity stunt. I didn't publish it here because I, too, am guilty of trying to appear "moderate" and maintain my credibility. I also thought that further publicizing the story would be counterproductive, by repeating the chillul Hashem [blasphemous defamation] that a Jewish student and an Israeli newspaper allegedly violated Obama's sacred privacy. My reasoning was simple: who leaves a private note to God trailed by a phalanx of people, on King David Hotel stationery? That makes it identifiable as genuinely his to anyone skeptical of the note's authenticity. Here is the official statement to that effect by the newspaper, Maariv: Obama's note was published in Maariv and other international publications following his (Obama's) authorization to make the content of the note public. Obama submitted a copy of the note to media outlets when he left his hotel in Jerusalem. What is despicable is that Obama allowed a "yeshiva student" and an Israeli newspaper to be painted as villains for days in the international media rather than admitting that he himself encouraged its publication. For months there have been credible stories of how Obama has thrown a parade of people close to him under the bus, including his own grandmother ("a typical white person" with fear of blacks). Now we see that Obama can't even have talk to God without using Him for a publicity stunt. Here is the article about the incident prior to the concrete confirmation from Maariv: What initially seemed to be a journalistic scoop of dubious moral propriety now seems to be a case of an Israeli paper being played by the Barack Obama campaign. Maariv, the second most popular newspaper in Israel, was roundly criticized for publishing the note Obama left in the Kotel. But now a Maariv spokesperson says that publication of the note was pre-approved for international publication by the Obama campaign, leading to the conclusion that the "private" prayer was intentionally leaked for public consumption... If the Maariv statement about pre-approval of publication of the note is true, it would mean that the Obama campaign had managed the event brilliantly, if deceptively, getting the double benefit of appearing to be victimized by the invasive Israeli press and prayer-thieving Jew while at the same time leaking out his humble Christian plea to the Lord. Already by the weekend, a (relatively) slick video appeared on YouTube that blended Obama's Western Wall prayer with various church scenes, crosses aplenty, a dove of peace, and a soundtrack based on Amazing Grace. The video closes with a "vote" button and an invitation to visit the official campaign website. Revelation of this latest Obama collaboration with the media might detract a bit from the perceived sincerity of the prayer and strike some as an especially cynical use of the Kotel [Western Wall] and an obstensibly private prayer to the Deity as a campaign prop.
Contact Daisy Stern at daisystern1@gmail.com |
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BETWEEN THE LINES
Posted by Jack L., July 28, 2008. |
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Joseph Farah explains why Jewish state cannot solve crisis it did not create, |
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I've written about the world's collective amnesia"
The entire Middle East peace process is based on this notion –– that repatriation of Arab Palestinians in a new homeland of their own will solve the conflict. There's just one problem with the concept: It's patently untrue. In fact, I've been collecting, over the years, quotations from the Arab press that reveal the truth of the matter –– that Arab aggression toward Israel and the Arab leadership's own encouragement of flight by Arab Palestinians was the main cause of the world's oldest refugee crisis. Here are some oldies but goodies –– not the words of Jews and Israelis, but the actual words of Arabs closer to the time of the events: "The fact that there are these refugees is the direct consequence of the act of the Arab states in opposing partition and the Jewish state. The Arab states agree upon this policy unanimously and they must share in the solution of the problem." –– Emile Ghoury, secretary of the Palestinian Arab Higher Committee, in an interview with the Beirut Telegraph Sept. 6, 1948 The truth is out there –– but you've got to search for it. The candid comments by Arabs in the Arab press continue to this day. Here's what Jawad Al Bashiti, an Arab Palestinian journalist in Jordan, wrote in Al-Ayyam May 13 of this year: "Remind me of one real cause from all the factors that have caused the 'Palestinian Catastrophe,' and I will remind you that it still exists. ... The reasons for the Palestinian Catastrophe are the same reasons that have produced and are still producing our catastrophes today. During the Little Catrastophe, meaning the Palestinian Catastrophe, the following happened: The first war between Arabs and Israel had started and the 'Arab Salvation Army' came and told the Palestinians: 'We have come to you in order to liquidate the Zionists and their state. Leave your houses and villages, you will return to them in a few days safely. Leave them so we can fulfill our mission (destroy Israel) in the best way and so you won't be hurt.' It became clear already then, when it was too late, that the support of the Arab states (against Israel) was a big illusion. Arabs fought as if intending to cause the 'Palestinian Catastrophe.'" The Arabs know the truth –– if they read their own history. There was no Jewish conspiracy to chase Arabs out of their homes in 1948. It never happened. There are, instead, plenty of historical records showing the Jews pleading with their Arab neighbors to stay and live in peace and harmony. Yet, despite the clear, unambiguous words of the Arab observers at the time, history has been successfully rewritten to turn the Jews into the bad guys. The truth is that 68 percent of the Arab Palestinians who left in 1948 –– perhaps 300,000 to 400,000 of them –– never saw an Israeli soldier. Even more importantly, the revised history has given the guilty a free ride. The Arab states that initiated the hostilities have never accepted responsibility –– despite their enormous wealth and their ability to assimilate tens of millions of refugees in their largely under-populated nations. And other states have failed to hold them accountable. It's bad enough the Arab states created a small nation of refugees by their actions. It's worse that they have successfully blamed that international crime on the Jews. Today, of course, this cruel charade continues. The suffering of millions of Arabs is perpetuated only for political purposes by the Arab states. They are merely pawns in the war to destroy Israel. There were some 100 million refugees around the world following World War II. The Palestinian Arab group is the only one in the world not absorbed or integrated into their own people's lands. Since then, millions of Jewish refugees from around the world have been absorbed in the tiny nation of Israel. It makes no sense to expect that same tiny Jewish state to solve a refugee crisis it did not create. Contact Jack L. by email at yakovdov1@yahoo.com |
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ISRAEL THE BEAUTIFUL: SUNSET NEAR SDEROT
Posted by Yehoshua Halevi, July 28, 2008. |
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Yehoshua Halevi writes: "HOW I GOT THE SHOT:
Many years ago, I photographed a sunset at the Grand Canyon. There was an observation point along the road where about 25 tourists had gathered, but as soon as the sun dipped below the horizon, all but three of us went on our way. One of the other photographers quipped to me, "This is where you separate the amateurs from the pros!" Why? Because the best light from a sunset often occurs about 15-20 minutes after the sun disappears. He was right, as the best shots of the evening came a short while after the crowd had vanished.
Despite being among the most commonly photographed subjects, sunsets frequently yield disappointing results. After all, how can you take a wide expanse of sky, the unique mood of twilight and a process that often lasts more than an hour and reduce it to the blink of an eye? Well, you can't really. Although I've taken many very satisfying sunset photos, I still find myself chasing after a good one and studying the sky in the late afternoon to see if clouds and weather patterns will combine for a good celestial show.
This shot was taken near the city of Sderot, on the way back from a trip to Gush Katif two years ago. I was traveling with friends when we noticed the colors forming in the sky with only a few minutes to spare before the sun disappeared. We jumped out of the car and looked for some high ground. Often with sunsets, I'll look for some interesting terrain to add to the composition, but in this case the horizon was just a straight line over flat ground, which didn't add any interest to the photo. Choosing to include only sky, I then focused on forming the best possible composition. Placing the fireball at the bottom of the frame was a bit unconventional, but it seemed to fit nicely at the tip of the downward spiral formed by the clouds and colors. Finally, the narrow, vertical format accentuates the patterns in the sky and the downward motion of the setting sun. In retrospect, this was the right cropping decision, but I still hedged my bets by taking a few horizontals as well, and sticking around for another 10 minutes.
Israel the Beautiful is my weekly photo blog featuring the beauty of the
land of Israel plus tips on how I got the shot.
These photographs are available for purchase as fine-art prints.
To see more of my work, please visit
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A THIRD OF BRITISH MUSLIM STUDENTS JUSTIFY KILLING FOR RELIGION
Posted by Hana Levi Julian, July 28, 2008. |
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A new report released Monday by the London-based Center for Social Cohesion reveals that British Muslim students are not far behind their Middle Eastern peers in their social values, especially those who are members of on-campus Islamic societies. The report, entitled "Islam on Campus: A Survey of UK Student Opinion," reveals that approximately a third of those surveyed supported the idea that one can kill in the name of religion, a finding that has raised alarm bells. The Center drew its information from field interviews as well as a YouGov poll of 1,400 students. "Universities should be places where people of all faiths and backgrounds can come together in an environment of mutual tolerance," said Center director Douglas Murray. The study also found that 43 percent of Muslim students said they felt that Islam was compatible with secularism. Among the Muslim students surveyed, 32 percent said killing in the name of religion could be justified. However, almost double that number, 60 percent of those who are active members of Islamic student organizations, supported the idea. Only 2 percent of non-Muslims felt killing in the name of religion was justified. The report also showed that the vast majority of students polled –– 79 percent –– said they respected Jews. Only seven percent said they had "very little or no respect at all" for Jews. "These findings are deeply alarming," said one of the authors of the report, researcher Hanna Stuart. "Students in higher education are the future leaders of their communities." She noted, however, that there was a striking difference between the average Muslim and those who join on-campus Islamic groups, who "often hold opinions that are significantly more extreme than those of ordinary Muslim students." The director of the center, Douglas Murray, concurred. "It is vital that students and government understand that groups like [the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS)] –– who often promote a highly conservative interpretation of Islam –– are not representative of all Muslim students. Empowering these groups risks giving an official stamp of approval to extreme forms of Islam," he warned. The study also found that 40 percent of the students supported introduction of Islamic Sharia law (Islamic religious law) in Britain, as well as significant support for the concept of worldwide Islamic rule. A third were in favor of a worldwide caliphate (worldwide Islamic government) based on Sharia law, as opposed to the 58 percent of active members of Islamic student organizations, who supported the idea. "It is important that pluralist and democratic Muslim voices are encouraged and promoted and that intolerant voices are sidelined. University authorities need to urgently take steps to reduce Islamist influence on campus," said Center director Murray. Researcher Hannah also noted that the research showed significant numbers of students "appear to hold beliefs which contravene liberal, democratic values. In addition, there are signs of growing religious segregation on campus. These results are deeply embarrassing for those who have said there is no extremism in British universities." Hana Levi Julian is a writer for Arutz-7 (www.INN.com). |
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JUSTICE, ISRAELI STYLE
Posted by Daisy Stern, July 28, 2008. |
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This is an Arutz-Sheva news items entitled "Hevron Hills Jews Warned To Keep Distance from Leftists" |
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(IsraelNN.com) Southern Hevron Hills Regional Director Tzviki Bar-Chai has warned area residents to keep their distance form leftists and anarchists who increasingly have incited violence. A security report Monday morning stated that extreme left-wing groups have provoked Jewish residents to defend themselves against violence and then face charges of brutality. Leftists and Arabs earlier this month torched the fields of the hilltop community of Asa-el. The fire reached several feet from one of the homes, and residents caught and beat the arsonist. Leftists complained to police, who arrested all of the men in the community but did not charge the man who set the fire. The residents still are in administrative detention leaving their wives and children alone and unable to travel to work. Contact Daisy Stern at daisystern1@gmail.com |
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THE RIGHT OF RETURN AND THE FORGOTTEN REFUGEES
Posted by Marc Samberg, July 28, 2008. |
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This was written by Peggy Shapiro and it appeared in
American Thinker
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Enter "Right of Return" on any search engine and you will get some variation of the Palestinian claim that Palestinian Arabs who left Israel in 1948 and all of their descendants have the an "inalienable right" to return to Israel. The estimate of the number of Arab refugees (when five Arab nations attacked the new government of Israel in May, 1948) varies, but according to the U.N.'s report in 1949, there were approximately 700,000 refugees. United Nations Conciliation Commission, October 23, 1950 Today, Palestinians assert the "Right of Return" for around 4.5 million people, most of whom have never set foot in Israel. UNRWA rolls An influx of over four million Muslims into Israel would, of course, destroy Israel as Jewish state. On March 19, 2008, a group of Jewish representatives addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council to present The Case for Rights and Redress on behalf of refugees caused by the Arab-Israeli conflicts. These are not the ones who hold the title of "refugees for the longest period of time in recorded history" and who have been supported by UNRWA welfare in "refugee camps" for the past sixty years. No, the U.N. address was for Justice for Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries, the 850,000 Jews who were expelled from their homes in Arab lands. The report refers to documents recently uncovered in UN archives that "reveal a pattern of state-sanctioned oppression that precipitated the mass exodus of Jews from 10 Arab countries." According to official Arab statistics, 856,000 Jews leaving their homes in Arab countries from 1948 until the early 1970s. The property they were forced to leave behind is worth more than $300 billion today. The expelled Jews held deeds to 100,000 square kilometers (more than four times the size of the State of Israel). Before the United Nations became an agent of animus towards Israel, it recognized the plight of all refugees. UN General Assembly Resolution 194, which was passed on December 11, 1950, recommended that both Palestinian and Jewish refugees should be permitted to return if they are willing to live in peace with their neighbors. The text of its Article 11: "[r]esolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property..." Mr. Auguste Lindt, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, recognized the refugee status of Jews from Arab and Muslim countries in the report of the UNREF Executive Committee, Fourth Session –– Geneva 29 January to 4 February, 1957. Dr. E. Jahn, Office of the UN High Commissioner, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Document No. 7/2/3/Libya, July 6, 1967, recognized the refugee status of these Jews. The U.S. Congress recognized that the Palestinian refugee issue is matched by similar issues of Jewish refugees from Arab countries, and in House Resolution 185 and Senate Resolution 85 directed the US president to instruct all official representatives of the United States that "explicit reference to Palestinian refugees be matched by a similar explicit reference to Jewish and other refugees, as a matter of law and equity." For the first time ever, a Jewish refugee from an Arab country, Regina Bublil-Waldman appeared at the United Nations Human Rights Council to claim the rights of Jewish refugees and to enter these historical truths into the minutes of the United Nations: Jews have been an indigenous people of the Middle East for over 2,500 years. The Jewish Community Relations Council, as part of the initiative to secure redress for Jewish refugees from Arab countries and educate the public about the mass violation of human rights of Jews in Arab countries, is collecting documents to catalogue the loss of extensive communal and individual assets. If there is an "inalienable right of return," then the price tag for the Arabs states will be hefty. I think Israel could be convinced to settle for a five-fold increase in land and $300 billion restitution. Contact Marc Samberg at marcsamberg@yahoo.com |
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FROM ISRAEL: HAMAS IN JERUSALEM
Posted by Arlene Kushner, July 28, 2008. |
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Yuval Diskin, head of Shin Bet, provided a report for the Cabinet yesterday. Some Jerusalem neighborhoods, he told them, were becoming hotbeds of Hamas activity and a serious security problem. The neighborhoods of Abu Dis and Azariya were mentioned in particular, as was Shuafat. Now, if I live to be 120 I will not understand everything that is taking place. All I can do is report on it. Seems the neighborhoods that are considered most problematic are on the "other side" of the security fence. That is, the fence, designed to keep out terrorists from Israel proper, is not contiguous at every single point with the municipal border –– while in some places the fence extends beyond the municipal border, here and there the municipal boundary extends beyond the fence. The IDF apparently does not operate in these areas, which are not part of Judea and Samaria, but rather –– as part of the municipality –– part of Israel proper. But the Jerusalem police don't go often to the other side of the fence. And so there is less law enforcement or deterrence activity in these areas than is the case in Judea and Samaria –– a security vacuum. (I hasten to mention, however, that the Arab neighborhoods from which the two tractor terrorists hailed –– Umm Tuba and Sur Bahir, as well as the neighborhood of the Rav Kook yeshiva terrorist –– Jebl Mukabir –– are all inside the fence, as is Shuafat, so I am further confused.) Diskin reported, as well, that Arabs from Judea and Samaria were increasingly filtering into these neighborhoods illegally, and in some cases were making their way into Jerusalem on this side of the fence. ~~~~~~~~~~ In the first seven months of 2008, there have been 30 terror related deaths in Israel, as opposed to 13 for all of 2007; half of these killings were carried out by Arabs resident in east Jerusalem. Diskin conceded that current methods of deterrence are not working sufficiently. The question now is what will be done. Public Security Minister Avi Dichter is calling for housing demolitions and deportations of people associated with terror. And he makes the additional point –– which must be attended to without delay –– that there are Arabs working in construction in the city using equipment that is heavier and more dangerous than the tractors that have been used twice so far now. ~~~~~~~~~~ Diskin reported on a significant increase in what he called "popular terrorism," by which he meant relatively spontaneous acts by individuals not affiliated with any terror group. This is certainly how the two tractor terrorists are being represented. But my perspective is slightly different. Khaled Abu Toameh ran a piece the other day in which he said that in both cases it is believed that the tractor terrorists, who had criminal records and had been associated with drugs, were trying to redeem themselves with family and community. Well...for me this is a no-brainer: If redemption of reputation is achieved via a terrorist act, then what we're talking about is a situation in which the community values terrorism. The individual may not have been recruited for the terrorist act, but he was certainly inspired by the values of the community. This is not a "lone" act. ~~~~~~~~~~ On yet another somber note, Diskin told the Cabinet yesterday that since the "ceasefire" has been in effect, "four tons of explosives have been transferred into Gaza for Hamas, as well as 50 anti-tank missiles, light arms, and materials for Kassam rocket manufacture –– metal rods and gunpowder." And still we sit here, with a prime minister and a defense minister grateful for the apparent quiet and the future be damned. ~~~~~~~~~~ Hamas and Fatah are at each other's throats. A blast in Gaza on Friday that killed five members of Hamas and a young girl is being blamed on Fatah, which is denying it. Hamas arrested some 160 Fatah men on Saturday, and seized material from the offices of the PA news agency WAFA and other Fatah offices. In response, Fatah has rounded up dozens of Hamas members in Judea and Samaria. ~~~~~~~~~~ An editorial from The Daily Star, in Lebanon, on this subject is well worth citing (emphasis added): "...the fighting has...served to greatly undermine the Palestinian cause. It has become increasingly difficult for the international community to feel sympathy for the Palestinian people...The image of lawlessness and internecine warfare conveys the image of a people who are simply not ready for self-governance or an independent state. ~~~~~~~~~~ Meanwhile, Egypt yesterday announced an effort to relaunch the "Palestinian dialogue," in an attempt to bring the two sides together. Abbas, who now says he has no preconditions for such talks, appears more eager than Hamas, which has not yet responded to plans to invite the two sides to Cairo. ~~~~~~~~~~ Condoleezza Rice is pressuring Israel and the PA to come up with a "document of understanding" before the opening session of the UN General Assembly, to show what has been accomplished. An unnamed Israeli official, cited by Haaretz, said that gaps remain on most issues and that "neither we nor the Palestinians want a deadline that can't be met..." Foreign Minister and head of the negotiating team, Tzipi Livni, yesterday spoke out strongly against such pressure: "I purposely am not setting deadlines because I think that's very bad. I very much don't want to be in the same situation that Ehud Barak was in at Camp David at the end of an American administration finishing its term and trying to put pressure on everyone to bridge gaps that cannot be bridged." While today Olmert told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that: "I don't believe we can reach an understanding this year that includes the Jerusalem issue. There is no practical chance of reaching an overall understanding on Jerusalem." Without Jerusalem, there is no deal. ~~~~~~~~~~ I close here with a most perceptive piece on Obama by Jeff Jacoby, "Missing from the Berlin speech." Jacoby looked at Obama's speech in Berlin not by parsing each word and focusing on what he said, but, rather, but observing what he missed in the larger sense: "'People of the world,' Obama declaimed, 'look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.' But the world didn't stand as one during the Cold War; it was riven by an Iron Curtain. For more than four decades, America and the West confronted an implacable enemy on the other side of that divide. What finally defeated that enemy and ended the Cold War was not harmony and goodwill, but American strength and resolve. "Obama's speech was a paean to international cooperation. 'Now is the time to join together,' he said. 'It was this spirit that led airlift planes to appear in the sky above our heads.' No –– it was a Democratic president named Truman, who had the audacity to order an airlift when others counseled retreat, and the grit to see it through when others were ready to withdraw."
The message of unity that Obama delivers appeals mightily to many Americans. But what must be asked is if he has the staying power to confront the implacable enemies that the world now faces. Many of us here, looking into the eyes of that enemy, fear that he does not. His Berlin speech does not reassure us. Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info |
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GREEN LIGHT FOR IRAN, NOT ISRAEL
Posted by LEL, July 28, 2008. |
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This was written by Jonathan S. Tobin
Executive Editor of Philadelphia Exponent.
It appeared July 24, 2008 in the
Philadelphia Exponent
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Bush has folded like a cheap suit on the push to halt Tehran's nuclear ambitions
For those who feared that the Bush administration's last days would feature a score-settling with the remaining members of the president's designated "Axis of Evil," the news is heartening. But for those of us who worry about the security of Israel as well as that of America, it isn't so good. The designated leaks from official Washington have grown from a drizzle to a torrent. Almost all sources seem to say that not only is the administration unwilling to take action about the impending nuclear threat from Iran itself, but that it is also adamant that Israel refrain from a pre-emptive attack on Tehran's nuclear program. This was the backstory to the startling decision of Bush to send Undersecretary of State William J. Burns to a meeting between an envoy from Iran and representatives of Iran and Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China this past weekend in Geneva. Incoherent Policy For the president, who only a few weeks ago characterized as "appeasers" those who wanted to talk with rogue states and terrorist-sponsors, such as the mullahs who run Iran, it was quite a reversal. Unfortunately, the turnabout produced nothing other than the chortles of the president's critics, who rightly scored him for hypocrisy and ideological incoherence and a condemnation from John Bolton, Bush's stalwart former U.N. ambassador. The result of the gathering was as predictable as it was pointless. The six powers asked the Iranians to stop enriching uranium and talked about the generous economic incentives they would give them if only they would drop their nuclear ambitions with which they could make good on their threats to destroy Israel. The Iranians said no. Rightly assessing that the threat of sanctions thrown at them are bluffs, the Iranians again made no concessions, and also made it clear that there would be none in the future. This is a game the Iranians have been playing for five years. The routine is now well-established. The West offers Tehran goodies in exchange for good behavior. The Iranians refuse. The West talks about enforcement of stronger sanctions that are never enacted. Then they go back to the negotiating table, offer more, and the Iranians say no again. This can go on forever. Or at least until Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad –– or his successor –– gives the world the news that Iran has become a member of the world's nuclear club, inaugurating a frightening new epoch of world history. Even if the optimists are right and Iran doesn't soon make good on its threats to "wipe Israel off the map" and/or allow their apocalyptic theology to lead them into setting off a nuclear exchange, the notion of a state sponsor of terrorism offering a nuclear umbrella to their Hamas and Hezbollah allies would turn the Middle East upside-down. The question is, will anyone do something about Iran before this happens? The preferred solution is diplomatic. But it is not a secret that the Iranians have correctly measured the West's lack of seriousness. For diplomacy to have any chance, Iran must be convinced that the consequences will mean complete economic isolation, and if that doesn't work, the use of military force. The last five years have proved that the threat of tough sanctions is a fantasy. As for the use of force, Bush may be in the process of taking it off the table. In Israel, there is a consensus that stretches across the political spectrum that the time to put an end to this existential threat to the Jewish state's existence is growing short. To show that they mean business, the Israelis recently held military exercises in the Mediterranean to demonstrate that they had the ability to strike Iran today, just as they did Iraq in 1981 when Israeli planes destroyed Saddam Hussein's Osirak nuclear reactor. But a repeat of the success of the daring mission ordered by Menachem Begin is not likely. The element of surprise the attackers had then is gone. Iran's facilities are also hardened targets probably buried deep in rocky terrain and spread around the country. Military experts such as author and commentator Ralph Peters have pointed out that rather than a single bombing run, it would take a concerted campaign to take out Iran's nuclear program. He doubts the Israelis have the ability to do it on their own. Even if they did try, the Israel Air Force would need extensive cooperation from U.S. forces in both Iraq and on the waters of the Persian Gulf. It is in that light that we must read a report published recently in the London Sunday Times. It quoted an unnamed Pentagon official saying Bush had given the Israelis the okay to plan for a strike in case diplomacy failed –– an "amber light" –– but warned the Americans would give Israel no help and no cooperation over Iraq or the Gulf if they ultimately attacked. Which is to say that the odds of success, problematic under the best of circumstances, now appear to be quite dim. The fact that the same official said that the United States would come to Israel's aid in case it was subsequently attacked by Iran is cold comfort for Jerusalem. Nothing Can Stop Him Combined with the administration's switch to its own brand of appeasement, the message it is sending Ahmadinejad is pretty clear. Rather than Israel getting a "green light" to accomplish what Bush surely knows is the only way to stop Iran, it is Tehran that is getting one. Ahmadinejad must be thinking that nothing can stop him now. While it is possible that Bush will think again before his term ends, that appears increasingly doubtful as fears of the economic impact of a conflagration and the administration's general exhaustion after five years of war in Iraq have taken their toll. In effect, the lame-duck commander-in-chief is conceding that action on Iran will not take place on his watch leaving the next president, whether his name is Barack Obama or John McCain, to face potential disaster sometime during their first term in office. Bush's legion of critics are wont to speak of him as one of America's worst presidents. That is probably unfair, even though his faults are by no means inconsiderable. But if he meanders into retirement and leaves this mess to his successor in such a feckless manner, he will surely merit comparison to the man whom many historians believe really does deserve the title of "worst president." James Buchanan, a cowardly and indecisive Pennsylvania Democrat who dithered as pro-slavery secessionists launched a Civil War in 1860-61, left Abraham Lincoln a mess that would take four years and the loss of more than a million lives before it was resolved. That earned him a uniquely ignominious place in the history of the republic. If Bush does the same thing on Iran, the cost in blood –– in Israel, Iran and elsewhere –– could go far higher.
Contact LEL at lel817@yahoo.com
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WHAT WAR OF IDEAS?
Posted by UCI, July 28, 2008. |
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This was written by M. Zuhdi Jasser, who is the founder and Chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy based in Phoenix Arizona. He is a former U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander, a physician in private practice, and a community activist. He can be reached at Zuhdi@aifdemocracy.org |
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As a Muslim, I am continually mystified by our nation's inability to foster an environment conducive to a real "contest of ideas" between Muslims. This "intra-Muslim contest" is arguably the linchpin of an effective counterterrorism strategy and possibly the most important debate of the 21st century. The infamous January 2008 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memorandum, "Terminology to Define the Terrorists: Recommendations of American Muslims" only stifles progress in this debate. It absurdly admonishes government employees and thought leaders to avoid terms like Jihadist, Islamist, and Salafist. More recently, buried in media coverage last week over the debate concerning the 2009 Intelligence Authorization Act of 2009 (H.R. 5959) was discussion over the Hoekstra Amendment (A004) which simply "barred the use of funds to prohibit or discourage the use of the phrases 'jihadist', 'jihad' 'Islamo-fascism', 'Caliphate'," Islamist' or 'Islamic terrorist' within the Intelligence Community or the Federal Government." "Mainstream media" who did mention the amendment spun it in ways which only catered to the Islamist mindset, stating that these terms are felt by so-called experts to cause "religious offense" and "are frequently applied incorrectly." So who is to determine their 'correctness' –– a small group of Islamist advisors? Where does that leave the war of ideas? Thanks to Congressman Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, Muslims who believe in the need for Muslims to engage one another in a contest of ideas will go on another day with hope that these terms can be debated on our terms and inside the United States and not on the Islamist terms in foreign Islamist media alone. No thanks to the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Muslims are again perceived as being unwilling to engage in any contest of ideas and would rather remain oblivious to the root causes of the ideologies of militants. Rather than engage the militants in a real war of ideas over what is and what is not "Islamic," American Islamists would rather coerce the language of non-Muslim governmental leaders. CAIR-Michigan's Executive Director was quick to give the Islamist line stating that they "support using terminology such as 'criminals,' murderers' or terrorists that help isolate and remove the false cloak of religiosity they use to justify they barbaric actions." Which part of militant Islamism is Mr. Walid dismissing as barbaric –– just the means of terror or also the ends of an Islamic state or a 'caliphate?" If he is just dismissing the means as "barbaric," do he and CAIR-Michigan believe that the goals (the end-game) of the terrorists are irrelevant to their organizations or DHS' counterterrorism efforts in the U.S.? Are there good forms of a theocratic Islamist state which Mr. Walid and CAIR would like to see formed –– just not barbarically? If not, how does just calling them "criminals" begin to even touch the surface of what motivates these individuals and their organizations? How does Mr. Walid expect to engage in a war of ideas without using any of the Islamic terms if the debate is just over violence and criminality? For background to this entire discussion, we are reminded that a nameless group of "influential Muslim Americans" met with Secretary Chertoff on May 8, 2007 and are cited as sources of a few "expert Muslims" who made these recommendations, which are now part of official State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and National Counterterrorism Center policy. These experts felt that these terms (Jihadist, Islamist, or caliphate) inappropriately empowered radical Muslims. Forget whether these concepts are compatible with American democracy. And certainly in order to bow to political correctness and some Islamist sympathizers, DHS et al were all too willing to oblige and turn our government into a filter for what is and what is not Islam. Is the U.S. government encouraging a war of ideas or contrarily doing whatever it can to completely block any war of ideas and become the "arbiter-in-chief" of the Islamic lexicon? Who were these Muslims who covertly guided the public lexicon of our entire government? A quick Internet search reveals a June 5, 2007 San Francisco Chronicle story which also coincidentally notes a May 8, 2007 meeting of Secretary Chertoff with "influential Muslims." Apparently, an erstwhile Pakistani ambassador and current professor, an author, a blogger, and a city councilman have become the primary sources for the intellectual governmental interference in what is an internal Muslim war of ideas. Muslim apologists who live in denial prefer to dismiss militant Islamists into meaningless labels as "radicals," "terrorists" or "extremists." Transnational Islamist movements can never be effectively countered if their militant arms are dismissed out of hand. Avoiding terms like Jihad, political Islam and Islamism due to concerns over offending those with non-violent interpretations misses the entire crux of the war of ideas. A public process of Muslim confrontation to reclaim spiritual Islam from political Islam is the only path toward clarifying nomenclature. This path may offend some Islamists who prefer to sneak their theocratic ideology under the radar of secular liberal democracies. But any other path besides calling Islamists what they call themselves simply delays the needed debate and prevents real enlightenment, real reform. By refusing to label militants what they call themselves, the U.S. government is bizarrely committing a form of takfir –– the right in Islam reserved only to God of determining who is or is not a Muslim or a mujahid. This war will not be won over a slippery slope struggle of somehow excommunicating militants from Islam. That is actually what the militants do to moderates. We would be far better served as Muslims actually debating the real root causes of the militancy –– the empowerment of Islamist clerics and their pre-modern mixture of Quranic and Hadith exegesis and shar'ia (Islamic jurisprudence) in government. To ignore the terms is to, in fact, protect the militants from reform and critique by anti-Islamist Muslims. To ignore the terms is to protect the militants from critique where they are most vulnerable in a public (not private) debate over their own religious legitimacy. Muslims cannot marginalize the religious legitimacy of Islamists who are entirely dismissed by the most influential media and government in the world. Truly moderate non-Islamist Muslims will not be able to internally marginalize ideologies which are entirely ignored by non-Muslims. This is not to mention a key and very concerning element to all of these apologetics –– the premise by DHS and their advisors that there is some kind of 21st century explanation of "caliphate," "Islamism" or "Jihadism" which is compatible with American Constitutional law and our democracy. No small group of Muslims has a right to direct the community lexicon especially over who is Muslim or what is Islam. The 'free exercise of religion' does not insulate religious communities from internal debate or external critique. Without it, there can be no legitimate ijtihad (modern reinterpretation) of Islam, to ultimately usher in a coexistence of Islam and modernity. America is the place where this debate is the most feasible, yet it is proving to be the most elusive. Terrorism is just a tactic. Their goal is some form of an Islamic state, a theocracy which can never be free or natural. Some postulate that recent reductions in incidents of Islamist inspired terror are due to the realization of groups, like the Muslim Brotherhood, that terror is a liability in their endgame of political Islam. Thus debating terror or 'extremism' rather than Islamism or jihadism actually empowers the theocrats. Across the Muslim world, political Islam and its militant offshoots are a reality. In Muslim majority nations, the movements call themselves harikat Islamiyia or Islamic movements. Few there seem flummoxed by their Islamic moniker. And the ones who are actually direct their ire where they should –– to those groups rather than to non-Muslims. The frustrations of peaceful Muslims with the misuse of Muslim terms should be directed publicly at al Qaeda and their ilk not the U.S. government. The battle over the lexicon is an internal Muslim one. Reformists who are anti-Islamist need to take on the theological legitimacy of advocates for political Islam and their theocratic followers. Denying the terms prevents this Muslim struggle –– this Jihad, if you will. Thanks to petro-dollars, Wahhabism, and global Islamism, the faith of Islam, which has no clergy or Church, has been transformed into a faith with a pseudo-clergy who have been allowed to determine who and what is Muslim. Homegrown terror can never be prevented without allowing Muslims the space to battle these ideas. Those who are quick to succumb to apologetics for Islamists should ask themselves first, whether the separation of religion and government in the United States actually defends this bizarre governmental control of the lexicon or, rather, a deference of the lexicon to the free market of ideas within the Muslim community? Members of Congress who voted in favor of the Hoekstra Amendment (A004) which passed 249-180 seem to understand the steps necessary to create the space for this battle of ideas and ultimately the most effective form of counterterrorism –– an eventual Muslim defeat of the legitimacy of political Islam rather than a vacuous non-Muslim attempt by the U.S. government. What is and what is not Islam cannot be filtered through advisers to the U.S. government. Call these groups as they call themselves and let Muslims battle over whose ideas predominate in Muslim scholarship and discourse. Left unfettered, the public square will determine what words mean as long as Orwellian masters leave the faithful to repair themselves.
UCI –– The Unity Coalition for Israel (http://www.israelunitycoalition.org) –– is "the largest worldwide coalition of Jewish and Christian organizations, with more than 200 groups representing millions of people dedicated to Israel. Though we have many different backgrounds, we have one common goal: A Safe and Secure Israel." "Israel is not just a Jewish issue. Millions of Christians resolutely endorse the principle of peace with security for the state of Israel. Because we work closely together and speak with a united voice, our message is being heard!" |
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US EXERTS PRESSURE ON ISRAEL; MORE TERRORISTS RELEASED GRATIS; WAR ON TERRORISM?
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 28, 2008. |
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OLMERT IN FOOL'S PARADISE PM Olmert boasts of a success. He boasts that he has kept Hizbullah from firing any more rockets at Israel, because Hizbullah is afraid of what Israel would do. What success? Hizbullah has tripled its supply of rockets, since the war. It could launch them whenever Iran wants it to. If it were afraid of Israel, it would have heeded Israel's warnings not to rearm. PM Olmert is living in a fool's paradise. He is dangerous to the survival of Israel (Dr. Aaron Lerner, 7/10). Why should Hizbullah be afraid of Israel, when Gaza terrorists fire rockets at Israel with impunity? It isn't clear which side is deterring which. Hizbullah may be deterring Israel from raiding Iran. The government of Israel must be afraid of Hizbullah, whose rockets could blanket the country. Only a fool lets enemy forces build up into a formidable threat, when those forces are led by totalitarian fanatics bent on genocide. SARKOZY TAKES SYRIA OUT OF ISOLATION Pres. Sarkozy invited Syria to a Mediterranean conference. He thwarted the US effort to isolate Syria internationally, because, he said, Syria is cooperative over Lebanon. He cited the Hizbullah-Lebanese agreement on how to govern Lebanon as an example (IMRA, 7/11). Cooperative? Syria continues to arm Hizbullah for war. The agreement leaves Hizbullah independent of Lebanon and the government of Lebanon dependent upon Hizbullah's approval. Is Sarkozy competing with Olmert for fool of the month? DOES U.S. PRESSURE DRIVE ISRAEL? The US does make demands upon Israel. However, when Israel feels it must take certain action, US disapproval does not deter it. Certain appeasement-policies by Israel, thought to result from US pressure, are Israeli initiatives. The problem with Israeli polices that harm the national interest are that they suit the leaders' ideology (Dr. Aaron Lerner, IMRA, 7/24). There may be some truth to this, but US pressuring isn't done in the open. Barry Chamish reported the face of an Israeli leader turned white, as he emerged from a meeting with a top US official. We don't know what threats were made. RISE IN TERRORISM IN JUDEA-SAMARIA Terrorists threw rocks and bombs at Israeli motorists in Judea-Samaria on 7/10. They had carried out hundreds of such attacks in recent months. Some attacks obviously emanate from certain Arab villages along the roads (Arutz-7, 7/11). Isn't that the area of the P.A. run by supposedly anti-terrorist moderates? Let Israel remove those villages, for safety's sake. Trying to catch the terrorists doesn't work completely enough! FATAH MILITIA NOW PART OF P.A. POLICE Fatah's militia states that its forces have been integrated into the official security forces of both parts of the P.A.. That was Sec. Rice's objective. She suggests that that means they no longer would commit terrorism (IMRA, 7/12). The record shows otherwise. For shame! The official P.A. security forces commit terrorism, so why not former Fatah militia men among them? The Fatah men can commit terrorism after hours, too. The P.A. sees to it that they have weapons. OLMERT NOT DONE RELEASING PRISONERS PM Olmert indicated that he will come to a meeting with Abbas and announce his is releasing some terrorist prisoners in what he calls a goodwill gesture. A former secret service executive points out that previous releases, done in the name of strengthening Abbas' regime, strengthened terrorism, not the regime. It also demoralizes Israeli security forces, who lose lives capturing terrorists (IMRA, 7/13). Bad enough when Israel uses prisoner release to bargain for something of advantage to it, but this release is gratuitous. Release of terrorists is not a mere "gesture." It is substantial action. It is a security risk. It has not brought goodwill but ill will, as the Muslims react with contempt and dissatisfaction. Neither the governments of Israel and the US nor the media investigate the results of such releases. They assert that each one is for goodwill, but fail to rate goodwill. They ought to know what with Islam, an enemy thought evil does not earn goodwill by concessions. Concessions make it seem to Muslims to be weak, because Islam doesn't make concessions when strong. My advice to Israel's secret service is to capture Olmert as an enemy agent or a traitor. That would save many Israeli lives and perhaps the Jewish nation. TERMS THAT DECEIVE What does Israel call two rocket attacks a day? "Ceasefire." What do the State Dept. and the US media call the Abbas regime that preaches bigotry and terrorism and whose forces and people respond by shooting, firebombing, and stoning? "Moderate." What does the world call the Hamas and Fatah regimes that repress business and divert foreign aid for warfare that their signed agreements forbid? "Victims" of Israeli economic oppression, needing more foreign aid. What does the NY Times call Israelis who build houses in parts of their homeland that the Arabs claim now (the rest later)? "Not in the spirit of peace." What does it call Arabs who build illegally there and in Israel? Nothing. The Times, which criticizes Israel so much and undeservedly, is silent about what the Arabs deserve criticism for. "WAR ON TERRORISM?" A new acquaintance remarked that there can't be a "war on terrorism," because terrorism is a method. We should be making a war on the ideology that utilizes terrorism. I agree. The US government, however, has not come up with a strategy for that. Few of its critics have, either. Most of them are in denial about the ideological war being waged against us, utilizing terrorism among other methods. A hopeful sign was posted in the NY Times of 7/13, by an Op.-Ed. that suggested establishing non-Islamist schools in Pakistan, so that country does not indoctrinate youth in terrorism as fast as we liquidate terrorists. The acquaintance added that most Americans mistakenly equate terrorism with Islam. The equation is incorrect, but most terrorists now are Muslim and gain much support from fellow Muslims. Despite denials, the religion endorses such methods, under approved practices established from its founder. They can call his methods divinely inspired, but he did target civilians among others. Such mass-execution and enslavement is defined as "terrorism." The Muslims (not just Islamists) are trying to redefine it, to let Islamists off the hook. Duplicitous! Generally speaking, the non-Islamic terrorists are not engaged in a loose, evil axis, to replace civilization with their primitive, totalitarian society. Recently, non-Islamic terrorists made some alliances with drug dealers. Evil seeks out evil. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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MORE PERILS OF INTERFAITH DIALOGUE
Posted by Dave Nathan, July 28, 2008. |
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This is by Steven Emerson. For background, see below. It is entitled "Organizer's Past Raises Questions About Madrid Interfaith Conference." |
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News reports indicate that the recent World Conference on Dialogue in Madrid ended with something less than the Kumbaya atmosphere both organizers and attendees had envisioned. According to the reports, a presidential advisor from the United Arab Emirates urged attendees to "to distinguish between Judaism and Zionism," adding "I can speak to pacifists but not bellicists, who are in favor of war. "Rabbi Marc Schneier, chairman of the World Jewish Congress in North America, responded, saying "Israel is not a political issue... If you want to understand Judaism, then you need to understand that Israel is a core issue of our religion." Jay Rosenbaum of Temple Israel in Lawrence, N.Y., went further, telling a New York Sun reporter that the comments were anti-Semitic, representing "the same old rhetoric that has led to more hatred and the building of a wall between the Jews and the Muslims for the last 60 years. "Here's hoping that the episode opens more eyes than just Rosenbaum's. After all, if Jewish leaders such as Schneier, David Rosen of the American Jewish Committee legitimize these meetings with their presence, how can representatives of any other faith challenge their wisdom? The same holds true for interfaith dialogue back home in America. The Madrid conference is the latest in a long line of so-called interfaith dialogue initiatives between various leaders of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. It was sponsored by the Saudi monarch and organized by a man who justifies Palestinian suicide bombings and is alleged to have links to a senior Al Qaeda financier. Now come new disclosures that the principal partner in domestic outreach, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), is rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood, the 80-year-old Egyptian society from which virtually all Sunni terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda and Hamas, emerge. The Brotherhood's long range goal is to make Islam dominant throughout the world, not to seek a path to mutual understanding. The time for ignoring these links or blaming the messenger has passed. It is a time for pointed questions, answered publicly. Those Jewish leaders, ever desperate to forge any common ground with self-styled mainstream Muslim organizations, must examine these new disclosures and explain why they believe in continued dialogue with people who are blatantly deceiving them. They must challenge their outreach partners for credible explanations. At a time when Sami Al-Arian admits he was in the Muslim Brotherhood when ISNA was created, and that he co-founded ISNA, as the Investigative Project on Terrorism reported Tuesday, it's time to stop the "dialogue" and demand real answers. Schneier, a participant at the aforementioned Madrid conference, and Eric Yoffie of the Union of Reform Judaism, are cases in point. Both have bent over backward to whitewash ISNA, currently named an unindicted co-conspirator by the government in a HAMAS financing trial in Dallas against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). As reported in the New York Sun, on the topic of ISNA, the major Muslim Brotherhood umbrella group in the U.S.: "People do evolve," says Rabbi Schneier, who told us that he has worked with the Islamic Society of North America to prepare a public service announcement with rabbis and imams jointly warning against anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and also to plan joint activities between synagogues and mosques that are set for November. Evolve? ISNA denies having anything from which it has to evolve. And this is Schneier at the Madrid Conference opening: Rabbi Marc Schneier, North American chairman of the World Jewish Congress, said King Abdullah was reaching out to other faiths to counter extremists and fanatics within Islam. "What I heard from him is that 'I represent Islam, and I am the voice of moderation'," said Schneier. So the leading exporter of Wahabbi Islam, who refused to invite any Israelis (the one rabbi with Israeli citizenship at the conference, the AJC's David Rosen, was listed on the program as an American), let alone have the conference on Saudi soil, is somehow a voice of moderation. Adding to his "moderate" credentials, Abdullah invited a radical, pro-Islamist Jewish leader who attended the Iranian president's 2006 Holocaust denial conference: Some other Jewish officials invited to the conference are more controversial, including Rabbi David Weiss, whose group, Neturei Karta, objects to the creation of Israel on the grounds that it violates Jewish religious law. At a 2006 gathering in Tehran hosted by hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Weiss made headlines by saying the number of Jews said to have been killed in the Holocaust was inflated. Given that, how surprising is it to learn that the Madrid conference featured former neo-Nazi leader William Baker? There is no report of any protest for Baker's inclusion. The Associated Press quoted Rosen after the conference opened: "What is historic about this is that it is organized by the king of Saudi Arabia," he told the Associated Press. "To hear the king of Saudi Arabia talk about tolerance, moderation and cooperation between the religions to address contemporary challenges is quite something. "When asked what he hoped to get out of the three-day gathering, Rosen added:"The significance of this event is the fact that it is happening. I didn't have any great expectations with regards to the intellectual content." Michael Lerner, editor of the liberal Tikkun magazine. Lerner wrote a fairly glowing assessment of the conference's opening, acknowledging dramatic change could take years, but finding the Madrid meeting a key step in the right direction: I came away from this direct time with the Saudis with the distinct impression that I had helped foster more positive notions about who Americans are, who Jews are, and what Israelis are about. I believe that this happened in many other conversations that took place in the hallways between the 20 or so Jews at the conference and the hundreds of Muslims and Christians. While some of those Jews probably conveyed the same stuckness and stubbornness that Israel and the American Jewish establishment always conveys, there were fresh thinkers like Rabbi Michael Paley, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, Rabbi Phyllis Berman, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Rabbi Marc Gopin, Rabbi Scott Sperling and Rabbi David Rosen who each have creative and exciting ideas on how to continue this dialogue. For that, as for many other aspects of this set of conversations, I give thanks to God for the opportunity that I have had to serve the causes of peace and reconciliation! In an email to Lerner shared with the IPT, Ali Alyami, the executive director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, told the rabbi's his high hopes were not warranted: The Madrid Conference has two objectives: One is to spread the deadly Wahhabi ideology and the other to silence critics of Saudi gross violations of basic human rights and hate for non-Muslims. With due you respect, you missed the point completely. According to the secretariat of the Muslim World League (the extremist organizer of the conference you praise profusely) "The conference does not aim to unite religions or to reconcile between them...the differences are there through God's wisdom and will. The objective of the conference is to spread knowledge {Wahhabism} and encourage cooperation in hope of attaining positive coexistence." The Saudis fed you a lot of false information and you bought it. This is tragic. (emphasis original) Meanwhile, Yoffie, who spoke at ISNA's convention in Chicago last summer and has a history of partnering with ISNA, has said, in a statement posted on ISNA's website: We chose ISNA as our partner because it is the closest equivalent to the Union within the American Muslim community. It has issued a strong and unequivocal condemnation of terror, including a specific condemnation of Hizbollah and Hamas terror against Jews and Israelis. True, one can find this statement, "ISNA rejects all acts of terrorism, including those perpetrated by HAMAS, Hizbullah and any other group that claims Islam as their inspiration" on ISNA's website. ISNA rather slyly only generally "rejects" the violent acts: its officials refuse to condemn both groups, will not label either as terrorist organizations, but instead refer to HAMAS favorably as the "democratically-elected Palestinian government."[1] ISNA studiously ignores the HAMAS Charter, a virulently anti-Semitic tract which states that, "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it" and the fact that violent jihad is a core principal of HAMAS and Hezbollah. More on this below, as ISNA's own website contains similar anti-Jewish sentiments. And unfortunately for Schneier and Yoffie, their timing on ISNA's alleged evolution and condemnation of terrorist groups, respectively, could not have been worse. Just last week, in documents presented in the HLF case, federal prosecutors said of ISNA: HLF raised money and supported HAMAS through a bank account it held with ISNA as NAIT [the North American Islamic Trust]. Indeed, HLF (under its former name, OLF) operated from within ISNA, in Plainfield, Indiana... ISNA checks deposited into the ISNA/NAIT account for the HLF were often made payable to "the Palestinian Mujahadeen," the original name for the HAMAS military wing. From that ISNA/NAIT account, the HLF sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to HAMAS leader Mousa Abu Marzook, Nadia Elashi (defendant Ghassan Elashi's cousin and Marzook's wife), Sheikh Ahmed Yassin's Islamic Center of Gaza, the Islamic University and a number of other individuals associated with HAMAS. As I have previously reported, ISNA's support of HAMAS is not merely financial, but the group was also a vocal supporter of HAMAS leader Mousa Abu Marzook, using the pages of its magazine, Islamic Horizons, to both whitewash HAMAS' bloody history and engage in thinly veiled anti-Semitism. For example, in the November/December 1995 issue of Islamic Horizons, almost a full year after HAMAS was officially designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government, an article titled "Muslim Leader Hostage to Israeli Interests" characterized Marzook as: [a] member of the political wing of Hamas, disliked by the Zionist entity for its Islamic orientation, continues to be held hostage in the U.S. at the whims of his Zionist accusers. And, more than two years after HAMAS' designation as a terrorist group, in the September/October 1997 issue, Islamic Horizons published an article describing Marzook as: [j]ailed without trial in New York for-months for alleged ties to organizations seeking Palestinian rights. This is an almost unbelievable contention, if not for the fact that it was uttered by the house organ of a major Muslim Brotherhood front organization. Now, despite the documented evidence, ISNA says it has no connection –– and indeed that it never had any connection –– to the Muslim Brotherhood. And apparently Rabbi Schneier not only takes the group's word –– again, in face of the actual evidence –– but claims that ISNA has somehow "evolved." Since ISNA unabashedly claims no connection to the Muslim Brotherhood, it is true the group has evolved, just not in the way Schneier suggests, since the transparent lies of ISNA's leadership have grown even bolder, which is an evolution of sorts. And ISNA's ties to the most virulent anti-Israel terrorist groups are hardly the only complication when it comes to "interfaith dialogue," especially with Jews, despite Rabbi Yoffie's assurances to the contrary. A cursory look at the "library" page on ISNA's website includes the following passages about Jews (as well as four other, similar in nature to those in the HAMAS Charter) used to justify extremist violence against both Israelis and Jews around the world by the most radical of Islamist terrorists: Book 41, Number 6985: Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews. Perhaps Schneier and Yoffie are unaware of ISNA's invocation of this Hadith –– which plainly states that Muslims need to kill the Jews to bring about the end of times. Or perhaps they are aware, but choose to look the other way. Either way, pining for the mass slaughter of Jews by Muslims to usher in paradise should be a disqualifier for any sort of interfaith dialogue between Muslims and Jews. Schneier, who has a history of failed outreach efforts, should know better. In November 2006, he attempted "interfaith dialogue" with a leader of the largest mosque in New York, with less than optimum results: One of the last widely publicized Jewish outreach efforts to Muslims was made last November by Rabbi Marc Schneier, spiritual leader of the New York Synagogue. But it backfired when Imam Omar Abu Namous of the Islamic Cultural Center, who was invited to the rabbi's synagogue for a dialogue, unleashed a barrage of criticism of Israel –– even questioning its legitimacy –– as a stunned congregation watched. Rabbi Schneier said later that the incident "opened my eyes to the reality that we have a long way to go." Actual constructive interfaith dialogue can only come when Islamist groups own up to their past and present support for terrorist groups. For ISNA's part, only after a sort of "truth and reconciliation" construct, in which the group's leadership admits its history of support for HAMAS, former U.S.-based HAMAS leader Mousa Abu Marzook, and various and sundry other Palestinian and Islamist terror organizations (all documented by federal prosecutors, by the way) should the organization begin to earn trust. Indeed, the various Jewish representatives who overlook these ties in the name of "interfaith dialogue," themselves are engaged in a huge disservice to everyone who deplores Islamist terrorism and extremism, and have no place as religious or community leaders. NOTE
[1] "US Muslim coalition condemns Israeli action in Gaza," The Muslim
News, July 11, 2006,
Contact Dave Nathan at DaveNathan@aol.com
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WHY JEWISH SETTLEMENTS?
Posted by Ralph Rants, July 28, 2008. |
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I was asked by one of my readers to justify why Israel needs settlements. This week I decided to answer that question. I will answer that question with three simple answers. Settlements have become the central point in the ever elusive Arab Israeli peace process.
This article is stored at http://ralphsrant1.blogspot.com/2008/07/settlements.html |
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OBAMA'S EXAMPLE FOR ISRAEL...CHANGE
Posted by Gerald A. Honigman, July 28, 2008. |
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Israel has a very important lesson to learn from Barack Obama...and it better do so quickly. I checked out Obama's official website, Obama For Change, and here's what's highlighted: With the right leadership, and a change of attitude and focus, Barack Obama brings a new viewpoint to discover solutions to the problems at hand. It's about time...It's about change. Exactly. Now, I'm a registered Independent voting for John McCain, but certainly my own country needs a good dose of proper change...in how we get energy, as just one example. McCain knows this as well. Certainly, if this idea is important for America, it is even more so for Israel. Jews and/or Israel have been undergoing change imposed from the outside for centuries. In the 19th century, the Reform movement emerged among Jews who –– among other things –– were determined that the days of the imposed ghetto, degradation, and such (from which Napoleon had freed them) should never return. Assimilation was the name of the game –– to the point of recommendations to change the Sabbath to Sunday. The idea was to rid themselves of their identities as Jews. Henceforth, they would just be Frenchmen, Russians, Poles, Germans, etc. of the (much diluted) Jewish faith ... not German or French Jews. Sounded reasonable –– if not a bit pathetically nauseating –– no? Too bad the Germans, Poles, French, and so forth didn't see things this way. Modern political Zionism, leading to the resurrection of the state of the Jews, arose because –– in perhaps the most enlightened of nations in the 19th century –– France –– the most vile anti-Semitism proved to be alive and well, targeting even the most assimilated of Jews –– whom Alfred Dreyfus, of the infamous Dreyfus Affair, symbolized. And it flourished amongst the intelligentsia as well as the rabble. Another assimilated Jew, Theodore Herzl, was a reporter from Austria covering Captain Dreyfus's railroaded trial. Shocked to the core at seeing mobs shouting such things as "death to the Jews," he later wrote, Der Judenstaat –– The Jewish State. So much for that change... It was as if G_d was saying, " Israel will be reborn –– whether you Jews like it or not!" In the Jews' quest for normalcy, they bent over backwards in the pursuit of modern political Zionism to create a state like all others...somewhat reminiscent of the Reform movement's motivations, but on a national scale. Now, don't get me wrong, not all saw things this way. Religious Zionists saw G_d's hand in all of this...the Hebraic prophecies unfolding as planned. I agree. And they too had many supporters. But most of the Zionist leaders who came to rule both pre-state and post-'48 Israel also deluded themselves into believing that the rest of the world would forget that Israel was the Jew of the Nations. Well, since Auschwitz, it's not proper –– in at least some circles –– to be "anti-Semitic." No problem... Utilize absurd double and moral equivalence standards, and replace anti-Zionism for anti-Semitism, and the age-old animus now remains kosher. All other peoples can demand national liberation except the one people who needed it the most...the condemned to wandering "G_d-killers" of the Christian West and the "slayers of Prophets and Jew Dogs" of the Arab/Muslim East. Being the oldest, still existing victims of imperial conquest, the Jews were expected to simply remain that way. Seeking to gain acceptance in an "Arab" world which sees them as sons of apes and pigs, too many Jews then continued to pursue this change even further in pursuit of a "post-Zionist" Israel. Again, recall one of the key motivations of the Reform movement...What can we do to change ourselves so we'll gain acceptance from the Gentiles? Unfortunately, ignorance of one's enemies has characterized too many of those who have called the political shots in Israel. The very idea that dhimmi Jews (or Kurds or Berbers or Copts or black Africans, etc.) should demand political rights in what Arabs consider to be purely Arab patrimony and the Dar ul-Islam is laughable to anyone truly familiar with this subject. Add to post-Zionism a continued movement away from the idea of Israel as a Jewish State, and you have the mess Israel now finds itself in. So, so much for those changes as well. Therefore, guess what? It's time for Israel to try another type of change...a return to its proud roots. It's time for Israel to stop trying to alter itself to be accepted by others. The values of Jews became the moral guidelines for much, if not most, of the modern world; and, despite its imperfections, Israel is still that light unto the nations the Bible asked it to be. The national liberation of the Jewish people in the land in which they have thousands of years of continuous history –– Zionism –– ranks as noble as any of such movements can be. If Arabs can have almost two dozen states –– conquered and forcibly Arabized from mostly non-Arab peoples –– then why not one resurrected state for Jews? No, Israel has nothing to cover up for...certainly nothing to revise its very being. If compared with the same set of lenses to the "Arab" world (rarely done), Israel should indeed be canonized. Indeed, as I write this article, black Muslim African refugees fleeing Arabs from Darfur are fleeing to Israel. What's needed now is change –– but done the right way... There are Jews in Israel who still have the sense of justice, passion, and compassion of Golda, Ben-Gurion, Jabotinsky, and Begin. Where are they? Where are the leaders who will insist that Israel no longer trade live, captured, rabid butchers for the bones of dead Jews –– regardless of how nice they make it sound? Where are the leaders who will institute a quick death penalty for such "heroes?" Better yet, why are they taken alive? Where are Israeli leaders who will insist on "peace for peace" instead of "land for peace?" It's obvious that the latter has not worked...it's only brought closer to fruition the Arabs post-'67 "destruction in stages" plans for "their" kilab yahud –– Jew dogs. Think Gaza...the same will happen after a total Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, aka, the "West Bank." Not to mention the Golan. Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Ben-Gurion Airport, the Knesset, and so forth will receive what Sderot gets daily now. Where is the change which will bring new Israeli leaders who will insist that Israel get a reasonable territorial compromise granting it real borders to replace former, UN-imposed, suicidal Auschwitz/armistice lines a la UNSC Resolution 242? America's United Nations' representative in '49, Ralph Bunche, openly stated that those lines were never meant to be Israel's permanent borders. The Arabs will never play ball, you say... Of course they won't. So what? They don't accept a 9-mile wide Israel either. Think about what other nations have done thousands of miles away from home in the name of their own national security and interests. Israel must do what it must do to thrive –– not just survive. Demanding reasonable territorial compromise merely undoes the injustice created by the Arab invasion of a nascent Israel in 1948 and the mostly armistice lines –– not borders –– which emerged as a result. Those lines simply marked the points at which a half dozen invading Arab armies were turned back. As would become all-too-common later on, the UN only got involved after the Jews turned the tide and had the Arabs on the run...not before, to stop the Arabs' initial aggression. Where are the new Israeli leaders who will tell the State Department's next James Baker or Condi Rice, when he or she insists on such things as Israel supplying its enemies with weapons (which were then used to massacre Jews in yeshivas, etc.), to go fly a kite? Where's the change which will bring to the fore proud Zionist Jews who will draw the lines beyond which no further retreat will be allowed –– regardless of who is twisting the arms, turning the screws, and increasing the heat from across the sea? If it means losing American aid, then so be it. My prediction is that such games will backfire big time on any White House which lowers itself this way. Millions of fair-minded people will not expect the sole, resurrected Jewish State to sacrifice itself on the petroleum greased altar of international hypocrisy so that Arabs can get their 22nd state –– and second, not first, in the original 1920 Mandate of Palestine. Jordan sits on almost 80% of that territory. So, as a solid McCain supporter (despite some concerns ), I'm now hoping that Israelis will do some real soul searching and take a cue from the Obama camp. Replacing Olmert with someone of similar ilk will accomplish nothing but a continuation of the sort of change we've explored earlier...the change that gave Israel its first military defeat, handed over a live Samir Kuntar, and so forth. The latter's head needed to have been parachuted onto Hizbullah's headquarters. That Condi loves Tsipi Livni should send another disturbing signal as well. Israel must get itself new leaders, at all levels, who will place the overall Zionist forest ahead of individual, parochial trees which hold fragile coalitions together. Olmert should have been dumped long ago. The change that Israelis must insist upon may very well determine if the Jews' long-awaited, reborn state will continue to even exist. Hamas and Fatah's Abbas refuse to recognize a Jewish Israel. Abbas's "moderates" just sung praises to a returning butcher –– Kuntar –– who murdered a father while his 4-year old daughter watched and then beat her skull in with his rifle butt against a rock until she too was dead. In short, the type of change that Israel must have will bring forth leaders who will know how to better address such things. And for those who care, it's time to do all that's legally and humanly possible to see to it that this happens sooner rather than later. Gerald A. Honigman, a Florida educator, has created and conducted counter-Arab propaganda programs for college youth, has lectured on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has publicly debated Arab spokesmen. His articles and op-eds have been published in both the print media and on websites. Contact him at honigman6@msn.com or go to his website: http://geraldahonigman.com/blog.php |
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SHIN BET HEAD: ISRAEL ABANDONING JERUSALEM NEIGHBORHOODS
Posted by Lee Caplan, July 28, 2008. |
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This was written by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu and it appeared today in Arutz-Sheva. |
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(IsraelNN.com) Israel has abandoned several eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods within the separation barrier, leaving them without army or police patrols, according to Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chief Yuval Diskin. "Neighborhoods are being abandoned...and it leaves a vacuum where Hamas operates," he added. Smuggling of weapons has increased, and police find it more difficult to deploy forces in neighborhoods where the terrorist infrastructure has strengthened. Public Security Minister Avi Dichter (Kadima) pointed out that 20 percent of terrorist attacks in the past five years involved Arab residents of eastern Jerusalem. He explained that a dramatic change has occurred this year, raising a red flag through the direct involvement in terrorist attacks by Arabs who live within the separation barrier. Three attacks this year that resulted in the deaths of 11 Jews were carried out by eastern Jerusalem Arabs who acted on their own, without any apparent ties to an organized terrorist movement. "It is extremely difficult to foresee and to prevent these types of attacks," Dichter noted. He reiterated a view, becoming more acceptable among political leaders, that demolition of the homes of families housing terrorists and expelling them from the city are the most effective means of preventing attacks. The Public Security Minister emphasized that such moves must be thoroughly justified because they face the danger of being challenged by international law as a violation of human rights. The separation barrier has left large swaths of the capital cut off from the rest of the city, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his deputy Vice Prime Minister Chaim Ramon have favored surrendering Israeli sovereignty over the affected Jerusalem suburbs. Contact Lee Caplan at leescaplan@yahoo.com |
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WHY GANDHI WAS WRONG; NON-VIOLENCE DOESN'T WORK
Posted by Sultan Knish, July 28, 2008. |
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Gandhi's tactic of non-violence is often foolishly credited with the peaceful liberation of India. This claim would be more impressive if the British Empire hadn't expired but was still around with a large retinue of colonies, instead of having disposed of its colonies, many around the same time as India. And considering the bloodshed of Partition, despite Gandhi's best attempts at appeasing Muslims it was hardly peaceful. Yet despite the hypocrisies that have dotted Gandhi's life, his ideas continue to have a powerful hold on the Western imagination. Few would seriously argue that had Gandhi been facing Imperial Japan (whose brutal conquest of Asia he briefly supported) or Nazi Germany or even the British Empire of the 19th century, that non-violence would have been nothing more than an invitation to a bullet. Yet that is exactly what first world nations are expected to do when confronted with terrorism. Not long after 9/11 slogans were already appearing on posters challenging, "What would Gandhi do?" We can hazard a guess at what the man who urged Britain to surrender to Hitler and told the Jews to walk into the gas chambers, would do. We can do better than guess at the outcome. The same outcome that surrender to tyranny always brings, whether in the name of non-violence, cowardice or political appeasement, a great heap of skulls shining in the sun. Gandhi's non-violence or Tolstoy's more honestly named, Non-Resistance to Evil through Violence who heavily influenced Gandhi or Tolstoy's own influence through the writings of Rousseau represent a pacifist strain that runs through Western civilization. It is a particularly futile and dangerous strain that values internal nobility over the lives and welfare of others. Non-violence is either redundant or dangerously misguided. When confronting an opponent, that opponent's goals are either violent or peaceful. If his goals are peaceful then non-violence is redundant. If his goals are violent, then non-violence achieves nothing. The political victories of non-violence have come mainly from a nation that wanted a peaceful outcome seeing violent suppression of protesters through violent law enforcement tactics. While this produced political victories, it also demonstrated the inherent pointless of it, as it only worked with a nation that was already prepared to reach a peaceful agreement. Had Martin Luther King tried his tactics in the early 19th century South, he would have gotten nowhere. Had Gandhi pitted himself against Imperial Japan, he would have been beheaded. Clearly non-violence is a tactic that can only work against essentially peaceful opponents who are easily embarrassed by a few jailed protesters. It fails utterly against opponents who genuinely want to conquer or kill you and are willing to do whatever it takes to see that it happens. Had the application of non-violence been limited to a form of civil protest in democracies, there would be no objection. It is when Gandhi is cited as a model for confronting dictatorships and tyrannies that we reach the fundamental gap between reality and the ideology of non-violence. Can non-violence stop an enemy bent on your destruction? The answer is no. Non-violence can only enable such an enemy. But the nasty trap in the philosophy of non-violence is that it presumes that a source of the violence is in the victims themselves. This is why when Gandhi advised the Jews to go willingly into the gas chambers, he described any protest by the Jews to the West as itself violent. Only by being willing unprotesting sacrifices could the Jews fit Gandhi's model of non-violence. This is shocking only to those who fail to realize that "Blame the Victim" is inherent in the philosophy of non-violence. Unsurprising from a man who degraded and abused his wife and drove his sons away, and yet continues to be regarded as a sort of saint. The self-destructive nature of non-violence is that it only works when the source of the violence really is within the individual practicing it. Non-violence only works therefore when non-violently confronting those whose goals are ultimately non-violent. It is self-destructively useless when confronting those whose goals are violent. But because it teaches that we are the source of the violence, it repeatedly blames the target of the violence for doing anything whatsoever to resist the violence. In Gandhi's non-violence, a rape victim who screamed for help would be guilty of practicing violence rather than non-violence. In Tolstoy's rendering of non-violence, there is no difference in moral culpability between attacked and attacker. This simplistic picture leaves no room for self-defense and no place for a society that seeks to protect its own people. When viewed this way it exposes the ideology of non-violence for what it really is, a self-indulgent selfish form of martyrdom that emphasizes inner nobility over social utility. At the heart of non-violence is hypocrisy. Quaker non-violence prevented them from funding a militia to protect colonial settlers against attacks. It prevented them from serving on either side in WW2. It did not however prevent them from composing lists of victims for the Nazis. It has not prevented them from agitating on behalf of terrorists today. Tolstoy's non-violence did not prevent him from distributing and promoting the writings of violent anarchists, it did however prevent him from condemning the Pogroms. Gandhi's non-violence did not prevent him from self-interestedly welcoming a Japanese occupation of Asia or urging a British surrender to Hitler.
The common denominator of non-violence is a contempt for the victim of violence and a slavish need to appease or appeal to the violent. Given a choice non-violence will elevate the perpetrator of naked violence, over the peace-loving people and nations doing their best to stop him. The former has the glory of an unambiguous sinner ripe for conversion, while the latter appears to the philosopher of non-violence as an obscene heresy that uses violence to achieve peaceful ends. For the democracy confronting a destructive ideology, non-violence is nothing more than a suicide pact. The refusal to resist evil grants hegemony to evil. But the refusal of the philosophers of non-violence to admit the necessity of violence instead drives them to demonize those who would resist evil with violence, as the source of the violence.
This is from yesterday's Sultan Knish website:
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FROM ISRAEL: STILL OBAMA
Posted by Arlene Kushner, July 27, 2008. |
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The Jerusalem Post ran an exclusive interview with Barack Obama on Friday. Along with it they ran an editorial on what he had to say. I would like to cite from that editorial: "On the question of the fate of Jerusalem...he was confusing. He wants Jerusalem to be Israel's capital and he wants the parties to work things out for themselves. ~~~~~~~~~~ Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA, citing from that Jerusalem Post Obama interview, comments (my emphasis added): "Obama: 'I think that Israel should abide by previous agreements and commitments that have been made, and aggressive settlement construction would seem to violate the spirit at least, if not the letter, of agreements that have been made previously.' ~~~~~~~~~~ And then there is this. On July 24, Senator Obama delivered a major speech in Berlin. In that speech, he said: "This is the moment when we must defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it. This threat is real and we cannot shrink from our responsibility to combat it. If we could create NATO to face down the Soviet Union, we can join in a new and global partnership to dismantle the networks that have struck in Madrid and Amman; in London and Bali; in Washington and New York." This was called to my attention by something sent out by Steve Kohn, whom I thank. Steve wrote the following: "After spending 24 hours in Israel the day before, speaking in front of rockets that had fallen on Sderot, and staying at a hotel on a street subject to a terror attack hours before his arrival, the senator...shows his true beliefs –– that terror against Jews somehow is less heinous, violent and meaningful than that inflicted on others. How appropriate that he omitted Israel from his list of terror targets when speaking in Berlin." Obama's full speech is at:
~~~~~~~~~~ More bad news with regard to Hezbollah. It is now being reported that this Shiite terrorist group has been recruiting Sunnis in south Lebanon, in villages opposite the Shaba Farms. This is a bid for control of the area. "The Future Movement" is the name of the Sunni group with which Hezbollah is vying for power. ~~~~~~~~~~ MEMRI, which monitors and translates what Arabs are saying in
Arabic, has several excerpts from TV programs in which Samir Kuntar
has been interviewed since his release.
I cite here just one:
~~~~~~~~~~ Columnist Sarah Honig, writing in Friday's Post, has it right, I think, when she says terrorists such as Kuntar should receive the death penalty here (only Eichmann has ever been executed in Israel), thereby precluding kidnappings to try to secure their release. "It's at least slight solace to know that the most heinous of butchers won't get the last laugh on us and won't in the interim enjoy our hospitality, be well fed by Israeli taxpayers, will further their education, pursue hobbies, receive conjugal visits, procreate and even commission and coordinate more terror onslaughts." ~~~~~~~~~~ On Thursday, the IDF arrested seven terror suspects in Judea and Samaria. Early today, in an arrest operation in Hebron, we took out Shihab Na'atsha, the explosives engineer from Hamas responsible for assembling the bomb belt used in the suicide attack in Dimona in February, which killed one person and injured 40. And the PA wants us to stop doing these operations? ~~~~~~~~~~ A half a dozen times, I began a posting on the situation with regard to Iran, and a half a dozen times I have found myself side-tracked. But even more so, I have found it close to impossible to be coherent on the subject, so swiftly do reports shift. McCain's recent statement on the subject was this: "I think we have a lot of options to explore before we seriously explore the military option, and I don't think we have exercised those enough. He said the US and Europe could impose "significant, very painful sanctions on Iran, which I think could modify their behavior." "But I have to look you in the eye and tell you that the United States of America can never allow a second Holocaust." ~~~~~~~~~~ While Obama, while here, said: What I can do is assure that I will do everything in my power as president to prevent Iran attaining nuclear weapons. And I think that begins with engaging in tough, direct talks with Iran, sending a clear message ...and elevating this to the top of our national security priorities, so that we are mobilizing the entire international community... ~~~~~~~~~~ Last week during his visit in Washington, Israeli Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi urged a blocking of Iranian aggression. Israel has been stunned by the reversal in former American policy as the US has begun to attempt direct contact with Iran –– as last week a high-ranking State Department official was sent to join the European delegation meeting Iran's top nuclear negotiator, without noticeable effect. If reports are accurate, there is even the possibility of a US diplomatic presence at the consular level in Teheran. Always, this is announced with threats also implicit. Dr. Gerald Steinberg, a conflict resolution expert at Bar Ilan University, has offered the opinion that the current combination of combined US diplomacy and threats might work. Bush is gambling that Iran might suspend nuclear aspirations, which would accrue to his administration's credit, but that if Iran is obstinate, there is greater national justification for the military option. ~~~~~~~~~~ Iran is making ever more grandiose threats that are discounted in many quarters. Ephraim Halevy, the previous Mossad chief who now heads the Center for Strategic and Policy Studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, is now on record as saying that "Iran is not 10 feet tall." It is his opinion that Iranian retaliation would not be as serious as many imagine and that our defense systems would take out most of it. Meir Javedanfar, a respected, Iranian-born writer and analyst, says that more rational leaders within the Iranian –– who have greater authority than the president –– are reining in Ahmadinejad. Halevy agrees; "I don't detect an appetite among the Iranians to bring about a catastrophe." This is a different message from what we'd been hearing before. Menashe Amir, a key Iranian analyst, was cited recently as saying that while Iran appears on the surface to be united in its nuclear drive, "there is a debate in Iran. [Some] say: We are being offered a fantastic, generous incentives package. Let's accept it...we cannot withstand the international pressure. The sanctions are widening, and the danger of a US or Israeli attack is growing. Let's not miss this chance..." He says that among the Iranian politicians holding this opinion are former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, parliament speaker and former nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, and former nuclear negotiator Hassan Rouhani. Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info |
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IMPRISONED SECURITY GUARDS PETITION SUPREME COURT TO FORCE PRESIDENT TO RULE ON PARDON
Posted by Hands Fiasco, July 27, 2008. |
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This comes from Independent Media Review Analysis (IMRA)
imra@netvision.net.il and is at
It appeared July 24, 2008 on Israel Justice
and is archived at
Datya Itzhak writes: As a first step, we request that you telephone –– rather than e-mail –– the Israeli Embassy or the Israeli consulate nearest you and demand to know why the Halamish brother are still in prison. |
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JERUSALEM –– Two Jewish security guards, imprisoned for shooting in the air to disperse a group of Bedouins who had infiltrated their community, have petitioned the president to decide immediately on their request for a pardon. Over two months ago, the Justice Ministry approved the pardon request for Dan and Yitzhak Halamish, two brothers sentenced to seven and eight months respectively and sent the request to the office of President Shimon Peres. On June 1, the president's office sent a letter to attorney Dov Even-Or confirming that the pardon request had reached an advanced stage. "Your clients' request is being dealt with in the advanced stages," presidential aide on pardons, Ms. Talia Sukari-Lina said. Even-Or said his petition includes a request that the president be forced to answer all pardon requests within 30 days. "50 days have passed since this letter [from the president]," Even-Or said, "and still the president hasn't announced his decision." In his petition, Even-Or stressed that the president should be limited to 90 days and if he still hasn't decided, the pardon should be automatically approved. "The request form the petitioners for a pardon was presented in March," Even-Or said. "It's not reasonable that that they are sitting in jail while the president struggles with a decision on their request." On May 4, Supreme Court Judge Salim Jubran rejected the previous appeal by the Halamish brothers to postpone judicial proceedings until the president considered their application for a pardon and ordered them immediately to jail on May 5. Jubran is the same judge who rejected their original right to appeal the conviction. The Supreme Court then extended the beginning of the sentence to May 20. The brothers appealed to the Supreme Court after the president's office advised the brothers to apply for a stay of proceedings, granted to a third defendant, Baruch Feldbaum. The Halamish brothers, as part of their reserve military service, were members of a security response team organized, equipped and trained by the Israeli Army to help protect their community and surrounding region from Arab attack. On Feb. 21, 2004, the brothers were summoned by another security officer, Feldbaum, to help expel Bedouins who trespassed into the Jewish community of Sdei Bar and were encamped near a student dormitory. Bedouin tribes in the area had been deemed responsible for the killing of several Jews in the area in previous years. Under the direction of Feldbaum, the Halamish brothers ordered the bedouin squatters to leave. The Bedouins refused, and about 20 of them approached the Jewish security officers with sticks and rocks. Feldbaum shot toward the ground when the Bedouins continued to move closer. The response team later said that it shot in self-defense. An army medic who arrived at the scene determined that nobody was struck by the gunfire, an assertion disputed by the Bedouins. At that point, the military abandoned its own security team and allowed a police investigation. Although police refused to conduct ballistic tests or even a lineup of suspects, the brothers were convicted of shooting toward the Bedouins. Dan was sentenced to seven months in prison; Yitzhak, to eight months. An Israeli appeals court said ballistic tests or a lineup weren't necessary. The word of the Bedouins –– who refused to show up to police headquarters to identify their purported assailants –– was enough. The court also rejected a recommendation by the probation officer for community service. The three-judge panel said it wanted the Halamish brothers to go to jail to serve as a lesson to others. Contact Hands Fiasco at handsfiasco@webtv.net |
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THE ORTHODOX UNION AND THE BULLDOZER TERRORIST ATTACK
Posted by Avodah Ivrit, July 27, 2008. |
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Icon of the Orthodox Union of Hebrew Congregations It is no coincidence that last week's bulldozer terrorist attack
No, the Arabs did not plan this around the OU. However, the Vice-President of the OU David Luchins, Ph.D. was visiting from the U. S. A group from the National Council of Synagogue Youth [NCSY], the OU's youth branch, was also in Jerusalem at the time, as part of its summer educational tour of Israel. It is not a coincidence that all of these people, places, and events came together. These visitors now have an opportunity to serve as shlichim,
as messengers to the Jews in the U. S.
BUT, WHAT MESSAGE WILL THEY BEAR? Will they spin the terrorist attack into the "copycat" attack of another crazy person, as the Israeli government has? Will they downplay it, or even ignore it? Will parents of NCSY members tell the kids that they "don't understand such complicated matters," and shouldn't get involved? Or will OU officials, members, and youth recognize this profound occurrence, step up to the plate, and share the horror of the experience of being in Jerusalem while a terrorist attack was in progress? Will they avoid the mincing of words, and political-correctness, and put two and two together to come up with four? Only time will tell.
MEANWHILE, ON THE SAME DAY OF THE SECOND BULLDOZER
ATTACK by an "Israeli Arab" in two weeks, a rather telling
article by Nathan J. Diament, the OU's Director of Public Policy was
published on the website Real Clear Politics In this article, focusing on Sen. Barak Obama's (D-IL) visit to Israel, Diament praises two U. S. presidents, one whom supported the transfer of 95 percent of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza to Arabs, and the other, a vocal supporter of the formation of yet another Arab terrorist state. We look forward to the OU's message(s) it conveys to our fellow Jews in the U. S. After having read Diament's article, we are not optimistic. NOTE: The Orthodox Union did not authorize the use of its logo. It is
placed here, only as the highly recognizable symbol of kosher food, to
assist our readers in identifying the OU organization.
Contact Avodah Ivrit by email at avodahivrit@gmail.com and visit
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READING EHUD BARAK
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, July 27, 2008. |
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Below is an article by Caroline B. Glick that appeared July 25, 2008 in the Jerusalem Post When you finish reading this you will wonder if the Israeli people are so totally stupid and ill informed as to need a keeper. Olmert, Livni and Barak deserve more than merely removal from office. Incompetence, malfeasance, misfeasance in office is a crime against the Jewish people. They should be locked up in the darkest prison for what they have already done and what is like yet to occur. They have all aided and abetted the growth of Hezbollah, Hamas and Fatah in pursuit of their Leftist ideology and these efforts to remain in office at any price to be paid by the Israeli people. They deserve no honor, no respect and certainly no pity for their crimes while in office. It all began in earnest during the Rabin-Peres Oslo period and has grown worse ever since. U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 is merely a drop in the bucket with all the backsliding of a corrupt Israeli Government. |
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On July 14, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak castigated UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which set the terms of the cease-fire that ended the 2006 war between Israel and Iran's Lebanese army Hizbullah, saying, "UN resolution 1701 didn't work, isn't working and won't work." He added, "UN resolution 1701 is a failure." Resolution 1701 is indeed a failure and always has been a failure. The resolution is predicated on the false belief that UNIFIL, the UN force deployed along Lebanon's border with Israel would work together with the Lebanese army to prevent Hizbullah from rearming and reasserting its control over Lebanon after the war. Yet, under 1701, Hizbullah tripled the size of its arsenal of missiles over what it was on the eve of the 2006 war. Hizbullah now has more than 40,000 missiles. That arsenal includes new long-range missiles capable of reaching Be'er Sheva and Dimona. Not only has Hizbullah reasserted its control over southern Lebanon under Resolution 1701, it extended its control north of the Litani River. Moreover, the military and political power Hizbullah gained under 1701 paved the way for the group's coup this past May. During its coup, Hizbullah demonstrated that it is the most powerful military force in the country. It also exposed the Lebanese military's complicity with its aggression and collaboration with its fighters. That event then paved the way for the Doha agreement between Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and Hizbullah in June in which Siniora, and the Lebanese democrats he represented, surrendered control over the country to Hizbullah. The terms of the agreement transferred control of the Lebanese government from Siniora's democratic cadres to Hizbullah's Iranian overlords by giving Hizbullah veto power over the government's decisions. Barak's acknowledgment of 1701's failure to curb Hizbullah's emergence as the master of Lebanon and as an unprecedented threat to Israel was the first time an Israeli cabinet member publicly acknowledged the resolution's failure. Notably, he made the statement two days before Israel collectively acknowledged Hizbullah as the victor in the Second Lebanon War by returning arch-murderer Samir Kuntar, five fellow Hizbullah terrorists and 200 bodies of Lebanese and Palestinian terrorists to Lebanon in exchange for the mangled corpses of IDF hostages Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, whose murder by Hizbullah on July 12, 2006, precipitated the war. Unfortunately, in making his statement, Barak's aim was apparently political rather than substantive. He didn't offer any suggestions of how Israel should treat the Hizbullah threat that has emerged under UNIFIL's firmly closed eyes. Barak decision to point out 1701's obvious failure was nothing more than a bid to distance himself from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni ahead of what he sees as the inevitable downfall of the government as a consequence of the multiple criminal probes now being carried out against Olmert. For the past two years, both Olmert and Livni have upheld Resolution 1701 as an unvarnished success. They have studiously refused to acknowledge that UNIFIL has done nothing to prevent Hizbullah from rearming or reasserting its military control over southern Lebanon. To the contrary, they have stubbornly clung to the false view that UNIFIL and the international community can be counted on to fight Hizbullah for Israel. Each time another report comes out about Hizbullah's rearmament, all Olmert and Livni will do is sent another letter of protest to the UN. The government's continued insistence that the international community will protect Israel from Hizbullah was most recently exposed in the Foreign Ministry's press release the day the corpses-for-murderers swap was carried out. The Foreign Ministry proclaimed, "Hizbullah persists in defying the international community....The international community must act with determination to remove this manifest threat to the civilians of both Israel and Lebanon." Olmert and Livni have two reasons to persist with their fiction that Resolution 1701 is a strategic achievement for Israel. First, if they admit it has failed, they will be forced to acknowledge their personal incompetence in embracing –– and in Livni's case taking credit for writing –– a resolution that facilitated Hizbullah's takeover of Lebanon. Beyond that, both Olmert and Livni advocate the establishment of a similar international force for Gaza, Judea and Samaria. If they admit that international forces are incapable of securing Israel's border with Lebanon, they will be compelled to acknowledge that international forces cannot be trusted to secure Israel's border with Gaza, or any future borders with Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem. Since this would call into question the wisdom of their entire plan of establishing a Palestinian state, they cannot admit that resolution 1701 has failed. It is unsurprising that Barak chose not to point out the policy implications of 1701's failure. Barak after all shares Livni's and Olmert's unwarranted faith in the international community's willingness to defend Israel so that Israel won't have to defend itself. During his premiership, Barak justified his decision to withdraw all Israeli forces from South Lebanon and surrender Israel's former security zone to Hizbullah by arguing that UNIFIL forces would fill the security vacuum Israel's withdrawal precipitated. Then too, he supports deploying foreign forces on the Golan Heights following a hypothetical Israeli withdrawal, as well as in a post-Israeli-withdrawal Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and Gaza. Given Barak's alignment with Olmert and Livni, Barak's sole goal in noting 1701's failure was to distance himself from Livni and Olmert ahead of the murderers-for-corpses swap that took place two days after his press conference. Barak wanted to draw attention to the fact that he was out of power during the war with Hizbullah so that he wouldn't share the blame with Livni and Olmert for Israel's defeat in that conflict. Barak felt the need to distinguish himself from his colleagues because by supporting the prisoners-for-corpses swap, he became a full partner in that defeat. This last point was driven home by Hizbullah chief of operations in south Lebanon Nabil Kaouk. In the aftermath of the murderers-for-corpses swap, Kaouk declared that the swap was "an official admission of Israel's defeat." The day after the swap, a poll of Arab countries showed that Hizbullah chief and Iranian servant Hassan Nasrallah is the most popular leader in the Arab world. All of this brings us to those elections that Barak is apparently certain Israel is about to have. Barak clearly believes Olmert will not run in those elections. Aside from Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu, Barak's main opponent will be Livni, whose reputation is wrapped up with Resolution 1701. Barak's self-interested, cynical refusal to point out the policy implications of 1701's failure makes him substantively indistinguishable from Livni just as his support for the corpses-for-prisoners swap makes him as culpable for Israel's defeat at the hands of Iran's Arab foreign legion in Lebanon as Livni and Olmert. If, when Barak's expected elections do take place, the Israeli public merely rejects leaders it feels are responsible for the country's defeat in Lebanon but continues to accept the strategy of depending on the kindness of strangers that led to that defeat, the country will not have taken any concrete steps to contend with the dangers it faces. Unless new leaders reject the failed strategies upheld by Israel's current leaders, Israel will be unable to take the necessary steps to defend itself against the burgeoning threats that have arisen as a consequence of Olmert's, Livni's and Barak's incompetence and self-interested blindness. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). Contact him at gwinston@gwinston.interaccess.com |
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WESTERN CIVILIZATION'S HOPE IN THE MIDDLE EAST: OUR FRIENDSHIP WITH ISRAEL
Posted by LEL, July 26, 2008. |
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Gary Bauer, a 2000 candidate for president, is chairman of Campaign
for Working Families and president of American Values. This article
appeared yesterday in |
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This week's third annual Christians United For Israel Summit in Washington, D.C., commenced amid predictable media chatter over the political implications of the burgeoning Christian-Jewish alliance. But the summit's true purpose –– to foster greater respect and understanding between Christians and Jews –– was rooted in a much deeper insight into the relationship between these two faiths: that the future of Western Civilization may well depend on it. Midway through the conference, I was approached by a young Israeli Jew who grabbed me by the shoulder and thanked me for my work on behalf of Israel. He also told me that he was "astonished" by the level of support for Israel by Americans and particularly by conservative Christians. At first, he told me, he had been skeptical of Christians' intentions for supporting Israel, believing that there must be some sort of "hidden agenda" in our concern for the beleaguered state. Only recently had he come to realize that Christ support for Israel is sincere. And it's true. Most American Christians have long recognized an obligation to support Israel. A poll conducted this month by the Washington-based Joshua Fund, an evangelical organization, found 82 percent of American Christians felt they have a "moral and spiritual obligation" to support Jews and Israel. Christians support Israel because the Bible commands us to pray and act for the peace of Jerusalem and to speak out for Israel's sake. But Christian support for Israel is important also because Israel is the sole democracy in the Middle East, America's only reliable ally there and the only nation in that region rooted in the Judeo-Christian values that have allowed Western Civilization to thrive. American Christians, and all Americans of goodwill, must recognize that Israel and America's futures are inextricably linked. The media, United Nations and European elites often trumpet the notion that Israel is the primary impediment to peace in the Middle East. They claim that if only Israel would agree to a few concessions –– to divide Jerusalem, abandon Judea and Samaria, give up on the Golan Heights and accept unlimited refugees –– peace could be established. But it is becoming clear that the intention of Israel's enemies is not to argue about the details of peace agreements but rather to debate a much more fundamental issue: whether Israel has the right even to exist. The enmity that fuels that debate is inculcated early. Israeli children are taught to reject bigotry and racism and to be tolerant of other faiths. But in many Muslim countries, children are taught to hate Jews and Christians. A recent report by the Hudson Institute revealed that the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Education teaches literal hatred of "unbelievers." Even Palestinian television programs aimed at young children showcase Islamic radicalism and teach that nothing is more glorious than to become a suicide bomber for Islam. But the lack of reciprocity goes further. While Israel's judicial system relentlessly protects the rights of Israel's Muslim citizens, a culture of hatred of the "infidel" is endemic in much of the Muslim world. A new report by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center found that Gaza's 3,500 Christians are increasingly at risk of violence, that Christian schools have become targets of terrorist attacks and that the tiny Christian minority living in Gaza lives in daily fear and intimidation and often tones down Christian holidays and observances in order not to provoke the extremists. In much of the Islamic world, Christianity is illegal and Christians who worship openly are imprisoned or worse. At the end of my conversation with the young Israeli Jew at the CUFI Summit, he told me that he already fully appreciated the threat of Islamic terrorism. "What I want is hope," he said as he recounted how he had spent four years in the Israeli Defense Forces and attended the funerals of at least 10 friends killed by terrorists before he was 21 years old. He also told me that he had a 17-month-old child whose name means hope in Hebrew. This young man wanted reassurance from me that there was hope that his child would grow up in a peaceful Israel. There is hope. Edmund Burke said, "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing." It's certainly true today. The biggest threat to the peace and security of Israel, and the peace and security of the West, is not Iran's Ahmadinejad or Hamas or Osama bin Laden but rather our own complacence and inaction. What happens in the battle against Islamo-fascism ultimately depends on us, our resolve and courage to do what it takes to defend our way of life. The only way we lose this battle is if we decide it's not important enough to us to win. If good people do nothing, the enemy will win. But the good news is that we ultimately have control over this battle's result. There is reason to hope, then, and that hope was palpable at this week's CUFI summit. Hope for a peaceful future begins with Christians, Jews and all people of goodwill deciding that the values of Western Civilization are values worth defending. Contact LEL at lel817@yahoo.com |
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POLITICAL MESSIAH IN THE HOLY LAND –– OBAMA IN THE MIDEAST
Posted by GWY, July 26, 2008. |
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Caroline B. Glick is the deputy managing editor of the Jerusalem Post and the senior fellow for Middle East Affairs at the Center for Security Policy. Her book, Shackled Warrior, Israel and the Global Jihad was released earlier this year. She took questions from National Review Online editor Kathryn Lopez on Friday about Barack Obama's visit to the Mideast. This is a National Review Online (NR0) Question and Answer Article. |
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KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: Am I wrong in saying that Barack Obama did not impress Israel? CAROLINE GLICK: Israelis are very caught up with our local news right now. Foremost on our national agenda are the seven criminal probes being carried out against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the political maneuvering surrounding those investigations, and the expectation of new elections or some governmental shake-up in the wake of Olmert's likely indictment on fraud charges. Consequently, Obama's visit didn't evoke any deep-seated interest in Israel. At the same time, he didn't make any serious mistakes during his visit so to the extent he made any impression, he made a positive one. There is trepidation in Israel about the statements he has made about Iran and the division of Jerusalem and his associations with anti-Semites like Rev. Jeremiah Wright. But the media wasn't given much opportunity to challenge him on these points and so the trepidation was not dispelled. But again, Israelis by and large just weren't that into him. LOPEZ: What was the point of the trip there so far as you can tell? GLICK: The point of the trip was clearly to shore up support for Obama among American Jewish voters. It is hard to know whether he was successful in doing so or not, although he certainly didn't hurt himself among those who already support him. His repeated assertions of his commitment to Israel's security were repeatedly contradicted by the policies he wishes to adopt if elected. On the one hand he opposes permitting Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, but on the other hand, he insists that the way to make this happen is to sit down and talk to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has made annihilating the Jewish state one of his main goals in office. He says he understands Israel's need to protect its citizens from terror attacks but then he says that Israel's interests are served by strengthening the Palestinian terror groups by extending Palestinian sovereignty from Gaza to the West Bank. Gaza is ruled by jihadists from Hamas who are bankrolled, trained and armed by Iran. How are Israel's interests served by importing jihadist control to the outskirts of Tel-Aviv and to Jerusalem? Then again, like Israeli Jews, American Jews are not too caught up in details. He said he supports Israel and got his picture taken at Yad Vashem and the Wailing Wall wearing a kippa. So he probably succeeded in pulling more American Jews into his camp of supporters. LOPEZ: How close did you get to the "messiah"? GLICK: I generally try to stay as far away as I possibly can from people who say they can make oceans recede. Our paths didn't cross. In fact, I managed to be out of the country on Wednesday. LOPEZ: How did the Palestinians take to him? GLICK: They were certainly gratified that unlike Senator John McCain, Obama made the trip to Ramallah and had his picture taken with Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas against the backdrop of Yasser Arafat's photograph. It is hard though to know if Obama's trip changed the Palestinians' impression of him. It is already clear, and has been for months that the Palestinians, like the Arab world (minus Iraq) prefer Obama to McCain because they view him as sympathetic to their war against Israel and their hostility towards the U.S. and the rest of the West. But he was in Israel for such a short time that it is hard to say that his visit excited anyone. LOPEZ: Does he remind you of anyone? GLICK: Obama acts like a European leader in his treatment of Israel. On the one hand, he professes this profound respect for Israel and the Jews, and goes on and on about how our security is important to him. On the other hand, he espouses policies that undermine Israeli security and threaten its survival, and demands that the Jewish state become the only state that turns its other cheek towards our enemies as they try to kill us. This is the same sort of message that we hear from all Europeans leaders. And it is tiresome and insulting. Beyond that, Obama is in a unique situation because of the adulation he enjoys from the U.S. and Western media. The media is willing to ignore all of the substantive contradictions inherent in his policy pronouncements and to base their support for him on a quasi-religious faith. I don't remember this ever happening before in an American election –– at least not to the same extent. It is an interesting sociological phenomenon that is worthy of academic research. On a political level, it makes debate very difficult since Obama is treated more as a symbol than a politician. And it is hard to debate a symbol. LOPEZ: What the heck happened at the Wailing Wall? GLICK: That depends who you read. In Israel, the story was presented as "an ugly Israeli" story. People were rude and heckled him at the Wall, someone removed his note. Israelis are mean and rude to visitors, end of story. In the U.S. blogosphere especially, the story was cast as angry Jews yelling at Obama for his desire to transfer sovereignty over parts of Israel's capital city to the Palestinians. What is clear is that Obama wrote the following prayer that he placed in the Wall, "Lord, Protect my family and me. Forgive my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will." This was supposed to be a private benediction, and it was extraordinarily improper for someone to take this prayer and sell it to the media. On the other hand, in the world of paparazzi, the exposure of the prayer was predictable, and Obama apparently constructed the prayer for public consumption. Like everything else about his visit, this was a carefully crafted statement, designed not to ruffle any many feathers. And like this prayer, there was nothing extraordinary about Obama's visit. As you would expect from a politician, he tried to be all things to all people. And he probably succeeded. Lopez: Were there campaign signs there? Glick: Apparently there were a few, but the Israeli media didn't pay much attention. Again, we're basically scope-locked on the corruption investigations of the prime minister. Lopez: Did he get his Jerusalem answer wrong? Glick: Israelis don't support making any concessions on our sovereignty over Jerusalem and so his answer won him no support among most Israelis. But again, no one challenged him much on the issue and no one really cared that deeply about what he thinks about much of anything other than Iran. Lopez: What is Israel looking for in an American president? Glick: We're looking for someone whose policies reflect an understanding of the real security threats facing Israel and the United States. We're looking for a president who understands that Israel is the frontline state in the global jihad and as a consequence, it has to have support as it defends itself and acts as the frontline of the U.S. defense perimeter. That is, we're looking for a president who understands that Israel is a valuable ally and that America's national security is directly linked to Israel's because our enemies are the same. It is this sort of president that will understand that standing with Israel and strengthening the alliance isn't a matter of platitudes designed to get Jewish voter support and disposed of when constructing real policy, but, rather, a real commitment to U.S. and Israeli security needs. Bush projected this understanding in the 2004 election which is why some 75 percent of Israelis enthusiastically supported his reelection. Lopez: Does Obama have it? Glick: No, Obama doesn't have it. His statements about Iraq being a "diversion" alone are proof that he fundamentally refuses to acknowledge that there is a global jihad raging, that Israel is a frontline state in the jihad and that the U.S. cannot allow jihadists to gain control of any territory and particularly territory as strategically vital as Iraq or Jerusalem and the West Bank. Obama is a quintessential leftist who thinks that war can be wished away by blaming the U.S. for its enemies' hatred and malicious designs. This is the type of person who will push very hard not only for America to stand down from the war and ask the Iranians for forgiveness while enabling them to get the bomb, but will blame Israel for the Arab world's refusal to accept its right to exist. Lopez: What's the best-case President Obama scenario from where you sit? Worst-case? Glick: The best-case scenario is that Obama will be willing to learn from the Bush administration's mistakes in attempting to appease the Palestinians, the Iranians, and the North Koreans. Such an Obama administration would recognize that its liberal formulations are fundamentally misguided and abandon them in favor of reality-based policies. Given Obama's stubborn refusal to admit he was wrong about the surge and his insistence that he can strike a deal with Ahmadinejad, the likelihood of this happening is about zero. The worst-case scenario is that Obama actually bases his foreign policy on his ideological beliefs. If he does that, he will leave Iraq prematurely and so enable Iran's effective takeover of the country through its Shiite proxies. He will botch up Afghanistan and end up enabling an open jihadist takeover of nuclear-armed Pakistan. He will negotiate with Ahmadinejad, giving Iran the time and political cover to complete its nuclear program and test its nuclear weapon, and he will then refuse to assist Israel in attacking the Iranian nuclear program thus escalating the threat of an Iranian nuclear attack on Israel and Iranian nuclear blackmail of the Middle East and Europe. He will press Israel to curtail its counter-terror activities towards the Palestinians and so enable a Hamas-Iranian takeover of the West Bank. This in turn will precipitate the expansion of the missile war against Israel from Gaza to the West Bank and so place Israel's major urban centers and its international airport at risk. While he will simply roll over a left-leaning Israeli government like the current one while protesting his enduring commitment to Israel's security, if a Likud-led government is installed during his tenure and tries to extricate Israel from the failed "land-for-peace," policy paradigm while gearing up to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, he will treat the government with hostility and strengthen the position of Israel's enemies in his administration. This in turn will weaken the social and political standing of American Jews who will find themselves under unprecedented and unjustified suspicion of disloyalty due to their support for Israel. As in all things, the reality of an Obama presidency is difficult to predict and may well fall somewhere between these two extremes. Contact GWY at GWY123@aol.com |
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OLMERT'S COUP
Posted by Moshe Dann, July 25, 2008. |
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Olmert's legacy and Binyamin Netanyahu's burden. Like it or not, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has changed Israeli politics. Never before has disregard for the public will been so blatant and ruinous to Israel's national psyche, stamina and cohesion. Such behavior is not new; what is different is the way in which it is done, the extent to which it has undermined public confidence, and the depth of that wound. Politicians are naturally filled with arrogance and self-service; few are ready to admit mistakes –– until they can't hide anymore. Olmert's greed, however, is not only an individual fault; it reflects a system that has become utterly corrupted. Buying off or destroying the opposition is, as political theorists have noted, standard practice. It is the grease for compromise in representative democracies. Dictatorships tolerate no opposition. But opposition in democracies, to be meaningful, must be effective and able to articulate a coherent alternative agenda. This does not exist in Israel. The major opposition party has no alternative national agenda. That democracy is based on consensus, albeit with many falling through the cracks, is the social adhesive that protects and empowers all of its citizens. Lacking that sense of common purpose, however, is a failure that no society can afford, or long survive. That is Olmert's legacy and Binyamin Netanyahu's burden. Having shaken the foundations of public faith in the system, Olmert-Ehud Barak-Tzipi Livni-Haim Ramon-Eli Yishai, as Kadima-Labor-Shas, and other major political elements are dedicated to ensuring that the system (and their power) be maintained and preserved, rather than reformed. Accountability threatens incompetence, corruption and venality no matter who rules. Nevertheless, a new political awareness is emerging which can, in time, create a real social and political revolution; a change in the system by which Israel is misgoverned, and even a re-dedication to the basic Jewish and Zionist ideas and values which are the core of Israel's existence. Olmert's coup, therefore, supported by all those who benefit from his largesse, is to be welcomed. This is the only way in which Israelis can understand the true nature and extent of corruption and its effects. Political consciousness comes out of dissatisfaction and critical thinking, not ensuring the Old Order. The problem is not that Olmert rules for himself (and his cronies); he has demonstrated how a wily politician can use the system to his advantage. Fighting for one's political life is what those in power do. Rather, we must ask what the alternative is. Diverted by petty scandals, we fail to see the greater exploitation. This inquiry demands a careful examination and investigation of every major institution by public committees, objective and bi-partisan, staffed by professionals. At this point, the only public body capable of such a task is the Office of the State Comptroller. The Knesset, composed largely of politicians whose primary interest is not to investigate or change the system, is incapable of this task. A combination of universities, colleges and dedicated public servants, like Yaron Zalekha (the former Accountant General) might provide the necessary commitment and thoroughness. Students could also be employed, as they are often idealistic and less susceptible to bribery and corruption. Formidable obstacles are the business and financial elites whose profits and enormous power may suffer. They will try to sabotage any real reforms. Legislation must be introduced to criminalize and hopefully limit their interference. Olmertism means individual survival takes precedence over enormous national issues. He and his entire government have taught us what it's all about: Me First. That Olmert represents the abuse of power is clear. That his tenure violates the nature and values of democracy is obvious. That he and his government remain in power, however, is legal, and a shame upon us all. What you can do: 1) Insist that you will only vote for a party that is committed to serious electoral reform based on the principle of accountability and responsibility.
Moshe Dann is a writer and journalist living in Jerusalem. Contact him
at moshedan@netvision.net.il.
This article appeared in Arutz-Sheva
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TURKEY IN THE THROES OF ISLAMIC REVOLUTION?
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 25, 2008. |
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This was written by Spengler and it appeared in the Asia
Times
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Turkey is half pregnant with political Islam, if one believes Western foreign ministries and the mainstream press. Its Islamist government last week arrested 82 alleged coup plotters from Turkey's military and intellectual elite, on the strength of a secret indictment of 2,445 pages. Turkish media have offered fanciful allegations linking the secular leaders of the alleged "Ergenekon" plot to al-Qaeda as well as the violent Kurdish Workers' Party. Among those detailed are pillars of the secular establishment, including the head of the Ankara Chamber of Commerce and the Ankara editor of the country's leading daily newspaper, Cumhuriyet. Before shouting "Reichstag Fire!" in a crowded theater, one should read the indictment, when and if it is made public. A few Western analysts, such as Michael Rubin at the American Enterprise Institute, are warning [1] that an Islamic putsch is possible, after the fashion of ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. The question of the moment, though, is not whether mass arrests of civic leaders on charges that challenge the imagination are compatible with Turkey's image as a democratic nation, but rather why the world's media have printed nary a harsh word about the administration of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A perfect storm of enmity has come down on the beleaguered Turkish secularists, who find themselves without friends. That is a tragedy whose consequences will spill over Turkey's borders, for the secular model established by Kemal Ataturk after World War I was the Muslim world's best hope of adapting to modernity. Many years of misbehavior by Turkey's army and security services, the core institutions of secular power, have eroded their capacity to resist an Islamist takeover. The United States State Department, meanwhile, has found a dubious use for what it thinks is a moderate strain of political Islam. Washington apparently hopes to steer Turkey into a regional bloc with the short-term aim of calming Iraq, and a longer-term objective of fostering a Sunni alliance against Iran's ambition to foment a Shi'ite revolution in the Middle East. By rejecting Turkey's efforts to join the European Union, France and Germany have destroyed the credibility of the secular parties who seek integration with the West. Perhaps the Europeans already have consigned Turkey to the ward for political incurables, and do not think it worthwhile to try to revive Western-oriented secularism. Turkey's liberal intellectuals, who suffered intermittent but brutal repression at the hands of the secular military, think of the Islamist government as the enemy of their enemy, if not quite their friend. Sadly, the notion that moderate Islam will flourish in the Turkish nation demands that we believe in two myths, namely, moderate Islam and the Turkish nation. Too much effort is wasted parsing the political views of Erdogan, who began his career in the 1990s as an avowed Islamist and anti-secularist, but later espoused a muted form of Islam as leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Whether Erdogan is a born-again moderate or a disguised jihadi is known only to the man himself. Islam in Turkey flourishes in full public view. At the village level, the AKP draws on the same sort of Saudi Arabian patronage that filled Pakistan with madrassas (seminaries) during the past two decades, and incubated the Wahhabi forces that have now all but buried the remnants of Pakistani secularism. If political Islam prevails in Turkey, what will emerge is not the same country in different coloration, but a changeling, an entirely different nation. In a 1997 speech that earned him a prison term, Erdogan warned of two fundamentally different camps, the secularists who followed Kemal, and Muslims who followed sharia. These are not simply different camps, however, but different configurations of Turkish society at the molecular level. Like a hologram, Turkey offers two radically different images when viewed from different angles. Turkish Islam, the ordering of the Anatolian villages and the Istanbul slums, represents a nation radically different than the secularism of the army, the civil service, the universities and the Western-leaning elite of Istanbul. If the Islamic side of Turkey rises, the result will be unrecognizable. Modern Turkey is a construct, not a country in the sense that Westerners understand the term; it is the rump of a multi-ethnic empire that perished in World War I, and the project of a nation advanced by a visionary leader who could not, however, pierce the sedimentary layers of ethnicity, language and history that make modern Turkey less than the sum of its parts. Turkey's army prevailed as the dominant institution of the secular state simply because no other entity could array the poor farmers of the Anatolian highlands according to the secular program. The trouble is that there are not that enough Turks in Turkey. To replace the imperial identity of the Ottoman Empire, Kemal proposed Turkum, or Turkishness, an Anatolian national identity founded on the many civilizations that had ruled the peninsula. Ethnic identity in the sense of European nationalism informed neither the Ottoman Empire nor the Kemalist state. The Orghuz Turks who conquered the hinterlands of the Byzantine Empire during the 12th century never comprised more than a small minority of the population. At the height of their conquests during the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire ruled over more Christians than Muslims. Kemal created modern Turkey by thwarting the attempts of Western powers to partition his country after its defeat in World War I, but at terrible cost. The 20 million population of the Ottoman Empire was reduced to perhaps 7 million (by a French government estimate) in 1924. Up to a million and a half Armenian Christians were murdered in 1914-1918 at the instigation of the Turkish government, to neutralize a population considered sympathetic to wartime adversaries. Most of the killing was done by Kurdish tribesmen. Between 1.5 million and 3 million Greek Orthodox Christians, whose ancestors had settled Asia Minor thousands of years before the Turks arrived, were expelled in 1924 at the conclusion of the Greek-Turkish War. Modern Turkey thus began not only with the rump of an empire, but with the turnover of nearly half its 1924 population. Because Kemal's concept of Turkum requires suspension of disbelief in favor of a nonexistent national identity, Turkey has avoided a census of its minorities since 1965. Perhaps 30% of its population are Kurds, whose integration into the Turkish state is uncertain. Kurds are concentrated in eastern Turkey in an area that before 1918 was known as Western Armenia –– because ethnic Kurds replaced the slaughtered Armenians. In addition, there are 3 million Circassians, 2 million Bosniaks, a million and a half Albanians, a million Georgians, and sundry smaller groups. But even within the majority characterized as "ethnic Turks", the sedimentary layers remain of millennia of contending tribes and civilizations. The Kemalists had mixed results in their efforts to pack this ethnic and cultural jumble into a newly-designed national identity. What sometimes is called the "deep state" –– the secretive Kemalist hold over military and intelligence services –– may turn out to be shallow as it is brittle. One Turkish historian told me, "Like the Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid, who fell 100 years ago this week because of an explosion of popular unrest, the Turkish military are the victims of their own success in creating a diversified and modern society which wants to live in a freer system. The hard hand they turned against intellectual dissenters drove sections of the westernized intelligentsia into the arms of the Islamists –– and it is that alliance which is now at work to demolish both the military's influence in politics and (perhaps) the entire heritage of Kemal Ataturk." Like its Ottoman predecessors, the Kemalist establishment recognized its danger far too late. This year, the country's Constitutional Court attempted to ban Erdogan's AKP for attempting to undermine the secular state. It seems probable that the suppression of the supposed coup plot constitutes the AKP's response, as well as a pre-emptive action against the last-resort tactic of the secularists, namely military intervention to prevent Turkey from sliding into Islamism. Turkey presently is composed of 70 million people who do not quite know who they are. If the hologram rotates towards Islam, that is, a return to sharia and traditional life in opposition to modernity, Turkey will no more resemble the "moderate Muslim" state of 2008 than Kemal's Turkey resembled the Ottoman Empire of 1908. According to one Turkish analyst, "The Islamic movement in Turkey is a vast and varied coalition of which the AKP is only the nose cone. It was designed to look studiously moderate and allay the suspicions both of the military and of world opinion. Some sections of the AKP are undoubtedly moderates or pragmatists and deserve their moderate reputation. But alongside the party, there is an enormous groundswell of Islamic movements, at work transforming Turkish society and institutions. Successful revolutionaries tend to be those who conceal their intentions until the hour of victory: if anyone in the AKP intends to move towards sharia it is unlikely that they would be shouting this from the rooftops." It should be no surprise that the State Department looks favorably on Turkey's Islamist drift: that is precisely how Foggy Bottom viewed Iran in 1979, when it sped the overthrow of the shah. It appears that the United States and Saudi Arabia, each for its own reasons, are doing their best to propel Turkey on the way to Islamism. Saudi Arabia's support for Islamist organizations at the grassroots level is an open secret in Turkey, and the influence of Erdogan's AKP at the village level stems to a great extent from Saudi patronage. Less subtle is the burgeoning importance of Gulf state contracts for the Turkish economy. Turkey has two main sources of external business: consumer goods exports to Europe, and contracting as well as exports in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Economic conditions are deteriorating in Turkey, and the country's stock market is the worst performer this year among emerging markets. With Europe in recession, and prospects fading for Turkish entry into the European community, Saudi Arabia looms larger in the Turkish economy, strengthening Erdogan's hand among the business elite. Washington's immediate concern is the appearance of stability in Iraq, which will influence the November presidential elections in the US. As a self-styled moderate Sunni, Erdogan seems to be Central Casting's idea of an Iraqi ally. Erdogan received an extraordinary welcome when he visited Iraq last week, with the promise of an economic and political alliance with the country. An Iraqi spokesmen, Ali al-Dabbagh, declared after Erdogan's visit that "Turkey is Iraq's door to Europe", adding that Turkey "can be the best trade partner of Iraq", according to the BBC on July 13. Even more, "The security and political dimensions are also of paramount importance because the two countries are on the road to democracy. Turkey is a democratic country and democracy has started to take roots in Iraq ... I think this relationship will be a large nucleus around which other countries will rally so that the region will develop into a common market benefiting its peoples." Less dramatic, but perhaps more important than the mass arrests, was another development in Turkey. The country's Supreme Court dismissed all charges against the exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, the man Michael Rubin believes will be Turkey's answer to Khomeini. State prosecutors had accused Gulen of founding an illegal organization with the objective of undermining the secular structure of the state. An elderly diabetic, Gulen has lived in exile in the United States since 1998. "We expect Gulen here any day," a Turkish analyst told me. Whether Rubin is correct to view Gulen as the Turkish Khomeini is of secondary interest. Gulen's movement is one of a number of entities that might form the kernel of an Islamic Republic in Turkey. The Sorcerer's Apprentices of the State Department do not understand the sort of objects that they are animating. Political Islam will not merely change coloration of the country, but transform its character from the grassroots upward. For all the crudeness of the Kemalists, American diplomats will regret their failure as much as the fall of the shah. Note 1. Turkey's Turning Point National Online, April 14, 2008. Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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MEDIA PROPAGANDA TAKES ITS TOLL; MORE OLMERT CORRUPTION; BLIND IDEOLOGUES IN POWER
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 25, 2008. |
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WHO HAMPERS SECURITY EFFORT IN JUDEA-SAMARIA? When the IDF apprehends terrorists in the supposed moderately-governed P.A., the P.A. reproaches Israel as having impeded the P.A.'s own security efforts. If the P.A. really were anti-terrorist, it would thank Israel. Its claim might be credible if the P.A. imprisoned terrorists. Instead, it propagandizes in favor of terrorism, forfeiting the right to complain about successful efforts by Israel. MEDIA PROPAGANDA TAKES ITS TOLL Some friends anguish over their support for Israel while, they think, Israel mistreats the Arabs. How mistreat? They complain that Israel is building houses in the Territories. That, they say, is an affront to the Arabs. How do they know? They are absorbing complaints by the media. I mentioned to one friend that the Oslo Accords did not restrict Jewish building in the Territories. She didn't think so. However, I had read the Accords in toto. I pointed out that the Arabs build in the Territories, often illegally. How come there are complaints only about the Jews? I also mentioned that the Arabs steal public land in Israel en masse. The media does not complain about that. Again a double standard. The media has an agenda. This agenda is anti-Zionist. The media should be discounted. My friend complained that Israel is building where it had agreed not to. It is not clear what Israeli officials agreed to, and under what pressure and anti-Jewish and undemocratic ideology, but if they did, the Arabs' complete violation of those agreements nullify them. It wouldn't be fair for the Arabs to get away with their violations, all of which are immoral and serious, from defamation to theft to murder, while Israel should have to continue making concessions, such as refraining from building, which the legal status of the Territories, under the Palestine Mandate, requires. (Yes, I read that document, too. It requires, actually requires, "full settlement of the land by the Jews." And yes, the international legal experts, in the days when they were experts and not propagandists, explained that Judea, Samaria, and Gaza still have the legal status of unallocated territory under the Mandate.) The media does not explain that. It lies about Israel having most of Palestine. It bases those statements upon this statistical deceit: It conveniently forgets that Britain illegally gave the Arabs illegally 79% of Palestine, removing it from the Mandate. It calls the rest, of which Israel has the most, "Palestine." It rouses readers to indignation against Israel for not relinquishing the secure borders that the Territories would afford, to a faith bent on conquering and killing. Good people are made indignant against the innocent and in favor of the guilty. They should despise the media. MORE OLMERT CORRUPTION Now police accuse PM Olmert of having asked multiple charities to pay for the same foreign trips, which he then used for family vacations rather than for public purposes. He does not see anything wrong with his double billing. How low his ethical standard has sunk! He complains about police leaks about the investigations (IMRA, 7/11). The leaks are deplorable. I have lost track of how many cases of corruption have been opened against Olmert. Is it seven? Do prosecutors plan to spend the rest of Olmert's term in office uncovering new cases of corruption, without sending him to jail for the earlier cases? That way, they seem to be doing something, enabling him to keep offering the Arabs more concessions. Enough concessions, and Israel will fall. Would that my friends, who worry about Jewish building in Judea-Samaria, understood that. Why can't they, misinformed as they are, draw a conclusion from the abandonment of Gaza and its having been turned into a base for warfare against Israel, and from Islamic statements that their goal is not just territories but Israel, that appeasement does not work? Probably the friends not only are misinformed but also don't put their minds to make something of the little information they do have. The difficulty is that they are not very amenable to much explanation from truthful sources. They remain under the sway of continuing propaganda from the media, especially The NY Times and NPR. The media foster attitudes that Israel mistreats the Arabs. The media do not explain that those Muslims also are enemies of the US. PRISONER EXCHANGE The P.A. demanded the remains the remains of an Arab terrorist from Jaffa, who led a raid that murdered dozens of Israelis, years ago. An associate of the allegedly moderate Abbas wants to hold a big funeral in her honor for her "courageous" action. Israel acquiesced, in the Hizbullah prisoner trade. The P.A. has named many institutions after her (IMRA, 7/11). The major P.A. celebration seems to be like a triumph over Israel. This is an example of how evil the P.A. is, Abbas et al, and how degraded the government of Israel is, Olmert et al. JOKE ABOUT OBAMA When your liberal friends say they favor Obama, tell them, ruefully, "Now that Obama has become so right wing (having reversed many previous positions), I have to vote for McCain as the more liberal candidate." BLIND IDEOLOGUES IN POWER The American political system has peculiarities. Presidents and governors are merely elected citizens treated almost as royalty. After leaving office, they still are called "President" and "Governor," but a year before leaving office, they begin to be treated as ordinary citizens. President Bush is a "lame duck." He, himself, takes into account the supposed views of his likely successors. "Supposed" views, because in running for his office, they, especially Obama, reverse longstanding positions. Because possible successor Obama would disapprove, Bush is inhibited from attacking Iran. Obama, long a blind ideologue of the Far Left, now acts Center-Right. He still retains the know-nothing liberal position that the way to deal with Iran is by negotiation. Years of failure of negotiations with Iran as with Iraq and most ideological dictators haven't dented his faith. He must think that his way with words here will sway fanatics there. He would keep negotiating with Iran until Iran gains nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them to us. Then Iran would present an immediate danger. Then he might find it necessary to knock out Iran's nuclear facilities. What happens to us if Iran moves an hour earlier? Under the influence of constant liberal criticism, even Pres. Bush's supporters discuss whether Iran poses an "immediate" threat. If a mugger says he is going to kill you, and he takes out bullets to load into his pistol, would you wait for him to load them and become an "immediate" threat? PM Olmert presents another type of danger to his people. Bush procrastinates. Obama is blind. Olmert is reckless and desperate. Remember the reckless way Olmert and Foreign Min. Livni lurched into an unprepared war on Hizbullah, ignorant about the military but interfering with it for politics? Notice his reckless offers of concessions and his reckless negotiations? (Negotiating is dangerous, more so than a war that can be expected to be won.) Olmert is hobbled by an anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish ideology, the leftist prosecutor's if not his own. He does anything to distract from his prosecution and to please the leftists. He is liable to attack Iran before the IDF is ready, and to interfere with its possible success. He also is liable to do nothing. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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HUGO CHAVEZ'S JEWISH PROBLEM
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 25, 2008. |
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This article was written by Travis Pantin, who lives in New York City. He was educated at the University of Chicago and has been a staff reporter for the New York Sun. It appeared in the July/August issue of Commentary Magazine (http://www.commentarymagazine.com/). |
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In December 1998, preaching a gospel of socialist revolution that had gone blessedly unvoiced in the decade following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Hugo Chávez won a landslide election for the presidency of Venezuela. At the time, his governing philosophy, dubbed "Chávismo," seemed unlikely to amount to more than a historical and geographical anomaly –– a temporary reversal in a region that appeared to have decisively rejected Marxist nostrums. Nearly another decade has passed since Chávez's ascension. He has suffered a few setbacks in the intervening years, notably a temporary ouster in a 2002 coup and a defeat in a referendum last year that, if passed, would have effectively made him dictator for life. His propensity for wild rhetoric and diktats –– as when he created a new time zone by fiat in December 2007, moving the clocks in Venezuela back a half-hour to address the inability of his countrymen to arrive promptly at appointments –– has led to questions about his emotional and mental stability. It has also made it easier for Western policymakers to discount the seriousness of his oft-stated goal of fomenting violent political change throughout Latin America. But to dismiss Chávez as a lunatic is to wish away his proven political skill. He is, without question, a powerful figure –– and one who, thanks to a quirk of geography, is also in possession of dangerously large amounts of oil. His government claims to control over 100 billion barrels of proven reserves, by far the largest of any country in the Western hemisphere. Although estimates vary, at current production levels and prices Venezuela's oil revenues may top $250 million daily. Unlike Fidel Castro, who as a client of the Soviet Union had to apply to his patron for funds, Chávez is thus free to indulge his ambitions. "In Venezuela we have a strong oil card to play on the geopolitical table," he told the Argentinian newspaper Clarín in 2005. "It is a card," he added, "that we are going to play forcefully against the nastiest country in the world, the United States." To this end, Chávez has made common cause with FARC, a narco-terrorist group working tirelessly to overthrow the legitimately elected democratic government of Colombia, Washington's closest ally in South America. No less ominously, he has aligned his government with regimes and terror groups that would otherwise seem to hold little attraction for a Spanish-speaking country on South America's northern coast. These include Libya –– which awarded Chávez the al-Qaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, named for the country's dictator –– as well as Syria, Hizballah, and Hizballah's patron Iran. Virtually alone among world leaders, Chávez is an impassioned defender of Tehran's right to pursue nuclear technology and has even hinted he would be willing to finance it. As this list may suggest, there is something else, aside from simple anti-Americanism, at work in Chávez's foreign policy. He and his supporters are in the grip of another age-old obsession, albeit one with a few indigenous twists: an obsession, that is, with the supposedly excessive power of world Jewry, and in particular of Venezuela's few, prosperous, and increasingly imperiled Jews. Venezuela's Jewish community, amounting to less than 1 percent of the country's total population of 26 million, is among the oldest in South America, dating back to the early 19th century. During the struggle for independence from Spain, the fugitive revolutionary Simón Bolívar found refuge among a group of Venezuelan Jews, some of whom later went on to fight in the ranks of his liberating army. Today, the majority of the country's Jewish population is descended from an influx of European and North African immigrants who arrived during the years surrounding World War II. Most reside in the capital city of Caracas, comprising a tightly knit community made up of roughly equal numbers from Ashkenazi and Sephardi countries of origin. Venezuelans pride themselves on living in an ethnic and religious melting pot. Their homeland, unlike its neighbors Argentina, Paraguay, and Chile, has no history of having harbored Nazi fugitives. Before Chávez came to power, members of the Jewish community reported little animosity from either the government or the populace, and sharply anti-Zionist rhetoric was relatively uncommon. Nor did Venezuela's fifteen synagogues (all but one of them Orthodox) experience much of the anti-Semitic vandalism common in other Latin American countries with tiny Jewish populations. The Hebraica center –– its building functions as a lavish social hub, elementary school, country club, sports facility, and gathering place for Caracas Jewry –– was largely left in peace. No longer. Since Chávez took the oath of office at the beginning of 1999, there has been an unprecedented surge in anti-Semitism throughout Venezuela. Government-owned media outlets have published anti-Semitic tracts with increasing frequency. Pro-Chávez groups have publicly disseminated copies of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the early-20th-century czarist forgery outlining an alleged worldwide Jewish conspiracy to seize control of the world. Prominent Jewish figures have been publicly denounced for supposed disloyalty to the "Bolivarian" cause, and "Semitic banks" have been accused of plotting against the regime. Citing suspicions of such plots, Chávez's government has gone so far as to stage raids on Jewish elementary schools and other places of meeting. The anti-Zionism expressed by the government is steadily spilling over into street-level anti-Semitism, in which synagogues are vandalized with a frequency and viciousness never before seen in the country. The details are arresting.
In this connection, although there is no direct evidence linking Chávez with Hizballah in Latin America, the group's website has featured words of praise for him, and the feeling may well be mutual. Not only has Chávez repeatedly expressed support for Hizballah in general, but (according to Venezuelan newspapers) he paid $1 million to print posters of himself with Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah to be displayed at a Hizballah rally in Beirut. Insofar as there is a rationale behind any of this, it would seem to form a part of Chávez's general view of the world. According to that view, the United States has coopted both Europe and Israel into a transnational enterprise whose purpose is to exploit and impoverish the world's less developed but resource-rich countries. Jews, especially but not exclusively in the form of the state of Israel, are an integral part of this enterprise. In a July 2006 interview with the Arab TV network al-Jazeera, Chávez elaborated upon the relation between the U.S. and Israel: The greatest menace to the future of humanity is the United States, and one of its instruments of aggression in [your] part of the world is the state of Israel. ... The Secretary of State has said that that [the U.S.] will change the map of the Middle East. This plan was made in advance and in great detail in the Pentagon, except that Israel is the executor. ... They want to transform the map of the Middle East in order to guarantee the dominance and control of the largest reserves of oil and energy in the world. As an alleged oppressor of the Palestinian Arabs, Israel has its own place of special infamy in Chávez's world view. This latter theme has served him particularly well in his efforts to mobilize the sentiments of his rural constituents. Thus, during a 2005 speech marking Columbus's discovery of the Americas, Chávez likened the plight of Venezuela's Indians to that of Palestinians. Reminding his listeners of how their ancestors had been "murdered in their land" by "governments, economic sectors, and great land estates," he thundered: "You were expelled from your homeland, like the heroic Palestinian people." All of these elements seem entirely derivative of Marxist-Leninist theorizing, with a strong admixture of post-colonialism à la Franz Fanon and Fidel Castro. But Chávez is not just another Latin American leftist on the Castro model. While the Cuban dictator may be his most important political influence, his greatest intellectual debt is to the Argentinian writer and thinker Norberto Ceresole: a man not of the Left but of the populist Right, a Holocaust denier, and a sworn enemy of Israel and the Jews. Born in 1943, Ceresole was one of the leading spokesmen for the radical populist government of the Argentinian president Juan Perón. Later, in the guise of a political theorist, he argued that the only appropriate leaders for Latin American nations were caudillos: nationalist, militarist, and charismatic strongmen capable of ushering in a "post-democratic" age in which the region's people would become effortlessly at one with the generals who would direct every aspect of society. Led by a group of such caudillos, a confederation of Latin American fascist states would then be in a position to beat back American global hegemony. Ceresole reportedly traveled with Chávez during his initial bid for power. After the latter's 1998 victory, he published a celebratory volume, Caudillo, Army, People: The Venezuela of President Chávez. The second chapter is entitled "The Jewish Question and the State of Israel." In it, Ceresole espoused a "new revisionism" that defined the Holocaust as a "myth" and Israel as a global menace: The existence of this political enterprise –– Israel: a power concentrated in the monopoly of monotheism and implemented through an army, police forces, jails, tortures, assassinations, etc. –– seeks to consolidate itself through a series of ideological manipulations in the bosom of the hegemonic power of the United States, which seeks to be accepted as the ruler of the world by any means, even generalized terror, and dissuasive and persuasive practices. It was for this reason, according to Ceresole, that one of the greatest threats to the Chávez regime lay in Venezuela's "Jewish financial mafia." Indeed, the Venezuelan Jewish community as a whole was to be considered guilty of race-based hostility to Chávez's redemptive nationalist movement. The ingeniousness of Ceserole's doctrine, as filtered through the sensibility of Hugo Chávez, resides in its blending of Marxist economics with two venerable anti-Semitic traditions. The first, still powerful in South America, derives from Catholic teachings about the historic Jewish responsibility for the death of Jesus. The second, encapsulated most notoriously in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, has flourished in both rightist and leftist variations throughout modern European history, resurfacing in our own time in the fulminations of extreme anti-Zionists. Chávez drew on both traditions in an address he delivered on Christmas Eve in 2004. Here he spoke ominously of certain "minorities, the descendants of those who crucified Christ," who had "taken possession of the riches of the world." But there was an added element at play in this passage, which has to be quoted in full to be properly appreciated: The world has enough for everybody, but it happened that some minorities –– the descendants of those who crucified Christ, the descendants of those who ejected Bolívar from here and who crucified him in their own way in Santa Marta, over in Colombia –– took possession of the riches of the world. A minority appropriated the world's gold, the silver, the minerals, the waters, the good lands, the oil, and has concentrated the riches in a few hands. Like most of its South American neighbors, Venezuela is a nation of economic extremes. There are a small number of extraordinarily well-to-do families –– the "white oligarchs" –– and an enormously large population of very poor people, partly or wholly native-American, with few prospects of economic advancement. Since his ascension to power, Chávez has been engaged in a policy of forcible redistribution, nationalizing industries and large farms and turning their proceeds over to social programs aimed ostensibly at ameliorating the condition of the poor. In common with most such efforts at top-down nationalization and redistribution, however, this one has been a grotesque failure. A country bringing in at least $1.75 billion a week in oil revenues suffers from chronic food shortages, including in such staples as coffee and sugar. Even the oil business, now run by Chávez cronies rather than by professionals, is nowhere near as profitable as it might be. And so the inequities persist, and with them the need to identify scapegoats that can divert attention from Chávez's culpability and allow him to maintain his iron grip. Chávez often speaks of Jesus Christ as the first true socialist, whose agenda he, like Bolívar before him, is fulfilling. In so doing he draws upon another Latin American trope, this one of more recent vintage. The "liberation theology" that emerged in Catholic circles in Brazil in the 1960's provided a theological justification for radical social change; proponents of this quasi-Leninist doctrine use the phrase "Christ killers" to refer to the capitalists who allegedly block the fulfillment of their revolutionary vision. In this sense, Chávez's Christmas 2004 speech, adroitly weaving together the teachings of liberation theology with local political history, appealing to a legacy of deep economic resentment that he himself has greatly exacerbated, and evoking the incendiary motifs of the world's oldest hatred, made up a perfect storm of demagogic rhetoric. It is helpful to keep this background in mind in evaluating the response of Venezuela's Jews to the outrages, physical and verbal, that have been perpetrated against their community. Reaction to the Christmas 2004 speech provides an illustration. As it happens, one unequivocally strong protest emanated from the Simon Wiesenthal Center in distant Argentina. "In your words," read a statement addressed to the Venezuelan president, we find two central arguments of anti-Semitism: the canard of the deicide and the association of Jews with wealth. ... Our center condemns your anti-Semitic statements. Such offense to universal values demands an immediate and public apology. But this protest itself drew a protest –– from, in fact, the head of the Confederation of Jewish Associations of Venezuela. "We believe the president [in his speech] was not talking about Jews," wrote Fred Pressner in a letter to the Wiesenthal Center. Rather, Pressner went on, seizing on the speech's artful ambiguities, Chávez was referring to the "white oligarchy." Still worse, according to Pressner, was the fact that the Wiesenthal Center, by acting "without consulting us, on issues that you do not know or understand," had "interfered in the political status, in the security, and in the well-being of our community." Unquestionably, the Venezuelan Jewish community is in a very difficult situation. There had already been something of a split earlier in 2004 following the first raid on the Hebraica club. While some had reflexively tried to downplay the significance of the incursion, Pynchas Brener, the country's chief Ashkenazi rabbi, demurred, pronouncing the raid a "direct aggression" by the state heralding an "important shift" in relations. "There is not a single Jewish family in Caracas that was not affected," Rabbi Brener said. Nor was there any equivocation on Rabbi Brener's part in the wake of the second raid on the Hebraica club in December 2007. This was particularly ominous, he averred, because of the timing: the raid took place on the day before the Venezuelan electorate was scheduled to vote on a constitutional referendum that, if passed, would allow Chávez to retain office indefinitely. In light of the ruling party's well-documented eagerness to blame its political troubles on Jewish machinations, the raid could have been a fishing expedition –– a hunt for prospective "evidence" pointing, in the event of the referendum's failure, to a conspiracy on the part of the country's leading Jews. Shortly after this second raid, indeed, Pressner's organization abandoned its own previous calls for moderation. "We denounce this new and unjustifiable act against the Venezuelan Jewish community," it declared in a forceful press release, "and express our profound indignation and repulsion." For his part, Rabbi Brener proclaimed that the purpose of the raid "was just to scare the daylights out of the Jewish community, to convince us not to vote and to keep a low profile." But, he added defiantly, "since the Holocaust we don't scare easily." Neither, of course, does Venezuela's president. Although the government acknowledged that the search for evidence of "subversive activity" at Hebraica was fruitless, and although the referendum did narrowly fail, Chávez has vowed to achieve his constitutional reform –– that is, to create his dictatorship –– by other means. One-third of Venezuela's Jews have fled the country by now, and those who remain are in a state ranging from discomfiture to terror. When asked why they stay, some wealthier Jews say that the answer is economic. "The problem ... is that you could never live like this anywhere else," the owner of a Caracas textile plant told a reporter from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. "Nobody here really wants to go to Israel. You would need to have ten times as much money to live this way." Others, less well off, are similarly reluctant, and offers by the Israeli government to ease the process of aliyah have so far met with few takers. The stated reasons are many. Even amidst all their trouble, it has been pointed out, Venezuela's Jews retain a workable relationship with the Chávez government. Jewish journalists can still speak out. Nor have Jewish business been targeted for expropriation by Chávez's redistributionist policies. Jews can still travel freely, and anti-Semitic violence has not touched many of them personally. So they hold out, bearing the yoke of economic and political harassment and hoping for change. Are they right to do so? History suggests that once anti-Semitism becomes an instrument of state policy, the possibility of violence can never be discounted. For centuries, moreover, anti-Semitism has waxed and waned with fluctuating business cycles. With both the ailing economy and Chávez's social programs dependent almost entirely on oil revenues, a drop in prices could trigger widespread animosity against the "Semitic banks" that members of Chávez's party have repeatedly denounced for every passing ill. A major event like a military strike on Iran by the United States or Israel might similarly serve as justification for seizing the assets of Venezuela's Jewry. In the meantime, as the numbers dwindle, and many of the richest depart, it is becoming increasingly difficult to care for the Jewish poor, who make up a full 25 percent of the community. Caught in a vise between an all too realistic fear and a possibly illusory hope, one of South America's most productive and peaceful minorities awaits the future in grim expectancy.
Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com
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THE 'JIHAD' CANDIDATE
Posted by Dave Nathan, July 25, 2008. |
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Richard Carroll is an op-ed writer and the author of the
books, "Terrorists' Crossing" and "Orphaned Heroes." This appeared on
the Two Sisters From the Right website: |
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Conspiracy theories make for interesting novels when the storyline is not so absurd that it can grasp our attention. 'The Manchurian Candidate' and 'Seven Days in May' are examples of plausible chains of events that captures the reader's imagination at best-seller level. 'What if' has always been the solid grist of fiction. Get yourself something cool to drink, find a relaxing position, but before you continue, visualize the television photos of two jet airliners smashing into the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan and remind yourself this cowardly act of Muslim terror was planned for eight years. How long did it take Islam and their oil money to find a candidate for President of the United States? As long as it took them to place a Senator from Illinois and Minnesota? The same amount of time to create a large Muslim enclave in Detroit? The time it took them to build over 2,000 mosques in America? The same amount of time required to place radical wahabbist clerics in our military and prisons as 'chaplains'? Find a candidate who can get away with lying about their father being a 'freedom fighter' when he was actually part of the most corrupt and violent government in Kenya's history. Find a candidate with close ties to The Nation of Islam and the violent Muslim overthrow in Africa, a candidate who is educated among white infidel Americans but hides his bitterness and anger behind a superficial toothy smile. Find a candidate who changes his American name of Barry to the Muslim name of Barak Hussein Obama, and dares anyone to question his true ties under the banner of 'racism'. Nurture this candidate in an atmosphere of anti-white American teaching and surround him with Islamic teachers. Provide him with a bitter, racist, anti-white, anti-American wife, and supply him with Muslim middle east connections and Islamic monies. Allow him to be clever enough to get away with his anti-white rhetoric and proclaim he will give $834 billion taxpayer dollars to the Muslim controlled United Nations for use in Africa. Install your candidate in an atmosphere of deception because questioning him on any issue involving Africa or Islam would be seen as 'bigoted racism'; two words too powerful to allow the citizenry to be informed of facts. Allow your candidate to employ several black racist Nation of Islam Louis Farrakhan followers as members of his Illinois Senatorial and campaign staffs. Where is the bloodhound American 'free press' who doggedly overturned every stone in the Watergate case? Where are our nation's reporters that have placed every Presidential candidate under the microscope of detailed scrutiny; the same press who pursue Bush's 'Skull and Bones' club or ran other candidates off with persistent detective and research work? Why haven't 'newsmen' pursued the 65 blatant lies told by this candidate during the Presidential primaries? Where are the stories about this candidate's cousin and the Muslim butchery in Africa? Since when did our national press corps become weak, timid, and silent? Why haven't they regaled us with the long list of socialists and communists who have surrounded this 'out of nowhere' Democrat candidate or that his church re-printed the Hamas Manifesto in their bulletin, and that his 'close pastor friend and mentor' met with Middle East terrorist Moammar Gaddafi, (Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya)? Why isn't the American press telling us this candidate is supported by every Muslim organization in the world? As an ultimate slap in the face, be blatant in the fact your candidate has ZERO interest in traditional American values and has the most liberal voting record in U.S. Senate history. Why has the American main stream media clammed-up on any negative reporting on Barak Hussein Obama? Why will they print Hillary Rodham Clinton's name but never write his middle name? Is it not his name? Why, suddenly, is ANY information about this candidate not coming from main stream media, but from the blogosphere by citizens seeking facts and the truth? Why isn't our media connecting the dots with Islam? Why do they focus on 'those bad American soldiers' while Islam slaughters non Muslims daily in 44 countries around the globe? Why does our media refer to Darfur as 'ethnic cleansing' instead of what it really is; Muslims killing non Muslims! There is enough strange, anti-American activity surrounding Barak Hussein Obama to peek the curiosity of any reporter. WHERE IS OUR INVESTIGATIVE MEDIA!? A formal plan for targeting America was devised three years after the Iranian revolution in 1982. The plan was summarized in a 1991 memorandum by Mohamed Akram, an operative of the global Muslim Brotherhood. 'The process of settlement' of Muslims in America, Akram explained, 'is a civilization jihad process.' This means that members of the Brotherhood must understand that their work in 'America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions.' There is terrorism we can see, smell and fear, but there is a new kind of terror invading The United States in the form of Sharia law and finance. Condoning it is civilization suicide. Middle East Muslims are coming to America in record numbers and building hate infidel mosques, buying our corporations, suing us for our traditions, but they and the whole subject of Islam is white noise leaving uninformed Americans about who and what is really peaceful. Where is our investigative press? Any criticism of Islam or their intentions, even though Islamic leaders state their intentions daily around the globe, brings-forth a volley of 'racist' from the left-wing Democrat crowd. Lies and deception behind a master plan –– the ingredients for 'The Manchurian Candidate' or the placement of an anti-American President in our nation's White House? Is it mere coincidence that an anti-capitalist run for President at the same time Islamic sharia finance and law is trying to make advancing strides into the United States? Is it mere coincidence this same candidate wants to dis-arm our nuclear capability at a time when terrorist Muslim nations are expanding their nuclear weapons capability? Is it mere coincidence this candidate wants to reduce our military at a time of global jihad from Muslim nations? Change for America? What change? To become another 'nation of Islam'? Contact Dave Nathan at DaveNathan@aol.com |
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JUDEA/SAMARIA JEWS TALK TOUGH: 'WE ARE NOT IDF'S PUNCHING BAG'
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, July 25, 2008. |
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This report by Ze'ev Ben-Yechiel appeared in Arutz-Sheva. It is very disturbing. I am sad to say I believe every word of what is written in the following. Since the days of Rabin and Peres, the Army, the Police and Secret Services have been trained and tasked to view Israeli citizens as adversaries who are to be justifiably attacked in deference to Government Arabist policy. The Judiciary has become a willing accomplice, first under the guidance of the former Head Justice of the Supreme Court Aharon Barak and now under Dorit Beinish. Soldiers are taught to look the other way. Police are taught not to attack Muslim Arab Terrorists lest it "upset" Olmert, Livni and Ehud Barak who are dead set on pleasing President Bush and Secretary Rice. |
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(IsraelNN.com) Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria lashed out Thursday at their treatment by the Israeli Defense Forces after a day of tense clashes in those regions, promising to exact a 'price' in response to the IDF's physical aggression, refusal to protect them, and above all the way the IDF treats them in the media. "We're not the IDF's punching bag," they proclaimed in a statement from the Binyamin-area 'Homesh First' activist headquarters, referring to several instances throughout the day when the army spokesperson's office accused Jewish civilians of violently attacking soldiers. The civilians were vehemently denying that they assaulted any troops, and some of them plan to sue the army for libel. Confrontations broke out Thursday in several locations between local Jewish residents and Israeli armed forces, in which the IDF was sent in to forcibly remove Jewish residents from their homes. The first incident of the day occurred at 11 a.m., when Yasam special police forces conducted a raid on the outpost of Adei Ad, near Shiloh in Samaria, and carted away a bus that was being used as living quarters. The Binyamin activist headquarters said in response that if the security forces continue to harass Jewish pioneers in the existing communities, they will have to deal with the pioneers in new locations as well. In another confrontation at Adei Ad, two Jewish men were arrested by Israeli forces after one of them snatched a rifle from a soldier and fired it into the air. IDF spokesmen described the incident as another violent act committed by 'settlers,' and denied any wrongdoing in the incident. The civilian involved in the incident claimed that he took the weapon to save his life from Arab assailants, while the soldiers did nothing to protect him. Homesh First said the man who took the gun was an air-conditioning technician from Jerusalem who was travelling with a passenger from the town of Kedumim to Itamar in Samaria. The two were attacked by dozens of Arabs who pelted his car with rocks and then attempted to extract him from the car to lynch him. Panic-stricken, he ran to a group of IDF soldiers standing nearby who refused to do anything. Desperate for the soldiers to do their job, he gave up trying to convince them, took the weapon of one of the soldiers, fired in the air and then gave it back. It remains unclear whether the civilian took the rifle forcibly or the soldier agreed to let the civilian use it. Army must apologize for false report' After the initial statements from the IDF accusing the Jewish civilians, police determined that the lives of the two men had truly been in danger, and that their car had indeed been seriously damaged by rocks thrown by Arab rioters. The two were released immediately. So far no apology for the false report has come from the IDF spokesman's office. Nor has there been any investigation into why the soldiers, who saw two Jewish civilians in mortal danger at the hands of an Arab mob, failed to act to protect them, even when the Jews begged them to. Homesh First said it expected the IDF to issue a formal apology for releasing the "negligent" report. In yet another incident, the IDF said that during an altercation with a group of Jews at Havat Gilad, one of the Jews threatened a soldier with bodily harm by brandishing a knife and pressing it to the soldier's neck. The army spokesman's report said that the Jew then grabbed the soldier's helmet and fled the scene. The soldier was unharmed. Ynet quoted military spokesmen as saying that the incident was viewed "severely" and would be dealt with. "A red line has been crossed here, this is very serious," said the spokesmen. However, the Havat Gilad Jews vehemently denied that anyone from their group had threatened a soldier with a knife or in any way. Meanwhile they confirmed that a helmet had indeed been stolen from a soldier, and said it would be returned to the military promptly. Itai Zar founded Havat Gilad (Gilad's Farm) and named it after his brother, who was killed in an Arab terror attack. He told reporters that the army's claims "are utter lies. There were two witnesses here –– one of them the regional security officer and the other one a lawyer. They both saw the helmet being taken from the soldier, but there were no threats made with a knife. Therefore, we intend to sue the IDF Spokesman's Office." Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). Contact him at gwinston@gwinston.interaccess.com |
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TALI FAHIMA FINDS A WHORE!
Posted by Steven Plaut, July 25, 2008. |
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Remember Tali Fahima? The Jewish communist Israeli woman who sat in
jail for assisting her Palestinian terrorist "boyfriend" plan terror
atrocities? The poster girl of the Israeli Left:
Well, now it seems she is really angry with her terrorist boyfriend.
Not for murdering Jews, mind you, but because she thinks he is
collaborating with the Israeli intelligence services and giving them
information. How dare Zubeida betray her to engage in romance with the
Zionists! Talk about a two-timer!
Below is today's Haaretz report:
For more on this, see also http://imshin.net/?p=898 on this story.
It includes a link to a video See also: http://jacobk9.tripod.com/id25.html, written in
2005. It claims Tali was a right wing sympathizer until a year and a
half ago, when she saw the light and realized the Palestinian arabs
were right, so she volunteered to be a "Living Shield" for them. The
essay suggests she be given the Alternative Nobel Price[sic]. Rachel
Giora from Tel Aviv University was one of the initiators as was Jacob
Katriel, "professor emeritus from the Technion" and a "central figure
in the Israeli Communist Party" (See: |
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Tali Fahima, a Jewish Israeli woman who was tried and convicted for her contacts with Zakariya Zubeidi, former Jenin chief of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, criticized Zubeidi on Thursday, saying that he had turned into the "whore of the Shin Bet security service." Speaking to Channel 10 news, Fahima complained that Zubeidi, who was once on Israel's most wanted list for his role in the Palestinian Intifada, was now on friendly terms with the Shin Bet when it served his purposes. Fahima referred to Zubeidi's recent request that the Shin Bet allow him leave the West Bank city of Jenin and undergo eye surgery in Ramallah. The Shin Bet had removed Zubeidi from its most wanted list in a gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last year, along with other militants who turned in their weapons, on the condition that they refrain from leaving the city in which they live, under close Palestinian police supervision. Fahima's rage was sparked when Zubeidi negotiated with the Shin Bet, which he professed to view as his enemy, over permission to leave Jenin to go to Ramallah. Fahima, who served two years in prison for charges which include supporting a terror organization and aiding an enemy during wartime, told Channel 10 "I refuse to see him and I won't even speak to him." She explained that it was Zubeidi's duty to inform the Palestinian people that he had negotiated with the Shin Bet to further his own personal needs. Fahima added that Zubeidi "talks about his private pleasures, like being able to travel around without an [IDF] drone following him, like the occupation is over, like everything is fine –– It was nice to believe in the fairy tale, but there are no fairy tales in the resistance. Zubeidi is a disgrace to the resistance. We are still living under an occupation." However, Fahima added in a personal jab that Zubeidi "is not a big terrorist. A man who fires bullets into the air is not a big terrorist." Zubeidi responded to Fahima's remarks, saying "this is the first time in eight years that I've left [the West Bank city of] Jenin. I came to Ramallah to take care of my eyes that were hurt from an explosive device." "Tali Fahima only experienced a small part of the Palestinian people's problems," he added. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments –– both seriously and satirically –– on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. Or write him at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il |
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100 JEWS THROW ROCKS, BURN TIRES IN BOURIN
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, July 24, 2008. |
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Stop complaining and fight back!
Looks live we might have finally moved on to the next level of protest against the illegal activities of the Olmert Junta. Let's see what happens next. This comes from Arutz-Sheva
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(IsraelNN.com) About 100 Jews entered the Arab village of Bourin, threw rocks and burned tires Thursday, in response to a security forces sweep on Adei Ad near Shiloh. One of the activists reportedly took a gun from a soldier and fired in the air. Also in response to the police raid, Jewish residents from the Shiloh area demonstrated at the Shiloh Junction and other activists from Samaria said they intend to carry out protests later today. Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel. |
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NATAN SHARANSKY: "BIG CONCERN ABOUT OBAMA"
Posted by Nurit Greenger, July 24, 2008. |
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In this article Natan Sharansky is on the mark and to the point on ALL his thought processing points NOT only for Israel but very much so for the USA and also for the entire Free World! Is anyone listening? This is by Christopher Ruddy, an editor at Newsmax. |
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Newsmax Editor Christopher Ruddy is visiting Israel this week and met with Natan Sharansky. The former Soviet dissident spent more than a decade in the communist Gulag. He emigrated to Israel after his release in 1986, became a Knesset member and served in four successive Israeli governments, including time as deputy prime minister. In 2006, he resigned from Israel's Knesset, but he remains active in the country's political discourse. He has just authored his latest book "Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy." Jerusalem –– An Israeli businessman I met described Natan Sharansky as having an "inner strength." Indeed he has. We might say in America he is a man of a quiet charisma. It's Wednesday, the day after a crazed man went on a rampage using a bulldozer in a suicidal attempt to kill and maim innocent Israelis. In the end, 16 civilians were injured before the terrorist was shot dead. All of this took place not far from Sharansky's Jerusalem office at the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies, where he serves as its chairman. Sharansky appears calm and safe, even unshakable. But he sees real threats to the state of Israel. "There must be a serious punishment," Sharansky says of the suicidal terrorists. First, the Israeli government should demolish the homes of suicidal terrorists, a tactic he describes as a "deterrence" that is "one of the most effective ways of social pressure" to thwart future acts. Sharansky quickly qualifies this remedy as a "micro-therapy." The attacks of radical Islamics do not come in a vacuum, Sharansky posits. He says the backers of the fundamentalist ideology that foments terror, Wahhabism from Saudi Arabia, as well as the military sponsors of Hezbollah and Hamas (he names the Iranians and Syrians), need to pay a price for their support. "I think one of the biggest failures, of shortsightedness, of all American administrations, Democratic and Republican alike, is their attitude toward Saudi Arabia," he says. Sharansky's comments carry great weight here and for policy-makers in the West. Though he resigned from the Knesset as a stalwart Likud backer in 2006, he has remained active in the political debate. The real problem for his country, he says, slowly sipping a cup of tea as he sits behind his desk, is that the Arab world sees Israel as vulnerable. "Our adversaries have a growing feeling that we are weak and they are strong. This has to be changed," he says. To do so, he would punish, including with military retribution, states and networks that back terrorists. Obama and Iran As we talk, Barack Obama is here visiting Israel. Sharansky is dubious of the candidate. "He is definitely a big concern for me," he says. Sharansky thinks Obama has "a little record or almost no record, while the one who he is competing with is McCain, and we know for sure his principles." Sharansky continues the train of thought: "It is very alarming for me the way Senator Obama voted, the way he spoke about his desire to negotiate with Ahmadinejad, and the way some of his advisers think. "I was at AIPAC. He made a very strong speech, speaking about a Jewish state, defensible borders, a united Jerusalem, then the next day he started correcting himself." Still, Sharansky feels having Obama as president is not as dangerous as having a weak Israeli government. The threats, as the bulldozer incident showed, are constant, but none is more serious than the one Israel now faces from Iran. "With any government of Israel, it becomes inevitable, if this [Iranian] regime becomes nuclear, that we will have to act because for us that is a question for the survival of our Jewish civilization," he explains. "If Iran will not change, Israel will have to act. I think it will be very tragic if Israel has to act alone." He is not sure that if Israel does attack Iran alone, it will solve the problem. "The only chance it would be 100 percent successful is if the free world, and first of all the United States of America, will be supportive of Israel." Indeed, there is a consensus among Israeli elites –– left and right –– that a nuclear Iran is a direct threat to the existence of the Jewish state. The question now is whether Israel acts alone or in conjunction with the U.S. and other Western states. The Larger Issue: Identity The survival of the West depends on democracy, Sharansky argues. His best-selling book, "The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror," made his case and figured into President Bush's second inaugural address. Taking his lead from Sharansky, Bush declared in the speech, "The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world." Bush also said during a February 2005 trip to Europe that Sharansky's book "confirmed what I believe." But Sharansky believes democracy does not mean unlimited freedom overnight, especially for states that have no history of democratic institutions. Instead, he argues for the gradual development of democratic institutions. "First you must have the beginnings of a free society, have institutions that guarantee individuals some basic freedoms," Sharansky says. "Elections are the end result of democracy, not necessarily the beginning of the process." And existing democracies, in Europe and the United States, not to mention Israel, face significant challenges. Sharansky tackles this subject in his newest book "Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy." The thesis of his book is that democratic society, if it has any hope for long-term survival, must offer an identity for its citizens. Looking out at the world, he says "our enemies look so dangerous because they have a strong will." This means they have beliefs they are ready to die for. "The free world, if it does not have values for which people are ready to die, will be powerless, its people decadent. It will be doomed to failure." Identity, he says, gives people these values. It is not the enemy, as many in the West believe. "Europe is suffering the most from a loss of identity. Faith and patriotism have weakened as it embraces a super-identity –– all in an effort to avoid war." Europe has become John Lennon's song "Imagine," a world, Sharansky paraphrases, "where there is no hell and no paradise, no borders, no nations, in a world where there is nothing to die for. "Less than two generations [after Lennon's song], Europe is helpless and powerless against a small group of Islamic terrorists. "It is the tragedy of Europe," Sharansky declares, but he says of America, "in general, its society is still healthy." With such powerful ideas about the future of his nation and the West, is Sharansky ready for a political comeback? He says yes, if there is a government that stands for something, has found its identity, he would consider it. Editor's Note: Natan Sharansky's Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy is available from Amazon. You can also check out his Facebook group that supports the book. Contact Nurit Greenger at nurit@ca.rr.com |
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END THE ILLEGAL OCCUPATION! GIVE BACK THE LANDS, YOU COLONIALIST DOGS!
Posted by Steven Plaut, July 24, 2008. |
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I posted this on the Jewish Press Blog
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Now that the heads of Iran are openly calling for Israel's annihilation, and Iran's "president" suggests that Europe create a Zionist state some place inside Germany or maybe in Alaska, I think we should all promote a REAL solution to the problems of the Middle East and end the REAL illegal occupation. I refer of course to the illegal Iranian occupation of lands that properly belong to the Mongols. Meaning all of Iran. True, Iran was conquered or liberated from the Persians by the Mongols militarily starting in 1219. Iran then became a legitimate part of the Mongol homeland. Tamerlane, who was part Mongol, also ran the place. All in all, the Mongol liberation of Persia lasted for two and a half centuries, not much different from the length of the period of Arab rule over "Palestine," after which Mongol Iran was lost to Turkic tribes. I guess that means the Turks also have a legitimate claim to a homeland there! Now if the fact that some Arab armies once conquered the Land of Israel is thought to confer upon them rights of sovereignty and even statehood, why should not the Mongol conquest of Iran do the same? Besides, Iran was once a Mongol state, as recent as 550 years ago, whereas the last time the Land of Israel was an Arab Palestinian state was, well, never! Not only should Mongol rule be restored to Iran as the only legitimate rulers of the place, but these days the Mongols make far better neighbors than the ayatollahs. The Mongols have no nuclear ambitions and have never met with the pagans from the Neturei Karta. The Mongols would surely put the Persian Gulf petroleum to better use than the Holocaust Deniers in Iran these days, like developing yak milk production capacities. Let's have a two-state solution: Iran and Mongolia both as independent Mongol countries! (Those pesky Persians can take refuge in Antartica or Venezuela.) So, I say, end the illegal occupation once and for all. Liberate Iran from the imperialist colonialist occupation of the Iranians! Restore it to its proper owners –– the Mongols! Biladi biladi!
(That is the Mongolian song of national liberation: Its lyrics
continue: "Az der rebe zingt Zingn ale chasidim Az der rebe tantzt
Tantzn ale chasidim." Alas, I do not know enough Mongolian to tell you
what it means.)
Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist,
a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author
of "The Scout." He frequently comments –– both seriously and
satirically –– on Israeli politics and the left wing academic
community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com.
Or write him at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il
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COPYCAT ATTACK –– COPYCAT HEADLINES
Posted by Honest Reporting, July 24, 2008. |
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Initial BBC and the AFP headlines ignore the victims in second bulldozer attack |
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Les s than three weeks after a Palestinian from east Jerusalem used a bulldozer to kill three people on a busy street in Israel's capital, another east Jerusalem resident attempted to replicate the attack. The second attacker rammed his bulldozer into a bus, then began flipping cars on the street, wounding at least 16 people. When the first bulldozer rampage took place, we were stunned to see the BBC's initial headline focusing on the fate of the driver –– who was shot by Israeli security –– rather than the victims of his attack. The BBC subsequently changed its headline to make it more neutral, reflecting what appeared to be a better understanding of the incident and its significance. Or so we thought. Despite a virtual repetition of the first incident, the BBC's initial response the second time was a headline questioning whether an attack had taken place at all. The headlines on the BBC's web page went from "New Vehicle 'Attack' in Jerusalem" to "New Digger 'Attack' in Jerusalem," then finally settled on "Israel Hit By New Digger Attack."
It is difficult to understand how the BBC ever saw the incident as anything other than an attack. The bulldozer driver rammed into a bus, then pushed into it several more times, shattering glass and throwing the passengers into a panic. He then zigzagged through the road to harm as many motorists as possible before he was stopped. This is how the bus driver described the incident to the Jerusalem Post. "I was driving on the main road when suddenly the tractor hit me in the rear on the right hand side," said bus driver Avi Levy.In the news story beneath the headline, the BBC does not put quotes around the word "attack." However, the headline writers make the first impression with readers and undermine what otherwise could be fair coverage of the incident. But the BBC was not the only media outlet that skewed the story with its initial headline. Agence France-Presse (AFP), the third largest wire service after the AP and Reuters, repeated the BBC's shocking error from the first attack, placing all of the emphasis on the driver instead of his victims.
Although the AFP changed its headline to "Palestinian Shot Dead After New Bulldozer Rampage," its first story on the incident was headlined, "Jerusalem Bulldozer Driver Shot Dead: Police." The headline leaves out any information about victims or a rampage, leaving the casual reader scanning headlines to believe that a construction worker had been killed without cause. There is no excuse for such a misleading headline, even as an initial report. The first paragraph of that first story already acknowledges police sources saying that the driver was killed after injuring several people, so it is impossible to argue that the headline writers didn't have the facts available. You can send your comments to the BBC Complaints website –– http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints (for detailed instructions on how to navigate the BBC Complaints website, click here). For the AFP, write to contact@afp.com. LOOKING BEYOND WIKIPEDIA The Jerusalem Post's technology writer David Shamah offers hope for people who have begun to despair of Israel getting fair treatment on Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Although he notes that the Israel page on the site is still dominated by Arab propagandists, he also points to other sites that are part of the Wikipedia family that do not appear to be biased against Israel. One such site is WikiNews, a news site that allows people to contribute their own content in the same way Wikipedia allows people to edit articles. Reuters and AP could learn a lesson or two from this site on how to write an objective article that deals in fact, not opinion. In the May 23 incident in which Israeli planes confronted an unidentified aircraft that turned out to be Tony Blair's plane, Reuters wrote "Israeli fighter jets scrambled to intercept a plane carrying Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair this week after his pilots failed to identify themselves," the emphasis being on intercepting the plane carrying the 'peace envoy.' I could spend a whole article just analyzing that sentence, in fact! The objectivity found on WikiNews demonstrates that citizen journalists could produce work that upholds journalistic standards better than some professional reporters. We'll continue to keep an eye on the site to make sure the quality remains.
Honest Reporting monitors the media for inaccuracy and unfairness
in how they report the news about Israel. Ther website address is
http://www.honestreporting.com. Contact them by email at action@honestreporting.com
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FROM ISRAEL: OBAMA VISIT & POLICIES
Posted by Arlene Kushner, July 24, 2008. |
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Obama's whirlwind tour of Israel is completed, and I find that readers are seeking comments on that visit. He did it all right while here: Visiting Yad VaShem (the Holocaust Memorial –– required stop for all visiting dignitaries), Sderot, the Kotel –– making appropriate comments in each place, and meeting with top leaders. If there was any concern I had, it was that Obama saw fit to pay a visit to Ramallah and meet with Abbas and Fayyad –– something McCain opted not to do when he was here. There was no press conference from Ramallah –– it is my impression that he was seeking to keep this low key. From Aaron Klein at WorldNetDaily comes a report from someone who attended Obama's meeting with Abbas. Obama reportedly assured PA leadership that there was a "misunderstanding" with regard to his statement about an undivided Jerusalem –– a mistake he corrected immediately. This PA official said Obama told them he supports a negotiated settlement that would give the Palestinians territory in Jerusalem. He also expressed "full understanding" regarding the need for Israel to halt "settlement activity." ~~~~~~~~~~ Israeli historian Dr. Michael Oren recently provided an analysis of the positions of the two candidates with regard to Israel, and I would like to share highlights here. There are genuine differences: –– "While McCain has avoided criticizing Israel's settlement policy and balked at delineating the contours of 'Palestine,' Obama has impugned the settlements and taken up Bush's call for a 'contiguous' Palestinian state free of Israeli roadblocks and joined by West Bank-to-Gaza routes. –– "McCain...has emphasized the Palestinian Authority's duty to clamp down on terror in accordance with the Road Map. 'We must ensure that Israel's people can live in safety until there is a Palestinian leadership willing and able to deliver peace,' he stated. Obama, by contrast, has refrained from mentioning the PA's responsibility in suppressing terror. –– "Obama has expressed strong reservations about the Israeli right, complaining to American Jewish leaders that 'there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt an unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel then you're anti-Israel.' He has also welcomed the renewal of peace talks between Israel and Syria...McCain, however, has not revealed a preference for one Israeli party over another and has withheld comment on the Syria-Israeli discussions. –– the Democratic contender seems less adamant than his Republican rival in opposing all communications with Hamas. Obama waited five days before distancing himself from former President Jimmy Carter's meetings with Hamas officials; McCain condemned them instantly. And while McCain withheld comment on Israel's ceasefire with Hamas, Obama greeted it as an opportunity to 'bring calm to the people of southern Israel, improve life for Palestinians in Gaza, and lead to the release of [captured Israeli corporal] Gilad Shalit.'" ~~~~~~~~~~ As to Dr. Oren's predictions for the path each candidate would take as president: "While both aspirants will honor Bush's pro-Israel legacy and actively pursue peace, McCain would be less prone than Obama to pressure Israel for concessions and more inclined to take the Palestinian Authority to task for its Road Map infractions. Obama may prove more flexible than McCain in admitting some role for Hamas in negotiations and recognizing Palestinian claims to Jerusalem. McCain would preserve and Obama would renounce much of his predecessor's policies on preemption and the war on terror... "McCain is unlikely to ratchet up pressure on Israel, to oppose Israeli claims to Jerusalem, or to link the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with any of the region's manifold struggles. He will not deal with Hamas, even in context of the national unity government that the organization is currently considering with the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. "An Obama presidency, however, may well launch an entirely new initiative, one based on zero tolerance for Israeli settlement-building and checkpoints, as well as on the belief that the road to Baghdad and Teheran runs through Bethlehem and Nablus. Obama might be expected to show deeper sympathy for the Palestinian demand for a capital in Jerusalem and greater flexibility in including Hamas in negotiations, if only indirectly, through the national unity coalition with Abbas." http://docs.google.com/View?docid=df7qj7nh_42fnsmfkgm ~~~~~~~~~~ You might also want to see an article entitled, "Where Does Obama's Foreign Policy Take Us," by Kory Bardash and Abraham Katsman: "The candidates...differ on the core issue of whether the Israeli-Palestinian [conflict] is the cause of the rest of the region's woes, or vice 'infect(s) all of our foreign policy' and 'provides an excuse for anti-American militant jihadists.' That is a formulation that suggests heavy Israeli concessions to achieve 'peace' at any cost. "McCain, on the other hand, sees the opposite –– that Islamic fanaticism is the obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peace: '[I]f the Israeli-Palestinian issue were decided tomorrow, we would still face the enormous threat of radical Islamic extremism.' According to Dr. Oren, neither McCain nor any of his advisors have indicated a readiness to apply greater pressure on Israel." And I will say forthrightly that it is McCain's conceptualization that is correct.
Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info |
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ISRAEL'S (FIRST) "VEHICULAR" TERROR ATTACK: UPDATE, BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS
Posted by Reuven Kossover, July 24, 2008. |
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Background As reported on July 2, an Arab "went postal" along the Jaffa Road, killing three and injuring at least 40 people. When I was riding towards Jerusalem's Central Bus Station Wednesday, July 2, planning to go to the phone company to clear up a bill, I heard the 12:00 news on the semi-official Voice of Israel hourly news roundup. While waiting for that bus, I had seen quite a number of police motorcycles, vehicles and a number of ambulances rushing ahead in the same direction I was going. We Israelis have some rules of thumb when it comes to seeing ambulances or police vehicles: one ambulance means an accident or a heart attack; two ambulances mean a very serious vehicular accident; three or more are the sign of a terror attack. I was convinced there had been a terror attack based on the number of ambulances and the huge number of police vehicles zipping by. But there are also certain terms you listen for in Hebrew on the news broadcasts to indicate this: pitzutz –– explosion, irua yeri –– a shooting incident, nifga –– injured, m'Habel –– terrorist, pigua –– terror attack. These were among the first terms I learned in Hebrew when we moved here seven years ago. Of all these terms listed, I heard only one –– nifga –– injured. The noon broadcast spoke of otobus hit'hapekh –– an overturned bus, traktor (must I translate?), and reHov yafo –– the Jaffa Road. The more we made our way slowly up the Jaffa Road, past landmarks like Davidka Square, maHane yehuda Shuk (souk in Arabic), the famous "open air" market where you can supposedly get bargains, the more I sensed that a trip to Bezeq to deal with a phone bill would be put off –– and that I would be writing an article instead. My sense of this was confirmed when the police shut off the Jaffa Road altogether just past the Shuk and directed all traffic towards Agrippas Street, which runs parallel to the Jaffa Road for a ways. After about 100 meters or so on Agrippas, the police directed all traffic away from Agrippas Street as well, and since my ultimate destination was the Central Bus Station, which is on the Jaffa Road, I got off. But I still couldn't see what a tractor had to do with an overturned bus. I followed a couple of Haredim (the very observant Jews who wear long black coats and have peyot, (long sideburns) upwards towards the Jaffa Road. As I got there, a Border Guard was hollering "back!, back!" a command I sidestepped –– literally. I looked at the crushed vehicles, at least twenty ambulances, another twenty police vehicles, and the Zak –– a vehicle, which made me shiver. I asked questions and stood with notebook in one hand, pen in the other, and wrote most of my previous article. When I was done, I made my way to the Central Bus Station, hurrying to the internet cafe there to type the story up. After finishing it, and having my son send an e-mail notifying the editors of breaking news, I was just in time to catch the 14:00 bus to Ariel, which stops at Ma'ale Levona. Riding the bus home, I caught the Hebrew news at 15:00 approximately three hours after the events occurred. In this broadcast, the term pigua was used. Nevertheless, some important details still elude me, so lets look at the coverage since early Wednesday afternoon, July 2, to see what can be had. Update The first point is one which requires no URL's to document. The term traktor used was a misnomer. The construction vehicle driven by the Arab was a bulldozer –– but Hebrew uses traktor to mean bulldozer as well. Another nuance in how Hebrew stretches words learned.... The second point is the names of the murdered: According to Yeshiva World News, the dead are Batsheva Unterman, HY"D (an abbreviation for hashem y'nakem damam –– may G-d avenge their blood), 33 of Bayit V'gan, a neighborhood on the western edge of Jerusalem; Elizabeth Goren-Friedman, HY"D, a teacher of the blind crushed by the bulldozer. She was 54 years old and was buried Wednesday night at 22:30. The third victim was Jean Relevy, HY"D, (reported as Reloy in Ha'aretz) 68, from Gilo, a neighborhood at the southern edge of Jerusalem. Jean was in a vehicle when he was trapped and killed. Now let's look at the murderer, Hussam Duwiyat. He was an employee of the Jerusalem Municipality who lived in the Arab neighborhood of Tsur BaHer, which is adjacent to Armon haNetziv, a neighborhood in southeast Jerusalem where we had lived for five years. He was working on the site. This answers the question I had raised as to whether a terrorist grabbed the keys to the vehicle from a worker or not. But Duwiyat, who awoke on Wednesday morning a mere construction employee became a terrorist in doing the deed. He aimed to murder Jews, where there were lots of Jews. Analysis Of course, the pro-Arab, pro-business, semi-official Ha'aretz has already absolved Hussam Duwiyat as a petty criminal run amok, not much different from his neighbor, Ala Abu-Dahim, who murdered eight students at Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav four months ago. But this goes in line with the general attitude of Ha'aretz towards this whole event, dismissing it as unimportant in the general scheme of things. They used Yaron Kutik, owner of a cafe located near where the bulldozer came to a halt, as their spokesman. He said, "This is the first time I've seen a terror attack happen right in front of my eyes, but this is not an attack that will affect us in the long term. Every Jerusalemite knows there's no such thing as a calm in Jerusalem. In a few days everyone will forget this attack and move on". Of course, the folks in the rich suburbs of North Tel Aviv, where the publishers of Ha'aretz live, were not affected. They don't care. This happened in Jerusalem, where the "religious" Jews live. The writers at Ha'aretz do not realize how they expose the fault lines of the kulturkampf in Israel, and the fact that they chose to use this quote, from Yaron Kutik –– a model of insensitivity to the mourners and to the dead –– shows how little they value Jewish life. If they value Jewish lives so cheaply, why should an Arab be criticized for taking Jewish lives with such impunity? The underlying message of their whole article is directed at the cowardly but rich "reform" Jews of America, who chicken out of coming to Israel at the drop of a keffiyeh –– "don't cancel your tours, it was just a couple of religious Jews who got killed –– you're all safe here". The new "pro-business" Ha'aretz wants to make sure the money keeps flowing in. More accurate coverage of this terror attack can be found at Arutz Sheva, where we see a repetition of events from the Mercaz HaRav killings in another interesting way. On that 15:00 Kol Yisrael news broadcast I heard on the bus, a member of Yasa"m, the swat team of the Israel Police usually used to beat up Jewish demonstrators, was heard to say, "I pulled out my gun, cocked it, and killed the terrorist". Apparently, it did not quite happen this way. Let's look at the Arutz Sheva piece a bit more closely. "Despite the mobilization of Yasam (special police anti-terror units) and other Israeli police forces, the terrorist was shot dead by a young religious off-duty Givati soldier who had just finished his basic training". The Jerusalem Post had a similar recitation of the facts in its original report (taken from my e-mail server). It reads as follows: "Police said that the driver plowed his vehicle into two public buses, toppling them over, and slammed into several cars. A soldier on leave took the gun from an elite policeman at the scene and shot the terrorist dead. The soldier is the brother-in-law of the I.D.F. officer who killed the terrorist in the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva attack, Channel 2 reported". The soldier's name has been withheld by court order, partly to protect him from Arabs who might wish to kidnap or kill him in vengeance –– which is why it has not been mentioned in this story either. But the revised report in the Jerusalem Post reads as follows: "The soldier, who cannot be identified due to a court order, said the attacker was shouting, 'Allahu Akbar'. As hundreds of people fled in panic, an elite police commando team on motorcycles sped toward the tractor, and one of the officers jumped on the tractor and shot the assailant dead". Again, we see a religious soldier being slighted to favor the Israel Police –– and to make it worse, that branch of the Israel Police that does the most egregious damage to believing Jews trying to secure the homeland here –– Yasa"m –– the bully goons of the secular government. Ilan Franko, the police chief in Jerusalem, did something similar to cover up the delayed response and irresolute actions of the Israel Police when Ala Abu-Dahim murdered eight students at Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav on March 6 of this year. So, in these terror attacks, we see a careful pattern of news management –– the government-influenced press tries to minimize the importance of the attack, exonerate the attacker, and finally, if a religious Jew has in any way contributed to ending the attack, this contribution is erased in its entirety, leaving the secular regime to flex its muscles and show how well prepared it is to protect the citizens of this beleaguered country. When the exact opposite is the truth. This analysis does not even begin to deal with the deliberate distortions of the news of this terror attack perpetrated by ("This is Londonistan") the B.B.C., caught by HonestReporting before it could be covered up. For all this, the most important issue for me on Wednesday, July 2, was not the murders or the news management and distortions by the foreign press. It was the fact that at the Central Bus Station, my bathroom away from home, the management is constructing toll booths to make sure that everyone who wishes to use any of the toilets there will have to pay a shekel. And of course, as the shekel rises against the dollar, the price of shaking hands with the unemployed goes up as well! Shabbat Shalom from Ma'ale Levona Mr. Reuven Kossover is with the Root and Branch Association (R&B) and is the R&B Information Services Editor. Contact him at rb@rb.org.il |
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OBAMA ON JERUSALEM, PROPERLY (RE)(RE)(RE)PHRASED
Posted by B Taverna, July 24, 2008. |
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This article was written by Rick Richman and it appeared in
the July 31, 2008 issue of American Thinker, entitled "Obama on
Jerusalem, Properly Phrased."
It is archived at
Rick Richman edits "Jewish Current Issues." His articles on the "peace process" have appeared in American Thinker, The New York Sun and The Jewish Press. |
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In its lead editorial yesterday ("Obama in Jerusalem"), The New York Sun noted that Barack Obama's continuing explanations of his AIPAC speech, in which he said Jerusalem "must remain undivided," raise more questions than they answer. Obama added yet another explanation yesterday in Sderot. To decode his current position, it is useful to review in one place the various statements he has made on this issue. So here is a compilation of them, followed by a JCI revision of his AIPAC speech to correct the poor phrasing that marred it: 1. Position Paper on Israel issued during his 2000 congressional
campaign:
"Jerusalem should remain united and should be recognized as Israel's capital." 2. January 2008 Response to the American Jewish Committee Election
Questionaire –– "How do you see the likely final status of
Jerusalem?":
"Jerusalem will remain Israel's capital, and no one should want or expect it to be re-divided."3. June 4, 2008 AIPAC speech: www.barackobama.com/2008/06/04/remarks_of_senator_barack_obam_74.php "Let me be clear. ... Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided." 4. July 12, 2008 Interview with Fareed Zakaria:
ZAKARIA: One area where you're outside the international consensus –– and certainly, perhaps, some others –– is the statement you made in a recent speech supporting Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel.5. July 22 Interview with Katie Couric: http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/07/cbs-katie-couric.html COURIC: ... You said not too long ago that Jerusalem should remain undivided. And then you backtracked on that statement. Does that play into the argument that some believe that someone more experienced would not have made that kind of mistake?6. July 23 Sderot Press Conference: http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/07/obama_on_jerusalem_properly_ph.html QUESTION: Senator Obama, you said at [the] AIPAC convention that undivided Jerusalem continues to be the capital city of Israel –– and then you change it, and clarified later on, and people in Israel wonder how we can be sure of your other statements, that you are going to be committed to the security of the state of Israel, and you are not going to change it when you're the President of the United States. Based on all these statements, here is what Obama apparently meant to say at AIPAC last month, with the poor phrasing of his first three statements corrected with the better phrasing from his three most recent statements: So let me be clear. ... Jerusalem will be the capital of Israel and must remain undivided. What I mean by this is simply that there should be no barbed wire between the divisions, and my very consistent policy has been that Bill Clinton's plan, proposing a partition of Jerusalem, provides a starting point for negotiations on this final status issue. Of course I do not want to predetermine the issue, and we shouldn't simply slice the city in half. It's not our job to say what form the capital of Israel should take, but just to support the efforts to resolve this very difficult issue, which has a long history. Got it? He's likeable enough. But he's not ready to be president. Contact B. Taverna by email at bltaverna@yahoo.com |
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WHY THERE ARE NO ARAB NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS IN SCIENCE
Posted by Daisy Stern, July 24, 2008. |
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Jack Golbert said: "Dr. Hatter's report "did not explain how Israel taught the rats to tell the difference between Old City Arabs and Jews, so that they only chase away Arabs." And DS added: What they are really saying is their living quarters are so disgusting, they attract the biggest, most voracious species... unless the rats grow gigantic on all the refuse left over by these filthy people. One good way to get rid of these rats would be to get rid of all their stinky garbage! This is a news item from Arutz-Sheva entitled "PA Paper: Israel Using Super-Rat" |
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(IsraelNN.com) PA-Fatah newspapers have reported that Israel has developed a rat with supernatural powers, and is setting it loose among the Arab population in eastern Jerusalem in order to drive the Arabs away. According to Palestinian Media Watch, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida and Al-Ayam informed their readers that the rats are let loose by "settlers" who bring them to the Old City in large cages and release them in order to "make the Arabs' life hell and make them leave." The accounts credit a Dr. Hassan Hatter with discovering the supposed plot and describe the rats as highly aggressive, abnormally large and unafraid of cats. The female "gives birth to 140 rats a year –– four times the average in nature." Dr. Hatter's report "did not explain how Israel taught the rats to tell the difference between Old City Arabs and Jews, so that they only chase way Arabs." Contact Daisy Stern at daisystern1@gmail.com |
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PARENTS' EXCUSES FOR TERRORISM; MEDIA APOLOGIZES TO THE ARABS FOR TRUTH; HOW THE PA PREPARES FOR PEACE
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 24, 2008. |
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PITFALL OF NEGOTIATION Israeli defense officials state that the Security Council truce resolution for Lebanon has failed. The government hopes if renewed, it would confer more power on UNIFIL to stop Syria from further arming Hizbullah. Hizbullah is much stronger now than it was when at war. The government, however, does not declare UNO resolution 1701 a failure. Too bad the government doesn't seize the opportunity to berate the UNO! It won't, because it has invested its prestige in the resolution. Foreign Min. Livni calls that resolution her initiative and a success. PM Olmert, clinging desperately to power court, will not admit that the resolution is another failure of his and that therefore the war, which he had pronounced an achievement for Israel, was a strategic defeat. As has been pointed out, resolutions and treaties with dictators put the West at a disadvantage, because the West does not like to admit foreseeable failure when the enemy violates them. Another reason for not admitting that the UNO resolution that bans Hizbullah rearming lets it rearm is that the anti-Zionist Israeli regime has abandoned self-reliance and depends on foreign organizations and countries to defend it. If Israel admitted that those defenders are unreliable, Israel would have to return to self-reliance. Dependency upon a hostile world is foolhardy. As originally requested, the resolution was not so bad. It got watered down. That usually happens at the UNO. Israel didn't have the courage to reject the watered-down version. It doesn't know how to back out. What does Israel think the Security Council would do when renewing the UNIFIL mandate? Would the Arabs' allies on the Council vest power in it to confront Hizbullah and Syria? Not likely. Would the European members of UNIFIL forces contribute 50,000 more troops and go to war with Hizbullah? Less likely. Israel is stuck. Best it could do is demand that UNIFIL's mandate be terminated. Then UNO forces would not impede it when Hizbullah renews warfare with Israel. OLMERT'S CASH-FILLED ENVELOPES Don't be angry with him. He just wanted to open a stationery store. PARENTS' EXCUSES FOR TERRORISM Every time a terrorist makes headlines, his parents act puzzled about their "good boy." The parents of the bulldozer-murderer claimed his crashes were an accident. But he kept on driving and crashing, even after having been shot and struggling with police. Part of Arab culture is not to admit obvious wrongdoing. THE MEDIA APOLOGIZES TO THE ARABS FOR TRUTH Some years ago, a foreign TV station broadcast live the brutal Arab lynching of two Israeli reservists in Ramallah. Afterwards, a TV broadcaster apologized to the P.A. for not following its journalistic guidelines. A few days ago, the BBC happened to broadcast live the Arab driver running a bulldozer over Jews in Jerusalem and the Jewish hero slaying the terrorist. This was fine journalism, but the BBC apologized, too. The apology said it wasn't balanced. What they mean is that they don't follow their editorial policy of portraying Israel as no better than the Arabs or worse, whereas the live broadcast showed the terrorists' bestiality, his fear, and the Israeli's heroism. [Incidentally, the hero is Orthodox.] The media usually is too arrogant to apologize much for its frequent, real mistakes. Why so readily apologize for these truthful broadcasts? The answer is that they don't want to admit that for years they have been misleading audiences about the Arab-Israel conflict. Their mistakes include fabricating tales of a Jenin massacre, a Kafr Kana massacre, and the slaying of the al-Dura boy. They didn't apologize even after those stories were proved to be blood libels. The mischief of the Kafr Kana fraud was the indignation it aroused in Pres. Bush and Sec. Rice. They reacted by withdrawing support for an Israeli victory over Hizbullah and lending support to the UNO truce resolution (Caroline Glick, IMRA, 7/8). Israel's seeming inability to move decisively against Hizbullah was said to have disgusted the US leaders, too. SECURITY COUNCIL PROCEDURE THWARTS IT Hizbullah frequently interferes with UNIFIL. Nevertheless, UNIFIL units do not report this. Therefore, UNIFIL reports deny that Hizbullah has been rearming, and they reject Israeli reports. Security Council members know that Hizbullah has rearmed, but since the UNIFIL reports deny it, they feel that they cannot act contrary to those reports. The reports deny it, apparently because of a reluctance to admit that their mission failed. The truce and withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Lebanon theatre, like all the land-for-peace schemes that Israel has been proceeding with, depend upon third parties reporting violations. The third parties, however, do not much report Arab violations. Therefore, the withdrawal schemes are ill-conceived (IMRA, 7/9). Indeed, sometimes the third parties report that Israel violated the terms. Either the reports are false or they equate Israel with the Arab violators when Israel suspends implementing concessions while under attack or other Arab violations. ISRAEL ON FIRE SALE Olmert is eager to negotiate away the Territories, the Golan, and part of Jerusalem. He's urging the US to enter and expedite negotiations over the Golan. Meanwhile, the truce with Hamas, for which no rational purpose ever was shown by Israel, has had three ill effects: (1) Hamas has prepared for waging a more formidable war; (2) It has continued bombarding Israel; and (3) Since Israel has not used the time to reinforce buildings within rocket range, many more residents of Israel will evacuate. Iran asserts that Israel will fall apart by itself. Olmert is leading the demolition. Dr. Aaron Lerner wonders whether it wouldn't be better if Pres. Peres pardoned Olmert, so he wouldn't have to be desperate to please the far leftist Attorney-General who might prosecute him for several counts of corruption (IMRA, 7/10). Problem is, Peres has proposed much the same. He doesn't believe in boundaries. That means no defensive borders. It means being conquered. Although Israel is celebrating its 60th year of independence, it is not independent. It clears everything with the US. It asks UNIFIL and even its Arab enemies to protect it. It lets its enemies build up forces of aggression. It allows its enemies to bombard it, without even retaliating against Hamas. It lets Arabs in Israel flout the law, seize public land, and beat up and threaten Jews. It punishes Jews who object. And its schools teach that the Arabs are equally entitled to the country. HOW THE P.A. PREPARES FOR PEACE The media of the supposedly moderate Abbas disseminates detailed claims that Israel performs Nazi-like medical experiments upon Arab prisoners. These experiments are said to harm the prisoners and eventually kill them or make them a burden upon their families when released. This slander follows years of accusations of bringing disease to Arab areas. The P.A. has described its propaganda as intended to rally support for the cause against Israel. Israel, of course, does not conduct experiments upon Arabs (Arutz-7, 7/10). The disease never has shown up. What Israel did with Moroccan Jews, however, may be another matter. Don't the Arab masses get annoyed at being lied to? No, they accept official lies, however absurd. The hundreds of released Arab prisoners show no signs of medical experimentation. The Red Cross does not endorse the accusations. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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OU WHITEWASHES OBAMA
Posted by Ted Belman, July 24, 2008. |
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Obama given a whitewash by OU Nathan Diament of the OU wrote "Obama Under the Microscope in Israel"
By including this erroneous sentence, he undermined the truth and everything we have been working on, to portray the real Obama. This is not merely because an unprecedented campaign has been waged by viral emails and incendiary articles falsely portraying Obama as harboring secret biases for the Palestinian cause and taking advice from persons openly hostile to Israel's interests. Obama does harbour a bias for Palestinians and does have advisers hostile to Israel. "Jews can't vote for Obama and be pro-Israel at the same time," says it all. His advisers include or did, Power, McPeak, Malley, Rice, Cirincione, Hamilton and Brzezinsky. They also include Daniel Kurtzer who is on record of being against Israel's settlements and in favour of dividing Jerusalem. Ted Belman is a Canadian lawyer and editor of the IsraPundit.com website, an activist pro-Israel website. Contact him at tedbel@rogers.com |
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SUPPORTING ISRAEL –– CUFI IN WASHINGTON
Posted by Gary Bauer, July 24, 2008. |
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Christians United for Israel (CUFI), founded by Pastor John Hagee, held its third annual conference in Washington, D.C., this week. I was proud once again to play a major role in the gathering, speaking five times over two days to the 3,500 attendees from every state in the union and abroad. CUFI and Pastor Hagee came under withering fire this year when a variety of critics took portions of his sermons out of context in order to smear his reputation. But truth won out, and this year the conference was better than ever! Interestingly, some of the bloggers and organizations involved in the attack appear to be subsidized by billionaire and political leftwing radical George Soros. It is no secret that a variety of forces on the left are outraged that Christians and Jews are forging stronger bonds. They are also furious that we have spoken out against pressuring Israel to give up more land in a vain effort to appease its enemies. Fortunately, the smear campaign failed, and if the 3,500 cheering delegates were any indication, CUFI will continue to be a major force in support of Israel, combating anti-Semitism and exposing the danger of Islamofascism. Gary Bauer is the president of American Values. Contact him at gary.bauer@mail.amvalues.org. And visit the website: http://www.ouramericanvalues.org |
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AMBASSADOR GILLERMAN'S FINAL SPEECH TO THE U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL
Posted by Asher Eder, July 24, 2008. |
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Hi, I wanted to share with you the e-mail (below) I received from the Christian Embassy (The International Christian Zionist Center) –– thanks to them for sending it. It was written by Gil Ronen and appeared yesterday in Arutz-Sheva (www.IsraelNN.com). A. Eder |
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Israel's outgoing Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Gillerman, gave his last speech Tuesday to the U.N. Security Council. Referring to Jerusalem's second tractor terror attack in three weeks, which occurred just hours before his speech, he said that when the first tractor attack occurred, people said the driver was "a madman." It now is clear, he added, that the problem was not a solitary madman but rather "a phenomenon." Gillerman had prepared a written speech but told the ambassadors that he decided to "speak from his heart" instead. "This is most probably my last appearance before you as the representative of the State of Israel," he said. "I would like to thank each and every one of you for the time you have spent on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and our problems." He emphasized that "whatever happens, whatever you discuss, whatever transpires –– Israel will prevail." Most of the Horror is Within Islam Gillerman went on to say that the world was not dealing with a clash of civilizations, but rather with a "clash of civilization, in the singular" –– within Islam. "Most of the horror, most of the bloodshed, most of the killings, and most of the violence... is sadly and tragically within Islam," he said. Not only are the majority of terrorists Muslim, he noted, but also the majority of terror victims around the world. The Ambassador said he was most concerned about the "eerie silence of the Muslim world" in the face of terrorism, and expressed his hope to see a Muslim leader emerge who would say "enough is enough, what are we doing?" "I hope very much that the Arab and Muslim world will realize that it is its duty and responsibility today, in that very clash, to support the moderates and isolate the extremists," he added. 'Imagine...' Gillerman extended an invitation to all those present to visit Israel. "You will see a country which is very different from the perception you get on TV, where you see a country torn by violence and bloodshed... You will discover a vibrant county, of great excellence and innovation, in making the desert bloom, in agriculture, science and medicine," he said. "You will see a country which is contributing each and every day to mankind and to humanity, not just to itself and to the Jewish people, and making the world a better place." "You will not understand the essence of Israel until you feel it and smell it," he said. He asked his colleagues to "imagine, for one moment, what it is like to be an Israeli." Boarding a Bus with Fear He asked them to picture "a grandfather like me who sometimes goes to the kindergarten to pick up my granddaughter and whose heart breaks when he sees an armed guard at the entrance to the kindergarten." "Imagine what it is like," he said, "to board a bus and look to the side in fear, or to sit in a coffee shop in Jerusalem. Sitting in a coffee house in Paris, Moscow and New York, costs a few dollars. Sitting in a coffee house in Jerusalem could cost many lives," he said. Gillerman asked those present to "imagine a bulldozer driving down Fifth Avenue or the Champs Elysees and crushing cars... I have been here for almost six years. Occasionally I have been accused of over-reaction and dramatization. If you visit Israel or just imagine what happens in it, you will understand. When you speak about the situation in the Middle East, you will think about what we deal with every single day." Contact Asher Eder at avrason@netvision.net.il. This was |
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THE ISRAELI PRIDE PARADE
Posted by Jack L., July 23, 2008. |
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This was written by Ben Dror Yemini, writer for
Maariv. It appeared in MidEast Truth |
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Anyone who reads newspapers could be forgiven for thinking that Israel is a dangerous place ruled by violence and corruption. The celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary provides an opportunity to take stock of our achievements. The facts speak for themselves. The Contribution to Humanity Index There are quite a few measures by which countries are rated: national product, life expectancy, education, etc. There is no index measuring a specific country’s contribution to humanity. That kind of index is long overdue. Whoever gets confused by facts is in for some surprises. Here is a partial list: Agriculture: Israel leads the world in developing strains resistant to natural hazards and special crops to withstand harsh weather conditions. Israel invented the drip irrigation system, which saves tremendous amounts of water. Milk yield in Israel is the highest in the world, even double the European average. In Israel, a palm tree produces an average of 182 kg of fruit, compared to 17 kg in the rest of the Middle East. Since the establishment of the state, the area of agricultural land has increased threefold, but output has increased by a factor of 16. Ashkelon boasts the world’s largest desalination facility –– unless Hamas’s rockets manage to hit it, so that they can complain about a water crisis in the Gaza Strip. High-tech: A significant part of the leading high-tech developments in the world are Israeli inventions. The first disk-on-key was an Israeli innovation. The ICQ instant messaging program, which has become an integral part of every computer the world over, was developed in Israel. The best security software in the world comes from Israel. Most of the Windows XP operating system that is used in almost every computer worldwide was developed in Israel. VOIP technology (Voice over Internet Protocol, the basis for programs like Skype), making international telephone calls simple, inexpensive and readily available, was developed in Israel. It is no coincidence that every other day we hear about yet another Israeli company being acquired by a conglomerate. Israel is in second place in the world, after Japan and ahead of the United States, in the number of patents per capita. If you check the effectiveness of the inventions, we actually take the lead. Out of the one hundred most important start-ups selected in Europe last year, ten were Israeli. Science: Israel is in third place in the world in scientific publications per capita. And, when considering the importance of the publications as opposed to relative quantity, Israel is in 14th place in the world. This includes realms that benefit all of humanity –– research in medicine, physics, mathematics and others. Israel reached fifth place in the number of recipients of special grants for young researchers from the ERC (European Research Council). But, relative to its size, it actually takes first place in the number of winning researchers. Medicine: Teva is the largest company in the world for generic medicines. There are probably few homes worldwide without some "Made in Israel" medication. Teva and other companies also develop new drugs. Teva developed a drug to treat Parkinson's disease. Israel participated in developing a treatment to reduce relapses of multiple sclerosis. Just two years ago, Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, purchased an Israel company's product that can prevent blindness. Israel leads in the field integrating nanorobotics and medicine. And this is only a partial list. Human potential Not everything is wonderful in Israel. Many people have been left behind. The gaps in Israeli society are among the largest in democratic countries. Too few have control over too much of the capital. Therefore, developing and expanding human potential has to be the national mission of the next decade. The per capita product in resource-scarce Israel is 40% greater than in rich Saudi Arabia. The reason is simple: human resources produce much more than oil resources. And, despite its accomplishments, Israel is still far from fully utilizing its potential. The Lie Industry Here we arrive at the biggest paradox of all: even though Israel could be number one in the world in contributing to humanity, were there such an index, it also occupies first place in the hostility index. Israel is perceived, according to many polls (the last of which was a worldwide BBC survey) as the country most dangerous to world peace. Leading newspapers throughout the world –– The New York Times; The Washington Post; Le Monde; and The Guardian –– when mentioning Israel's 60th anniversary, chose to completely disregard Israel's contribution to human development and to emphasize instead "ethnic cleansing and the Palestinian Nakba." Here as well, they do not let the facts confuse them (see And the World is Lying –– the Plight of the Refugees). The paradox between Israel's contribution to the world and its image indicates only one thing: the lie industry is winning out over the facts. In fact, the Israel-Arab conflict has wrought the lowest number of victims in the annals of all conflicts. That does not keep the lie industry from spreading the libel that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians –– even though there is no genocide and never was (see And the World is Silent). Criticizing Israel is permissible. Not all its actions are praiseworthy. Yet every intellectual and liberal who is still influenced by facts and not by fashion has to admit that the anti-Zionist vogue will go down in history as one of humankind's lowest trends, matched only by phenomena such as racism and antisemitism. So, it is time to introduce the real Israel –– an Israel that can proudly observe its 60th year, due mainly to its enormous contribution to humanity. Israel does not need a military parade. It needs a parade of its achievements. We could call it a Pride Parade. Contact Jack L. by email at yakovdov1@yahoo.com |
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CJHSLA DEMANDS DEFINITIVE ACTION IN RESPONSE TO ATTACKS BY ARAB ISRAELIS
Posted by Doris Wise Montrose, July 23, 2008. |
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The Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors Los Angeles (CJHSLA) notes with grave concern the increasing Islamic radicalization of Arabs in the heart of Israel. Both the yeshiva massacre in March and the two recent murderous bulldozer rampages were committed by Israeli Arabs who lived in Jerusalem. They carried coveted Israeli identification that grants the bearer complete freedom of movement. CJHSLA challenges the major Jewish organizations to develop sufficient courage to support the only policy that will allow for the survival of the Jewish State and prevent the next Holocaust, i.e. the resettlement of the Arabs. Many Jews living both in Israel and in the United States agree with this position but are reluctant to offend the sensibilities of the international community. CJHSLA perceives a growing and potentially irreversible trend among Israeli Arabs toward sedition against the state of Israel. Hamas and other Islamic fundamentalist groups enjoy increasing popularity and Israeli Arab leaders incite their followers to violence against Jews. Leaders of government-sanctioned Arab parties have been witnessed chanting as part of a mob for terrorist attacks, and Arab MKs (members of the Knesset) openly engage in treasonous rhetoric without interference. CJHSLA reminds the American Jewish community that eighty-six years ago, when the "Mandate for Palestine" confirmed the irrevocable right of Jews to settle anywhere between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, it was unanimously endorsed by both Houses of Congress. President Harding signed the Resolution into law, approving the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, "... it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which should prejudice the civil and religious rights of Christian and all other non-Jewish communities in Palestine..." This Congressional resolution deliberately did not endorse giving the Arab residents of the Jewish State political rights. What went without saying in 1922 –– that such non-Jewish legal residents should have no right, nor should they have the freedom, to randomly murder Jews at will –– needs in 2008 to be said. The Israeli General Secret Service (Shin Bet) has reported that Israeli Arabs pose a "long-term danger to the Jewish nature and existence of the State of Israel." If this existential danger is not addressed, we will continue to see attacks against innocent and unarmed citizens throughout the Jewish state. In 1922, one speaker on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives suggested that "if will not consent to Jewish government and domination, they shall be required to sell their lands at a just valuation and retire into the Arab territory which has been assigned to them by the League of Nations in the general reconstruction of the countries of the east." If they would not accept this, he said, they should be made to leave by force. The political climate is quite changed now. No one today would dare use the words "Jewish" and "domination" in the same sentence, much less broach the subject of Arab resettlement. Instead, in 2008, the Jews of Israel are expected to take their lives into their hands by walking down their hometown streets in the middle of the day, in effect consenting to "domination" by Arab terrorists. The evidence is overwhelming and crystal clear. If Israel is to survive, a substantial portion of its Arab population must be induced to move to one or more of the neighboring Arab states. CJHSLA implores the government of Israel to adopt such a policy, and the government of the Unites States to renew its endorsement. Doris Wise Montrose is with the Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Los Angeles. Contact her at doris@cjhsla.org Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization raising awareness about the network of anti-Western and anti-Semitic extremists who march under the banner of global jihad. It insists that, among the commitments imposed upon people of good will by the last Holocaust, there must be a political commitment to prevent the next one.View press release:
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KILLING OF BULLDOZER TERRORIST PROVES DRUZE ARAB LOYALTY TO ISRAEL
Posted by Mark Samberg, July 23, 2008. |
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This news item is from Israel Today
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A leader of Israel's Druze Arab community on Wednesday said that the events surrounding a second bulldozer terrorist attack in Jerusalem a day earlier was evidence of the sect's ongoing loyalty to the State of Israel. Tuesday's attack, which left at least 16 people wounded when a Jerusalem Arab plowed into traffic with an earth-moving bulldozer, came to an end when an armed Israeli civilian and a Druze Border Police officer attacked the terrorist. The armed civilian, Yaakov Asael, was reportedly the first to fire, with Border Police officer Amal Ganem quickly joining the fight with his assault rifle. After initially firing from skewed angle, Ganem moved to another side of the still-rampaging bulldozer and opened fire again, this time killing the terrorist. Druze community leader Sheikh Muafiek Tarif told Ynet that "the Druze sect has shown its loyalty to the State of Israel for years now. Today, the resourcefulness of Amal Ganem, a Druze community member, proved our loyalty to the State of Israel." Tarif continued by calling Ganem, "who acted quickly and without hesitation in order to prevent further casualties," a "model to thousands of young Druze who have acted and are acting on behalf of the State of Israel." The Druze, whose religion lies somewhere between Islam and Judaism and reveres Moses' father-in-law Jesse as its patriarch, are usually fiercely loyal to whatever nation in which they reside, including the Jewish state. Following the establishment of State of Israel, Druze leaders insisted that the Israeli army impose mandatory military service on their community's young men just as it does on Israeli Jews. However, the past year has seen an increase in tension between Israeli Jews and the Druze communities in parts of northern Israel. Druze leaders have been quick calm the situation, while urging Israel to show greater appreciation to an Arab sector that has traditionally been as loyal to the Jewish state as most Jews. Contact Marc Samberg at marcsamberg@yahoo.com |
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THE KILLER OF A 4-YEAR-OLD CHILD CHEERED LIKE A ROCK STAR
Posted by Jerome S. Kaufman, July 22, 2008. |
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This was written by Mitch Albom of the The Detroit Free Press, July 20, 2008. Mitch Albom is a multiple award winning journalist; contact him at malbom@freepress.com |
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It was a ghastly trade, flesh and blood for two boxes of bones. Many criticized it. Some could not bear to watch it. But, if anything showed the difference between Israel and Hizballah in last week's exchange of two dead Israeli soldiers for five live prisoners and 199 corpses, it was not the trade itself. It was the reaction. In Israel, where the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev arrived in black coffins, the mood was, according to reports, somber and mournful. Candles were lit. Prayers were recited. These two young soldiers, both students and reservists at the time, were captured in a cross-border raid two years ago by Hizballah guerrillas, setting off a small war that left 160 Israelis and 1,000 Lebanese dead. Because the Israeli military vows to never leave a soldier on the battlefield, negotiations were held to get the two men back, even though most believed they were dead. Hizballah captured the two men to use them as bargaining chips and held firm to its demand that Israel free several prisoners, including Samir Kuntar. Not Kuntar!, many Israelis said. He was serving life sentences for murdering three people in 1979: a police officer, a civilian named Danny Haran and Haran's 4-year-old daughter, whose head Kuntar smashed on rocks and with his rifle butt. Haran's wife, hiding her other baby from Kuntar, covered her mouth to stop her whimpering. The child suffocated. Kuntar's killings were regarded in Israel as the most brutal form of terrorism. The thought of freeing him went against every fiber of justice. But, last week, after almost 30 years behind bars, Kuntar was allowed to go by the Israeli authorities. And on Wednesday, he walked down a red carpet in Beirut and was kissed by the Hizballah leader and cheered like a rock star. Samir! Samir!" the crowd reportedly yelled. This for a man convicted of smashing a child's head into pieces. You can take whatever side you like in the Israeli-Palestinian debate. You can argue who is entitled to land, statehood and borders. But you cannot defend the frenzied love-fest that took place for Kuntar in Lebanon, as if he were some long-lost statesmen, instead of a common murderer who did the worst thing you can do: take the life of a child. What religion condones that? What holy book says that is a good thing? A banner in Beirut, according to the New York Times, read "God's Achievement Through Our Hands." What God would have a child's murder on anyone's hands? How do people celebrate such a killer? Is it because the little girl was Israeli –– and Israel is the enemy? Since when does a 4-year-old know of politics or war? Is it because Arab children got killed by Israelis? Yes, children undeniably die in bombings –– on both sides. However, an Israeli soldier who deliberately smashed a child's head on a rock should –– and likely would –– be tried as a criminal, not cheered like a hero. The total disregard for life of anyone who does not believe what Hizballah believes stands in stark contrast to the value of life –– and even of its demise –– that Israel demonstrated in bringing those two bodies back. The families of Goldwasser and Regev were able to put their sons in the ground, to say good-bye, to end the wondering. That small act meant something to the government, which voted on the exchange. In the midst of the never-ending conflict Israel faces, that says an awful lot. Meanwhile, here is what Kuntar said to the cheering crowd: "I return from Palestine only to go back to Palestine, I promise families in Palestine that we are coming back, me and my brothers in the resistance." You'll note he never says the word "Israel." To men like Kuntar, Israel does not exist and should never exist. He and the terrorist group that freed him (and you can install Hizballah into all the government seats you want, a terrorist group is still a terrorist group) want a world in which Israel has no place. The Jews should be driven into the sea. With a philosophy like that, it may be hard to expect remorse. But if you can justify Hizballah calling a national holiday to cheer home a child murderer, there is no talking to you. There is only mourning –– as there were over two coffins last week –– for a world in which such things and such thinking can take place. Jerome S. Kaufman is National Secretary of the Zionist Organization of America and hosts the Israel Commentary website (http://www.israel-commentary.org). |
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ROCKET ATTACKS FROM GAZA; ISRAEL SIDES WITH ATTACK ON HEBRON JEWS; NY TIMES FAIR, TODAY!
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 22, 2008. |
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ISRAEL LAX IN PREVENTING TERRORISM Terrorism begins before a terrorist sets out on a mission. It begins with illegal incitement to terrorism and lax enforcement of the law against Muslim criminals. Thus, if the Arab bus company whose driver murdered Yeshiva students had been audited, police would have found it employed criminals. If police had arrested the hundreds of Arabs who demonstrated in praise of the murderer, it would have interrogated a certain career criminal and perhaps found out he had become an Islamist, before he went on to murder by bulldozer. The police were not the ones who stopped the two acts of terrorism, bystanders did. In Arab areas of Jerusalem, the Negev, and "the Galilee, the police simply refuse to enforce the law. They do not patrol the streets. They do not arrest religious, educational and political leaders who solicit terrorism or incite hatred. They do not enforce building laws. They do not protect state and privately owned land from squatters. Today some 90 percent of Arab construction in Israel is carried out without permits. Whole towns in the Negev have been built on stolen state land. And the police do nothing." [No patrols, no intelligence.] "As a consequence of police inaction, thieves, smugglers, terror solicitors and other dangerous criminals are allowed to operate in the open. Fearing the wrath of human rights groups on the one hand and Arab rioters on the other, the police simply do not enforce Israeli law in the Arab sector." The government claims its hands are tied, but it could pass a law allowing for swift demolition of terrorists' houses. It could "pass regulations barring anti-Zionist propaganda in public school curricula and sanctioning the immediate firing of public school teachers who teach students to hate Israel. It can suspend government funding of municipalities...that do not enforce building codes. It can set up well-paid community police comprised of loyal citizens. The government can prosecute Arab politicians and leaders who treat with the enemy for treason." Instead it appeases the Arabs and treats right-wingers as the enemy (Caroline Glick, IMRA, 7/5). American Jewry in general is unaware of this. MORE ROCKET ATTACKS FROM GAZA The rockets keep coming (IMRA, 7/7). What does Israel call a daily rocket barrage? "Ceasefire." Obviously Israel imposes no heavy penalties upon Hamas. It closes some gates to trucks, for a couple of days, but that suits Hamas. Hamas is making a lot of money highly taxing the extortionate prices for goods smuggled from Sinai and getting the rest of the world to condemn Israel for sometimes closing some gates. Obviously, Hamas does not enforce the ceasefire. DISTORTED ACADEMIA "... information that would normally be proven false by scholarly research of the facts"..."is given equal weight against the facts as opinions and agendas replace serious scholasticism and research in educational materials such as books and by professors with an agenda. In turn, that false information gets disseminated over and over again later by graduates who know no better (or don't want to know better) and move into future teaching positions..." Edward Said wrote regularly wrote for Pluto Press, a university publisher. He encouraged Palestinian Arabs and supporters to write their own history. He said..."that facts don't matter, only emotions matter. When history becomes a fabrication to support an opinion or agenda, then true academic scholarship is lost. Sadly, this is happening in the American university...system due to indirect payoffs to administrators and department heads of Arab oil money. European and Israeli universities tend to try and emulate what happens in America, so the same tendency follows. (Unfortunately, the Israeli system doesn't get Arab oil money as a side benefit, only some professors do indirectly. through the EU)." Readers mistakenly think that books published by university presses must have been researched carefully. They get taken in by those out to undermine Israel. Some Communists exploit their Jewish heritage as cover, in that effort. (Citing them, antisemites condemn the Jewish people as Communists.) EGYPT UNCOVERS A FEW SMUGGLERS' TUNNELS Egypt regularly uncovers a few tunnels, now. Hundreds more remain in operation, and the few uncovered are soon replaced. That way, believes Dr. Aaron Lerner, Egypt is able to tell Sec. Rice that it is doing "something" about the arms smuggling, without actually choking off the smuggling (IMRA, 7/5). The worst Rice might say is that Egypt "should do more." Now that Egypt has US training and equipment for detecting tunnels, what excuse has it for not finding more? When will Israel lose patience with Egypt\? Where is Rice's integrity and supposed brilliance in exposing the Egyptian ruse? HEBRON JEWISH SPOKESMAN ATTACKED The Hebron Jewish spokesman saw a group in Hebron with Arab-sponsored literature defaming the Jewish community. He tried to photograph them, but a Frenchman blocked his view, knocked off his glasses, and held his arm. An Israeli woman tried to restrain him, but he hit her. The pair went to the police station, but the officer there yelled at him without hearing his side (IMRA, 7/6). The Frenchman has diplomatic immunity. He also has a lot of nerve. WHAT TRUCE IN GAZA? The Israeli government agreed to an unwritten, disadvantageous truce in Gaza that it admitted it did not expect the Arabs to honor. This is irrational. Israel could have made valuable propaganda by rejection Hamas offer' for one-sidedness by habitual truce violators. Israel could have exposed Hamas. But Israel agreed. Very soon, the Arabs resumed the bombardment, with improved rockets. Day after day, rockets fall on Israel. Nevertheless, Israel does not attack intercept or retaliate militarily. It does is close off Gaza to Israeli shipments of goods, but Hamas keeps getting arms in from Sinai. Why should anyone respect an Israeli government that fails to protect its people? COMPLAINT ABOUT BUSH DISPROVED One of the biggest but silliest complaints about Pres. Bush is that he alienated the rest of the world, especially Europe. As an afterthought, now that the French, German, Italian, and British governments are friendly again, with the US, isn't it time for those complainers to acknowledge relief that governments not totally evil are coming around to see the US more in its true light? Do Democrats not notice the US leading the effort at the UNO, futile though it be, to do something about the various oppressive regimes? At a friends' house, a woman was telling a fiery liberal that China offered no help to Indonesia after its tsunami. That's not decenct. The liberal probably had accused Bush and the US of doing little, but Americans did the most and usually do. There is no similarity between the US and Bush that liberals depict and reality, including his undeserved praise as pro-Israel. NY TIMES FAIR, TODAY! Usually, the Times exaggerates economic problems and blames them all on Pres. Bush, while the NY Sun mentions the Administration' s positive economic aspects without the negative. On 7/8, however, Times economist, Paul Krugman, countered the exaggeration. He tried fairly to gauge our economic status and the extent of responsibility by Bush and by Congress. Bush opposed conservation of energy, ever costlier. He ignored the critical role of the Federal Reserve, foreign countries, private corporations, and oppressive regulations. The editorial stated that Obama has shifted so far to the center-right, that he dismays his followers in the hope of beguiling the majority. His constant lying forfeits credibility in his claim to be ending politics by deception [and rancor[. [It doesn't matter what his web sites state, he can't be trusted.] Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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A LIST OF SHARIAH-COMPLIANT BANKS
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 21, 2008. |
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We receive many emails asking us for a list of banks participating in Sharia finance. We urge you to visit this website. It lists financial institutions
here and around the world and the latest information on Sharia
finance. |
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Shariah Compliant Banks Alpha Natural ResourcesAsset Acceptance Capital Corporation
National Security and Financial Risks: Islamists are attempting to impose Shariah Compliant Finance (SCF) on Western institutions to use our own financial strengths against us. The most serious problem with SCF is that it legitimates and institutionalizes Shariah law (i.e., Islamic law), a theo-political-legal doctrine violently opposed to Western values. With $1-$2 trillion petrodollars annually looking for an investment home, blind exuberance is driving financial institutions to adopt SCF, without even a minimal baseline for legal compliance. This willful blindness, and lack of both transparency and due diligence may cause SCF to be the next sub-prime crisis, but this time with deadly consequences. Legal Risks: Western financial institutions which adopt SCF may have criminal and civil exposure to claims of aiding and abetting sedition and the material support of terrorism, securities fraud, consumer fraud, racketeering, and antitrust violations, as well as exposure to tort claims for sedition and terrorism, and for the violation of internationally recognized norms of the law of nations. Terror Financing Mechanism: SCF as monitored by paid Shariah law advisors to U.S. banking institutions must "purify" certain return on investment (ROI) dollars that do not meet Shariah law standards. This money must be donated to Islamic charities –– including some that promote Jihad and support suicide bombing. Investment disclosures state that these profits can be as high as 6% of profits of investments. With $800 billion already in SCF assets, the potential for billions of dollars to be siphoned off for terrorism is real. This would be a serious criminal violation of U.S. law. Consider this example: Shariah Mutual Funds promote themselves as "ethical funds." To be Shariah-compliant, they donate "tainted" revenues to Shariah-compliant "charities." A post 9-11 U.S. investor in a Shariah-compliant "ethical investment" is not told that Shariah law also requires imposing Shariah as U.S. law, execution of gays and female apartheid. Is he a victim of consumer fraud? Is this same post 9-11 investor unwittingly funding terror? The government has shut down the three largest Shariah-compliant charities in the U.S. –– the Holy Land Foundation, Benevolence International Foundation, and the Global Relief Foundation –– after proving they funded terrorist organizations. The American taxpayer deserves answers to these questions. The Center for Security Policy (CSP) is meeting directly with members of Congress, U.S. regulatory agencies and Wall Street financial institutions in order to ensure the enforcement of existing U.S. laws on sedition, disclosure, material support of terrorism, and money-laundering. CSP is committed to revealing the civil liability and criminal exposure of Shariah law and Shariah-compliant finance. WHAT IS SHARIAH LAW? Understanding Shariah law is integral to understanding the dangers of Shariah-compliant finance. Shariah law is Islamic law dating back to the 7th century and is today the law of the land in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan and the law under which the Taliban operates. Recent polls reveal that only 10-15% of Muslims worldwide want to live under this all-encompassing system of Islamic jurisprudence that covers all aspects of a Muslim's life including religious, social, political, and military obligations. However, with a current population of 1.5 billion Muslims, this translates to a huge pool of Jihadist recruits and supporters –– a base of approximately 150 –– 225 million Muslims. Shariah law authorities, some of whom are now being paid handsomely by Barclays, Dow Jones, Standard & Poors, HSBC, Citibank, Merrill Lynch, Deutschebank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Credit Suisse and others have the power to dictate Shariah compliance as deemed by "scholarly consensus" on matters of finance, family, penal law, apostasy, and war. Examples of authoritarian Shariah law include: requirement of women to obtain permission from husbands for daily freedoms; beating of disobedient woman and girls; execution of homosexuals; engagement of polygamy and forced child marriages; the testimony of four male witnesses to prove rape; honor killings of those, principally women, who have dishonored the family; death to apostate Muslims who chose to leave Islam; inferior status of non-Muslims, and capital punishment for those "slander Islam." Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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ISRAEL'S UNWANTED OPEN DOOR
Posted by LEL, July 21, 2008. |
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This was written by Caroline Glick and it appeared July 17,
2008 in the Jerusalem Post. |
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Any residual doubt that Washington has decided to take no action to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons dissipated Wednesday with the news that Undersecretary of State William Burns will be participating in EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana's negotiations with Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in Geneva on Saturday. That those negotiations will fail to end or even slow Iran's progress toward nuclear weapons capabilities is a certainty. Ahead of the talks, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reiterated for the umpteenth time that Teheran will make no compromises on its uranium enrichment activities. And so far, Iran –– as opposed to Washington –– has been true to its word. Given Iran's forthrightness, there is only one reasonable explanation for the administration's decision to send Burns to meet with Jalili: The US wants it to be absolutely clear to Teheran and everyone else that it has no intention whatsoever of attacking Iran's nuclear installations. It makes sense that Washington considers it necessary to make this point clearly. In light of the threat that a nuclear-armed Iran would constitute to US national security interests, it would have been more reasonable to assume that America would attack the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities preemptively than to assume it would allow Iran to go forward with its goal to acquire nuclear weapons. A nuclear-armed Iran would place the US military's hard-won victories against Iranian surrogates in Iraq and its tentative success in separating Iraq's Shi'ite leaders from Teheran in jeopardy. So, too, given Iran's increasingly active support for the Taliban, an Iranian acquisition of nuclear capabilities would cast doubt on America's ability to defeat the resurgent Taliban. The US's economic well-being would also be endangered by a nuclear-armed Iran. Teheran has repeatedly threatened to attack Saudi oil platforms and endanger the oil shipping lanes in the Straits of Hormuz. And a nuclear arsenal would give Iran unprecedented power to dictate price-setting policies for the OPEC oil cartel. Beyond all that, a nuclear-armed Iran would directly threaten US territory in two ways. First, there is no reason not to think that Teheran would use Hizbullah cells in the US to detonate nuclear devices in US cities. Iran has already shown a willingness to use Hizbullah to carry out terror attacks in the West –– most spectacularly in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. Second, it is widely feared that Iran is developing the capacity to launch an electromagnetic pulse (or EMP) attack against the US mainland. An EMP attack is conducted by launching a nuclear bomb into the atmosphere above a country. It needn't actually hit the country. Simply by detonating a nuclear device at sufficiently high altitude, an EMP attack can destroy the electrical grids, communications systems and military-industrial foundations of a society. Such an attack would set the US back a hundred years. Fears of an EMP attack against the US were sparked last week by Iran's test of an advanced version of its Shihab-3 ballistic missile. The day of the missile test, William Graham, who heads a congressionally mandated commission on the EMP threat to the US, gave testimony on the issue to the House's Armed Services Committee. Graham explained that Iran has already conducted missile test from ships in the Caspian Sea. If it acquires nuclear weapons, it will apparently have the capacity to launch a nuclear warhead capable of carrying out an EMP attack against the US from a freighter in international waters off the US coast. While any of these threats would be sufficient to justify a preemptive attack against Iran's nuclear installations, the US still has a reasonable excuse for not conducting such an attack: Iran has made clear that if it acquires nuclear weapons, the US will not be Teheran's first target. Israel enjoys that distinction. And since the US is Iran's second target, the Bush administration has made clear that if Iran attacks Israel, the US will launch an attack against Iran. That is, the US will fight to ensure that Iran won't be able to attack it if America moves to the head of Iran's target list. But as long as it's only No. 2, it will take no action. The US cannot be accused of being unfair to Israel by deciding not to
prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. After all, defending
Israel is Israel's responsibility, not America's. And on this point,
news reports in recent weeks have made it clear that while the US
will not attack Iran, it has given Israel a "green light" for a
preemptive strike on the Islamic Republic's nuclear installations.
And this is no small thing.
THE BUSH administration's willingness to stand back and allow Israel to attack Iran's nuclear installations to prevent a nuclear holocaust of the Jewish state compares well with how the administration of the president's father treated Israel in the 1991 Gulf War. At that time, Israel was under threat of Scud missile borne chemical weapons attack. Although Saddam Hussein ended up not attacking Israel with chemical weapons, the threat that he would was credible. He attacked Israel with Scud missiles almost every night for the duration of the war. Despite this obvious casus belli, the first Bush administration not only refused to politically support Israel's right to defend itself against Iraqi aggression, it took active steps to prevent Israel from attacking Iraq's Scud missile installations. Then-president George H.W. Bush refused to provide Israel with the electronic codes that would allow Israeli and US jets to identify one another as friendly aircraft. In so doing, he left open the prospect that the US would shoot down IAF jets over Iraqi airspace if Israel dared to defend itself. So, mindful of the precedent set by his father, President George W. Bush's decision to leave the door wide open for an Israeli preemptive strike on Iran is a positive development. But an open door is only significant if someone is willing to walk through it. And it is far from clear that the Olmert-Livni-Barak-Yishai government has any intention of doing so. For an Israeli government to walk through that door, its leaders would have to be vested with a sense of national destiny and a modicum of responsibility and competence. But as Wednesday's bodies-for-murderers deal with Hizbullah demonstrated, the Olmert-Livni-Barak-Yishai government has no sense of national destiny and no competence to lead the country. What Wednesday's spectacle showed is that Israel's leaders' horizons are limited to the space between yesterday's news and tomorrow's headlines. On Wednesday, Israel received the corpses of IDF hostages Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser in exchange for baby-murderer Samir Kuntar, four Hizbullah terrorists and 200 bodies of Palestinian and Lebanese murderers. Ahead of the swap, the Almagor terror victims' advocacy group published the names of 180 Israelis who were murdered by terrorists Israel released in recent years. As the Almagor report showed, many of the terrorists Israel released –– including Saleh Shehadeh, Nasser Abu Hmeid and Abdullah Kawasmeh –– became senior terror commanders, responsible for building the terror infrastructure that caused the death of hundreds of Israelis. Others, such as Matzab Hashalmon, who was released in the 2004 terrorists-for-drug dealer-and-Hizbullah-spy Elhanan Tenenbaum, were quickly recruited as suicide bombers. Hashalmon murdered 16 Israelis when he detonated on a bus in Beersheva a couple of months after he was released. The government knows for a fact that Wednesday's deal will lead directly to the murder of more Israelis and to the abduction and murder of more IDF soldiers. It simply doesn't care. The Olmert-Livni-Barak-Yishai government doesn't care about protecting the public. It only cares about tomorrow's headlines. And Wednesday's deal allowed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai to give speeches where they waxed poetic about Israel's loyalty to its dead soldiers and to have their pictures taken as they leaned somberly over Regev's and Goldwasser's flag-draped coffins. They looked so impressive in those photos that it was easy for the
public to miss what they had just done. The public could have easily
missed the fact that in their "deeply moral, and patriotic" decision
to trade Samir Kuntar –– who murdered four-year-old Einat Haran by
crushing her skull on a rock after he executed her father Danny in
front of her –– for Regev's and Goldwasser's body parts, these
politicians signed the death warrants of untold numbers of Israelis.
And if they go forward with their pledge to release a thousand
terrorists for IDF hostage Gilad Schalit, they will sign the death
warrants of still more Israeli men, women and children.
THE GOVERNMENT'S devotion to its yesterday-to-tomorrow's-headlines policy horizon is fed by the local media. Disgracefully, the Israeli media's coverage of events is so mindlessly shallow that senior journalists simply refuse to make any connection between tomorrow's threats and today's decisions. That this is the case was born out in the media's grotesque treatment of Wednesday's corpses-for-murderers swap. In the weeks leading up to the government's decision to accept this Faustian bargain, the media cast the issue as the personal affair of the Regev and Goldwasser families and ignored completely the ramifications of the deal for the Israeli people as a whole. In their puerile depiction of the story as a personal story, the media stooped to treating Kuntar as the personal enemy of the Haran family, instead of as the enemy of the Jewish people as a whole. Refusing to note the national repercussions of the deal, the media acted as though the entire story was a struggle between opposing families: the Regevs and Goldwasser on one side and the Harans on the other. Israel as a nation was nothing but an abstract, unimportant bystander. Given the media's refusal to cover anything that they can't personalize and trivialize, the media are incapable of adequately reporting the danger that Iran's nuclear program constitutes to Israel as a whole. And since they will not concentrate on this basic reality, the Olmert-Livni-Barak-Yishai government feels no pressure to contend with the danger. It is a non-story. And non-stories produce no policies. Aside from that, although a successful strike on Iran's nuclear facilities would win them considerable clout with the public, an unsuccessful attack would end their political careers. And their careers are the only thing Israel's leaders are concerned with. This being the state of affairs in Israel today, all the open doors in all the world won't help Israel in its moment of crisis. Only two things can guarantee that Israel's leaders will act against Iran. Either someone will come up with a way to guarantee success –– and this is not likely; or the government will fall and the nation will elect new leaders who understand their responsibility for Israel's national destiny and are capable of walking the nation through that open door. Contact LEL by email at lel817@yahoo.com |
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OBAMA: 9-11 HAPPENED BECAUSE AL-QAIDA LACKS 'EMPATHY'
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 21, 2008. |
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Senator lectures U.S. military, blames terror on 'poverty,
ignorance, despair' This was written by Aaron Klein and
was published in World Net Daily |
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JERUSALEM –– The 9-11 attacks were carried out because of a lack of "empathy" for others' suffering on the part of al-Qaida, whose terrorist ideology "grows out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair," Sen. Barack Obama explained in largely unreported comments eight days after the mega-terror attacks that rocked the nation. Obama went on to imply the September 11th attacks were in part a result of U.S. policy, lecturing the American military to minimize civilian casualties in the Middle East and urging action opposing "bigotry or discrimination directed against neighbors and friends of Middle-Eastern descent." "Even as I hope for some measure of peace and comfort to the bereaved families, I must also hope that we, as a nation, draw some measure of wisdom from this tragedy," Obama wrote in a piece about 9-11 published on Sept. 19, 2001, in Chicago's Hyde Park Herald. The senator continued: "Certain immediate lessons are clear, and we must act upon those lessons decisively. We need to step up security at our airports. We must re-examine the effectiveness of our intelligence networks and we must be resolute in identifying the perpetrators of these heinous acts and dismantling their organizations of destruction," wrote Obama. "We must also engage, however, in the more difficult task of understanding the sources of such madness. The essence of this tragedy, it seems to me, derives from a fundamental absence of empathy on the part of the attackers: an inability to imagine, or connect with, the humanity or suffering of others. Such a failure of empathy, such numbness to the pain of a child or the desperation of a parent is not innate; nor, history tells us, is it unique to a particular culture, religion or ethnicity. It may find expression in a particular brand of violence, it may be channeled by particular demagogues or fanatics. "Most often, though, it grows out a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair. "We will have to make sure, despite our rage, that any U.S. military action takes into account the lives of innocent civilians abroad. We will have to be unwavering in opposing bigotry or discrimination directed against neighbors and friends of Middle-Eastern descent. Finally, we will have to devote far more attention to the monumental task of raising the hopes and prospects of embittered children across the globe –– children not just in the Middle East, but also in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and within our own shores." Obama's piece gained little notice outside the Hyde Park Herald, which covered Obama's district as a Chicago state senator. The Hyde Park area is heavily influenced by the Nation of Islam. Obama's remarks gained more traction on Internet blogs the past few days after the statements were republished last week by the New Yorker magazine in a piece that caused a campaign storm when the magazine printed a cover image depicting Obama in Muslim garb and wife Michelle sporting an afro and carrying a machine gun in the Oval Office. A picture of Osama bin Laden hangs over the fire place in which an American flag is being burned. The New Yorker explained its image was meant to be a satirical depiction of the distorted way some Americans view Obama. Regarding Obama's remark that al-Qaida is unable to imagine the suffering of others, Michelle Malkin responded in a National Review Online piece, "Is this man for real? Osama bin Laden's murderous legions are plenty able to 'imagine' the 'suffering of others.' Go watch an al-Qaeda beheading snuff video. Just Google it or surf YouTube. Imagining the suffering of infidels is covered amply in basic Jihadi Training 101." Robert Spencer, director of the Jihad Watch website, noted, "Barack Obama, back in late September 2001, completely ignored Islam itself. He found the roots for Muslim terrorism not in Islam but in 'a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair.' "What Obama could not, and apparently cannot, allow himself to do is to investigate the nature of Islam, to find out what it teaches about Believers and Infidels. I can help out a bit. I can tell him, right now, right here, that Islam is based on a clear division of the universe between Believers and Infidels." In an opinion piece in Commentary Magazine, writer Abe Greenwald, responding to Obama's belief terrorists act out of despair, commented, "'[P]overty and ignorance, helplessness and despair.' Strange, considering our attackers were wealthy and educated, connected and ecstatic. You know, if Obama is going to keep ex-terrorists around, he should at least utilize them. He could have asked Bill Ayers, 'Bill, did your 'failure of empathy' stem from your impoverished upbringing as the son of the CEO of Commonwealth Edison?" Indeed Obama's notion terrorists act out of desperation and poor living conditions was directly contradicted in a WND interview last year with a recruited Palestinian suicide bomber. The recruited bomber said he is driven to carry out a suicide operation to "satisfy Allah and his instructions. No money interests, nothing. No brainwash, no pressure; it is my decision." "[My idea of suicide martyrdom] became stronger when I understood what status I will have in heaven if I scarify myself for Allah." Asked about media reports portraying Palestinian suicide attackers as acting in response to occupation or poor living conditions, the recruited bomber called those media claims "lies" and "Israeli propaganda." Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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'BRITAIN SHOULD LOOK AT THE LESSONS OF HISTORY AND THE REALITIES OF TODAY,'
Posted by Boris Celser, July 21, 2008. |
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TORONTO, July 21, 2008 –– B'nai Brith Canada has characterized the remarks by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown relating to Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem as an "abdication of Britain's historical responsibility". "British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the State of Israel, to also serve as the capital of a future Palestinian State. This completely ignores the national, cultural, and religious bond between the Jewish People and their holiest city," said Frank Dimant, Executive Vice President of B'nai Brith Canada. "Jerusalem has only been the capital of the Jewish State, never of any Arab country. "Prime Minister Brown has also called on Israel to cease 'settlement' building in Judea and Samaria. Such remarks ignore historical realities. "It seems Prime Minister Brown has forgotten Britain's historical role, in which Lord Balfour viewed with favour the establishment in then-Palestine of a 'national home for the Jewish people'. One must also recall that under the British Mandate the original borders of the Jewish homeland were redrawn, with more than three-quarters of this original territory apportioned to the newly-formed Transjordan, made up of a predominantly Palestinian population. The Jews accepted, albeit with strong reservation, this markedly shrunken territory because at least it represented the rebirth of the Jewish State in their ancestral homeland. "This historical lesson ought to be foremost on the mind of the British Prime Minister as he proposes further areas that Jews should vacate and employs terminology such as 'settlements' that disguise the ancestral presence of Jews in Judea and Samaria. "The Prime Minister should also take his cue from more recent history in which we see the de facto terrorist State in Gaza that has been established in areas from which Israel withdrew a mere three years ago. It is time that Britain and the entire world community held the Palestinians to account for the terrorism perpetrated by groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, rather than reward them by pressing Israel to make still more territorial concessions that will erase a Jewish presence from these areas." Boris Celser is a Canadian. Contact him at celser@telusplanet.net |
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CONVINCING EUROPE ISRAEL HAS A RIGHT TO EXIST
Posted by Seth Frantzman, July 21, 2008. |
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Israel has succeeded in convincing much of the Arab world of its right to exist. But what many people forget is that during that same 60 year period Israel has not succeeded in convincing the Europeans of its right to exist. More properly stated: The Europeans are unable and unwilling to accept the existence of Israel. This is a much greater danger than any Arab ever was. It is also a much more disgusting and shameful turn of events. |
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There is a moniker that is often employed about the Israeli-Arab 'conflict'. It is always believed that Israel must force the Arab states to accept her existence. This is why 'right to exist' is such a mantra among those who support Israel and why at least one book has used these words in its title. Golda Meir once quipped that there will be peace when 'Arabs love their children more than they hate Israel.' The ideology of 'land for peace' is also part of this desire for recognition and acceptance in the region. Israel remains, quite simply, one of the few states whose neighbours do not recognize her. (she is not the only one: Puntland in Somalia has this problem, as does Kosovo and Taiwan among others. Israel is unique only in the sense that, until recently, her neighbours wanted to see all her residents, the Jews, removed, rather than simply disputing whether or not she is a country). However since the mid-1970s this has begun to change. More and more Arab and Muslim states do accept the existence of Israel, at least on paper. Today's greatest haters of Israel are not even Arab Muslim states but the petty leaders of other Muslim states such as Iran, Indonesia and Malaysia. What Israelis and Israel advocates seem to have missed is the fact that they have largely convinced the Arab world that Israel does exist. What Israel has failed to do is to convince the European and other westerners that she has a right to exist. Thus the questioning of Israel's existence has moved from the local neighbourhood to the international level and on an international scale Israel has failed to convince the intellectuals and high brow pashas of the West. This is supremely interesting, for it is the West that is primarily responsible for the creation of Israel both because of the West's genocidal programs, the creation of the United Nations, the ideology of nationalism and socialism and the First World War. Although Jews shouldered the physical burden of building Israel is was the west that helped propel her to statehood. The First World War, colonialism and the legalism employed in the 'mandates' granted after the First World war helped create Israel in much the same way as Lebanon, Jordan and Tunisia were created. But while the West has not decided that the other states it served as a midwife for deserve to be dismantled, prominent westerners have decided that Israel is a 'mistake' that was 'conceived in sin'. Without going into the irony of how the West and Europeans, who are mostly secular and godless, like to use imagery such as 'conceived in sin', one must challenge the way Westerners have betrayed Israel and the degree to which the West must be brought to justice for this betrayel. The West plays a double game with nationalism and 'anti-colonialism' and 'post-colonialism'. Tunisian and Algerian nationalism was seen by Albert Memmi and Franz Fanon as a wonderful development, a natural 'indigenous' reaction to French colonialism. Intellectuals in Europe celebrated all nationalism that took place in foreign countries outside of Europe so long as those nationalisms could be considered 'anti-colonial'. Thus the leftist intellectuals in Europe first exhibited their love for the other and this contradictory 'love it abroad, hate it at home' approach to the world: nationalism was good so long as it was being carried out by 'coloureds' and was taking place against 'the white man'. Other types of nationalism that manifested themselves over the years, for instance that of the Afrikaners, the Israelis, the Serbs and the Russians was considered 'chauvinistic'. But Hugu Chavez was not a chauvinist, even if he looks like an ape and beats his chest like one during long drawn out harangues on state controlled radio and television. Fidel Castro, although he was born into a wealthy family and although his 'comrade' Che was similarly wealthy and white were both considered anti-colonial romantics, mostly because of their beards, fatigues and interest in cigars. In fact the use of fatigues and uniforms, which were much hated and spat upon in 1960s Europe and America, were celebrated so long as they were worn by someone pretending to be 'anti-western', 'anti-capitalist' and 'anti-colonialist'. Thus while few could countenance Meir Kahane or Timothy Mcveigh and their respective JDL and militias, one could find love in Arafat and Pol Pot. So the West gave birth to nationalism. The West exported it abroad by educating the natives in the West (this is an obvious fact as we can see that Gandhi, Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Idi Amin, Laurent Kabila, Pol Pot and Ho Chi Minh, to name a few, all learned their nationalism either in Europe or through Europeans). Then the West came to hate nationalism at home and love it abroad. But then there were the Jews. Jewish nationalism, once in vogue among westerners who admired Israeli's socialist kibbutzim, became tainted as Western intellectuals began to re-write their race playbooks so that the Jew became part of the 'white' world. Once Israel was redefined as 'white' and 'western' and 'European' it could be considered, like Afrikaner South Africa, an extension of Europe, an evil weed of the Old Europe, that had to be beaten back. Europeans saw themselves in the Jew and the Afrikaner and were profoundly shocked. So between 1968 and 2008 the European intellectuals began to believe that Israel did not have a right to exist. This was precisely the same period where the Arab was just catching up with Europe and accepting the existence of Israel. Europeans are at the forefront of Israel hatred. Throughout Europe Jews cower in fear over the all-too often assaults on them by Muslims who Europeans have invited to settle in Europe as 'refugees', often in former Jewish parts of town. Europeans have convinced themselves that Israel is a 'nazi' state and that its crimes are 'like Apartheid' (In fact a recent visit by 'anti-Apartheid activists' from South Africa claimed Israel is worse than Apartheid because Israel 'wishes the Palestinians would disappear' whereas the Afrikaner at least met blacks in his day to day life). The fact that Europeans sell technology to Iran, which threatens to destroy Israel, is merely one part of the European hatred of Israel and her attempt to destroy Israel. Europeans have a profound belief that they have a right to dismantle Israel since they believe, incorrectly, that they created Israel. Europeans have come to believe their own rhetoric, they believe Israel is a colonial extension of their continent and thus believe they can dismantle her the way they did the other colonies. The truth is that the Europeans will celebrate the destruction of Israel. But they will reap what they have sown. In the European war against Israel the European has employed the Muslim refugee, the ever tear filled eyes of the Arab women with her headscarf and her children, always parading as 'victims'. But now Europeans are stuck with fifty million of those Muslims they invited as 'victims' to settle in their midst. While Europeans pray everyday for the destruction of Israel they do not realize they have brought the destruction on themselves. Contact Seth Frantzman at sfrantzman@hotmail.com |
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IRAN HOLDS REGIME APPROVED ISLAMIC FASHION SHOW
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 21, 2008. |
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This comes from Gatway Pundit website
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The Iranian Regime held its third annual Festival of Women of My Land conference complete with a fashion show highlighting this year's bold new look. Mehr News reported: A group of ambassadors of the Islamic countries to Iran and their families paid a visit to the 3rd Festival of Women of My Land currently underway at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults on Saturday. Accompanied by the Iranian Foreign Ministry Officials, the group visited the works of designers of their own country as well as other Muslim countries' dress designs. A total number of 33 Islamic countries participated in the festival presenting new Islamic designs for women dress.
Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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BREAKING THE CODE: OBAMA'S ANTI-ISRAEL MESSAGE
Posted by Rand H. Fishbein, Ph.D., July 21, 2008. |
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If words are a window onto the soul, then Barack Obama's comments before a recent gathering of more than 7,000 delegates at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) 2008 Policy Conference reveals much about his true attitude towards Israel and the not-so-secret agenda of his foreign policy advisors. Here was an opportunity for the great orator to set the record straight and to disabuse his critics of the widely held notion that his sympathies lie not with Israel's enemies, but with the safety of the besieged Jewish State. "Let me be clear," Obama declared to his pro-Israel audience, "Israel's security is sacrosanct. It is non-negotiable. The Palestinians need a state that is contiguous and cohesive, and that allows them to prosper –– but any agreement with the Palestinian people must preserve Israel's identity as a Jewish state, with secure, recognized and defensible borders." For most of those in attendance, the statement by the Illinois Senator was nothing short of a ringing endorsement of Israel and its security requirements, an unambiguous declaration that if elected, the new President would not pressure Israel into making life-threatening concessions in the name of peace. So convinced was the AIPAC audience of his sincerity that he received rapturous applause from a crowd long accustomed to lofty pro-Israel declarations by aspiring candidates. But what was Obama hinting at? A careful parsing of the passage suggests that either he was calling for all Palestinian towns on the West Bank to be linked territorially, something that already exists, or more likely that in any final peace deal Hamas-controlled Gaza must be connected to the West Bank via a land bridge. In fact, the Obama statement was a sinister reformulation of a key Palestinian demand that if implemented, would erode not only the geographic continuity of the Jewish State, but could fatally undermine its security as well. By asserting that "The Palestinians need a state that is contiguous and cohesive," Obama implicitly called for the partitioning of Israel, the break-up of a U.N. member state and U.S. democratic ally, and the sacrifice of its territorial integrity in the face of unrelenting terrorism. This is surely not what the AIPAC audience understood and certainly not what the American People expect of a possible future President. Nonetheless, the erosion of Israeli security is the logical consequence of any proposal that would press for a contiguous Palestinian state between 'Hamastan' and the Palestinian territories on the West Bank. Hamas, after all, is committed to the destruction of Israel and has demonstrated this fact by firing over 4,000 rockets into Israeli towns and cities since the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. The U.S. Government has branded Hamas a terrorist organization and has noted its links not only with terrorist groups in Egypt, Lebanon and Syria, but also its close association with Al-Qa'ida. Surely those advising Obama on foreign policy matters are aware that what their candidate is asking of Israel is nothing short of national suicide. Individuals like Zbigniew Brzezinski, Lee H. Hamilton, Susan E. Rice, Lawrence J. Korb, Joseph Cirincione, W. Anthony Lake and David Bonior boast long resumes opposing Israel security interests and challenging the extent of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Today, neither Egypt nor Israel is able to stem the flow of guns, rockets and explosives from the Sinai Peninsula into Gaza. How then will it be possible to stop this weaponry from migrating over a land bridge and into the West Bank? Setting aside the fact that Hamas and Abbas's Fatah are today implacable foes, such a corridor would only facilitate terrorist infiltration of the West Bank and bring Hamas terrorists closer to Israeli population centers. A corridor would complete the encirclement of the Jewish State by hostile Arab forces, something that no sane Israeli government could willingly accept. Obama's call for Palestinian territorial continuity contradicts all mainstream notions of Israeli defensible borders and security, effectively nullifying his pledge to safeguard the well-being of the Jewish State. It also invalidates his declaration that "We must isolate Hamas unless and until they renounce terrorism, recognize Israel's right to exist, and abide by past agreements," something they have pledged never to do. Troubling, as well, is the use of the word "need" in the Obama declaration: "The Palestinians need a state that is contiguous and cohesive..." It demonstrates not only a conspicuous break with longstanding American policy, but also a striking ignorance of the historic realities that brought the Palestinians to this point in history. The U.N. Partition Plan of 1947 gave the Arabs a contiguous and cohesive portion of Palestine upon which to build their state. That portion is called Jordan and constitutes 77 percent of historic Palestine. But the Arabs rejected that generous offer preferring, instead, to attack the nascent Israeli state in the hope of stealing the entire loaf. Senator Obama should understand that the Palestinians do not "need" more land. They may desire a corridor between Gaza and the West Bank, but a "desire" is not a "need." Such a corridor is no more a requirement of self-sufficiency than was a land corridor running through India and connecting Muslim Pakistan and Muslim Bangladesh following the partition of India in 1947. If the island state of Malta is able to prosper with a land area of 122 square miles then the Gaza Strip, at 146 square miles, should be able to do the same. In fact, there are 17 countries that are less than 200 square miles in size. All are economically and politically viable. History has taught us that appeasement and intimidation should never be the basis for American policy. What the Palestinians deserve is a leadership that cares more about the welfare of its own people than in its unremitting obsession with the destruction of Israel. If adopted by a future Obama administration, the candidate's proposal would nullify any pretense that the U.S. backed safe and secure borders for Israel. Without geographic and economic continuity, the main population centers of Israel would be divided, the security services would be further strained, Israeli military mobilization would be severely impaired, military training bases would be isolated, traffic from the port of Eilat would be slowed, and the cost of exploiting the Negev's mineral wealth probably would rise significantly. Shorn of platitudes, the Obama speech to AIPAC was a sober warning to all who support the Democratic candidate for president. The subtext was clear: under an Obama administration Israel's security is not "sacrosanct." Everything is "negotiable." And the Jewish State will be "pressured" to concede its very territorial continuity to satisfy an Obama vision of peace in the region. After all, it took only twenty-four hours following his AIPAC speech for Obama to repudiate his own declaration that "Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided." After senior Hamas and Palestinian Authority leaders condemned the statement, he retreated, telling CNN's Candy Crowley in an interview that "obviously, it's going to be up to the parties to negotiate a range of these issues. And Jerusalem will be a part of these negotiations." Could this new approach to Israel signal the emergence of an "Obama Doctrine," one that calls for the weakening of democratic states that do not capitulate to the relentless assaults of terrorist insurgencies? Hopefully, it is not. America can ill afford to abandon a stalwart democratic ally in the Middle East any more than Israel can afford the price of many more concessions. Other countries facing local insurrections are watching to see if the formula Obama has sketched for Israel will be their fate as well. The clock is ticking. It is time that Israel and the American voting public carefully reexamine Obama's words. Thankfully, he has helped us to break the code before it is too late. Obama told his AIPAC audience: "...(W)e know that we cannot relent, we cannot yield, and as President I will never compromise when it comes to Israel's security. Sadly, Senator, by your words and your associations, you already have. Rand H. Fishbein, Ph.D., President of Fishbein Associates, Inc., a public policy consulting firm based in Potomac, Maryland, is a former Professional Staff Member on the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, and Special Assistant for National Security Affairs to Senator Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI). |
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"BAY OF PIGS" ALL OVER AGAIN!; A SANE VOICE FROM THE OTHER SITE
Posted by Steven Shamrak, July 21, 2008. |
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"BAY OF PIGS" ALL OVER AGAIN!*
More than four years ago (Feb 2004) a CIA report projected: 'The death of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat would set in motion a sequence of events that could culminate in an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, a report released this week by the US intelligence community predicts'. The evaluation was formulated by the National Intelligence Council, which operates under the guidance of CIA director George Tenet. My comment at the time was: "Could" –– Does not mean will. They were wrong about September 11, Afghanistan and Iraq. There is no reason to trust and believe them now. Pan Arab philosophy, not Arafat, is responsible for worldwide terror! Arafat is not a problem, he is just another symptom of Islamic international terror policy which denies Jews a Jewish state in a Jewish land! It seems that the old saying "One can't change the nature of the beast!" is
still true. And it applies not only to so-called Palestinians but also to
the CIA's strategically biased analytical abilities (or disability) as well
judging by the 'success' the United States is having in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Isn't it time to ask: Where is the Intelligence in the US National
Intelligence?
Food for Thought
I do want to see peace between Israel and her neighbours, but with all my vivid imagination I am not able to visualise it while Arab hate-dwellers live on Jewish land with the determination to destroy Israel and kill Jews. By repeating the same acts one will get the same results only. Why would the same misguided and impotent plans and fake agreements bring peace to Israelafter they failed so many times? Why are we sacrificing the Jewish dream, Jewish national unity and Jewish lives for the illusion that our enemies may become humane and respectful toward Jews! What kind of dream is this? *Price is Raised for Shalit.* A senior Hamas thug in Gaza, Ismail Radwan, said on Wednesday that the great achievement by Hizbullah today "strengthens the demands for releasing prisoners as part of the Shalit deal and even raises their price." Israel must understand, he said, that "it cannot dream that the Palestinians will lower their demands especially after it has been proven that the resistance can change the rules of the game with the enemy." (Enemies gloat over Olmert's 'Moral victory'!) *Abbas Congratulates Family of the Murderer of Jews.* PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas congratulated the family of arch-terrorist Samir Kuntar on his imminent return to Lebanon. (What is Israel negotiating for and with whom? The removal of all terror-infested population from Jewish land is the only way toward the establishment of peace in Israel!) *Syria 'Definitely' Wants Peace with Israel?* Syrian President Bashar Assad told the Lebanese newspaper L'Orient-Le Jour "Israel is not serious enough, and therefore we must discern between the signing of an agreement with Israel and coming to a peace agreement." (He is actually talking about signing deceitful Hudna!) He also said "conducting indirect talks does not say that we don't want to sit with the Israelis at the negotiating table –– the opposite is true." It this case, why did Assad demonstratively sit out during the Israeli prime minister's speech to a Paris summit during the launch of a new Mediterranean union in an apparent rebuff just hours after Ehud Olmert urged Damascus to open direct peace talks? (Destruction of Israel is the first objective. Everything else is just a smoke screen in order to achieve the goal!) *Corrupt to the Core.* The Knesset has expanded its fleet of leased vehicles from 90 to 150 during the past year despite soaring fuel costs. The average vehicle is estimated to cost almost 3,000 shekels ($900) a month. *Kuntar Will Kill More Jews When Freed.* The mother of Dani Haran told reporters Tuesday that Samir Kuntar will kill more Jews once he is released back into Lebanon. Nina Keren, mother of one of the four Jewish victims of Kuntar's 1979 cross-border murder spree, said that she "could not stop crying" when she heard the news that her son's killer will be freed. *'Politically Correct' Chicken.* Middle East envoy Tony Blair called off what would have been the first visit of a top Western diplomat to Gaza after Israel's Shin Bet security service said he might come under attack there. Blair said the threat was "specific" and "credible". (I am sure he will find a way to blame Israel and not the so-called Palestinians for this attempt on his life.) *Quote of the Week:* *"The prisoner swap proves more than ever that we (Jews) are a people who thirst for life, whereas the enemy is a nation of death and loss of direction."* –– *Benny Regev*, the brother of Eldad Regev who was kidnapped and killed by Hezbollah. *Another Political Stooge Came to Israel.* British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who recently visited Israel, stated that he backs a new Arab state with borders defined by the 1949 Armistice Lines that existed until eastern Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and Gaza were restored to the Jewish state in the Six-Day in 1967. Carrying out the plan would require the expulsion of more than 500,000 Jews. (Due to obvious anti-Israel or anti-Semitic reasons, it is OK to transfer Jews form Jewish land but not occupiers of the Jewish land, fake Palestinians! The United Kingdom had created this political mess in the Holy Land during the Mandate control of Palestine and is still pursuing its anti-Jewish policy!) *Hamas: No Negotiations with Israel.* A spokesman for Hamas Ismail Radwan said that negotiations with Israel out of the question and the Islamic movement will never recognize "the enemy." He also slammed negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and added that "the Zionist enemy must depart and recognize the Palestinian people's rights." (Yes, the enemies of Israel "must depart" from Jewish land! The sooner it is done, the faster that peace will come to Israel.) *Hamas Training Base.* The Israeli news service (Ynet) received several videos, filmed and produced by various terror organizations, that show terrorists are training in the remains of public buildings that were once a part of the Jewish Gaza community of Atzmona. The buildings include synagogues and schools. *They are All the Same.* Lebanese President Michel Suleiman spoke at the
formal welcome ceremony for the terrorists freed by Israel and said: "I wish
to thank everyone who contributed to the release and congratulate the
resistance (Hizbullah) for this achievement, ... to Samir Kuntar and his
friends (terrorists) I say –– it is their right to be proud of their nation,
their country and their resistance. Your return is a new victory."
A SANE VOICE FROM THE OTHER SITE.
I am not a Christian, a Muslim or a Jew. I am a secular human being. I do not believe in the supernatural, but I respect others' right to believe in it. Wafa Sultan: The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations. It is a clash between two opposites, between two eras. It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century. It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality. It is a clash between freedom and oppression, between democracy and dictatorship. It is a clash between human rights, on the one hand, and the violation of these rights, on other hand. It is a clash between those who treat women like beasts, and those who treat them like human beings. What we see today is not a clash of civilizations. Civilizations do not clash, but compete. Wafa Sultan: The Muslims are the ones who began the clash of civilizations. The Prophet of Islam said: "I was ordered to fight the people until they believe in Allah and His Messenger." When the Muslims divided the people into Muslims and non-Muslims, and called to fight the others until they believe in what they themselves believe, they started this clash and began this war. Wafa Sultan: My colleague has said that he never offends other people's beliefs. What civilization on the face of this earth allows him to call other people by names that they did not choose for themselves? Once, he calls them Ahl Al-Dhimma (all non-Muslims who came under Muslim rule historically and accepted a "protected" status and agreed to pay a special tax called jizya to the state –– in short, second class citizens, just like Jews were in most Christian countries), another time he calls them the "People of the Book," and yet another time he compares them to apes and pigs, or he calls the Christians "those who incur Allah's wrath." Who told you that they are "People of the Book"? They are not the People of the Book, they are people of many books. All the useful scientific books that you have today are theirs, the fruit of their free and creative thinking. What gives you the right to call them "those who incur Allah's wrath," or "those who have gone astray," and then come here and say that your religion commands you to refrain from offending the beliefs of others? Wafa Sultan: "The Jews have come from the tragedy (of the Holocaust), and forced the world to respect them, with their knowledge, not with their terror, with their work, not their crying and yelling. Humanity owes most of the discoveries and science of the 19th and 20th centuries to Jewish scientists. 15 million people, scattered throughout the world, united (not quite, unfortunately) and won their rights through work and knowledge. We have not seen a single Jew blow himself up in a German restaurant. We have not seen a single Jew destroy a church. We have not seen a single Jew protest by killing people. The Muslims have turned three Buddha statues into rubble. We have not seen a single Buddhist burn down a Mosque, kill a Muslim, or burn down an embassy. Only the Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches, killing people, and destroying embassies. This path will not yield any results. The Muslims must ask themselves what they can do for humankind, before they demand that humankind respect them." Steven Shamrak was involved in the Moscow Zionist movement. He worked as a construction engineer at the Moscow Olympic Games project and as a computer consultant in Australia. For several years, he has been publishing an Internet editorial letter about the Arab-Israel conflict since August 2001 and has a website www.shamrak.com. Contact him at stevenshamrak@gmail.com |
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PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
Posted by Harold Reisman, July 21, 2008. |
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The most recent political and military decisions made by the Israeli government leave many uncertainties. One certainty, however, is that the Israeli military has a much more difficult planning period ahead. In a reasonable interval –– let us estimate it at less than one year at minimum and two years maximum –– Israel will face a two or three front guerilla war. This coming war will include not only missile barrages in the North and the South but also (a) military incursions and raids from Lebanon and Gaza and (b) internal uprisings within Israel and the West Bank. The Israeli response will require at least 50,000 troops plus armor in each area. More likely, 100,000 in each area will be needed if police and border forces are included. At that time, both Syria and Egypt will mobilize and send troops and armor to their respective borders as purely "defensive measures" and to "prevent an Israeli attack". Jordan will merely reinforce its border to prevent PLO/Hamas incursions. Israel will be forced to respond to the Syrian-Egyptian moves (which will be coordinated) by its own further mobilization. The UN will condemn Israel for any action against "civilians" in Gaza and Lebanon and also condemn any "excessive force" used against internal and West Bank uprisings. There will follow a number of possibilities –– all negative for Israel. One possibility (the least disastrous) is one more "truce" with more concessions to the PLO/Hamas groups and border adjustments that favor Egypt and Syria. UN troops will be sent to Gaza (just as they are now in Lebanon) and Israel will have to suspend any retaliatory attacks while enemy re-arming continues. UN troops might be stationed in the West Bank as well, allowing freedom of movement for PLO/Hamas militias. The next worse case involves lengthy military mobilization and a severe economic turndown in Israel while taking continuing military and civilian casualties. There will be no direct Egyptian or Syrian incursion but anti-aircraft defenses will be supplied to both Hezbollah and Hamas. This will be overlooked by the UN and the US as "purely defensive" measures. The worst case scenario is a multi-front war including conventional and non-conventional forces with the UN ready to reverse any losses by the Arab side while condemning Israeli "aggression". Of course, one possible optimistic outlook concerning the present demarche is continuing negotiation leading to long-term peace treaties with Syria and PLO/Hamas groups. This is presumably the stance or the hope of the supporters of the new status. However, 40 years of negotiations –– and their results –– do not lend support for such a positive view. If the Israeli military and leadership are preparing for the best case scenario, the country is in far worse condition than any pessimist can possibly envisage. Still, it is conceivable that the leadership is working on all possible scenarios. If so, the internal debate will continue to rage and appropriate measures and responses will be diluted, compromised and weakened...or all three. Review the government responses of the last two decades as well as the current situation and determine whether Israel's position has improved or declined over time. One can legitimately ask whether the geopolitical and military situation of Israel vis-a-vis its opponents is better or worse now than in 1991. If the answer is that the current situation is "better" than that of past years, then the on-going pattern of disengagement and decline should be satisfactory. Note that the Iranian nuclear weapon program has not yet been mentioned here. All the machinations and manipulations noted above have only delayed and avoided any serious approach to that rather large problem. Contact Harold Reisman by email at hbr029@sbcglobal.net |
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RESCUED: JEWISH MOM, 8 CHILDREN, AFTER 17 YEARS AS MUSLIMS
Posted by B. Taverna, July 21, 2008. |
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This was written by Ze'ev Ben-Yechiel
and it appeared in Arutz-7
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(IsraelNN.com) After a 17-year captivity to an abusive Muslim husband, a Jewish mother and her eight children were rescued Sunday from the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem's Old City. Yad L'Achim, an organization dedicated to solving problems of this type, freed Naama [not her real name] from imprisonment in her own home and almost two decades of fear, shame and violence. Seizing a window of opportunity –– her husband was in prison and his brother under house arrest –– her liberators wove through the narrow alleyways of the Muslim Quarter to deliver her to safety. When her rescuers arrived, Naama was living as a Muslim wife in every way, and her Arabic-speaking children had no Jewish identity. All that was set to change as she stepped out this week into a new life among her people.
Naama, now around 40, grew up in a Torah-observant home in the Golan Heights. At 20, she rebelled against Judaism. Constant fighting with her parents and her decision to stop observing Shabbat culminated in a falling-out with her family, and Naama left her home to seek a different life. Vulnerable, with her life in a volatile state, Naama met an Arab man, who married her and brought her to the Muslim Quarter, promising her a warm, stable home where she would be loved and feel happy. Naama's life as a Muslim began. In time, she gave birth to eight children, who were raised as Muslims. Meanwhile her husband's abusive nature began to reveal itself. By Naama's account, her children endured a life of violence from their father, and she herself ended up living in a state of fear, threats and constant abuse from the Arab man. The increasingly lawless nature of Naama's Arab husband led to his arrest by Israeli police and his incarceration in an Israeli prison. With her husband temporarily out of Naama's life, his brother was placed under house arrest, leaving Naama with a window of opportunity to flee her life of Islamic servitude. At this time, word of her predicament reached Yad L'Achim. The charitable group, whose mission it is to return Jews to their cultural and religious roots, contacted Naama and offered her a chance to return to Judaism. Several months ago, after learning of Naama's situation, the organization sent her a messenger. "We put her in touch with a Jewish woman who had gone through the same exact experience, and who succeeded in rehabilitating herself," said a Yad L'Achim official. "That convinced her that she, too, could make it back to Judaism and a better life for herself and her children." Plans were drawn up for extricating Naama and her children from the Muslim Quarter. Meanwhile, the charity contacted another brother of Naama's wayward husband and persuaded him to remain silent as the resue plans were finalized. The rescue operation began this past Sunday at 3:30 p.m, as dozens of volunteers in Yad L'Achim's rescue unit met near Jaffa Gate to make final preparations. The volunteers braced themselves for the physical dangers of a difficult mission: to pluck her out of a tiny area crowded with hundreds of Arab families. Timing was of the essence, as a delay of just a few seconds could alert her many neighbors and bring swarms of angry Arabs pouring out into the narrow alleyways to fight the rescue. As the rescuers went in, vans were dispatched to the area to provide cover for them and to snatch them, the mother and her eight children out of danger. With the rescuers snaking their way towards Naama's house, the vans' engines were kept running, as the drivers read Psalms for the safety of their friends and the success of their dangerous mission. The rescue team reached the entrance to the house, where they found Naama waiting with one of her children. As soon as the captive wife saw them, she began to sob uncontrollably.
As the rescuers quickly packed Naama's few possessions into cartons they had brought along, social workers who were part of the rescue team observed the appalling conditions that Naama and her children had endured. They had been living as part of a hamula, or clan, one of many families inhabiting the single house in deplorable conditions. Family members in Naama's hamula quickly learned of the rescue and tried, without success, to convince her not to leave. Finally the rescue team, having gathered the mother, her children and their belongings, spirited them to the getaway vans. Just 15 minutes after entering the quarter, the team left, all participants safe inside vans that sped onto the next destination: a "safe house" that was to become the new home for Naama and her children. The rescue mission was crowned a success. Naama's new refuge is a spacious and furnished apartment, whose location is closely guarded from the reach of her husband. "Here she will learn to be independent and take her first steps back to Judaism," said a Yad L'Achim official. "We have people who will be at her side, offering warmth and love. The children don't speak Hebrew and have not been circumcised. They have no remnant of Judaism, other than their souls." Rabbi Shalom Dov Lifschitz, chairman of Yad L'Achim, congratulated the rescuers for their courageous action as his charity celebrated the success of another operation. However, Rabbi Lifschitz cautioned that there were many others, like Naama, in desperate need of rescue from such captive and devastating relationships. "We must think of all those Jewish souls that are still imprisoned," said the rabbi. "We must make use of every legitimate means to bring them from darkness to light." For more information on Yad L'Achim, go to
http://www.yadlachimusa.org.il (English) or http://www.yadleachim.org
(Hebrew)%ad%
Contact B. Taverna by email at bltaverna@yahoo.com
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OLMERT REGIME'S SERIAL BLUNDERS; DO-GOODER SEQUEAMISHNESS; BECOMING LIKE THE ENEMY?
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 21, 2008. |
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U.S. VIEW OF PROPOSED ISRAELI STRIKE AT IRAN A high-ranking US officer disapproves of the prospect of Israel raiding Iran's nuclear facilities. He said it would destabllize the Mideast. How stable would the Mideast be, if Iran were allowed to develop nuclear weapons? (IMRA, 7/3.) BRITAIN ON TERRORISM A British court removed the People's Mujahadeen of Iran from its list of terrorist organizations, because the group renounced terrorism. The group still opposes the government of Iran. Britain added the whole Hizbullah military wing to its list, because Hizbullah fights against British troops in Iraq, etc.. (IMRA, 7/3). Why not the political wing, which uses politics to foster the organization's goals? OLMERT REGIME'S SERIAL BLUNDERS: Trade live Hizbullah terrorist for dead Israelis; Omitted from deal restrictions on Hamas strengthening its military; Failed to replace the collapsed Gaza fence with a simple and cheap transfer of the border-straddling town into Egypt, so the town can't conceal tunnel borers; Doesn't insist that Egypt stop arms smuggling by sea into Gaza; Failed to protest Hizbullah's illegal, post-war military build-up; Negotiates with Syria under Turkish auspices, making it difficult to break off without alienating Turkey; Didn't see to it that in return for turning P.A. cities' security over to P.A., the P.A. must take specific, measurable anti-terrorism steps or steps would be reversed. These blunders can have a cumulative effect. [They display weakness and stupidity that the Arabs now exploit, demanding more.] The Knesset won't act against Olmert, lest its Members risk their lucrative jobs there. The Attorney-General hasn't acted, apparently because his ideology favors the concessions that Olmert offers the Arabs (Dr. Aaron Lerner, IMRA, 7/3). DANGEROUS P.A. PROPOSAL Abbas' Prime Minister proposes that Egyptian troops mediate a Hamas-Fatah truce in Gaza, combining of their forces, and dismantling of private militias. Hamas considers him a stooge of Fatah; Fatah doesn't trust him (IMRA, 7/4). No faction is trustworthy. Deception is part of their culture's code of honor. Egyptian troops in Gaza could facilitate Egyptian invasion of Israel, which is the military doctrine of Egypt. Israel should not accept their entry. Unfortunately, the government of Israel does everything to give its enemies a strategic advantage and tempt them to war when they have absorbed enough concessions. Combining Hamas and Fatah forces doesn't end the threat of militias to Israel, it multiplies it –– P.A. unity means strength. Israel can't maintain a huge standing army to face the growing enemy army at its border, an enemy that is too near to allow Israel time to mobilize reserves. The Fatah desire to reunite with Hamas demonstrates that Fatah shares the ideology of Hamas in major ways. If outsiders were realistic about that, they would realize the falsity of the distinction made between P.A. "moderates" and extremists, a false distinction that attributes moderation to Abbas and his Fatah. "DO-GOODER SQUEAMISHNESS" About a year ago, a Jerusalem Arab terrorist murdered some Israelis, and was killed, too. The former practice of demolishing the terrorist's house was not practiced, nor was the family deported. Instead, they received survivor benefits from the State. When the government seems ready to demolish terrorists' houses, leftists appeal to the Supreme Court. The Court usually issues an injunction against demolition. Another member of that family drove a bulldozer into Israelis. After having killed some, he was shot. The police did not follow the former practice of firing a coup de gras shot, to make sure he was dead. As a result, the driver got up and drove some more, murdering another civilian, before he finally was shot dead. His family stands to get more survivors' benefits (Prof. Steven Plaut, 7/4). Israeli policy isn't humanitarianism, it's anti-Jewish. MA'AN NEWS Ma'an News reported that Israeli warships fired at Gaza fishing boats, which the Arabs call a truce violation (IMRA, 7/5). It did not report why the ships opened fire. Perhaps the fishing boats were smuggling arms. Poor reporting! GETTING THE REAL STORY A news brief from an Israeli source asserted that Israel had made a break-through in solar technology. It did not identify the break-through, nor state the cost of electricity flowing from the improvement. The news brief is useless. Why was the real story omitted? I was a reporter briefly, but don't have time to get many original sources. When important, I follow up with questions about a story's significance. Sometimes I get answers, which I pass on. BECOMING LIKE THE ENEMY You've heard the argument, don't take certain measures against the enemy, or you risk becoming like the enemy, ruthless killers. That can be too squeamish. If we shun certain measures against the enemy, we risk becoming like the enemy as a result of our having refrained from measures to prevent our conquest. The double standard these days is to be lie about and be over-exacting about minor issues with the US and Israel, and to ignore Islamist atrocities. Under the guise of humanitarianism, anti-Israeli leftists oppose popular cries in Israel for demolishing the houses of Israeli and P.A. suicide killers and not giving their families "survivor benefits." Israel's Attorney-General's cryptic opinion is that demolition has no legal "obstacles" but poses legal "difficulties." What does that mean –– Israel is a government of his opinion and discretion, not of law? If too legalistic, Israel can't wage war. War must be swift and decisive. After lawyers have set guidelines, they should keep out of it. Israel should coordinate propaganda with the military to show why most criticism of it is unfair. The military should be able to defeat or deter enemies. FINALLY OBAMA CRITICIZED BY NY TIMES The NY Times weekly reviews of 6/29 and 7/6 finally had cartoons that criticized candidate Obama, after weeks of faulting only his rivals. Favoritism? I would excuse a candidate for stressing certain issues in certain audiences, for reevaluating issues occasionally, and for dropping unimportant positions that people don't want. I do not excuse a candidate supposedly of reconciliation but who constantly carps personally, distorting opponents' positions and lying about his own. Obama shifts positions on the same issues with different audiences or for public relations. For example, he reassured certain groups that he didn't mean what he told others. His constant lying, making him almost totally unscrupulous, is different from candidate McCain's occasional pandering. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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DHIMMI-CARTER'S FAUX-PEOPLE
Posted by Paul Lademain, July 21, 2008. |
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We are the NON-evangelical Christians for Zion. We have something to say to Carter: Below is an photo published by Honest Reporting UK. It demonstrates how Baptist Carter's faux-people use children for Carter's anti-American campaigns. Below, the item is from Honest Reporting UK: |
"Here is another example from a Times story on February 9, 2008. Contact Paul Lademain by email at lademain@verizon.net |
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SAMIR KUNTAR AND THE LAST LAUGH
Posted by Steven Plaut, July 21, 2008. |
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This was written by Daniel Pipes and it appeared yesterday in the Jerusalem
Post
Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. Contact him at www.DanielPipes.org |
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Israel has lived the past 60 years more intensively than any other country. Its highs –– the resurrection of a 2,000 year old state in 1948, history's most lopsided military victory in 1967, and the astonishing Entebbe hostage rescue in 1976 –– have been triumphs of will and spirit that inspire the civilized world. Its lows have been self-imposed humiliations: unilateral retreat from Lebanon and evacuation of Joseph's Tomb, both in 2000; retreat from Gaza in 2005; defeat by Hizbullah in 2006; and the corpses-for-prisoners exchange with Hizbullah last week. An outsider can only wonder at the contrast. How can the authors of exhilarating victories bring such disgrace upon themselves, seemingly oblivious to the import of their actions? One clue has to do with the dates. The highs took place during the state's first three decades, the lows occurred since 2000. Something profound has changed. The strategically brilliant but economically deficient early state has been replaced by the reverse. Yesteryear's spy masterminds, military geniuses and political heavyweights have seemingly gone into hi-tech, leaving the state in the hands of corrupt, shortsighted mental midgets. How else can one account for the cabinet meeting on June 29, when
22 out of 25 ministers voted in favor of releasing five live Arab
terrorists, including Samir Kuntar, 45, a psychopath and the most
notorious prisoner in Israel's jails, plus 200 corpses? In return,
Israel got the bodies of two soldiers murdered by Hizbullah. Even The
Washington Post wondered at this decision.
PRIME MINISTER Ehud Olmert endorsed the deal on the grounds that it "will bring an end to this painful episode," a reference to retrieving the bodies of war dead and appeasing the hostages' families demand for closure. In themselves, both are honorable goals, but at what price? This distortion of priorities shows how a once-formidably strategic country has degenerated into a supremely sentimental country, a rudderless polity where self-absorbed egoism trumps raison d'être. Israelis, fed up with deterrence and appeasement alike, have lost their way. Appalling as the cabinet decision was, worse yet is that neither the Likud nor other leading public institutions responded with rage, but generally (with some notable exceptions) sat quietly aside. Their absence reflects a Tami Steinmetz Center poll showing that the population approves the swap by a nearly 2-1 ratio. In short, the problem extends far beyond the official class to implicate the population at large. On the other side, the disgraceful celebration of baby-murderer
Kuntar as a national hero in Lebanon, where the government shut down
to celebrate his arrival, and by the Palestinian Authority, which
called him a "heroic fighter," reveals the depths of Lebanese enmity
to Israel and immorality, disturbing anyone concerned with the Arab
soul.
THE DEAL has many adverse consequences. It encourages Arab terrorists to seize more Israeli soldiers, then kill them. It boosts Hizbullah's stature in Lebanon and legitimates Hizbullah internationally. It emboldens Hamas and makes a deal for its Israeli hostage more problematic. Finally, while this incident appears small compared to the Iranian nuclear issue, the two are related. International headlines along the lines of "Israel mourns, Hizbullah exults" confirm the widely held but erroneous Middle Eastern view of Israel as a "spider's web" that can be destroyed. The recent exchange may give the already apocalyptic Iranian leadership further reason to brandish its weapons. Worse, as Steven Plaut notes, by equating "mass murderers of Jewish children to combat soldiers," the exchange effectively justifies the "mass extermination of Jews in the name of Jewish racial inferiority." For those concerned with the welfare and security of Israel, I propose two consolations. First, Israel remains a powerful country that can afford mistakes; one estimate even predicts it would survive an exchange of nuclear weapons with Iran, while Iran would not. Second, the Kuntar affair could have a surprise happy ending. A senior Israeli official told David Bedein that, now out of jail, Israel's obligation to protect Kuntar is terminated; on arrival in Lebanon, he became "a target for killing. Israel will get him, and he will be killed... accounts will be settled." Another senior official added "we cannot let this man think that he can go unpunished for his murder of a four-year-old girl." Who will laugh last, Hizbullah or Israel? Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments –– both seriously and satirically –– on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. Or write him at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il |
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ISRAEL NEEDS A CHURCHILL
Posted by Paul Eidelberg, July 21, 2008. |
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Israel is at war with a cunning, determined, and ruthless foe –– Islam. It would be bad enough if Israel's ruling elites were merely cretins and cravens, but they are also traitors to Judaism. Hence I call them evil. To betray Judaism is to betray the ethics Israel bestowed on mankind, and not only ethics, but also monotheism, the ultimate source of Western civilization., of philosophy and science. Nietzsche knew whereof he spoke when he said: "Wherever the Jews have attained to influence, they have taught to analyze more subtly, to argue more acutely, to write more clearly and purely: it has always been their problem to bring people to 'raison.'" But now the Jews, led by a shameless prime minister, are surrendering to the enemies of civilization, a barbaric religion animated by murderous hatred. Here is what Churchill said of this religion in 1899: No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome. (Emphasis added.) Of course, Churchill did not foresee the decline of Christianity in Europe, today inundated by Muslims. Yes, but if only Israel had a Churchill! The threat now confronting Israel by of Islam recalls the threat that confronted England by Nazi Germany. Allow me, therefore, to cite some of Churchill's war speeches, as I have done on a previous occasion –– and would that these words were read by American statesmen. Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as England's Prime Minister on May 10, 1940. Three days later, in a speech to the House of Commons, Churchill declared: "You ask what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny. ... That is our policy. You ask: What is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory –– victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival." In a world broadcast, May 19, 1940: "...Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour, and be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar. 'As the Will of God is in Heaven, even so let it be.'" In the House of Commons, June 18, 1940 (after England's terrible losses at Dunkirk): "I expect the battle of Britain is about to begin.... The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. The whole might and fury of the enemy must soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he must break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted .... Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'" In a world broadcast, April 27, 1941: "I have thought in this difficult period, when so much fighting and so many critical and complicated maneuvers are going on, that it is above all things important that our policy and conduct should be upon the highest level, and that honour should be our guide." In Guildhall, November 7, 1941: "I have never given any assurances of a speedy or easy or cheap victory. On the contrary, as you know, I have never promised anything but the hardest conditions, great disappointments and many mistakes. But I am sure that at the end all will be well for us in our island home, all will be better for the world, and there will be that crown of honour to those who have endured and never failed which history will accord to them for having set an example to the whole human race." In a world broadcast, May 10, 1942: "Is it not far better that demonstrations of thousands of people should gather in Trafalgar Square demanding the most vehement and audacious attacks, than that there should be the weepings and wailings and peace agitations which in other lands and other wars have often hampered the action and vigour of Government." Perhaps some readers will see a vast difference between Hitler's war against Great Britain and Islam's war against Israel. But Hitler's war, like Islam's, was triggered by a policy called "territory for peace." By appeasing the Nazis, the democracies betrayed Czechoslovakia. Today, the democracies, by appeasing Islam, the successors of the Nazis, are betraying not only Israel but Western civilization. Hence Israel needs a Churchill to replace its ignominious Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, for I dare say only minuscule Israel, inspired by the spirit of Entebbe, can inspire America and save the West from perdition. Professor Paul Eidelberg is President of the Foundation For Constitutional Democracy. He can be reached by mail at 244 Madison Avenue, Suite 427, New York, NY 10016, Tel: 212-372-3752, and by email at Constitution@usa.net |
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THE FRIENDLY STING
Posted by Asher Eder, July 20, 2008. |
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Shalom. May I forward herewith Rafi (Ralph) Dobrin's letter (below) as I think it could well be a very much needed wake-up call.
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I felt rather self-conscious because ... A few days ago I sent out a newsletter saying that I was thinking about staging a demonstration near Mr Olmert's Jerusalem residence, to protest the fact that he has untenably remained prime minister. A few people responded. Some said there was no point in demonstrating because it wouldn't change anything. No one will join you, was another comment. Another mail said that it was unfair on Mr Olmert and that he was under enough pressure at the moment. One person said that demostrations would weaken Israel. A few people indicated that they would join in any demonstration against Mr Olmert. Anyway, I wanted to get a feel of what it was like to demonstrate near the man's house. So I prepared a poster and proceeded to Terra Sancta. The placard read in Hebrew: "Not only Olmert, but also the negative norms of our politicians and society must go –– wake up before it's too late." In Hebrew it has a more convincing ring to it. (I hope you can open the attachment that I have added here.) I stood on the pavement, holding the placard aloft, but Terra Sancta is not really a good spot to demonstrate because the cars come up two-lane Gaza Street which turns into four lanes at that spot, which means that the drivers have to keep their eyes on the road. After about half and hour I felt that my poster wasn't getting optimum attention, so I moved on to Paris Square not far away. There, things changed dramatically. It seemed that every fourth or fifth car or pedestrian responded positively as I stood there. People nodded encouragingly, smiled, made a thumbs up sign. One man threw his arms in the air and shouted repeatedly in Hebrew: "If only it could happen." After a while I began to feel somewhat self-conscious, standing there by myself and exhibiting the sign to hundreds of passing eyes that gazed at me. So I crossed the road and proceeded down Agron Street on the side of Independence Park. I was in for an even more amazing response. As I marched in the direction of the Old City, along the side of the road, hundreds of cars were crawling upwards in a long traffic jam. I kept brandishing the placard and almost every person in that traffic jam saw me. It seems that a guy striding with a placard is more impressive than one just standing in one spot, and the reactions were even more lively than before. There was some honking, many people waved. A few stuck their heads out of the windows of their cars and shouted stuff like: "You're so right," or "Well done." "We're right behind you." Pedestrians were also walking up and down the road and many nodded their agreement when they saw the poster. By the time I reached Mamilla I felt that I'd been in the public eye for too long. It got to be a bit too much for me, so I headed home, nevertheless quite elated that I had presented a clear message and that literally hundreds of people had seen me in a relatively short time and had quite clearly responded. This has made me feel that the time is indeed ripe for the people to take to the streets and demonstrate against our pathetic government, its structure, procedures and norms, and also against ourselves as an overly self-indulgent, apathetic society, in need of far more general integrity, that is about to lose everything that we have built up in the last hundred years if we don't wake up –– NOW! If you ask if I helped change anything during my little promenade, my answer will be very little if indeed anything. One doesn't change things by an isolated demonstration. It has to be a loud, ongoing campaign, staged in as many places as possible throughout the country. Posters have to be intelligently worded and created. More and more people must become involved. The media has to be drawn in and helped to cover the subject extensively and soberly. It must become the in-thing –– the idea of Israel's transformation into the great little country that we all want to see and that is going to fulfill its promise as a real, secure haven for the Jewish people where life is good for everyone. I am talking about staging demonstrations as well as processions. I believe that both can be effective. They have to appear in every part of the country. Loud, colorful, optimistic, positive, not too banal, short catchy phrases on the placards and posters, avoiding vulgarity or any political slogans. Indeed, there must be absolutely no connectionwhatsoever with any political figurehead, party or functionary. But people must be encouraged to join in –– people from all walks of life. It must not be thought of as politically, religiously, socially, economically or professionally sectarian in any way. It must become the in-thing to be an active part of. We must discard the insular, apathetic, negative and defeatist attitudes that have taken root in the last decade or so. Personal priorities must be changed. We have to be willing to devote as much time as possible in participating in some kind of activity connected with the demonstrations. There are many things we can all do. For those who might find that standing in a demonstration or marching too strenuous, especially in this hot summer weather, the campaign will also need people to help make placards, think up slogans, to phone people, to organize, to drive participants to meeting places, to conceptualize, to help plan ahead. Centers launching demonstrations should be set up in various parts of the country. Each center will need people organizing, etc. There should also be contact and corroboration with any other groups demonstrating for change –– as long as they are not politically initiated. I don't think I've been more serious in my life when I call on you personally. Please respond to this newsletter. And send it on to your contacts. We need your feedback. I am not just talking about Mr Olmert. Like my poster said: : "Not only Olmert, but also the negative norms of our politicians and society must go –– wake up before it's too late." Mr Olmert's demise is only the beginning! This can be a vigorous turning-point for the change in Israel, that is so very desperately needed. You can be a part of it. Rafi Dobrin
Contact Asher Eder by email at avrason@netvision.net.il |
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ANTI-ISRAEL WEBSITE FUNDED BY EUROPEAN UNION
Posted by Michelle Nevada, July 20, 2008. |
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Have you ever seen this website?
It is incredibly anti-Israel, yet it is funded by the EU (take a look below). Here's how the report on the breaking story that a house in "East" Jerusalem has been returned to its rightful owners –– Religious Sephardi Jews. So, how common is this? Does the EU fund all the anti-Israel websites, or just certain anti-Israel websites? Here's the story below, mentioning also how extreme leftists and false rabbis are against Jewish rights. Has anyone reported on this??
BTW: Peace Now, Shalom Achshav, has lost its status of Non Profit Organization because it is NIT an educational organization, BUT a political organization (funded, against Israeli Law and against EU law, MAINLY by the EU) |
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"High Court Says Jews Own Eastern Jerusalem Building"
(IsraelNN.com) The High Court has backed a Jewish family that bought an eastern Jerusalem property during the time of the Ottoman rule and which an Arab family claimed it owned during the Jordanian occupation of the area. The house in question is located in Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood, where Arabs later established a neighborhood called Sheikh Jarrah. Rafik Husseini, an aide to Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, complained to foreign diplomats that the ruling created a precedent allowing for the eviction of two dozen other families. Leftists, including the Rabbis for Human Rights, have set up protest vigils to prevent the eviction of the Arab family. Contact Michelle Nevada by email at Michelle_Nevada@comcast.net |
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PAY ATTENTION TO CHANGING EVENTS!
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, July 20, 2008. |
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'The Bush administration has decided to break with previous policy by sending one of its most senior diplomats to engage Iran's top nuclear official, the White House announced Wednesday (07/16/20008)' Undersecretary of State William Burns heads for Switzerland to do what his boss said his administration would never do, astonishingly without preconditions, without say first demanding that AhMADinejad assert he does not intend to 'wipe Israel off the map'. Hmmm! Is Bush a flip flopper, willing to override a seemingly 'sacrosanct' implied commitment he has made to Israel? How indeed can he reverse a position he so adamantly supported? Et tu Bush! Are we witnessing a rather curious epiphany from this swaggering Texas cowboy turned plowboy? Perhaps this U.S. president has been chopping wood in the blazing sun too long. Perhaps he's grown wobbly. More likely, perhaps there are a few details most folks don't know about. Iran just happens to be in the process of activating an international oil exchange called a bourse that will trade ever needed 'Persian tea' a/k/a 'Texas tea' for euros instead of dollars. Egad! Do you think just maybe Uncle Sam's current leader is altering his 'axis of evil' rhetoric for the sake of his petrodollar? If the petrodollar is replaced by the petroeuro all hell breaks loose from Wall Street to Main Street. Unless the dollar remains the world's primo oil trading currency, Uncle Sam's economy could sink lower than the New Orleans basin. Furthermore, will President Bush be scurrying off to Beijing to attend opening ceremonies of the Olympics, something no other sitting U.S. president has ever done, something few other world leaders will do this time around due to China's human rights violations, because the 'tough speaking' G.W. has been brought down a notch or two along with his nation's currency, because the 'Oriental Dragon' holds more than a trillion dollars worth of his Treasury Bills a/k/a I.O.U.s, a debt that continues to grow thanks to the 'kindness' of Chinese bankers albeit growing less and less dependent on American consumers to sustain their overheating economy? Does Bush hold a hand full of jokers that ain't wild in a critical world class poker game of Texas Hold'em? Is President Bush and his crew attempting to hold together a superpower that spends a hell of a lot more than it makes, imports a hell of a lot more than it exports, depends on the psychological (some might say illogical) value and oil purchasing power of its dollar to keep America afloat? How many leaks can they plug before their nation's challenged levees burst, making the ravages of Hurricane Katrina look like a mere basement flood? If all this was not enough, let's not ignore that 'piece de resistance', a concurrent problem with perhaps more insidious implications in the short run; if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can't be fixed, if the fate of five trillion dollars worth of mortgages is no longer certain, no matter how many leaks are plugged, the perilously constructed 'printing press' economy of Israel's heretofore most formidable ally could come to a grinding halt? Comprehending why the 'dollar' obsessed Bush Administration apparently has changed its tune about Iran, why Iran's emerging nukes thus Israel's perceived submerging security are likely less of a concern than the surging Persian's 'in your face ' currency coup in progress against the 'Great Satan', is critical to Israel's strategic planning. Indeed, Uncle 'Got Rocks', rocked by mounting debt, even considers making nice nice with Israel's most aggressive enemy, suggesting he might open a diplomatic post on the Holocaust denier AhMADinejad's home turf. Do you think just maybe nukes and Israel's existence might take a backseat to currency issues if a diplomatic thaw occurs? Would Iran's mouthpiece and those mullahs pulling his strings ever agree to cease financing proxy terrorist organizations Hizbullah and Hamas, ever agree to cease spinning their nuclear centrifuges, in effect scale down Middle East tensions knowing that would also drop the price of oil, its flow to industrial nations perceived to be no longer threatened? Indeed, might a deal be cut with Israel's erstwhile most formidable ally, sparing the petrodollar, alas, while Israel remains the shlamazel recipient of Iranian financed rockets from Gaza, threatening rhetoric from AhMADinejad and his regime's rabid lapdog proxies, mostly to create a hostile unstable Middle East where the price of modern day Persia's black energy elixir continues climbing to the stratosphere? How might Israel survive and prosper in a world defined by deception, where friends and foes alike blow smoke up your posterior, obsessed with their own agendas? Gaining and maintaining wealth always seem to override moral imperatives; just witness the ongoing genocide in Darfur and ask if world leaders really give a damn about saving their souls! In such a world, where vestiges of a savage evolution still linger in the recesses of modern day brains, where the most ruthless meat eaters still manipulate their masses, how does a tiny disrespected nation like Israel thrive without experiencing continual tsuris, without continually looking over her shoulder, without pondering a potential nuclear Armageddon? Nurturing stronger ties with the up and coming 'new predators on the block', looking eastward to rising stars like China, India, and South Korea couldn't hurt. Of course, moral issues should never be ignored, but survival in the midst of a jungle is job one for any nation, prosperity is job two! Yet, Israel's imminent threat from Iran cannot be easily extinguished by bombing the regimes emerging nuclear infrastructure, much of which is buried underground. There are no assurances the United States would aggressively support her in such an endeavor considering her ally's dependence on a viable petrodollar and an unimpeded flow of oil. Still, a silver lining exists within this ominous cloud. An Iranian nuclear attack on Israel launched from within her borders or through a proxy would be suicidal! There are 'hopefully' enough sane heads within Iran's power structure to prevent such an attempt, knowing any Israeli response would 'wipe Iran off the map'. Indeed, nuclear weapons and launchers are already available from immoral opportunistic connected entrepreneurs of many ethnicities. For the right price, such buck chasers would sell their mothers, parasites that they are, or more likely nukes to any regime or terrorist cadre within the global military industrial complex that defines our modern day orb. Reinventing the wheel, albeit a nuclear wheel, does not really increase the risk factor of any nuclear holocaust occurring. Does this perspective imply Israel should not be concerned over Iran's increasing nuclear capabilities? Of course not, but if a military strike against Iran is too risky, may indeed backfire, what can Israel do with her own weaponry except prepare for the worse and hope a nuclear war never occurs? Most importantly, most controllably, Israel's prosperity remains within her grasp. Why not focus on developing a cost efficient automobile battery able to attain speeds of say 60 miles per hour or more? Would an individual or more likely an Israeli team responsible for such a boon for civil mankind be in contention for a Nobel prizes in science, economics, and peace? Would such a battery batter the economies of terrorist financing fossil fuel regimes like Saudi Arabia and more importantly from Israel's perspective Iran, no longer able to extort the camel' s share of their wealth from heretofore oil addicted industrial nations? Hopefully, Uncle Sam will be forced to wean himself off of his own petrodollar dependency, stop outsourcing livelihoods, and begin rejuvenating a once wondrous economy sadly drawn to the dark side. Please note, time is of the essence! Lawrence Uniglicht is a career civil servant. He advocates for the State of Israel with an American perspective. He writes, "Advocating for the disrespected underdog has been my passion, no doubt Israel falls into that category." Contact him by email at larose@snip.net |
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THE SKELETON IN THE PALESTINIAN CLOSET
jl
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 20, 2008. |
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This was written by Jonathan S. Tobin and it appeared in Jewish World www.aish.com/jewishissues/middleeast/Skeleton_in_the_Palestinian_Closet.asp |
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The Mufti of Jerusalem's Nazi ideology lives on among contemporary Islamists. It is axiomatic that a knowledge of history is a prerequisite for understanding the present. But the question is: How much weight should we give to controversial figures from the past when deciding how to think about current conflicts?
According to the authors of a new book about Haj Amin al-Husseini (1893-1974), the grand mufti of Jerusalem, who played a key role in fomenting and exacerbating the struggle between Jews and Arabs during much of the 20th century, the answer is quite a lot. The book, Icon of Evil: Hitler's Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam, by David G. Dalin and John F. Rothman, makes the case that you can draw a direct line from al-Husseini to not only the Palestine Liberation Organization and Hamas –– groups that took up his battle against Zionism –– but to Iran, Al Qaeda and the 9/11 conspirators. That's a searing indictment that both supporters of Israel and its foes ought to examine closely. And if this book fails to deliver the definitive account of the Mufti's life in English that students of this period of history have been waiting for, it nevertheless shines a spotlight on a figure who deserves far greater attention than he has received in recent decades. Appointed by a Jew Husseini was a member of an elite landed-clan of Palestinian Arabs who retain their status to this day (Yasser Arafat was a cousin). In the aftermath of World War I, he rose to prominence as a fanatical opponent of both the British and the Jews. Ironically, it was a British Jew, Sir Herbert Samuel, who appointed Husseini to the post of mufti, the putative Muslim religious leader of Jerusalem. Samuel became the first high commissioner of the territory in 1920. Palestine had been given to Britain as a mandate by the League of Nations in order for them to make good on their 1917 Balfour Declaration promise to create a Jewish national home in the country. While many in the British government were openly hostile to Zionism, Samuels was not. But he was concerned about being seen as evenhanded between Jews and Arabs. So when there was a vacancy in the office of mufti, Samuels appointed the hard-line Husseini. This was a decision the Jews would rue for decades as Husseini used his post as a platform to promote hatred against the Zionists, who were transforming the country from a barren backwater into what would become the modern State of Israel. Husseini incited the riots of 1929 in which hundreds of Jews were slaughtered by Muslim pogromists and did his best to better that record during the Arab Revolt of 1936-39. Though the Mufti's gangs were defeated, his work paid dividends in 1939 when the British, as eager to appease Arabs and Muslims on the eve of World War II as they were the Germans, issued a White Paper that placed severe limits on Jewish immigration and land sales, effectively closing the door to a Jewish state. But Husseini did not seize this opening and instead continued his Anglophobic campaign after the war began. Eventually, he wound up in wartime Berlin where he was received by Adolf Hitler and housed in luxury by the Nazi state as an honored collaborator of its elite killers. Husseini made propaganda broadcasts for the Germans and recruited Bosnians to serve in a special Muslim SS brigade that was responsible for the murder of more than 12,000 Bosnian Jews. As such, he played a personal role in the Holocaust. After the war, Husseini evaded prosecution as a war criminal and, as the birth of the Jewish state loomed, he sought to take command of the Arab drive to destroy it. In that he failed, as Palestinians loyal to the Mufti were routed by the Jews. When the Arab states invaded the country on May 15, 1948, the Mufti was left on the sidelines of the conflict where he fumed impotently for the rest of his life in exile in Damascus and Cairo. Unfortunately, Dalin and Rothman's book is hampered by a lack of original research, leaving the authors to make sometimes uninformed guesses about the Mufti's inner life that leave us with more questions about his personality than answers. Instead, at times, they rely on egregious speculation that adds little of value to the existing literature on the subject. In this vein, they go overboard in a chapter devoted to a "what if" scenario in which their protagonist fantasizes about the mass slaughter of Palestinian Jewry had Hitler prioritized the conquest of the Middle East rather than that of Russia. Counter-factual fantasy fantasies can be amusing, but it has no place in what promised to be a serious biography. It is especially annoying when, as in this case, the authors spin tales about what could not have happened as opposed to what might have occurred. In this case, the notion that Hitler would have passed on invading Russia requires us to ignore everything we know about this mass murderer's most important goals: the destruction of communism and lebensraum for German colonists in the East. Their tale of the Wehrmacht being transferred en masse to North Africa instead of to Russia, also requires the British Navy, whose control of the Mediterranean restricted Hitler's ability to reinforce Manfred Rommel's Afrika Korps, to disappear. While there's no doubt that everything we know about the Mufti shows us that he would have liked to preside over a Palestinian Auschwitz, such speculation about this nightmare obscures more important issues that require no digression into fantasy. What is important about the Mufti is that he is a human bridge between early stages of a Palestinian nationalism, and the Muslim Brotherhood movement and its current Islamist identity in the form of Hamas, Al Qaeda and Iranian-backed Hezbollah. The authors rightly see his kinsman's Arafat's career in terrorism and rejection of peace as being inspired by the Mufti's example. And though some observers like to pretend that Islamism is a recent aberration in Palestinian culture and politics, Husseini's life is a testament to the fact that religious fanaticism has always been integral to its character. First Islamo-Fascist Despite its flaws, Dalin and Rothman's book is on target when it concludes that Husseini was a seminal figure not only in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, but in the culture of the Muslim world. Though contemporary Palestinian Arabs bear no guilt for the crimes of the Nazis because the Mufti was one, it is both fair and reasonable to assess the influence that his philosophy had on the movement he spawned. Fatah, Hamas and the Palestinian media, as well as that of the rest of the region, show that the Mufti's bloodthirsty Nazi-like hate for Jews is alive and well today not only in Gaza and Ramallah, but throughout the Islamic sphere. Although some deprecate the use of the term "Islamo-Fascist," a study of the life of the Mufti shows that the combination of these disparate ideas into one ideology of hate is no Western invention. Amin al-Husseini, Nazi collaborator and Palestinian religious and political leader, may have been among the first Islamo-Fascists. The tragedy of the Middle East and the Palestinians is that he was far from the last.
Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com
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LOSERS IN THE ASCENDENCY
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, July 20, 2008. |
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Who is in the cheering section for Obama in his run for the American Presidency? Nouri al-Maliki, Prime Minister of Iraq, endorses Obama's plan for America's military withdrawal in 16 months. What does that mean? Long range planners and analysts know exactly why Al-Maliki made this declaration, although shortly afterward he said he was quoted out-of-context. Al-Maliki has performed more as an extension of Iran's Shi'ite policy than that favorable to Iraq. With the U.S. military gone, with U.S. influence in the Middle East gone, Iran can eventually first bond with Iraq and then swallow it whole. Prime Minister Al-Maliki, himself a Shi'ite Muslim, has been moving in that direction since he came to office. Iran and Iraq, united as one nation under Iran's theocratic tyranny and both with nuclear weapons, would dominate the entire Middle East, both militarily and in total control of the oil reserves. It is little wonder that Al-Maliki wants Obama as President of America because he believes that Obama will assist in the melding of Iraq and Iran into one Super State. Regrettably, the U.S. is presently needed by Al-Maliki to rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure and train Iraqi troops. Let's look further. Reports coming in demonstrate that the perennial losers of Europe are giddy over the prospect of Obama becoming President of America. Keep in mind that European nations have always acted as pacifists and then they had to be rescued by American troops at great cost in lives and treasure during the fighting and continuing with financial support after like the Marshall Plan. IF (as anticipated) crowds pour out in the street of France, Germany, Spain and England in support of Obama, be assured that Eurabia is well on its way to final Islamization. Will they, as in the past, beg America to come to their rescue when they are lost? Europe was always the appeasement capital of the planet and such unqualified intervention into an American election is a strong indicator that they want an American President of Surrender to match their ideology of appeasement. If that doesn't tell the whole story, the Left Liberal Media has gone teen-age wild over Obama. His trip to the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, then the "Palestinian Authority" (and also Israel as a by-the-way), followed by the European capitals show how the American election has been subverted to Islamic and appeasement interests. Obama is being accompanied by three news anchors plus hundreds of reporters. They didn't join Senator McCain's trip to some of these areas in the spring. The Leftist Media has gone delirious with the prospect of Obama guiding America's future. All this for an inexperienced Junior Senator from Chicago who has never even put up one bill of consequence during his very brief term of office. Granted, Obama is definitely a Chicago politician, with all the twists, turns and moves of a Chicago politician. As a brief aside, have you wondered why his wife, Michelle, got a job at the University of Chicago to deal with the city on a $300,000 per year salary? As for Al-Maliki being Iran's Shi'ite subversive, you can count on it. While he may delude himself into thinking he can keep Iraq independent, he can only be a puppet of the Ayatollahs or simply disposed of and replaced. A combination unified State of Iran and Iraq will control all of the Middle East oil under a nuclear umbrella. That includes Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States and the shipping lanes through the Straits of Hormuz. Only then will you hear the Europeans and American appeasers howl and squeal like stuck pigs in a cage. Perhaps they will call on a Presidential Pacifist by the name of Barack Hussein Obama –– but, it will be useless and too late. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). Contact him at gwinston@gwinston.interaccess.com |
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AMERICA'S CHAMBERLAIN?
Posted by B. Taverna, July 20, 2008. |
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This was written by Melanie Phillips
and it appeared in the Spectator
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Some months ago I worried here that the quiet in Iraq might be at least in part the result of a deal made between America and Iran: in exchange for Tehran's calling off the bombers in Iraq to help put another Republican into the White House, the Bush administration would undertake not to attack Iran. Yesterday's Guardian story that America is to station diplomats in Iran for the first time since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and intends to send a senior official, William Burns (pictured above), to discuss Iran's nuclear program with Iranian officials can only deepen that fear. Unless this is all an elaborate bluff, the suspicion must be that what the Bush administration is now focused upon is not safeguarding the survival of Israel and the freedom of the world but on winning the presidency for the Republicans. After all, Bush has now effectively stolen Obama's line of talking to Iran without preconditions. McCain, of course, has put himself in the opposite camp to Obama over Iran. If he doesn't condemn this Bush volte-face in the loudest possible terms, the suspicion can only deepen that this is the very dirtiest kind of deal. Meanwhile Israel is being isolated by America, which is giving Iran a further gift of the thing it most craves –– time to build its nuclear weapons capability. What should be happening now is that the Iranian regime should be under the maximum economic diplomatic and military pressure, treated as a pariah state and kept guessing about the possibility of a US attack, all in order to weaken and destabilise it. Instead this latest act of craven American appeasement will strengthen it because it displays in flashing neon lights the message that America hasn't got a clue what to do about Iran and so could Tehran kindly help it out of this jam, please. Far from avoiding war, this only makes it more likely –– and more likely also that when that terrible eventuality occurs, Iran will be on the front foot. History teaches us, after all, that war is the inevitable outcome of appeasement because, instead of preventing bad people from doing bad things, it galvanises them further to do so. When the Americans talked to the Japanese, the result was Pearl Harbour. When Chamberlain talked to Hitler, the result was the invasion of Poland. And when Britain tried to appease the Arab Nazis in 1930s Palestine by offering to reward them for their terrorist intransigence by giving them half the land promised to the Jews, the result was the Arab war of annihilation against the reborn Jewish state –– a war which continues to this day. Moreover, Iran is as strong as it is today only because of the astounding fact that America has refused to fight back in the war that Iran has been prosecuting against it now for almost three decades. When its people were taken hostage at the US embassy, Jimmy Carter infamously sat on his hands. When more than 240 Americans were murdered when Iran bombed the US marine barracks, the US did virtually nothing. When Iran fomented attacks in Iraq and blew up coalition troops by its roadside bombs, America gave orders to its military that there were to be no covert ops in Iran and not even any hot pursuit of Iranian terrorists over the border. And when Iran turned Lebanon into a proxy battleground and stifled the nascent Lebanese democracy, America looked the other way. So much for the 'Bush doctrine'. It is however quite staggering to witness this change in attitude towards Israel by a man who had been arguably the most pro-Israel American president in history. Yet now he is giving the impression that –– in the prescient cry of Ariel Sharon –– Israel is to play the role of Czechoslovakia in 1938, with William Burns about to join the EU in sealing its fate in a re-run of the Munich agreement. This in turn follows the intense American pressure upon Israel to reach a suicidal deal with Fatah to establish what would inevitably be a Palestinian terror state. But of course, entirely contrary to the false belief that America has its strings pulled by the Zionists, more often than not American presidents have by their actions shown they are no friend at all to Israel. Clinton, that quintessential false friend, was a key player in the Oslo peace process which armed Fatah and resulted in the thousand-plus Israelis dead in the second intifada and the strengthening of the jihad everywhere. Over the years America has constantly forced Israel to make 'painful concessions' which have imperilled its security, while refusing to compel the Arabs to make any concessions at all and insisting on rewarding them instead for their aggression. It is that systematic accommodation with genocidal terror and the sacrifice of truth and justice on the altar of appeasement which is the single most important reason for the never-ending Middle East impasse –– and why the whole of the free world is now about to be held to ransom. Contact B. Taverna by email at bltaverna@yahoo.com |
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EDUCATION MINISTRY REMOVES TORAH FROM LEV LEVIEV JEWISH IDENTITY PROGRAM
Posted by Hana Levi Julian, July 20, 2008. |
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(IsraelNN.com) The Educatio&n bsp;n Ministry has decided to reconsider implementing the Lev Leviev Foundation's Zman Masa (Journey Time) curriculum for the upcoming school year. However, the state has set two conditions –– chopping out most of the program's Orthodox Jewish faith-based references and making sure that only teachers within the secular state system are allowed to teach it. The program is intended to strengthen Jewish identity. The foundation picks up the cost of the program, which includes two instruction hours per week, as well as all course materials. The state's main objection, as expressed by pedagogic secretariat director Professor Anat Zohar in April, was that "the program is written from the viewpoint of faith, observing the commandments and accepting G-d's sovereignty." The pedagogic secretariat is responsible for approving external programs. According to Zman Masa, the program was approved by the previous director-general at the Education Ministry, Shmuel Abuav. It has operated for the past two years without the ministry's pedagogic secretariat's authorization. Last year the program was taught by 160 adjunct teachers in 66 public elementary schools in Rishon LeTzion, Netanya, Petah Tikva and Beit Shemesh. All the teachers were Orthodox Jews who actively practice the concepts taught in the curriculum. But this year an Education Ministry official told Haaretz, "The program will be taught exclusively by teachers from the state school system." Zman Masa program director Shai Rinsky commented that it has been difficult to find secular teachers who are able to do so. The program, which was designed to bolster Jewish identity, will apparently have to have large pieces rewritten, such as those subjects that refer to Jewish ritual hand-washing, how to tell the difference between kosher and non-kosher animals and information on the Holy Temple and its ritual vessels. References to the Leviev Foundation –– which created and funded the program –– will be deleted from title pages as well. Changes that are currently being made in the curriculum are expected to be completed by mid-August, and are expected to comply with the parameters delineated in the Shenhar Report, which stipulated that Judaic studies at state schools must remain pluralistic. Hana Levi Julian is a writer for Arutz-7 (www.INN.com). |
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ABBAS' LOVE LETTER TO A CHILD-KILLER
Posted by Daisy Stern, July 20, 2008. |
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This was written by P. David Hornik and it appeared July 118, 2008
in Front Page Magazine
P. David Hornik is a freelance writer and translator living in Tel
Aviv. He blogs at
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Reputedly moderate Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas is reported to have "sent greetings to Kuntar" –– referring to the Lebanese terrorist freed in Wednesday's Israel-Hezbollah exchange who in a 1979 attack killed a 28-year-old Israeli man in front of his 4-year-old daughter and then killed the girl by smashing her head. Abbas was on a visit to Malta at the time and was under no known pressure to issue his tidings. Even if he was –– Samir Kuntar being popular among his Fatah Party, which held a rally in Ramallah to laud his release and that of the remains of Palestinian mass murderer Dalal Mughrabi –– Abbas did not have to accede to the pressure. He has, after all, free will and there is absolutely no compulsion for anyone to send greetings to an unrepentant child-murderer upon his release from prison into total freedom at the age of 46. Since Abbas was elected president of the Palestinian Authority in 2005, he has been fawned over and enshrined as a figure of peace and moderation by both American and Israeli (as well as, of course, European and other) leaders, particularly by President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the American side and by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on the Israeli side. Those of us who have been disturbed by this treatment have tried to call attention to many indications that Abbas is not really a benign or moderate figure, of which these are only some of the highlights: * On December 5, 2005, the same day that an Islamic Jihad suicide bombing in Netanya, Israel, killed 5 people and wounded over 40, Abbas signed a law giving monthly stipends to the families of suicide bombers. There are two basic motivations for calling attention to these counterindications of Abbas's supposed moderacy. One is a regard for truth. The leaders of the United States and of Israel should not have to stoop to fawning over, and extolling as "a man of peace...a man of vision," an individual with a track record like that of Abbas. Second, as is often the case, distorting the truth in this way has harmful practical consequences. Upholding the fiction of the moderate Abbas is central to encouraging perceptions of the Palestinian Authority itself as moderate and on a path to peace with Israel, enabling a situation where, among other things: * Lavish international aid keeps flowing to the PA. As Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A. Lappen noted this week, "the PA announced on January 15, 2008 its intentions to give Hamas...'40 percent' ($3.1 billion) of the $7.4 billion pledged in December 2007 by international donors. Evidently, the donors did not take this statement seriously, and from January to June 2008, gave the PA $920 million in direct budgetary aid." At the abovementioned Arab summit in Damascus, Abbas himself said the PA transfers 58 percent of its budget to Hamas-controlled Gaza and pays the salaries of 77,000 employees there. Meanwhile there is no evidence that the aid to the PA has reduced the poverty and corruption that beset the West Bank and Gaza under PA and/or Hamas rule, or has done much more than line the pockets of a venal elite. It's not clear whether and how much, in the time they have left, Bush and Rice will keep chasing the Abbas-mirage with all the deleterious consequences. As for Olmert, who also doesn't have much time left as leader, he said in a news conference this week with Abbas and French president Sarkozy that "I think we have never been as close to the possibility of reaching an agreement as we are today" –– despite all the above and much more. But apart from these specific American and Israeli leaders, the practice of anointing a Palestinian leader as a moderate and then treating him that way no matter how grave the counterindications goes back to Yasser Arafat in the early 1990s and remains a clear-cut danger for the future. Now that Mahmoud Abbas has sent his tidings to a heinous child-murderer, continuing to flatter and boost Abbas has gone beyond the cowardly, undignified, and harmful: it has become obscene. Both Americans and Israelis deserve much better conduct from their leaders and should demand it in no uncertain terms. Contact Daisy Stern at daisystern1@gmail.com |
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IF I FORGET THEE, JONATHAN POLLARD
Posted by David Wilder, July 20, 2008. |
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This was published July 15, 2008 in Israel Insider |
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When Israel releases Barghuti and Hamas releases Shalit, the US must free Jonathan Pollard. If we can do it, so can you. Tomorrow's planned prisoner exchange is very bittersweet. Almost everyone has an opinion and all sides have some element of legitimacy. On one hand, the price is so very high; on the other hand, we have a responsibility to bring our soldiers home, dead or alive. A soldier, entering battle, must know that anything and everything will be done to bring him home, be it to his family, or to 'kever Yisrael' –– to a Jewish grave. Yet, perhaps the swap will serve as motivation to capture more soldiers, and exchange them for other terrorist killers. But, who can forget the unbelievable 'mesirut nefesh' –– total dedication, of Rabbi Shlomo Goren, then Chief Rabbi of the IDF, to wade through enemy mine fields to recover bodies of Israeli soldiers killed in action. It's something of a catch 22 –– whatever you do is right, and whatever you do is wrong. I know that I've asked myself countless times, 'what would I do if, (G-d forbid), it was one of my sons.' In truth, I don't know. Of course, with the release of two Israeli soldiers, either dead or alive, a huge dark cloud shadows their return: where is Ron Arad, whose fate is still unknown? Is he dead or alive? Is he in Lebanon or Iran? According to Israeli intelligence sources, having studied the newly-released photos of Arad, taken about 20 years ago, the pictures were taken not in Lebanon, rather in Iran. Perhaps Ron Arad is still alive, wasting away in an Iranian dungeon? However, with enigma surrounding Ron Arad and the as of yet unknown condition of Regev and Goldwasser, at least people know their names, show some concern for them and their families. Unfortunately, it's not that way with all Israeli MIAs, POWS. There are those, who, for one reason or another, have been forgotten, despite that fact that they wore the same uniform as the others, fought for the same country as the others, and whose fate is just as unknown as the others. Ron Arad was captured in October, 1986. Four years earlier, in June, 1882, during the battle of Sultan Ya'akub, Israel lost three of its finest. During the battle, commanded by Ehud Barak, three tank warriors, Tzvi Feldman, born in 1956, Yehuda Katz, born in 1959, and Zacharia Baumel, born in 1960, disappeared. They may have been killed during the brutal fighting. However, there were accounts of people who saw them displayed during a parade in Syria. Their families have gathered accounts over the years, which, at the very least, raise a reasonable doubt as to their fate. Perhaps they are long gone. But perhaps not. And, if we use the Regev-Goldwasser measuring stick, what difference does it make? Why have the IDF and the Israeli government totally forgotten about these three men? Why aren't they household names, as is Ron Arad? Why didn't Israel demand a full report from Hizballah concerning the fate and location of these three men just as they did concerning Ron Arad? Why doesn't the Israeli media exert pressure on the government and IDF concerning then, as they did concerning Regev, Goldwasser, Arad and Gilad Shalit? Why does Gilad Shalit's name continue to make headlines, while most Israelis, 22 years later, have no idea who Katz, Feldman and Baumel are? I have an answer, but don't really like it. As a matter of fact, I despise what I think. It really stinks. It's even worse than that. But I can't think of any other viable reason. These three men came from the wrong side of Israeli society. They all had Kippas on their heads. They belonged to religious tank units. Their families were not left-wing supporters of 'peace,' Labor, and Arabs. The men weren't media lovelies. Rather, they were young idealistic patriots, who fought for their country, their people and their belief. Their belief hasn't betrayed them, but their country and their people have. But that's not all. It's clear that serious negotiations for the release of Gilad Shalit will continue between Israel and Hamas. Clearly, Israel should demand information and release of the three above-discussed men. But in my opinion, that's not enough. Hamas terrorists are not stupid. If, as is expected, Israel receives two bodies for killer Kuntar, Hamas is going to demand an even higher price for a 'live' Israeli. That price will almost undoubtedly include Marwan Barghuti, a convicted murderer and leader of the '2nd intidada' which claimed thousands of Israeli lives, dead, maimed and wounded. The present Israeli government will almost assuredly OK the deal. However, Israel must demand more than the release of POW Gilad Shalit. After all, Barghuti will only be one of the hundreds of terrorists freed by Israel. Israel must look towards its best friend and ally, put its foot down, and tell the United States: look at what we are being forced into in order to release one Israeli soldier. What is the price of one man? Is there a price? Yet, the price is too high. We must bring home more than one POW. When we release Barghouti and Hamas releases Shalit, you must free Jonathan Pollard. If we can do it, so can you. At every Jewish wedding, the happiest day in a person's life, we repeat the words, 'If I forget thee Jerusalem....' I add : If we forget thee, Tzvi... If we forget all of you, who are we, what are we, why are we? [EDITOR'S NOTE –– UPDATE: Regev and Goldwasser were captured alive and were returned dead; they had been mutilated. Kuntar was convicted of a heinous crime, sat comfortably in jail, even earned a college degree and was released alive.] David Wilder is spokesman of The Jewish Community of Hebron. You can contribute directly to The Jewish Community of Hebron, POB10, Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100, hebron@hebron.org.il, 972-2-9965333 or write to The Hebron Fund, 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230, hebronfund@aol.com |
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IDF MI CHIEF: HAMAS, HIZBULLAH MAY BE PLANNING IMMINENT ATTACK
Posted by Marc Samberg, July 20, 2008. |
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This was written by Jerusalem Post Staff
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Head of Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin warned on Sunday of a possible terror attack by Hamas or Hizbullah in the near future along the Gaza Strip and Lebanon borders, respectively. Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting, Yadlin said Hizbullah still had many outstanding issues with Israel which could be used to justify such an attack, such as the Shaba Farms, the village of Ghajar, IAF flights over Lebanon and Imad Mughniyeh's assassination in February –– for which the group has blamed Israel. Of Gaza, Yadlin said some organizations which have not signed on to the cease-fire are planning a major attack. However, Yadlin said Hamas was succeeding in enforcing the cease-fire on the Palestinian side but assessed that the fact that border crossings were not open "according to Hamas's expectations, constitutes a potential for eroding the cease-fire." While weapons smuggling continued, Egyptian activity in Sinai "diminishes the amount of arms smuggling, but quality weaponry still finds its way into the Gaza Strip." Yadlin also said that Israel's enemies were continuing to arm themselves. But he added those enemies were worried of the possibility of a "hot summer" and did not intend to initiate a war with Israel during US President George W. Bush's remaining time in office, or before they had armed themselves sufficiently. Contact Marc Samberg at marcsamberg@yahoo.com |
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FROM ISRAEL: TOUGH TIMES
Posted by Arlene Kushner, July 20, 2008. |
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Military Intelligence Chief Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin, in a report to the Cabinet today, indicated that an attack in the north by Hezbollah might be coming soon. Is anyone surprised? According to Yadlin, they have many "outstanding issues" with Israel that could be used to justify an attack. These include Shaba Farms (sometimes referred to as Mount Dov), which I just wrote about; Imad Mughniyeh's assassination, which has been blamed on Israel; Israeli air force sorties over Lebanese airspace; and the village of Ghajar, formerly a Syrian village that is today half in Lebanon and half on the Israeli controlled Golan Heights. ~~~~~~~~~~ Yadlin further said –– not a surprise either –– that the "ceasefire" with Hamas in Gaza is fragile. There are groups within Gaza looking to break the status quo who are planning a major attack. What is more, Hamas itself has indicated that the fact that border crossings were not opened "according to Hamas's expectations, constitutes a potential for eroding the cease-fire." This is part of their ever-escalating set of demands, because Israel had clearly linked opening of crossings to real progress on Shalit negotiations. ~~~~~~~~~~ However, to qualify all of the above, Yadlin also said that our enemies were continuing to arm themselves and preferred not to attack us until that arming was complete to their satisfaction, and, possibly until the Bush administration was over. (This says a lot about what they are expecting to replace Bush.) ~~~~~~~~~~ Negotiations on Shalit are due to re-start this week as Ofer Dekel, our official negotiator, formerly with the Shin Bet, returns to Cairo after a hiatus of some weeks. We are being charged by Hamas with "stubbornness" and "intransigence" because we haven't agreed to the specific prisoners and the number of prisoners that they are demanding. Abu Obaidah, spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, Izaddin Kassam, which is holding Shalit, says that "Sooner or later Israel will have to accept our conditions" or "there will be no agreement." ~~~~~~~~~~ Six Arabs –– two Israeli Arabs living inside the Green Line and four with Jerusalem residency papers living in eastern Jerusalem –– have been arrested by the Shin Bet for allegedly setting up an al-Qaida affiliated network with intentions of shooting down President Bush's helicopter when he was here earlier this year. One of the suspects, Muhammad Naghem, from Nazareth, was a student at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. From his dormitory on the Givat Ram campus, he had a clear view of a nearby helicopter landing pad. In January, he allegedly videotaped the landing and takeoff of Bush's helicopter and then contacted an Internet forum for global jihad elements to inquire about what would be involved in shooting down the president's helicopter. While the operation had not progressed passed the planning stage, the six, under interrogation, admitted to forming the cell, which they say met at the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount. This rings all sorts of bells. ~~~~~~~~~~ Talansky had his third day of cross-examination by Olmert's lawyers today, and I do not intend to report on any of it. Let's let the dust settle. What we've got now are a series of conflicting reports on what Talansky really said, in what way he backtracked on what he said before (apparently overtly contradicted himself), how the police "interpreted" what he said, when Olmert's lawyers were bringing in inconsequential side issues, and all the rest. ~~~~~~~~~~ Please see Charles Krauthammer's article, "The Audacity of Vanity," regarding Obama's vastly inflated sense of himself, at: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/07/ obamas_egoaccomplishment_gap.html Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info |
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IS THE SISTINE CHAPEL THE SITE FOR THE GREATEST SUBVERSIVE ACT IN
THE HISTORY OF ART?
Posted by Liba S., July 20, 2008. |
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This was written by Rabbi Benjamin Blech
and it appeared on the Aish website
Rabbi Benjamin Blech is the author of 12 highly acclaimed books, including Understanding Judaism: The basics of Deed and Creed. He is a professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University and the Rabbi Emeritus of Young Israel of Oceanside which he served for 37 years and from which he retired to pursue his interests in writing and lecturing around the globe. He is also the author of If God is Good, Why is the World So Bad? |
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In the heart of the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel is the site of the conclave where every new pope is elected. It is without doubt the holiest chapel in the Christian world, and draws more than 4 million visitors per year. Most of the world knows it best for its magnificent frescoes painted by the great Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti. What has remained a little-known secret, however, is that within this citadel of Christianity lies perhaps the greatest subversive act in the history of art. Almost none of the visitors who enter the Sistine realize that they are gazing upon secret messages embedded by Michelangelo in his artistic masterpiece. They would certainly be surprised to learn that, in the pope's own chapel, Michelangelo employed these secret messages to advocate for a revolutionary change in Christianity's relationship to Judaism, and that the code itself was rooted in the Jewish tradition. Michelangelo became fascinated with Midrash and Kabbalah as a teenager, studying with private tutors provided by his patron, Lorenzo de' Medici. Using his knowledge of Judaism and its mystical symbols, he later incorporated messages, via painted images, on the chapel's walls dangerously contrary to the teachings of the Church. In this way, he criticized the corrupt spiritual leadership of the time, and condemned the Church's failure to acknowledge its debt to Jewish origins. Expressed 500 years before the more liberal contemporary theology of Pope John Paul II and "The Good Pope," John XXIII, discovery of his secret code and heretical views might have cost Michelangelo his life. When I first heard these claims from Roy Doliner, a Jewish docent and scholar of the humanities who has been leading tours of the Sistine Chapel for close to a decade, I assumed they were too incredible to be true. Only after he shared with me his diligent research (after which I performed a great deal of scholarly sleuthing on my own) did I became thoroughly convinced of their legitimacy. I eventually co-authored a book with Roy, The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican, which was released earlier this year. To our great delight, the book is already beginning to alter the way scholars interpret the work of Michelangelo, sparking vigorous, and sometimes heated, debate. "Just as the work of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel changed forever the world of art, so will this book change forever the way to view and, above all, to understand the work of Michelangelo," said Enrico Bruschini, official art historian for the U.S. Embassy in Rome and a leading expert on the art of Rome and the Vatican. A true Renaissance man, Michelangelo was at home in philosophy as well as art; in Christian theology as well as Jewish mysticism. However, those who have studied his work in the past generally have not been conversant with the wide corpus of knowledge that forged him as an artist. Most Sistine Chapel scholars were not well-versed in Judaism and Kabbalah; it was impossible for them to fully grasp the artist's allusions. By combining the scholarship of our respective fields, Roy and I, the docent and the Orthodox rabbi, were able to uncover secrets long buried in Michelangelo's frescos. From the start, Michelangelo had a personal agenda different from that of his patron. In 1508, we know that Pope Julius II ordered Michelangelo to re-plaster and paint the crumbling ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, a demeaning job at that time for any great artist, and especially for Michelangelo, who detested painting and lived only to sculpt. The pope gave him a simple design, a very standard and banal layout of Jesus and Mary at the two ends of the ceiling, surrounded by the Apostles and a common design of geometric shapes in the center. The artist refused, and fought with the pope who, sick and distracted, finally let him develop his own plan. Imagine the surprise of the pope and the viewers when the completed project was unveiled four and a half years later: Ninety-five percent of the Chapel was adorned with heroes and heroines of the Jewish Bible. The rest was filled with pagan sibyls and naked boys. In the 12,000 square feet of the world's largest fresco, there was not a single Christian figure to be found. The only nod to the Gospels –– and one of the ways Michelangelo managed to save both his life and the painting –– was a barely-noticeable series of names of the Jewish ancestors of Jesus that do not even appear in chronological order. Why did Michelangelo disobey the pope in this way? Michelangelo had a hidden agenda: to remind the Church that its roots were grounded in the Torah given to the Jewish people. This insight, which he inserted throughout his work, is only now beginning to receive attention in contemporary scholarship. It is also showing up in the popular media. Time magazine's March 24 cover story, "10 Ideas That Are Changing the World," singled out what scholars are now calling "Re-Judaizing Jesus" as the most powerful idea in the field of religion. Michelangelo's frescos emphasize the universality of God and the kinship of all mankind by beginning the pictorial narrative with the Creation story of Genesis, not with the birth of Jesus. To a Church that preached exclusionism and stressed Divine love for only a limited number of His children, Michelangelo emphasized tolerance of all faiths, even the despised Jews of his time. One fresco exemplifying this idea is the portrait of Aminadab, father of Nachshon, which appears above the elevated area where the pope sat on his throne. Hebrew scholars know that Aminadab's Hebrew name means, "from my people, a prince." But the Church interprets a "prince of the Jews" to refer directly to Jesus. Michelangelo positioned Aminadab, "Prince of the Jews," as surrogate for Jesus himself.
This is one of the extremely rare figures painted by Michelangelo sitting perfectly upright, looking forward, a signal by the artist that the figure is, indeed, noteworthy. Moreover, a bright yellow circle, a ring of cloth sewn onto a garment appears on Aminadab's upper left arm. (This detail was not revealed for modern audiences until the frescoes were restored in 2001.) This patch displays the badge of shame forced on the Jews of Europe by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 and the Inquisition during the 15th Century. Here, directly over the head of the pope, the Vicar of Christ, Michelangelo was reminding the Church that Jesus was a Jew. He was condemning the Church for its shameful treatment of the Jews, from whom Jesus was born. This was a courageous statement. His veiled messages were painted at a time when the Talmud and other Jewish sacred texts were being burned all over Europe, the Inquisition was operating at full strength and the Jewish people had just been expelled from Spain in 1492. Michelangelo had the courage to challenge the papal court, asking via the symbols of his painting, "Is this how you treat the very family of Our Lord?" Michelangelo's contempt for the Church's treatment of Jews went further to insult the pope himself via an almost imperceptible gesture of Aminadab. Almost hidden in shadow, this surrogate for Jesus is subtly making "devil's horns" with his fingers, which point downward toward the very spot where Pope Julius' richly embroidered ceremonial canopy would have been, over the papal throne. In somewhat similar manner, in another fresco placed over the original chapel portal through which Pope Julius entered, Michelangelo depicts the prophet Zechariah with the pope's own face. Over his shoulder one can see a little angel with his fingers curled in a way to make an obscene gesture known in Italy as "giving the fig." In the symbolism of the Sistine Chapel frescoes, instead of shame and persecution, inclusiveness and acknowledgement of Divine Favor are the qualities Michelangelo advocates for the Church's treatment of the Jews. We have an even more powerful indication of Michelangelo's philo-Semitism in his later work, "The Last Judgment."
In it, a golden-haired angel robed in red poses directly over Jesus' head and points at two men within a group known as the "Righteous Souls," a collection of figures who represent those privileged to spend eternity in a state of bliss with Jesus as reward for their deeds on earth. Michelangelo portrays both of these men as Jews, a potentially blasphemous act. One wears the two-pointed cap that the Church forced Jewish males to wear to reinforce the medieval prejudice that Jews, being spawned of the Devil, had horns. This figure is shown speaking to the other older Jew as he points one finger upward, indicating the One-ness of God. The other figure wears a yellow cap of shame; during the 13th century, the Church ordered Jewish men in Italy to wear such caps in public. In front of the two figures, a woman, her hair modestly covered, whispers in the ear of a nude youth before her. The youth resembles Michelangelo's young tutor, Pico della Mirandola, who owned the largest Kabbalah library in the world at the time, and who taught the young artist secrets of Jewish mysticism as he infused within him a life-long respect for the Jewish people. In granting Jews a place in heaven with Jesus, the 16th century Michelangelo took a then-blasphemous stand on an issue which still provokes heated debate among Christians in the 21st century. His depiction of those granted Divine Favor clearly contravened official Church doctrine, which maintained that Jews could never hope to have a Heavenly reward. Michelangelo defined genius as "eternal patience." This year, the 500th anniversary of Michelangelo starting his work on the Sistine ceiling, we have finally "cracked" his "code," and his insights, ingeniously concealed in his work, can at last be heard. |
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USING BOMBS TO STAVE OFF WAR
Posted by Boris Celser, July 19, 2008. |
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Benny Morris's article –– see below –– is interesting, but
I have a few problems with it, because no one really knows all. It
appeared in the New York Times 1) He claims Iranian leaders may hope Israel's conventional attack will destroy the nuclear facilities, even leading to thousands of casualties and international humiliation. At best I could see military elements or lower echelon politicians hoping for it, perhaps even aiding Israel to accomplish this, but not the top leadership. Totalitarian leaders if overthrown are not normally sent to retirement homes, and there's too much at stake now for Iran's leadership to do little or nothing if Israel strikes. Not after its investment in supporting Syria and arming Hizbullah and Hamas. No, I don't think so. 2) I'm also a bit skeptical about Iran retaliating against an Israeli conventional strike with ballistic missiles tipped with chemical or biological weapons. That would basically ensure a nuclear retaliation by Israel without Iran being prepared to reply in kind. After all, if Iran wants to wipe out Israel without regards to Israeli nuclear retaliation, and could do so today with chemical or biological weapons, why not do it now? If they must have nuclear weapons to do so, it's unlikely they will retaliate using any type of WMD's now, unless they really believe the jerks in charge of Israel will do nothing. But with Olmert, Peres, Livni, and Barak in charge, the Iranians could chance it, but I don't think that's what Morris meant here. 3) Morris also suggests Iran may not want to attack American targets if America does not attack Iran with Israel. But if Israel is given logistic support by the US, such as the use of Iraqi-based US bases, in order to maximize the chances of an Israeli success, and this would be inevitably known, I can't see Iran not attacking US and Western interests via terrorism and oil blackmail. Attacking Israel and Jewish targets only will not be enough, there are far more Western targets worldwide than Jewish ones, and, besides, Iran attacking Israel and Jewish targets may be enough to give the incentive for the Bush administration to finish off what Israel missed in the attack before a new president takes over. This possibility is always there, so any logistical US support for Israel's attack could and should lead to Iran using terrorism against everyone, not just Israeli and Jewish targets. Chaos and fear are good for Iran. In for a penny, in for a pound. Now, this is an interesting point. If Israel were to drop a small tactical nuke in the Iranian desert, followed by an announcement that it'd hit Teheran (bluff or not) in 3 days if Iran didn't open its nuclear facilities entirely, I'd love to see how Mr. Ahmadinejad and his regime would cope with 11 million people abandoning the capital in a big hurry. Everybody would be watching it on CNN. Regards.
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ISRAEL will almost surely attack Iran's nuclear sites in the next four to seven months –– and the leaders in Washington and even Tehran should hope that the attack will be successful enough to cause at least a significant delay in the Iranian production schedule, if not complete destruction, of that country's nuclear program. Because if the attack fails, the Middle East will almost certainly face a nuclear war –– either through a subsequent pre-emptive Israeli nuclear strike or a nuclear exchange shortly after Iran gets the bomb. It is in the interest of neither Iran nor the United States (nor, for that matter, the rest of the world) that Iran be savaged by a nuclear strike, or that both Israel and Iran suffer such a fate. We know what would ensue: a traumatic destabilization of the Middle East with resounding political and military consequences around the globe, serious injury to the West's oil supply and radioactive pollution of the earth's atmosphere and water. But should Israel's conventional assault fail to significantly harm or stall the Iranian program, a ratcheting up of the Iranian-Israeli conflict to a nuclear level will most likely follow. Every intelligence agency in the world believes the Iranian program is geared toward making weapons, not to the peaceful applications of nuclear power. And, despite the current talk of additional economic sanctions, everyone knows that such measures have so far led nowhere and are unlikely to be applied with sufficient scope to cause Iran real pain, given Russia's and China's continued recalcitrance and Western Europe's (and America's) ambivalence in behavior, if not in rhetoric. Western intelligence agencies agree that Iran will reach the "point of no return" in acquiring the capacity to produce nuclear weapons in one to four years. Which leaves the world with only one option if it wishes to halt Iran's march toward nuclear weaponry: the military option, meaning an aerial assault by either the United States or Israel. Clearly, America has the conventional military capacity to do the job, which would involve a protracted air assault against Iran's air defenses followed by strikes on the nuclear sites themselves. But, as a result of the Iraq imbroglio, and what is rapidly turning into the Afghan imbroglio, the American public has little enthusiasm for wars in the Islamic lands. This curtails the White House's ability to begin yet another major military campaign in pursuit of a goal that is not seen as a vital national interest by many Americans. Which leaves only Israel –– the country threatened almost daily with destruction by Iran's leaders. Thus the recent reports about Israeli plans and preparations to attack Iran (the period from Nov. 5 to Jan. 19 seems the best bet, as it gives the West half a year to try the diplomatic route but ensures that Israel will have support from a lame-duck White House). The problem is that Israel's military capacities are far smaller than America's and, given the distances involved, the fact that the Iranian sites are widely dispersed and underground, and Israel's inadequate intelligence, it is unlikely that the Israeli conventional forces, even if allowed the use of Jordanian and Iraqi airspace (and perhaps, pending American approval, even Iraqi air strips) can destroy or perhaps significantly delay the Iranian nuclear project. Nonetheless, Israel, believing that its very existence is at stake –– and this is a feeling shared by most Israelis across the political spectrum –– will certainly make the effort. Israel's leaders, from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert down, have all explicitly stated that an Iranian bomb means Israel's destruction; Iran will not be allowed to get the bomb. The best outcome will be that an Israeli conventional strike, whether failed or not –– and, given the Tehran regime's totalitarian grip, it may not be immediately clear how much damage the Israeli assault has caused –– would persuade the Iranians to halt their nuclear program, or at least persuade the Western powers to significantly increase the diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran. But the more likely result is that the international community will continue to do nothing effective and that Iran will speed up its efforts to produce the bomb that can destroy Israel. The Iranians will also likely retaliate by attacking Israel's cities with ballistic missiles (possibly topped with chemical or biological warheads); by prodding its local clients, Hezbollah and Hamas, to unleash their own armories against Israel; and by activating international Muslim terrorist networks against Israeli and Jewish –– and possibly American –– targets worldwide (though the Iranians may at the last moment be wary of provoking American military involvement). Such a situation would confront Israeli leaders with two agonizing, dismal choices. One is to allow the Iranians to acquire the bomb and hope for the best –– meaning a nuclear standoff, with the prospect of mutual assured destruction preventing the Iranians from actually using the weapon. The other would be to use the Iranian counterstrikes as an excuse to escalate and use the only means available that will actually destroy the Iranian nuclear project: Israel's own nuclear arsenal. Given the fundamentalist, self-sacrificial mindset of the mullahs who run Iran, Israel knows that deterrence may not work as well as it did with the comparatively rational men who ran the Kremlin and White House during the cold war. They are likely to use any bomb they build, both because of ideology and because of fear of Israeli nuclear pre-emption. Thus an Israeli nuclear strike to prevent the Iranians from taking the final steps toward getting the bomb is probable. The alternative is letting Tehran have its bomb. In either case, a Middle Eastern nuclear holocaust would be in the cards. Iran's leaders would do well to rethink their gamble and suspend their nuclear program. Bar this, the best they could hope for is that Israel's conventional air assault will destroy their nuclear facilities. To be sure, this would mean thousands of Iranian casualties and international humiliation. But the alternative is an Iran turned into a nuclear wasteland. Some Iranians may believe that this is a worthwhile gamble if the prospect is Israel's demise. But most Iranians probably don't. Boris Celser is a Canadian. Contact him at celser@telusplanet.net |
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WHO REALLY CARES ABOUT OUR SOLDIERS?
Posted by Naomi Ragen, July 19, 2008. |
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My article, Infamy, has been widely circulated. The response has been overwhelmingly supportive. But what I would like to do is speak not to those who were "shocked and disgusted" by my admission that I was ashamed to be an Israeli after the release of Sami Kuntar, the baby-killer Hezbollah is so proud of who says he can't wait to kill again –– but to those who disagree for reasons I can respect. In an article entitled: "Some Mistakes are Worth Making," Daniel Gordis quotes me without using my name and says that –– unlike me –– he feels proud of what Israel did. He says that he can now face his sons, one of whom is about to be drafted, with the firm belief that while the country he lives in demands much of its soldiers, it is also a country that "owes [them] everything in return and getting them home..is part of that." I also have a son who is in the army. And as far as I see it, a soldier is sent to the front to defend the citizens of his homeland. All the risks, the injuries, the loss of life that come to soldiers and their families, are based on the premise that the citizens of that country are worth defending, and that those who rise up to murder them must be stopped and punished, or at least put somewhere they can do no harm. What I think Israel owes its soldiers and their families is the vow that their sacrifices of life and limb will not have been in vain. By returning the bodies of soldiers who died to protect Israel's people at the cost of turning loose a murderer who has declared he can't wait for his next opportunity to kill, the State of Israel is spitting in the face of that sacrifice. Now that Hamas has openly declared the Kuntar trade has given them the determination to keep Gilad Shalit prisoner until hundreds of Palestinian murderers are let loose, I can only say this: How many soldiers died and suffered permanent injuries to apprehend those murderers? What of their sacrifice, and the sacrifice of their families? And what of the families of the victims? As Ehud Olmert hugged Karnit Goldwasser, weeping with her, he turned his back on 82-year-old Nina Karen, the mother of Danny Haran and grandmother of the two babies Kuntar was physically and morally responsible for murdering. Karnit lost her husband because he was a soldier in the Israeli army. He gave his life to defend us. And Ehud Olmert turned that sacrifice into an empty gesture, a photo-op. I was in a terror attack. It is known as the Passover Massacre. A terrorist blew himself up in Netanya hotel just as people were sitting down to seder. Most of them were elderly Holocaust survivors and their children and grandchildren. We were lucky. We were upstairs. What we didn't know, is that a second bomber was scheduled to blow himself up upstairs, and would have killed my entire family. He was apprehended by Israeli soldiers at great personal risk soon after, and now sits in an Israeli prison until another corrupt Israeli politician decides to take the easy way out and let him and hundreds more like him out into the streets to kill again, so that our soldiers will have to risk their lives again. This is not a mistake worth making. It's a mistake we are risking the lives of our soldiers to prevent. Let us respect that and stop kidding ourselves that we can make something heroic out of something despicably wrong. Let us get rid of the men and women whose brainless approach to leadership has already cost us a price we, and no nation, can afford to pay. Naomi Ragen is an American-born novelist and journalist who lives in Jerusalem. She can be contacted at www.naomiragen.com, where you can subscribe to her newsletter. |
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INTERFAITH MEETING CLOSES. U.A.E. OFFICIAL'S SWIPE AT ZIONISM
Posted by Marc Samberg, July 19, 2008. |
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This was written by Joseph Goldstein, Staff Reporter, New
York Sun. It is archived at |
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MADRID –– The Saudi king's talk of tolerance and moderation notwithstanding, the Jewish state is proving to be a divisive issue at the religious conference that the Saudi monarch has convened here. The conference, the theme of which is interfaith dialogue, is an effort by the Saudi monarch to foster more cordial relations between imams in his country and Christian and Jewish religious leaders in the West. The conference is also drawing notice because Abdullah, whose kingdom includes the sites of Islam's two holiest places, denounced religious extremism during his address on Wednesday to the Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jewish leaders who are participating in the conference. Abdullah left Spain after opening the conference and is currently in Morocco. In an apparent effort to keep the Israel-Palestine issue from taking center stage, the Saudis did not include a single Palestinian Arab Muslim leader among the approximately 200 religious figures in attendance, conference participants say. And the one Israeli rabbi in attendance is listed on the program material as an American. But after a day's worth of speeches by Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu leaders, in the middle of the fourth two-hour conference session, a government official from the United Arab Emirates urged Muslim leaders to avoid the company of Zionists. "We have to distinguish between Judaism and Zionism," the official, Izzeddin Mustafa Ibrahim, who is listed on the program as an adviser on cultural affairs to the president of the U.A.E., said. "Zionism is a political system. Judaism is a religion." He continued: "I can speak to pacifists but not bellicists, who are in favor of war." Mr. Ibrahim, a Muslim scholar of Christianity who said he has met with three popes in the interests of Christian-Muslim relations, then continued: "I have only one minute left," referring to the amount of speaking time allotted to him, and finished off his statements with a broad appeal to begin a "Judaic and Islamic dialogue." "I believe it has to start," Mr. Ibrahim said, referring to such a dialogue. A New York rabbi, Marc Schneier, then took the lectern but did not directly respond to Mr. Ibrahim's statements about Zionism. He spoke of outreach efforts in North America between imams and rabbis. In an interview outside the conference room, however, another New York rabbi denounced Mr. Ibrahim's remarks "as the same old rhetoric that has led to more hatred and the building of a wall between the Jews and the Muslims for the last 60 years." "Being anti-Zionist is the new canard for being an anti-Semite," the rabbi, Jay Rosenbaum of Temple Israel in Lawrence, N.Y., said. Despite the monarch's efforts to foster discussion between Muslim clerics and religious leaders of other faiths, Saudi Arabia does not appear likely to embrace religious pluralism on its own soil. Christians and Jews are forbidden from building houses of worship and from praying in public within Saudi Arabia. One of Saudi Arabia's most senior religious figures, an imam of the grand mosque in Mecca, Saleh bin Humaid, told The New York Sun that there would be no such change in that policy. "In the privacy of their home they can worship their God and perform their ritual freely," the imam said through his translator. "Nobody will be harassed." "From a religious point of view, they can't build a synagogue or a church because it's a sacred place for Muslims," Sheik bin Humaid said, referring to the entire country of Saudi Arabia. In defending the policy, Sheik bin Humaid, who is also speaker of the Shura Council in Saudi Arabia, drew a comparison: "We can't imagine having a mosque in the Vatican," he said. Contact Marc Samberg at marcsamberg@yahoo.com |
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ANTI-SEMITISM WITHOUT ANTI-SEMITES
Posted by B Taverna, July 19, 2008. |
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This appeared on Pajama Media. It was written by Henryk Broder. English Translation by John Rosenthal. Henryk Broder delivered this statement to the Bundestag's Domestic Affairs Committee. He is the author of numerous books on contemporary German political culture and anti-Semitism, including Hurrah, Wir Kapitulieren! [Hurray! We Give Up] and Der ewige Antisemit [The Eternal Anti-Semite]. He is a regular contributor to many leading German-language news publications and one of the principal co-authors of the popular German blog Die Achse des Gutens |
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Earlier this month, the Domestic Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag held public hearings on anti-Semitism in Germany. Many of the speakers chose to focus on the "classical" anti-Semitism to be found in what in Germany are euphemistically called "right-wing extremist" milieus, i.e., among skinheads and self-avowed neo-Nazis. The journalist Henryk Broder, however, located the problem elsewhere: namely, in the mainstream "anti-Zionist anti-Semitism" to be found, for instance, among academics ... and Bundestag members. I thank you for the invitation to this hearing. It is an honor for me to be able to speak to you. I know that there has been some unhappiness on account of my participation. But I am sure that by the end of my statement you will not regret having invited me. This is not the first hearing on the issue of anti-Semitism and it will not be the last. Ever since the writer and self-avowed Jew-hater Wilhelm Marr published his "The Triumph of Germandom [Deutschtum] over Jewry" in 1879, thus becoming the leader of political anti-Semitism in imperial Germany, there have been numerous attempts made to define, explain, and neutralize anti-Semitism. They have all failed. If this was not the case, we would not be here today. Every discussion of anti-Semitism starts with a definition of the concept. And many get no further than that, such that after all the efforts to get a grasp on the phenomenon one is left merely with the finding that anti-Semitism is, as the old joke goes, "when one can't stand Jews even more than is normal." I would like, therefore, to concentrate on two points: two arguments to which one has to pay special attention if one does not want to conduct a merely virtual debate. Firstly, anti-Semitism is not a matter of a prejudice, but rather of a sort of resentment. In and of themselves, prejudices –– literally "pre-judgments" [Vorurteile] –– are harmless. I have prejudices, you have prejudices: everyone does. It is only negative prejudices that bother us. If I say to you that Germans are hardworking, disciplined, and show their guests great hospitality, you will happily agree with me. If, however, I say that Germans are cheap, infantile, and lack a sense of humor, you will presumably get upset. That's an unacceptable generalization, you will say. It is the same with Jews. We gladly hear positive prejudices expressed –– on the "people of the book" or Jewish humor –– but negative prejudices, which thematize our worse tendencies, we take as an insult. The distinction between a prejudice and a resentment is as follows: a prejudice concerns a person's behavior; a resentment concerns that person's very existence. Anti-Semitism is a resentment. The anti-Semite does not begrudge the Jew how he is or what he does, but that he is at all. The anti-Semite takes offense as much at the Jew's attempts to assimilate as at his self-marginalization. Rich Jews are exploiters; poor Jews are freeloaders. Smart Jews are arrogant and dumb Jews –– and, yes, there are also dumb Jews –– are a disgrace to Jewry. The anti-Semite blames Jews in principle for everything and its opposite. That is why there is no point in trying to debate anti-Semites or in wanting to convince them of the absurdity of their views. One has to marginalize anti-Semites: to isolate them in a sort of social quarantine. Society must make clear that it disdains both anti-Semitism and anti-Semites: just as it disdains parents beating their children and rape –– including spousal rape –– even though it well knows that it cannot monitor everything that transpires behind closed doors. Secondly, if you want to come to terms with anti-Semitism, you must realize that it is not a fixed quantity like the meter prototype in Paris or the definition of the volt, watt, or ampere. Like all social phenomena, anti-Semitism is susceptible to transformation. Even poverty is no longer today what it once was at the time of Oliver Twist. The anti-Semitism that we are most readily inclined to discuss is an artifact of the last century and the century before that. It is the anti-Semitism of fools, who are still chasing chimeras. [In the late 19th century, the German Social Democrat August Bebel famously described anti-Semitism as the "socialism of fools." –– Translator's Note] The common anti-Semite has no real idea about the object of his obsessions, but only a diffuse feeling. He lets off steam by painting swastikas on aluminum siding and scribbling Juda verrecke ["Jews go croak!"] on gravestones. He is a case for the police and the local courts, but nothing more than that. Nobody is going to feel sympathy for thugs who raise their arms to give the Hitler salute and shout Juden raus! ["Jews out!"]. This sort of anti-Semitism is ugly, but politically irrelevant: it is its own death notice. The modern anti-Semite looks entirely different. He does not have a shaved head. He has good manners and often an academic title as well. He mourns for the Jews who died in the Holocaust. But at the same time he wonders why the survivors and their descendants have learned nothing from history and today treat another people as badly as they were once treated themselves. The modern anti-Semite does not believe in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. But instead he fantasizes about an "Israel lobby" that is supposed to control American foreign policy like a tail that wags the dog. For the modern anti-Semite, it goes without saying that every year on January 27 he will commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz. But at the same time he militates for the right of Iran to have atomic weapons. For "how can one deny Iran what one has permitted Israel or Pakistan?" as Norman Paech [the foreign policy spokesperson of the German Left Party] has put it. Or he inverts the causal relationship and claims that it is Israel that is threatening Iran and not vice-versa –– as [German Middle East scholar] Dr. Udo Steinbach did in a recent radio interview. The modern anti-Semite finds ordinary anti-Semitism disgraceful. He has no problem, however, embracing anti-Zionism and is grateful for the opportunity to express his resentment in a politically correct form. For anti-Zionism is a sort of resentment just like classical anti-Semitism was. The anti-Zionist has the same attitude toward Israel as the anti-Semite has to Jews. He is not bothered by what Israel does or does not do, but rather by the fact that Israel exists. That is why he participates so passionately in debates about the solution to the Palestinian question –– which could well mean a final solution for Israel. On the other hand, he is left indifferent by conditions in Darfur or Zimbabwe or Congo or Cambodia, because there are no Jews involved in those places. Ask the foreign policy spokesperson of the Left Party, for instance, how many statements he has issued about "Palestine" and how many about Tibet. Earlier –– let' s say at the time of classical anti-Semites like Wilhelm Marr, Karl Lueger, and Adolf Stoecker –– everything was plain and simple. There were Jews, there were anti-Semites, and there was anti-Semitism. After 1945, for the well-known reasons, we then had in Germany an anti-Semitism without Jews. And now today we are again confronted by a new phenomenon: an anti-Semitism without anti-Semites. Another new phenomenon is the professional profile of what might be called the "leisure time anti-Semite" who does his regular job during the day, perhaps even in a federal government office, and then in his spare time writes "critical" texts on Israel that appear on obscure anti-Zionist websites. [The reference is to Ludwig Watzal, an official of Germany's Federal Office for Civic Education (BpB), many of whose articles have been reprinted on the site antimperialista.org. See [1] here on Watzal. The BpB has resisted calls for Watzal's dismissal, arguing that the writings in question are not connected to his professional activity. –– Translator's Note] Nobody wants to be an anti-Semite, but the "anti-Zionist" hall of shame is getting increasingly crowded. Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are two sides of the same coin. If the anti-Semite was convinced that it is not him, the anti-Semite, who is to blame for anti-Semitism, but rather the Jew himself who is to blame, so too is the anti-Zionist convinced that Israel is responsible not only for the suffering of the Palestinians, but also for the hardship it suffers itself. The older persons among you will perhaps remember what a Green Party politician, who is still a member of the Bundestag, said about the Iraqi rockets that were fired at Israel at the time of the first Gulf War in 1991: "The Iraqi rocket attacks are the logical, nearly unavoidable consequence of Israeli policy." [The author of the quote is Green Party Member of Parliament Hans-Christian Ströbele. –– Translator's Note] At the time, the same Green Party politician also opposed the delivery of defensive weapons like Patriot rockets to Israel, because this would, he claimed, lead to an escalation in the hostilities. Today, some 17 years later, we hear similar remarks about rocket attacks on Israel from southern Lebanon or the Gaza Strip: namely, that they are the logical, nearly unavoidable result of Israeli occupation and that Israel would do well not to react in order to avoid escalating hostilities. The modern anti-Semite pays tribute to Jews who have been dead for 60 years, but he resents it when living Jews take measures to defend themselves. He screams "Beware of the Beginnings!" when a handful of weekend Nazis hold a demonstration in Cottbus, but he justifies the policies of the current Iranian president and defends the continuation of German business with Iran. Ladies and gentleman, we will not solve the problem of anti-Semitism: not at this hearing nor at the next. But the mere fact that you are discussing the issue –– when there are also other and more pressing problems that need attention –– is a good sign. If I may in all modesty make a suggestion: leave the good old anti-Semitism to the archaeologists and antiquarians and historians. Devote your attention to the modern anti-Semitism that wears the disguise of anti-Zionism and to its representatives. You will find some of the latter among your own ranks. I thank you for listening. Contact B. Taverna by email at bltaverna@yahoo.com |
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WEAK AND DESPERATE FOR A DEAL" IRAN –– THE USA
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 18, 2008. |
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This is from the JoshuaPundit Website
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Indeed, Bubba....the sands run out of the hourglass and the weak go to the wall. In its waning days, the Bush Administration is trying to salvage its foreign policy fiasco on Iran by making one last attempt to see if the mullahs can be bought off –– at any price. Condi Rice has mobilized her minions in the State Department and has now crossed even the feeble, shaky line in the sand President Bush had before,of no talks or diplomacy with Iran until they agreed to cease their illicit nuclear enrichment and be a tad more transparent about exactly what their nuclear program is all about. I guarantee the mullahs have been laughing behind their beards at that one, probably wondering how even an infidel ferenghi could be that stupid when Ahmadinejad has been telling them exactly what the mullahs want nukes for all along. I mean, how many times do they have to chant 'Death to America' or talk about annihilating Israel or holding oil prices and the Persian Gulf hostage does it take? Apparently the message still hasn't sunk in, because Dubbyah and Condi have dispatched Undersecretary of State William Burns to Geneva for direct talks with Iran's new nuclear spokesmouth Saeed Jalili and are even talking about re-establishing formal relations and sending US diplomats to staff an 'interests office' in Iran, a country that openly admits that it's been in a state of war with us for over thirty years and has been acting on it. Apparently one hostage crisis wasn't enough. While Condi is trying to spin this frantically, I doubt even she believes what she's saying anymore at this point, although she inadvertently let quite a lot slip. "The United States doesn't have any permanent enemies," Rice said in a press conference. "This decision to send Undersecretary (William) Burns is an affirmation of the policy that we have been pursuing with our European allies ... for some time now." "It is, in fact, a strong signal to the entire world that we have been very serious about this diplomacy and we will remain very serious about this diplomacy." Rice also said that Burns is there not to negotiate, but to listen. But for that matter, Jalili isn't there to negotiate either. He's there to hear what price the West is offering and convey it to his masters in Tehran, so the bargaining can begin, and it will probably continue when Ahmadinejad comes to New York to address the UN. So, what will the Mullahs want, in exchange for an agreement they have no intention of keeping anyway? That remains to be seen. One thing they've apparently already gotten is assurances that the US has definitely taken any kind of military action off the table as long as George Bush is in the White House...and that the US will not do anything to assist the Israelis in taking action. The Israelis, of course may wake up to find themselves expendable, if they haven't already. So, how are the Iranians seeing this? Our ex-Ambassador to the UN John Bolton put it quite well, calling it a U turn in American policy. "To the Iranians, it will send a sign of the political weakness of a (US) administration in its last days and desperate for a deal," he told The Associated Press. It's exactly that, and the Iranians are probably are happily surprised at the new turn of events as Hitler was back in 1938 at the weakness of Britain and France. This will come back to haunt us.
Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com
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OIC SEEKS TO "CRIMINALIZE CHRISTIANITY AND PUSH THE EXECUTION OF MORE CHRISTIANS"
Posted by Manuel Vider, July 18, 2008. | ||
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"The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) wants to
criminalize Christianity at the U.N." was written by Dr. Laurie
Roth, for the Canada Free Press
Laurie Roth has a Ph.D. in counseling and a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, is happily married and currently resides in Washington State. She is a singer/songwriter with five CD albums to her credit. She plays the piano, keyboard, and violin and has a voice that can penetrate your very soul. Laurie is also an accomplished author, cartoonist, and artist. She can be reached at: Drljroth@aol.com | ||
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Since 1999, the OIC has been pushing with the U.N the 'Defamation of Islam' campaign. The OIC isn't a small fry committee trying to be heard in the U.N., but is being pushed by the 57, Muslim nation members in it and reflects the Declaration of Human Rights in Islam which is only reflected by Sharia law. That is how they want human rights defined and filtered through, Sharia law. What is it the OIC exactly wants and is pushing through the U.N.? Its actually quite clear when reading through even a little of this rubbish. On the surface they say they want to cover the defamation of all religions, but amazingly only one religion is mentioned by name as persecuted of sorts, Islam. According to Patrick Goodenough, International Editor, CNSNews.com, the text states they have "deep concern that Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism." They refer to that nasty mental illness that so many of us have, Islamaphobia, when we happen to in our hate and illness notice the forced sexual mutilations, beheadings, forced conversions, honor killings growing in America, buildings continuing to blow up, body parts continuing to fly past our windows and ongoing threats. Take more medication you mentally ill, hateful people. Don't you know that real international religious freedom must submit to the wonder and edification of Shari Law? The way this anti protection of religion and freedom piece of rot reads would only criminalize Christianity and push the execution of more Christians who are already being sentenced to prison and death for reading the wrong material, mentioning a verse to a Muslim or doing practically anything that might engage a real discussion in a Muslim country with a Muslim. Patrick Goodenough, CNSNews.com, says it like it is in pointing out that this religious defamation idea is being used as a shield and a sword. "In Islamic countries, blasphemy laws are used as a shield to protect the dominant religion, but even more dangerously, they are used to silence minority religious believers and prevent Muslims from converting to other faiths, which is still a capital crime in many Islamic countries." Justice Scalia from our own Supreme Court recently reminded us of a few things of importance: "America is at war with radical Islamists. The enemy began by killing Americans and American allies abroad: 241 at the Marine barracks in Lebanon, 19 at the Khobar Towers in Dhahran, 224 at our embassies in Dar Es Salaam and Nairobi, and 17 on the USS Cole in Yemen. On Septemeber 11, 2001, the enemy brought the battle to American soil, killing, 2,749 at the Twin Towers, in New York City, 184 at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and 40 in Pennsylvania." Lets call this what it is. This aggressive effort of the OIC to slam this through the U.N and get the defamation piece approved by the U.N. itself is nothing but a declaration of War against freedom of speech internationally and Christianity. This is hidden in fancy, protective words, it would only protect MORE persecution, targeting and murder of more Christians and suck out even any soft ray of freedom a Muslim in a country might want to even discuss or compare their faith with any other. This will be brought up later this year at the U.N. again. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will give an expected report on the measure put together by the OIC in Pakistan last year and passed in a vote 108-51. Lets talk more about the OIC's special glasses of protection they want to cram down our mentally ill, freedom loving throats. All freedom and religious protection must go through Shari law. Lets see, beatings for wives and women, yes; Execution of gays, yes; crucifixion of robbers, yes; beheadings of Christians who preach the gospel, of course; execution for any convert from Islam to Christianity.....on and on it goes and reads. . Gee, don't you feel enlightened, inspired and eager to have the U.N. pass this Defamation of Islam Act? Have you figured it out yet that this is nothing but a bold maneuver of the Islamic countries to destroy Islam's enemies and conquer the world, using violence, threats and killings as usual, but with an added flare, the most powerful International legal body officially behind them, the U.N. If this passes with the money, power and push of the 57 members of the Islamic countries and friends, and the anti-semitic, anti-Christian and anti American U.N., get ready for an unprecedented blood bath world wide from the Religion of peace. Normal witnessing and sharing by a Christian pastor or missionary will be a crime, insulting and defaming Islam. That will mean a massive prison sentence or death sentence. When are we all going to wake up and smell the sick tasting coffee? We are in a world war with Radical Islam. It isn't Islamaphobia that we are struggling with! It isn't hate for Muslims and their right to choose and express a different faith we are struggling with! It is that Sharia Law represents the complete opposite to our freedom of speech, constitution and the bill of rights! It is barbaric and condones beatings, torture and killings as a matter of course. OK, no more shy talk.....IT IS EVIL and the opposite of religious and personal freedom. It still blows my mind that Dr. Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, has even suggested that Sharia Law should be implemented and allowed in Britain due to how many Islamics have immigrated and developed there. He also puts his other fat foot in his mouth when he criticizes Christianities' history of violence and its harsh punishments....bla bla. After all, everything to make peace with the big dogs who control oil and want to kill you. Kiss up. Don't tell the truth or defend the truth! Read more about this nightmare push by the OIC at the U.N. and what you can do to sign a petition against this at www.aclj.org. Stand up for REAL freedom of speech worldwide. If someone of ANY faith believes in what they follow, they should be allowed to debate their theology, discuss it and share it. If it is so right on, attract people because they are drawn to its compelling love and truth, not forced to follow it, stay with it or die. I have taken insults, questions and attacks for decades against my Christian faith. That is fine. I don't wish to kill people because they feel differently. Let me share why I believe and what my theology is based on in love, and if we disagree, fine. Radical Islam will not stop until it takes over our legal system, our cultures, our moral framework, the U.N., our school curriculums and our lives if necessary. I say a big fat NO to Radical Islam. Come and Kiss My Grits! This article was also posted by Raymond today on Jihad Watch
Contact Manuel Vider by email at manuel.vider@gmail.com |
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PEACE AND PROGRESS AT HEBREW UNIVERSITY: ISRAELI ARAB STUDENTS CHARGED
WITH OPERATING AL-QAEDA CELL
Posted by Steven Plaut, July 18, 2008. |
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This was written by Efrat Weiss and appeared in Ynet
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6 Israeli Arabs charged with operating al-Qaeda cell (Video) Hebrew University students indicted of trying to build terror infrastructure in Jerusalem. One of suspects allegedly collected information in attempt to shoot down helicopter carrying senior official during US President Bush's visit to Israel VIDEO –– Cleared for publication: The Shin Bet and the police have arrested six Israeli Arabs, four of them residents of east Jerusalem, on suspicion of planning to operate an al-Qaeda cell in Israel. Among the suspects are students at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The six suspects were identified as: Ibrahim Nashef, 22, of Tayibe, a physics and computer sciences student at the Hebrew University; Muhammas Najem, 24, of Nazareth, a chemistry student at the Hebrew University; Yusef Sumarin, 21, of the Jerusalem village of Beit Hanina; Anas Shawiki, 21, of the Jerusalem town of Jabel Mukaber; Kamal Abu Kwaider, 22, of Jerusalem's Old City; and Ahmed Shawiki, 21, of the Jerusalem town of Shuafat. All the suspects were charged with membership in a terror organization. Some of them will be tried for aiding the enemy at a time of war, possessing propaganda material in favor of a terror organization, soliciting and attempting to solicit others to join a terror organization. According to the indictments filed against them Friday, the six used to meet at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. They surfed al-Qaeda websites containing radical Islam content, where they also found instructions for the production of explosive devices. Taking an interest in Bush's chopper One of the detainees lived in the Hebrew University dorms which overlook the university's landing ground. According to the suspicions, he watched the landing ground in January 2008, during US President George W. Bush's visit to Israel. He also allegedly looked for instructions for shooting down a landing helicopter on the internet, and took pictures of the landing choppers using his cellular phone. The six were arrested in a joint police and Shin Bet operation between the months of June and July. According to the indictments filed against them Friday, the six used to meet at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. They surfed al-Qaeda websites containing radical Islam content, where they also found instructions for the production of explosive devices. Taher and Omar Abu-Sakut, who are registered members of the Islamic Movement, were arrested following a joint Shin Bet, police and Border Guard operation that took place in June. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments –– both seriously and satirically –– on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. Or write him at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il |
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CULTURECIDE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN
Posted by Amil Imani, July 18, 2008. |
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The intolerant monolithic Islamists are on the march, lashing out with fury at non-Islamic people and cultures. This cult of violence and death spares neither the living nor the non-living heritage of humanity: wherever and whenever it can it commits culturecide –– wiping out other people's precious cultural treasures. Not long ago, the Islamists' destruction of the Buddha statues in Afghanistan shocked the world and exposed the savage nature of this cult of violence depravity. Yet, much more destruction on a broad range is taking place in Iran under the direction of the Islamist theocrats. The Islamist zealots ruling Iran for the past 30 years have undertaken a systematic campaign of endangering and destroying the cultural sites of pre-Islamic Iran, ignoring the numerous petitions[1] and pleas of the Iranian people. For one, blatantly rejecting the repeated appeals of individuals and organizations such as the International Committee to Save the Archeological Sites of Pasargad,[2] the Islamic Republic proceeded with the construction of the Sivand Dam[3] which went into operation on April 2007 by the order of the ruling Islamists' point man, President Ahmadinejad. What many experts have pass. The inevitable elevation of humidity from the Sivand Dam has given rise to massive invasion of Cyrus the Great Mausoleum by lichen and fungi. Cracks have started to appear[5] on the stonework of tomb of King Cyrus, humanity's first author of the charter of human rights. The building of the Sivand Dam by the Islamist government was launched under the pretext that it would be a boon for the farmers. Impartial experts, including expert geologists from the University of Shiraz, have countered with evidence to the exact opposite outcome. Farmers in the area had worked diligently for centuries and habilitated the originally salty soil. Water from the new dam is bound to make it the farmers' bane by returning the soil to salinity once again, experts warned. In order to discredit those who protested against constructing the ruinous dam, the Islamic Republic's Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, who ironically heads the state culture and heritage organization, has claimed that groups "opposing the Islamic Republic" are behind the protests. Mr. Rahim-Mashai who was appointed as the director of ICHTHO after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was "elected" as the regime's new President said in a press conference in March 2006 that he had never heard of the Sivand Dam or the Bolaghi Valley. The Pasargad Heritage Foundation[6] has filed a complaint against Mr. Mashai for a hearing on his intentional systematic endeavor to destroy ancient cultural treasures of the Iranian people. The destructive effects of the Dam is also impacted the air quality of the area. According to Amir-Teimur Khosravi the Mayor of Pasargadae,[7] "the level of humidity near the mausoleum of Cyrus the Great is so high that none of the Pasargadae's residents have ever experienced it before. There is constant flow of damp and humidity smells in the Pasargadae plains[8] that are coming from Bolaghi Gorge. In the Southwest section of the mausoleum, which is considered the entrance to the archaeological site, the subterranean waters have surfaced and caused cracks to appear on the stonework." Khosravi continued, "Pasargadae has always been renowned for its clean and pleasant weather, but now, as a result of high levels of humidity produced from [the artificial lake behind] the Sivand dam, the area suffers from a sultry condition." Referring to the gorge, "it is far from here," said one of the government's functionaries at the dam site, which is slowly filling up. "There will be no damage." People in the provincial capital Shiraz –– renowned as being the capital of poets and beautiful roses, as well as for its imperial Persian ruins –– have a different opinion. They say the project may increase humidity[9] in the arid area near the city of Shiraz, which they believe could damage the limestone mausoleum of Cyrus the Great. From its inception, the Islamic Republic has waged a systematic campaign of wiping out any and all cultural heritage and even joyous pre-Islamic festivals of the Iranian people: replacing Iranian's traditional happy celebratory events such as Nowruz, Yalda,[10] and many more with endless death-centered Islamic mourning. The Islamists aim to obliterate the Persian antiquities as well as any vestiges of the pre-Islamic Iran. They have put in charge inept puppets as archeology experts so that it would justify their terrorist action against Persian antiquities. The illegitimate government of the Islamic Republic of Iran is a quisling foreign entity that has betrayed Iranian people, its tradition, its glorious pre-Islamic achievements, and is incessantly working against Iran's national interest. Iran, under the stranglehold and machinations of these parasites, has been transformed, in less than three decades, to the lead perpetrator of all that is abhorrent to humanity. Although the Islamic Republic's record speaks dismally for itself, there are numerous reasons for its relentless campaign of cultural genocide. The Islamic regime's decision to slowly destroy Cyrus the Great tomb is in part motivated by the realization that the people revere King Cyrus for the just laws he instituted as well as his emancipation of the Jews some 2500 years ago. Hence, this benevolent king is despised by the Islamists for symbolizing what are truly Iranian and anathema to Islamic credo, as well as keeping the love of non-Islamic nationalism alive in the heart of the populace. Under the guise of development, the Islamic Republic has launched a comprehensive program of obliterating any physical traces of Iran's rich archeological sites. A partial list of these acts is listed below. He added "everyday this anti-Iranian regime is coming up with a new plot to destroy our heritage. One day our heritage is being threatened by dam projects, the next it's road constructions. They claim these are development projects, but if this is the case why is our heritage being destroyed in the darkness of night and in secret –– and why don't they sit down with the cultural authorities to find a solution to carry out their so-called development projects, and at the same time safeguard our national heritage?" The inanimate historical sites of the world are indeed living schools where invaluable lessons are held in their repositories. Preserving, exploring and studying these sites tell a great deal about humanity's past, its triumphs and defeat. Destroying these sites, no matter where they are in the world is tantamount to the burning of libraries. Only truly barbarians such as the bigoted Islamists fail to appreciate these treasures that belong to the entire human family. It is the Islamists' belief that any and all information, ideals and practices that fall outside of Islam are void and must be eliminated. It is the imperative duty of all enlightened people to steadfastly counter the relentless monolithic Islamic culturcide taking place in Iran or wherever in the world the scourge of Islamism invades. Footnotes 1. http://www.petitiononline.com/Pasargad/petition.html 2. http://www.savepasargad.com/european_languages.htm 3. http://www.cais-soas.com/News/Sivand/sivand_news.htm 4. http://www.cais-soas.com/News/2008/April2008/10-04.htm 5. http://in.news.yahoo.com/ani/20080618/
6. http://www.savepasargad.com/january/
7. http://www.cais-soas.com/News/2008/June2008/17-06-pasargadae.htm 8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasargadae 9. http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-10-8/60508.html 10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nowruz 11. http://www.mehrnews.com/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=131826 12. http://archaeonews.blogspot.com/2006/09/karun-2-dam-continue 13. http://archaeonews.blogspot.com/2006/07/mulla-sadra-dam-to-dr 14. http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/
15. http://www.cais-soas.com/News/2007/October2007/30-10-overnight.htm 16. http://mosaferan.ir/main.asp?ID=00553%20%20 17. http://www.cais-soas.com/News/2007/May2007/02-05.htm 18. http://www.cais-soas.com/News/2007/June2007/28-06.htm Contact Amil Imani at amil_imani@yahoo.com.
This essay can be found at
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SMUGGLING BY SEA SOARS; INTERPOL AT THE SERVICE OF JIHAD?; "TOURING" LEFTISTS COME TO RIOT
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 18, 2008. |
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LIVNI HAS 1 QUALIFICATION FOR PM Foreign Min. Livni is contending for leadership of the Kadima Party and possibly becoming Prime Minister. She has one qualification. Unlike Olmert, Sharon, and Peres, she is not corrupt. Leadership she lacks. Her foreign policy is a disaster, leaving hostile forces building up around Israel. She makes some forceful statements to impress voters, but gives no signs of ending the anti-Zionist thrust of Israel's government (IMRA, 7/2 and earlier). Of course, her other qualities are disqualifications. Other politicians may have her one qualification and her many disqualifications. SMUGGLING BY SEA SOARS Dr. Aaron Lerner asked a spokesman for PM Olmert what Olmert had meant in claiming that the truce would not "strengthen" Hamas. Under the terms of the truce, Hamas can use its warehouses of materials to manufacture weapons, it can train soldiers, and it can fortify areas. Doesn't that strengthen Hamas? The spokesman replied that Olmert meant that Egypt would stop the arms smuggling. Dr. Lerner pointed out that those other actions would strengthen Hamas (IMRA, 7/2). Egypt was supposed to stop arms smuggling before, but didn't. Why expect it to now? Palestinian Arabs bringing arms shipments to Gaza no longer are stopped by Egyptian coast guard vessels they pass within yards and are greeted with waves (IMRA, 7/2). Is Olmert trying to get Israel destroyed? All his acts tend that way. Not remarked on before was that Egypt didn't just act as intermediary in negotiating the truce. It actively bargained in behalf of Hamas, by making demands upon Israel. Israel should have rejected Egypt as a biased broker. GOVT. HAS NO EXCUSE Deputy-Defense Min. Vilnai complained that Egypt is "not doing enough" [you remember that euphemism for not doing anything serious] to stop the arms smuggling into Gaza. He admitted that the government knew in advance that this would happen. Nevertheless, Dr. Aaron Lerner observes, the government went ahead with the farcical truce that enables Hamas' military buildup to accelerate. Isn't that an indictable offense? (IMRA, 7/2). Israel doesn't indict leftist leaders for depraved indifference to their people's lives. They hold onto power. INTERPOL AT THE SERVICE OF JIHAD? As Europeans start to criticize Islamism for striving to conquer it, Muslims are striving to repress criticism. Jordan subpoenaed several Danish journalists and editors involved with the cartoons about Muhammad. The prosecutor is issuing a subpoena to a Dutch parliamentarian criticizing Islam. He threatened to post the warrant to Interpol. That means that if the accused travels to a country having a reciprocal arrangement with Interpol, it would extradite him to Jordan for trial. Denmark and Holland ignore the warrants, saying they uphold freedom of speech (IMRA, 7/2). Tellingly, they did not defend the truth of the criticism of movements and countries that want to conquer them. In Islamic countries, trial means conviction. That means that Interpol, which apparently takes national prosecutors at their word, hands over people who raise the alarm about a drive to conquer their countries to be jailed by aggressors! The aggressors can plot, but defenders may not alarm. This will not do. It shows the limits of internationalism in a world having some nasty nations. This is a lesson to the US, which Pres. Bush so far has kept from the Intl. Criminal Court. International agencies, such as the UNO, may be guided by authoritarian regimes, which prosecute ideologically. The US is freer and should stay free. Europe should stop criticizing the US about this and emulate it. IS TERRORISM GREATER IN EUROPE OR IN THE U.S.?" A study claimed that terrorism is much greater in Europe. It attributed this to American success in integrating Muslims and letting them prosper. Daniel Pipes doubted the statistics. After all, Islamist aggression arrives from religious fanaticism, not one's economic condition. [Education and wealth seem to boost fanaticism.] Mr. Pipes made his own analysis. Pipes found the original study counted incorrectly. There are many more instances of terrorism and by terrorists in the US, in proportion to the number of Muslims there compared with the number of Muslims in Europe. Why are they more aggressive in the US? Are they turning more to religion, in order to maintain their original identity? That would mean they don't want to integrate (Pipes #864, 7/2). Perhaps they are less monitored in the US. Perhaps more European Muslims travel abroad to join in organized warfare. It used to be said that they would leave the US alone, because they are free here to organize and raise money for jihad elsewhere. That theory doesn't work. It first was disproved in France, which indulged Islamists and then was bombed. FREEDOM OF THOUGHT ON ISLAM IN ACADEMIA? The Middle East Studies Association pursues its line of blaming the West for terrorism, which it otherwise ignores. It stifles independent discussion. To allow open discussion, Bernard Lewis and Fouad Ajama have formed the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa. It will offer think tankers and military experts a scholarly contrast to the older Association (MEFNews, 7/2). EUROPEAN CONVERTS TO ISLAM More Europeans are converting to Islam. Islamists work to turn them into terrorists. Most have not turned, but the others constitute a serious rise in the number of terrorists, particularly serious because they tend to arouse less suspicion. The lack of border inspection between countries within the EU makes the criminals harder to detect than it would have been in former years. The EU gets in the way of national security efforts (MEFNews, 7/2). RIOTS CALLED TOURS Leftist groups, such as "Breaking the Silence" and International Solidarity Movement, conduct tours of the Jewish area of Hebron. They use tours to defame local Jews and falsely accuse the besieged Jewish neighborhood of oppressing the Arabs. At the end of the tours, the groups lead participants in physical attacks on resident Jews. In the interest of safety, police bar the tours. The organizations, however, successfully petition the Supreme Court. The Court usually rules that touring is a civil right, although it is clear that the tours are the venue for incitement to riot. Some Hebron Jews are using the same type of petition to ask the Court for permission to tour the 93% of Hebron that is in the P.A. and barred to Jews (Arutz-7, 7/2). The motive behind this petition is not stated. ISRAELI WELFARE BENEFITS FOR TERRORISTS The families of Israeli Arabs who murder Jews there receive survivor benefits from the country's social welfare system (Prof. Steven Plaut, 7/3). Three years ago, some anti-withdrawal demonstrators blocked a road. A non-participating youth on the sidewalk took photographs of them. Police beat that youth into unconsciousness. Although not convicted of anything, he was left with an unresolved police record. He had to struggle with the IDF to be allowed to enlist. He recently shot a rampaging terrorist in Jerusalem (IMRA, 7/3). Hero. Israel is rough on Jews, good to its Arab enemies. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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STATE DEPARTMENT SELLING "MOSQUES IN AMERICA" CALENDAR
Posted by Anne Lieberman, July 18, 2008. |
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If anyone's interested, the U.S. State Department is selling a 2009
wall calendar of "Mosques in America" (in a limited edition for
Ramadan) and trying to cover it up by erasing even the Google cache,
etc.
Heath Kern Gibson is the Editor-in-Chief of Dipnote
published by theState Department It may not be quite clear yet as to what impact social media will have exactly on foreign policymaking. What is evident, though, is that foreign policy does not operate in a vacuum, and it must incorporate or respond to changes in communications. We are interested in your thoughts on how social media –– how these changes in communication –– will affect foreign policymaking in the years ahead. UPDATE July 18, 10 AM EST: As luck would have it, the State Department –– at "Dipnotes," its official blog –– has invited the public to "Tell Us What You Think" about its "Social Media" efforts. Seems to me such a calendar would fit quite nicely into that category. UPDATE on the UPDATE 12:09PM EST: Well that's funny. I left a comment at Dipnote and it's not showing up –– yet they've published a comment from Syria, of all places. Hey, whose State Department is this, anyway? Todah to Devorah for bringing this jaw-dropper to my attention:
From yesterday's Dhimmi Watch:
Available now: the State Department's 2009 Churches of America Calendar!
Just kidding. But you can get this one: "2009 Mosques of America Wall Calendar:
Limited Edition for Ramadan." Available from the U. S. State
Department's "Global Publishing Solutions" department. (Thanks to
Brian C. Ledbetter at Snapped Shot.
UPDATE: Brian notes that the page has been pulled since he put his notice up at Snapped Shot yesterday. I still had it open and was able to capture the mosque image, but sure enough, it's gone now. As Brian remarks, it seems that the wise "public servants" at State "get all nervous when We, The People actually notice" what they're doing. SECOND UPDATE: Here is the Google Cache page, and lest that disappear soon, here in two parts (top of the page and bottom of the page) is a screen capture of it. If you go to that screen capture of the bottom of the now-disappeared page, it says you can place your order by registering and logging in at their online Catalog Ordering System at http://gps.state.gov/shoponline/catalog and "for other related information, inquiries and follow-ups," contact GPS Customer Service at customerservice@gps.state.gov Customers may also fax number (632) 301-2989 "for immediate action." Please use the following stock number when ordering: M0535-E (2009 Mosques of America Wall Calendar)
In light of the Mosques calendar being scrubbed off the internet, it is especially ironic to note that the Bureau of Administration handles Freedom of Information requests for the State Department.
AND THIS MAY BE OF INTEREST AS WELL: Global Publishing Solutions Awarded U.S. Department of State Printing Contract (October 2006):
WASHINGTON –– Following a rigorous government selection process, the Department of State awarded a 10-year contract worth $164 million to its revamped in-house printing and publishing organization, Global Publishing Solutions (GPS). The award decision culminated an 18-month public-private competition, comparing the government's ability to provide a commercial service with the private sector bidders' ability to accomplish the same service. Competitive Sourcing is one of the five Government-wide initiatives of the President's Management Agenda, which is the Administration's strategy for improving the management and performance of the Federal government. The competition encompassed 199 positions, including Foreign Service, Civil Service, Foreign Service Nationals, and contractors. The Department expects to save approximately $80 million over the life of the contract as a result of this competition, with improved quality and increased capability to reach overseas audiences with America's message. ... The US Department of State requirements for publishing have changed dramatically over the years and especially under the current Administration. As part of her Global Diplomatic Repositioning Initiative, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has directed the Department to support developing nations as they work to become progressive democracies. In addition to moving hundreds of personnel from Europe and Washington to transitional countries and reallocating budgets to capture funds for the effort, the initiative also requires the best means of communicating America's message to developing nations, where computers are scarce and populations continue to rely on printed materials. To accommodate Rice's Transformational Diplomacy initiative, GPS has devoted many months and resources to evaluating best practice options. As part of this effort, GPS employs state-of-the-art strategies and counsel from one of the industry's pre-eminent experts, David Zwang.... Bloggers are making a joke of this calendar business, and surely
it's a great opportunity for that, but it doesn't strike me as very
funny. I actually fear the State Department. If you can imagine.
Anne Lieberman hosts the Boker Tov, Boulder website.
This article is from
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FROM ISRAEL: CONTEMPLATING
Posted by Arlene Kushner, July 18, 2008. |
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Here I include a photo of Karnit Goldwasser, whose words were so moving. It shouldn't change (appreciation to Michael P). Thank you for your patience, I'm learning... ~~~~~~~~~~ When I cited Ofer Regev yesterday, I let his words stand on their own. I didn't feel it was my place to add comment when sharing words by a mourner at a funeral. But now I would like to go back to those words for just a moment. He said: "We lived in a world where we believed our enemy was exactly like us. We thought we could speak to people who also wanted to raise a child, grow a flower, love a girl, exactly like us. But the enemy proved it is not like us. And still, we will not stop trying." "And still, we will not stop trying." Our strength, perhaps, because we are a people eager to see good in others and filled eternally with hope for the future. But also, the way to our downfall. At some point it is incumbent upon us, if we value our own lives and our own security, and that of our children, to face squarely the reality of what our enemies are and to respond accordingly. We are way past that point now. True enough that our enemies do not simply want to raise children and grow flowers. They want us dead. "Trying" with such people puts us at a considerable disadvantage and makes us weak. It also makes no sense, if we really know better. ~~~~~~~~~~ For a video with comments on this by Jerusalem Post editor David Horovitz, and shots of the funerals: click here. ~~~~~~~~~~ Let's take a look at our enemy and what he's doing now. Yesterday, Samir Kuntar and the other four terrorists we released to Lebanon went to the grave of the top Hezbollah commander, Imad Mugniyah, who was assassinated a few months ago, in order to participate in a military ceremony on the site.
Wearing Hezbollah military uniforms, they walked down a red carpet
that had been put out for them and saluted the grave. (See Lenny
Ben-David's blog on this salute, which is so Nazi-like: ~~~~~~~~~~ After kissing members of the Mugniyah family, Kuntar said to the assembled crowd: "This morning I heard that the enemy [Israel] has decided to assassinate me. This enemy knows me well and I want to answer it with two sentences: 'You threaten me with murder, when death is customary for us and a martyr's death is an honor from Allah?'" Addressing Mugniyah, he continued: "We swear in the name of the almighty Allah and in the name of your pure blood that we will continue in this path and never give up until we reach the place that was given to you by God [i.e., a 'martyr's death']." "Not like us" is an understatement. Celebrating death, they are the evil antithesis of all that we are, and we must never forget it. ~~~~~~~~~~ As to hearing that we want to assassinate him, there is this: MK Yisrael Hasson (Yisrael Beiteinu), formerly a Shin Bet deputy director, gave an interview on the radio yesterday. "None of them [Hezbollah] will be absolved," he said. "Whoever bathed in Jewish blood, whoever attacked the honor and independence of the State of Israel, will not be able to tell their grandchildren anything, because they will never get to that stage. "I have no doubt that Nasrallah will not die a natural death. The State of Israel will settle its accounts with him. He knows that better than we do." Nasrallah is so aware of this that he spends most of his time in a bunker. And so will this be true with Kuntar. Others here have now spoken of our steadfast tradition of "eliminating" those who have gone free but need to be taken down because of what they've done to Israelis. One unnamed Israeli official reportedly said that "Israel will reach Kuntar and liquidate him," as the intelligence community will not rest until this is done. For all his bravado, this must make Kuntar a nervous man. Fervently do I pray that he should be dispatched speedily. Not only because this would be justice for Kuntar, but because it would begin to win us back some deterrence. ~~~~~~~~~~ In other respects as well, we are hardly done with our enemies in Lebanon. I have wanted for some days to write about Shaba farms, which has been in the news again. Now it is more pertinent than ever. When tentative outreach for peace negotiations with Lebanon was
made by Israel last month, the issue of Shaba Farms was immediately
raised by Lebanon. This is an area of 20 square miles that is on the
on the far north-east of the Golan Heights, near the border between
Syria and Lebanon (see map at
In 2000, we pulled out of the security strip in southern Lebanon and the UN certified that we were back to the international Blue Line and no longer on Lebanese land –– the UN declared Shaba Farms to be Syrian. Hezbollah, which had used our presence in southern Lebanon as a reason for attacks, then found a new reason –– claiming that we were occupying Lebanese territory with the farm area, which was theirs. That is a Lebanese position that has been maintained since, and the UN later backtracked on what it originally said. Aside from the fact that this area has strategic value and was secured in a defensive war, there is the over-riding issue that the international community perceives that each time we reach for peace we must whittle down our size. Not only does this become an infringement upon our rights, it is a never-ending process that would reduce us to a non-defensible area before long. ~~~~~~~~~~ Now, with talk of negotiations with Lebanon, the EU suggested that Shaba Farms be turned over to the UN until there might be a resolution of various claims. This Israel has rejected, saying that this would permit Hezbollah access to the farms. But Rice has been pushing for us to turn it over directly to Lebanon, and I secured off-the-record information yesterday indicating that Olmert, while he is not saying so publicly, is inclined to go along in the (very mistaken) believe that this would bring quiet to our north. Last Sunday the new Lebanese president, Gen. Michel Sueleiman, made a statement at the Mediterranean conference in Paris that if the farms cannot be secured by negotiations, the Lebanese army will take this "Israeli-occupied land" by force. And indeed, the Lebanese army has built a road to within 300 meters of Shaba Farms and set up an outpost. ~~~~~~~~~~ Add to this now one other factor: Kuntar, in his remarks at the military ceremony, mentioned Shaba: "This time yesterday I was in the hands of the enemy. But at this moment, I am yearning more than before to confront them... ANY concession on Shaba will be an act of appeasement and make us weaker in our enemy's eyes. They will continue to find reasons to attack us. This is clear. They are now going after the Galil (the Galilee), claiming they have a right to seven villages there. It will not end until we finish Hezbollah, for their aim is our destruction, step by step. ~~~~~~~~~~ While the focus this week was on the Israeli sense of obligation to rescue soldiers, we must pray that the IDF is strengthening and planning and reviewing policy towards the day when we again do battle to the north, so that risk of capture of our soldiers is minimized and a true victory becomes a reality. ~~~~~~~~~~ It has now been reported that Hezbollah is buying land in villages in south Lebanon with non-Shiite majorities and using it to build military positions and store missiles and launchers. This is a new policy that will make attacking these sites even more difficult.
Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il
and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info
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UNCOMMON SENATE HEARING DISCUSSES ISLAMIST GROUP AGENDAS
Posted by Marc Samberg, July 18, 2008. |
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This comes from the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT). Its
website is at www.investigativeproject.org. The original article has
live link to additional material.
It is archived at
IPT Executive Director Steven Emerson's report to the Committee –– Report on the Roots of Violent Islamist Extremism and Efforts to Counter It: The Muslim Brotherhood –– can be found on the IPT website. |
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An open hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs bore witness to an unusually candid discussion about the Muslim Brotherhood's network in the United States. It was unusual in the respect that it was discussed at all. The fact that many major American Muslim organizations are derived from the Muslim Brotherhood is rarely addressed on Capitol Hill. The topic of the July 10 hearing was, "The Roots of Violent Islamist Extremism and Efforts to Counter It," and the subject most discussed was Islamist ideology as the root cause of terrorism. What made this hearing significant was the extent to which the U.S.-based Muslim Brotherhood network was discussed in oral and written testimony –– largely by Zeyno Baran, senior fellow and director of the Center for Eurasian Policy at the Hudson Institute. Ms. Baran's central point was that, while not all Islamists will become terrorists, all Islamic terrorists begin with Islamist ideology. She cited the Muslim Brotherhood as the "prime example" of the spectrum of Islamist groups that, while differing in tactics, agree on their final goal: a world dominated by Islamic law, or Shariah. As such, Ms. Baran pointed out that there were inherent problems with the outreach policies of various government agencies. She specifically cited sensitivity training for the FBI run by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as "completely self-defeating" as FBI agents might be taught to be overly sensitive and may avoid asking certain questions during investigations that they should be asking. Ms. Baran elaborated on some of the precepts of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamist movement dedicated to re-establishing the Caliphate. In doing so, she made a revealing comment on Islamist strategy in the West: The freedom and justice HT seeks by overthrowing democracy can often only be attained through violence. However, HT is not likely to take up terrorism itself. Terrorist acts are simply not part of its mission. HT exists to serve as an ideological and political training ground for Islamists. And I have called them a "conveyer belt to terrorism." In order to best accomplish this goal, HT will remain non-violent, acting within the legal systems of the countries in which it operates. The same can be said actually about many of the Islamist organizations, including the Brotherhood. These groups do not need to become terrorists because winning hearts and minds is far more effective in achieving the ultimate goal. But of course they do not rule out the use of force if they cannot establish their caliphate via non-violent means. She also painted a picture of the Brotherhood infrastructure in the United States: Following the bottom-up approach focusing on education, the first organizations created in America were the Muslim Student Associations (MSA), which are based in universities. After they graduated, the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) was created in order to expand these radical ideas and extend the influence of Islamism beyond college campuses. In the 1980s, several other prominent Islamist organizations were created including the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), and after Hamas was created in 1987 in Gaza, the IAP became its leading representative in North America. Why haven't these facts been subject to more open and public discourse on Capitol Hill and in the mainstream media? Ms. Baran answered that herself in her opening remarks: I understand that for most Americans, dealing with Islamism is extremely difficult because it is associated with Islam. Very few people dare to question the beliefs or actions of Muslims for fear of being called a bigot or an Islamophobe. As an observant Muslim herself, Ms. Baran is in a unique position to understand and appreciate the Islamist challenge facing America. Other witnesses before the committee, however, did not agree with her assessment. Dr. Peter P. Mandaville of George Mason University commented that some individuals associated with CAIR may share the Muslim Brotherhood ideology, but said that it would be "wrong to characterize the organization in its entirety" as a Muslim Brotherhood front group. Dr. Fathali M. Moghaddam of Georgetown University dismissed concerns about CAIR's sensitivity training, claiming that the FBI agents he has taught would not be affected by any excessive sensitivity (and incidentally came out with a ringing endorsement of a book by John Esposito, his colleague at Georgetown, and director of the university's Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding). Michael E. Leiter, the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, refused to condemn the FBI's outreach policy, claiming that outreach was critical. Mr. Leiter advocated full-spectrum outreach, even with those who might be anti-American, but drew the line before those who supported violence. In March, the IPT began to roll out an extensive profile on CAIR, noting its undeniable roots at a 1993 meeting of the U.S.-based Palestine Committee of the Muslim Brotherhood attended by CAIR's founders, Omar Ahmad and Nihad Awad. The profile notes consistent support by CAIR officials and speakers at CAIR events for the use of violence and terrorism in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. By Mr. Leiter's logic, if it were established that CAIR, ISNA, and other American Islamist organizations supported violence in any part of the world, they should not be partners in outreach. Also, if outreach were to become "full-spectrum," as Mr. Leiter advocates, government agencies would have to move beyond the status quo, where all outreach is dominated by Islamist organizations to the detriment of other American Muslim organizations like the Islamic Supreme Council of North America, the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, and the American Islamic Congress –– who are comparatively ignored by government officials. Hopefully the hearing and Ms. Baran's testimony will spark further debate in policy circles, in the media, and on the blogosphere. Contact Marc Samberg at marcsamberg@yahoo.com |
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DINARS FOR DOLLARS: ARABS BUYING OUT COLLAPSING WESTERN BANKS
Posted by Avodah, July 18, 2008. |
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This was written
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu and it appeared in Arutz-7
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(IsraelNN.com) First it was Citibank. Now it's Barclay's and New York City's Chrysler Building skyscraper. Muslim Arabs are buying out collapsing Western banks and businesses and gaining growing international power, but some Arab investors are worried their investments may go down the drain with the American economy. The current financial crisis in the United States has spread to other countries because of a massive debt that was not backed by enough real and liquid collateral. Banks and businesses gasping for financial breath are up for sale at basement prices, but no one is certain if the basement is the bottom. "The possibility remains that more Arab white knights will be sought to rescue ailing financial institutions," wrote Dr. Mohammed Ramady, a former banker and Visiting Associate Professor at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in the Financial Adviser magazine. He said he fears that Arab investors will end up chasing their investments with more money to keep them from going under. The Abu Dhabi Investment Council of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates kingdom of Abu Dhabi last November announced it was bailing out the mammoth Citibank financial institution, formerly headed by Bank of Israel Governor Prof. Stanley Fischer, with $7.5 billion. Next in line was Britain's Barclay's Bank, which raised $9 billion from investors in the oil-rich kingdom of Qatar and in Asian countries. The Abu Dhabi Investment Council last month forked out approximately $800 million for a 75 percent stake in New York City's 1,046-foot-tall Chrysler Building, which was the world's tallest building for a year until the Empire State Building surpassed it. The purchase of American banks by foreigners has been blocked in the past by security and political considerations, but the barriers have come down, wrote Dr. Ramady. "How long this lasts is only a matter of guesswork, as once again, the specter of foreign takeovers of 'national' symbols will be hard to accept," he added. The latest American symbol to go down the drain is the Anheuser-Busch beer brewer. The Times of London wrote, "The weak dollar and weak economy mean the United States is up for sale. Japs are conquering the car industry. Arabs just bought part of the Chrysler Building. Jeez, they even tried to buy the ports a while back. Whatever next? A hijab on the Statue of Liberty?" In a more serious vein, The Australian editor-at-large Paul Kelly wrote earlier this month that the foreign investments, headed by Arabs, signal a major change in international power. "The energy, financial and political woes that grip the U.S. signal a decisive shift in world power, mocking the liberal delusion that Barack Obama or John McCain can return American prestige and power to its pre-Bush year 2000 nirvana," he wrote. "There is no such nirvana. There is instead a new reality: the greatest transfer of income in human history [and] the rise of a new breed of wealthy autocracies that cripple U.S. hopes of dominating the global system and demands on the U.S. to make fresh compromises in a world where power is rapidly being diversified." Flynt Leverett, former director of Middle East Affairs on the National Security Council, thinks that "the international economic position of the United States has deteriorated substantially since the new millennium." In the current issue of The American Interest, Gal Luft, from the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, warned that OPEC's Arab countries could potentially buy the Bank of America with two months' worth of production and General Motors with six days' worth." The growing Arab takeover of American businesses continues unhindered. The giant Dow Chemical company and a Kuwaiti company have agreed to set up world headquarters for their joint petrochemical venture in Dearborn, Michigan, which has a high concentration of American Arabs. The Abu Dubai Investment Council years ago entered the international media business, buying a nine percent stake in Reuters News Agency, which usually reports with an open anti-Israeli bias. However, Abu Dhabi's' director of international affairs, Yousef al Otaiba, has reassured American officials that its purchase of Citibank will not be used to exert political pressure on the U.S. He wrote the Treasury Department, "It is important to be absolutely clear that the Abu Dhabi government has never and will never use its investment organizations or individual investments as a foreign policy tool." Contact Avodah at Avodah15@aol.com |
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ISRAEL IS EXPRESSING ITS GRATITUDE TO THE WARRIORS OF THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE
Posted by Ted Belman, July 17, 2008. |
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This is by Solly Ganor and comes from the Israpundit website
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About months ago I received an invitation from the Minister of Defense Ehud Barak and the chief of the Israeli armed forces Gabi Ashkenazi. The invitation was for a meeting of the `warriors' of "Tashach", 1948 and it was in honor of 60th anniversary of the State of Israel and the War of Independence. We were to gather on June 1st seven p.m. at the camp of `Rabin', at the military establishment of the Kyria in Tel Aviv. What caught my eye was a sentence at the bottom of the invitation: " The State of Israel wants to tell you `Todah' Thank you." It has been a while since the State of Israel wanted to thank me for anything, so I decided to attend. I was curious if I would meet some of my old army buddies of the 7th brigade, the majority of which were at the time Mahal volunteers. They came mostly from English speaking countries and their contribution to the Israel's victory over the Arabs was never properly appreciated. I was also curious how many would be able to come. After all, most of us who fought in the war of Independence were In the late seventies or eighties and most of us fought in at least four subsequent wars as `Miluimniks' In those days they discharged you from the reserve duty when you were at least fifty or more. Approaching the Kyria on foot I could see them from a distance, a long line of people standing patiently, inching their way towards the entrance around the massive wall that surrounded the military establishment. As we came nearer we saw their wrinkled faces and gnarled hands, some of them barely able to walk, supporting themselves on canes, some were lead by young soldiers helping them along. They walked quietly and proudly trying to straighten out their bent bodies., They came from all over the country, men and women, to be together one more time and to accept the gratitude not only from the state of Israel but also from the people of the country. They looked anxiously around trying to spot long forgotten comrades, who helped them stem the tide of the Arab hordes that swooped down on the fledgling state to strangle it at its birth. Here and there we heard joyous shouts of people who found each other hugging and kissing. We finally made it inside. The compound was huge! Thousands of plastic chairs were spread out in front of a stage where a military band were playing tunes we sang in 1948. From here we were to hear the speeches by the dignitaries. Was I surprised? Not really. After all, these were the people who stopped the combined Arab armies with their bodies, as they had few weapons to fight with. No, I wasn't really surprised at their tenacity and determination. Without these old timers, Ben Gurion could have proclaimed the establishment of Israel until he was blue in the face, Israel wouldn't have survived. In May 1945, when the British were departing from Palestine, Robert Kennedy, came as a young correspondent for the Boston Post. In one of his dispatches he wrote: "Jews make up for lack of arms with undying spirit and unparalleled courage. " Ironically, senator Robert Kennedy was years later assassinated by a Palestinian named Sirhan, B.Sirhan. He claimed that he did it for his country. I was glad that I came to be among these people with "the undying spirit and unparalleled courage." As Robert Kennedy put it. My memory took me back to the immigrant ship `Pan York', loaded with two thousand men, women and children from the DP camps of Europe, survivors of the Holocaust. There were also young men from Canada, US and England who came to join the Israeli Defense Forces that were in the middle of a life and death struggle against the combined 7 Arab armies. It was August 1948, three months after the state was declared. I remember the day when we sighted the Carmel hills surrounded by an early morning mist. Then as the sun rose in the East the mist lifted and we saw the white houses of Haifa stretching from the sea to the Carmel like some three thousand year old apparition that endless generations of Jews dreamt of. We all stood on the deck in total silence and then one of us began singing the Hatikvah and we all joined and the sound carried far across the quiet water. At that moment we knew that we came here to lay our lives down if necessary to fulfill a two thousand year old dream; the rebirth of our ancient home. Many of us who were on that ship did lay their lives down in the defense of this country. As I sat among my comrades in arms sixty years later and heard Ehud Barak and Gabi Askenazi thanking us in the name of the nation, I thought of those who died for this country, some of whom were the last members of whole families who died in the Holocaust. The thanks and our gratitude belongs to them. We would be amiss if we wouldn't express our thanks and gratitude to
the Mahal volunteers who gave their lives for this country. They came
as volunteers from all over the world, South Africa, the US, England
and many other countries to fight in the war of Independence and more
than a hundred of them died defending it.
Ted Belman is a Canadian lawyer and editor of the IsraPundit.com website, an activist pro-Israel website. Contact him at tedbel@rogers.com |
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FROM ISRAEL: THE DAY AFTER
Posted by Arlene Kushner, July 17, 2008. |
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I wrote yesterday that, while I absolutely believe the prisoner trade that was made yesterday should never have happened (and that opinion holds!), I acknowledge the reality and enormity of the pain of the families involved, who are now able to have closure. What we're seeing with them is a demonstration of the sterling character of the people of the nation. I focus first on the words of the Goldwasser family, at the funeral of Ehud this morning at the Nahariya Military Cemetery. Shlomo, Miki, and Karnit... His widow, Karnit, spoke directly to him: "On the twelfth of July, at nine hours and six minutes, time stopped. A journey began for you and me –– for us, the family, and for the entire country. Now you and I move on to the next journey, the journey of my life. You will be a full partner in it, you will continue to be my inner voice, eternally young, accompanying me throughout my life. It will be lived without you, but forever you will be there. "My love, they say that time heals and covers wounds. Is that so? Two years have passed since that one moment when, with a wave of a knife, the artery of our life together was cut. That moment, the worst of all, was turned into a horrible reality; a reality which forced all of us to sink into a dark and complicated world. "Please forgive me, my darling husband, for not [talking about] your many virtues here, those which accompanied me every step of the way during the struggle for your return. This isn't the place to do that. "With your permission, the personal farewell I'll do in my own time." ~~~~~~~~~~ Micki Goldwasser, the mother of Ehud, refused to cry at the funeral, declaring that she would save the crying for later. She said: "We have discovered this nation to be a wonderful nation. We have found bereaved families with superior mental fortitude, we have found generosity. We have found the spirit of volunteering, the meaning of the word friendship. This is an amazing nation. "I would like to salute the Arad family. I would like to salute the members of the Shahar family –– it took great strength for them to come. And in particular, I would like to salute a great woman who has been my inspiration by standing up to all horrors with her head held high –– Smadar Haran." [Eliyahu Shahar was one of the policemen killed by Kuntar during his rampage. And it was the husband and young daughter of Smadar who were massacred by Kuntar –– Smadar's ability to go on with her life has been a model of extraordinary strength and courage. For all of these people the return of Kuntar in this exchange was a grievous thing.] "I turn to the Jewish nation and ask you to hold your head high in national pride." ~~~~~~~~~~ Eldad Regev was buried this afternoon at the Haifa Military Cemetery. At his funeral, his brother Ofer –– seen below with his brother Eyal, partially obscured, and his father, Tzvi, saying Kaddish –– delivered these words: "We lived in a world where we believed our enemy was exactly like us. "We thought we could speak to people who also wanted to raise a child, grow a flower, love a girl, exactly like us. But the enemy proved it is not like us. And still, we will not stop trying. "I stand here today sad, crying, but proud; proud of my country that fought with me to bring you back, proud of every citizen who thought of you, Eldad, as his brother. I'm proud to belong to those who love and not to those who hate. And to the entire nation who paid a high price with clenched teeth, they know that camaraderie has no price. "Every Hebrew mother should know that the fate of her sons, even if they are taken hostage, lies in the hands of commanders who will not rest and never give up until they return. "I am proud of you my little brother, a man of many talents, a lover of literature and soccer. A true patriot both on the front lines and in everyday life, during reserve duty or in the volunteer work you carried out." Eyal Regev, Eldad's other brother, quoted something that Eldad had written on Yom HaZikaron (Remembrance Day), before he was captured: "Maybe there is eventual comfort and hope, and remembrance and faith are not for nothing." "My Eldad," said Eyal,"may your memory be blessed." Eldad Regev's father Tzvi and... ~~~~~~~~~~ Herb Keinon, writing in the Jerusalem Post, attempted to explain what has happened here in the last few days: "Much of what makes Israel unique and different needs to be understood to explain the grisly prisoner exchange that took place on Wednesday. Israel freed a child-murderer and four prisoners of war, along with nearly 200 bodies of assorted terrorists and infiltrators, for coffins bearing the remains of two IDF reservists. "No other country in the world would have made such a deal. But no other country in the world bears the scars that Israel does, nor the almost absolute knowledge that there will be other wars to fight in this generation, and that people we all know will be called upon to do the fighting... "Israel's ethos of never leaving a soldier behind also comes, to a great degree, from a sense of communal obligation following the Holocaust –– a feeling that whenever Jews are in danger, everything, but everything, must be done to try to save them, if only because so little was done back then. ~~~~~~~~~~ Perhaps this is so, and undoubtedly there is some truth in this. There is no question but that we value life and the preciousness of each individual as no other people. But if there is a communal obligation for each life, there is also the obligation to not put lives of our soldiers at unnecessary risk, and I suggest that this what this trade has done: for we've delivered a message that will encourage further kidnappings. ~~~~~~~~~~ This is what an anguished Naomi Ragen wrote yesterday regarding this very issue: "What can we do? [we hear] We are civilized and they are not. We care about our soldiers and their families. "No, I'm afraid you do not. If you cared, then you would have a death penalty for people like Kuntar, so that they too can be released in caskets... "...Civilized is not a moral value, because we all know what Western civilization is capable of. Concentration camps. Civilian round-ups, the gassing of children...On the other hand, the moral thing to do to a tried and convicted murderer like Kuntar is to spill his blood, because he has spilled the blood of others. That may not fit in with current civilized niceties, but let no one say it is immoral. "When it comes to immoral, to release Kuntar to a hero's welcome and the opportunity to murder others is on the top of the scale... "If we cared about our soldiers, we would not be showing our enemies that kidnapping and terrorism pay. We would not be setting the stage for the next murderous terrorist raid and hostage standoff. We would be passing laws with a mandatory death penalty for convicted terrorists with blood on their hands...Then, we would be cutting off all water and electricity to Gaza until Gilad Shalit is released. If that didn't work, we'd begin executions within one week, increasing the number convicted terrorists facing firing squads with each passing day until Gilad is returned to us safe and sound. And if that didn't work, we would begin daily bombings of Gaza, with the same number and frequency of attacks that our own city Sderot has suffered over the past three years from the Gazans. Not civilized? Perhaps. But moral. Extremely moral. ~~~~~~~~~~ Just perhaps, with this posting I have shared a bit of the anguish of our nation right now. There will be other days for discussing other issues. Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info |
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ISRAEL, FRANCE SLAMMED FOR 'ENDING SYRIA'S ISOLATION'
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 17, 2008. |
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This was written by Aaron Klein
and are from WND's Jerusalem Bureau
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Lebanese leader: 'They opened the doors of Europe to this wrecker' By conducting diplomacy with Syria, France and Israel have "opened the doors of Europe" to Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has been working to destabilize Lebanon, charged Lebanon's Druze leader Walid Jumblatt in an interview with WND yesterday. "They have opened the door to Europe freely to Assad without mentioning his wrecking of Lebanon and the Hariri tribunal," said Jumblatt, head of the Progressive Socialist Party and considered one of the most prominent pro-democracy politicians in Lebanon. Jumblatt was referring to an international tribunal to try the murderers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, who was assassinated in February 2005 in a car bomb blast widely attributed to Syria. "I don't understand French policy. I am afraid Assad is now at ease, waiting for new a administration in the United States. President Bush will leave and then the isolation that was around Bashar will be over," Jumblatt said. Last weekend, Assad attended a French-initiated regional conference at which financial deals with Syria were discussed. French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised to make a state visit to Damascus in September or October and to send a delegation of high-level businessmen and legislators to Syria in next month –– a major blow to U.S.-imposed sanctions against Damascus. Assad's invitation to France was issued immediately after it was announced in May that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was conducting indirect talks with Syria regarding renewing negotiations over an Israeli retreat from the Golan Heights. The Syrian talks with Israel are widely credited with partially ending a U.S.-imposed policy of isolating the Assad regime, specifically in bringing about French and greater European diplomacy with Syria. While he had harsh words for Israeli and French diplomacy with Damascus, Jumblatt praised an Israeli prisoner exchange deal with the Hezbollah terror group that it set to take place today. "Look, even though we are at adds with Hezbollah, they did their job precisely and they did succeed. Now they are getting paid," Jumblatt told WND. In the controversial deal, Olmert's government agreed to release Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar and four captured Lebanese guerrillas in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah in a 2006 raid. Kuntar, considered a hero in the greater terrorist community, is currently serving four life sentences in an Israeli prison for murdering four Israelis in a 1979 terror attack in northern Israel. He reportedly sent Hezbollah a letter from his Israeli prison cell indicating he would like to join the Lebanese terror group once he is released from Israeli prison. Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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LONDON THINK-TANK TO FIGHT ANTISEMITISM
Posted by Simon McIlwaine, July 17, 2008. |
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This was written by Jonny Paul, Jerusalem Post
correspondent and it appeared yesterday. It is archived at
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"The academic boycott of Israel is ignorant on so many different levels; it's ignorant, as it will achieve nothing, it's ignorantly ineffective, it's ignorantly motivated and it's driven by politics," UK Minister for Europe Jim Murphy said this week at the launch of a new think-tank dedicated to examining the growth and development of anti-Semitism in the world today. Speaking at the launch of the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism (EISCA) in Parliament, Murphy highlighted the extremes of both Left and Right, and spoke about the legitimization of contemporary anti-Semitism by other faiths. EISCA director Dr. Winston Pickett said the institute's goal was "to become a leading think-tank on anti-Semitism, generating new strategies to counter and overcome it. Its research trajectory seeks to analyze anti-Semitism as a global phenomenon with deep historical roots and a resilient ability to adapt to present circumstances. "Our aim is to provide clear thinking on anti-Semitism –– and this means regarding it as central to understanding contemporary prejudice and racial hatred today." In keeping with this goal, Pickett said, the think-tank plans to offer a Web-based network for the most comprehensive scholarship in the field and toward solutions-oriented research that explores ways to address anti-Semitism in all its forms. At the launch, Murphy enumerated two motives behind right-wing anti-Semitism: the tangible hatred of "the other" and the conspiracy theories of influence, which he said the far Left had also utilized. "For the extreme Left, I would argue it is their unresolved relationship with Israel which drives their philosophy," he said. "The idealistic dreams of Israel as a potentially enduring socialist and collectivist state were strong. But particularly during Israel's second decade as a state, some international anti-imperialists came to a different conclusion. Israel's relationship with the US was part of this. And for a tiny minority, anti-Israelism took on an air of anti-Semitism." Murphy stressed that "being critical of Israel in no way makes you an anti-Semite, any more than Zionism equals racism." But he said there were those who had "gone beyond criticism of Israel into the entirely darker sphere of anti-Semitism." "Once you set aside the legitimate criticisms people have of Israel, then you can only come to one conclusion, which is, for the vocal minority, [that] they are driven by anti-Semitism," he said. Murphy also talked about the anti-Semitism championed in the Islamic world. "In addition to the anti-Semitism of political extremes, there is also, of course, the anti-Semitic pulse from a minority in the Islamic world," he said. "President [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad of Iran is the highest-profile proponent, but he is not alone. Sections of the Islamic media tolerate and on occasion advocate anti-Semitism." Murphy called for wider research on anti-Semitism and talked about the need to be much better at collecting statistics on anti-Semitic incidents throughout Europe. He made it clear that the British government was fully committed to supporting the new initiative and had already provided some financing for the think-tank, via a £20,000 grant from the Department for Communities and Local Government, to publish a report later this year on anti-Semitic discourse, stemming from a key recommendation of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism. "Our commitment is absolute," he said. "That is the reason we welcomed the All-Party Inquiry into Anti-Semitism and its important recommendations to the police, the Home Office, government departments, schools and universities on steps to take to monitor anti-Semitism better and to reduce levels of abuse. In particular, the report calls for further research on the correlation between conflict in the Middle East and attacks on the Jewish community." Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Stephen Pollard, chairman of EISCA, said he felt Murphy's speech set down an important marker. "Jim Murphy stressed that the government is committed to leading the fighting against anti-Semitism," he said. "That is good news, but it is terrible that in the modern world such a commitment is necessary. That is why EISCA has been formed –– to study, analyze and act against the roots of contemporary anti-Semitism." Simon McIlwaine is with Anglican Friends of Israel (www.anglicanfriendsofisrael.com). Contact him at Simon.McIlwaine@ormerods.co.uk |
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HEROES, THEN AND NOW
Posted by Judy Lash Balint, July 17, 2008. |
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Yesterday, as two shiny black coffins passed from Lebanon to Israel, and murderer Samir Kuntar appeared in his "commando" uniform at a festive welcoming ceremony in Lebanon it was hard to accommodate the welter of emotions that flowed during one of Israel's darkest days in recent memory. But, as with every traumatic event here, there are points of such stark illuminating light that always occur among the simple people, not the so-called "leaders," which enable us to retain our pride and faith in the ultimate destiny of the country. Eldad Regev, 28, and Udi Goldwasser, 31, were both "miluimnikim" –– reservists who spend around a month every year serving with their army units. When they were abducted they were fulfilling their reservist obligations. Yesterday, as the coffins containing their remains were returned, the members of Eldad and Udi's reserve unit were waiting at a nearby army base. Shlomi, a soft-spoken member of the unit in his mid-thirties, choked back tears as he told reporters that=2 0all the men would continue to serve, "with the spirit of Udi and Eldad accompanying us all the way." While accusing Hezbollah of "playing with us" by withholding information about Regev and Goldwasser for two years even till the last moments before the exchange, Shlomi acknowledged that the tears he and his friends could now openly shed would be not only tears of sadness but "tears of memory." At the moment that the coffins were removed from the black vans on the Lebanese side, a rabbi at the Regev home in Kiryat Motzkin quietly lit two memorial candles in the stairwell of the apartment building underneath pictures of the two kidnapped soldiers. Neighbors and friends sobbed as reality finally hit home. Sadly, halachic input has been sorely lacking from the Israeli debate over the lop-sided exchange –– not a word was heard from either of Israel's chief rabbis, Yonah Metzger or Shlomo Amar, causing many of us to ask, once again, just why our tax shekels continue to subsidize the anachronistic institution of the chief rabbinate, who are shunned by the ultra-orthodox world and ignored by secular Israelis. It was left to prominent Israeli human rights lawyer, Justus Weiner, a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs where I work, to weigh in on the halachic and international law implications of the exchange. (See http://tinyurl.com/5vyqul for the full article) A few hours before the exchange took p lace, I received an e mail notification about the second yahrzeit ceremonies of Benji Hillman z"tl, son of friends in Raanana, who was killed early on in the war at age 26, just three weeks after his wedding, sent to battle in order to redeem Regev and Goldwasser whom we now know were already dead. Most years in mid-July, Jews are in the midst of the Three Weeks that lead up to Tisha B'Av, the day that commemorates the series of disasters that befell the Jewish people on and around this date since the destruction of the Temple. This year being a leap year in the Jewish calendar, we're not into that period yet. Still, on the secular calendar, this week marks the 61st anniversary of the date when the Exodus, packed with 4500 Holocaust survivors aboard, limped into Haifa harbor after having been boarded by British authorities resulting in the death of three passengers. As the British sought to send the Jews back to France, from where they had set sail, the defiant survivors refused to disembark and started a 24 day hunger strike that eventually led to members of the UN Special Committee on Palestine influencing their colleagues in New York to put the partition plan to a vote. That decision, taken in November 1947, of course, led to the creation of the state of Israel in May 1948. In Jerusalem last night, just hours after we had all witnessed the heart-sickening spectacle at the Lebanese border, a few hundred people gathered to relive the heroism and single-minde d Zionism of the Exodus. Yes, it may have been the fictional account –– in the form of the 1960 film Exodus starring Paul Newman, but nevertheless, reality seeped in, as it tends to in Jerusalem. In the audience at the auditorium of the Menachem Begin Heritage Center were several passengers from the real Exodus; the daughter of Yossi Harel, the commander of the Exodus who died a few months ago and veteran Jewish journalist, Ruth Gruber, 96, who covered the story in 1947. We gasped as we saw the exact spot where we were sitting depicted in one scene, and murmured as we recognized familiar spots in Jerusalem in their 1960 state. Otto Preminger had apparently spent 13 weeks filming in Israel using 4000 extras for the epic three and a half hour movie. The head of MGM came from Los Angeles to present the Israeli film archive with a newly restored version of the film, which was the one screened last night. Today, Udi and Eldad will be buried in the north at funerals attended by tens of thousands of mourners. They and their dignified families are the heroes of Israel, 2008, along with the 157 Israelis, soldiers and civilians killed in the Second Lebanon War. If only their sacrifice would lead to something as momentous as the founding of the state.
Judy Lash Balint is an award-winner investigative journalist and
author of "Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times" (Gefen). It is available
for purchase from www.israelbooks.com. Contact her at judy.balint@gmail.com
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HAMAS TV BUNNY ASSUD SENTENCED TO HAVE HAND CHOPPED OFF FOR STEALING
Posted by Marc Samberg, July 17, 2008. |
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From http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a5b_1216298738
Aired on Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas/Gaza) –– July 11, 2008:
Following are excerpts from a Hamas children's show, titled "The Pioneers of Tomorrow," which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on July 11, 2008. |
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Assud the bunny: In the name of Allah, I hope my dad doesn't see me. God, make him go on sleeping, while I take one or two bills. There's his stash of money... Man, there is so much money here... No, I must put it back. Stealing is forbidden. Satan: No, no... What are you doing, Assud?No, ASsud, I promised you that nobody would see you or know about this. Take one or two bills. Don't be afraid, Assud. Assud: Okay, I'll just take one... Actually, I'll take two. Satan: No, take three. [...] Voice of girl: Assud, you were wrong to follow Satan, who is the source of all problems. In addition, you caused problems between your parents. You have no right to cause such a great problem. Don't you know that stealing leads to Hell. The Prophet Muhammad said: "If my daughter Fatima had stolen, I would have chopped off her hand." If you were in Saudi Arabia now, they would chop off your hand. Allah said in the Koran: "As for a thief, male or female, cut off their hands: A punishment by example, for their crime." [...] Child TV host Saraa: What do you think about what Assud did? Asmaa: It was wrong, because "as for a thief, male or female, cut of their hands." Assud: Oh my God! You say that my hand should be chopped off, Asmaa? Asmaa: Yes. Assud: You think my hand should be chopped off? Asmaa: What? Assud: You want my hand to be chopped off? Asmaa: Yes. [...] Nur: The Prophet Muhammad said: "If my daughter Fatima had stolen, I would have chopped off her hand. Assud: So if Saraa were to steal, her hand should be chopped off, right? Nur: No. Assud: When you were little, didn't you ever steal a shekel or something? Nur: No, because Allah is watching me. Saraa: Nur, do you think we should go ahead and chop off Assud's hand now? Assud: No, no. Saraa, I'm begging you... Nur: Saraa, he has repented and promised never to do it again, then that's it. Saraa: Well, if we don't chop off his hand, maybe we should chop off his ear? Assud: No, please, no, I'm begging you... Contact Marc Samberg at marcsamberg@yahoo.com |
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ISRAEL'S NEW SECURITY LAW; WHY OIL PRICES ARE HIGH; IRAN TOYS WITH WEST
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 17, 2008. |
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FOREIGN AID TO P.A. & WAR Foreign aid to the P.A. strongly correlates with war. The aid enables the P.A. to concentrate on jihad and ignore domestic problems with the economy and corruption. This is all the more true as the foreign donors distribute the funds without requiring that the funds be kept from war [and the P.A. stop its war]. Yes, the P.A. uses the funds to pay employees. However, it hires terrorists as police. That means violence. Bloating its staff It also means greater expenses and pleas for more donations. [Are the donors suckers or they want terrorism?] Much of the violence from P.A. terrorists is done in the name of organizations not part of the P.A.. [But they are indulged by the P.A., contrary to P.A. agreements to crack down on terrorism.] Members of those organizations often also belong to P.A. forces. Thus, even when the P.A. does not direct them to terrorize, it pays their living so they can be free to commit terrorism. The P.A. and Abbas' organization, Fatah, however, cooperate with Hamas. The P.A. turns some donations over to Hamas, ostensibly to run the government in Gaza. That is money that Hamas can free up to commit war. Foreign donors say the primary goal is to support moderation. Moderation doesn't increase. [How can it, when the aid finances Islamist education and terrorism?] Nor does the subsidized P.A. regime fully control Fatah and perhaps the security forces (MEFNews, 6/30). The "moderates" pay the extremises. ISRAEL'S NEW SECURITY LAW The Knesset passed a law barring recent visitors to enemy states from serving in the Knesset. The MKS who passed it do not want enemy sympathizers legislating. Some Arab MKs would not be allowed to win the next election. Arab MKs, however, claim that the vote was not sufficient to overcome the Basic Law, which, they further claim, gives them the right to visit relatives abroad and to plump for peace there. They will appeal to the Supreme Court (IMRA, 7/1). The Arabs' excuse is not relevant to the security law. How the Arabs affirm constitutional rights that, on taking power, they would deny others! The Supreme Court may well rule in their behalf, because the Court is anti-Zionist. The Court puts Arab welfare ahead of national security [and the Muslims put national insecurity ahead of their welfare]. The Court also rules on the basis of what it likes, rather than on the basis of enforcing the law. Countries normally have restrictions on aiding the enemy. Arab MKs have gone to foreign countries and, far from plumping for peace, have encouraged the foreign countries to keep up their attacks on Israel. OLMERT LIES ABOUT TRUCE PM Olmert told his people that the truce with Hamas does not allow Hamas to strengthen itself against Israel. But it does. It does not forbid Hamas to manufacture weapons, fortify Gaza, or train troops. Hamas is not supposed to smuggle weapons and Egypt is supposed to stop them. Not likely. Why does Olmert misinform them? Does he think they don't know what is in the truce, or doesn't he know? Neither possibility inspires confidence (IMRA, 7/1). WHY OIL PRICES ARE HIGH Oil extracting countries don't auction their oil. They accept the going price. The going price follows the price of oil futures, which are financial instruments, not physical markets of oil. Oil futures have been speculated upwards. The answer is to set up auctions, not to curb speculation. Speculation has a legitimate market function when there is a physical market (IMRA, 7/1). Actually, this subject is very complicated, and economists are poor at identifying and explaining the several causes of the problem, including American profligacy. There is no one answer. GOVERNMENT ADMITS BIAS AGAINST HEBRON JEWS The Israeli regional police chief of Hebron admitted to the Knesset that for years, his police have had special squads to investigate every complaint against Hebron Jews, no matter how minor, and to very strictly enforce the law against Jews there (Hebron Jewish Community, 7/1). Since there are no special squads to investigate every complaint against Arabs and to very strictly enforce the law against Jews, the chief was admitting to official bias against Hebron Jews. This means that official reports over-emphasize alleged problems with Hebron Jews and probably under-emphasize problems with Arabs. My sources revealed this years ago. The NY Times does not allude to that bias against Hebron Jews. It does not admit that the government of Israel is anti-Zionist and anti-religious. Since the media does not report this discrimination against Hebron Jews, how much credence should we give reports of Hebron Jews attacking Arabs? How would the harassed and closely watched Hebron Jews dare to do such a thing, even if of a mind to? The Left must be slandering Hebron Jews. It's shameful. INFLATION IN PRISONER EXCHANGE Hamas declared it will exploit Israel's willingness to release many Arab prisoners for few Israeli ones, in making its own deal with Israel. Olmert said he just wanted to bring "the boys home" (IMRA, 7/1). Not the boys, but their bones. That doesn't justify a lopsided exchange. The Arabs notice Olmert's weakness. IRAN TOYS WITH WEST Iranian officials criticized the government for intemperate language. They warned that more diplomatic language would enable it to thwart Iran's enemies. Those who counsel the use of moderate language do not oppose Iran's extremist goals. They just find diplomatic language more practical in that it doesn't alarm the West. They mean by enemies of Iran the enemies that Iran chooses in the service of jihad. Iran recently muted its language against the West and for its self-proclaimed right to develop nuclear energy (violating signed agreements not to do so for military usage). Iran also expresses interest in the latest offer from the West, after having spurned others. I think that is not sincere. The West had become more determined to confront Iran's nuclear development forcefully enough to curb it. Hence Iran turns back to diplomacy. Its nuclear development continues, gaining time while the duped West thinks that it might have some opportunity to negotiate a peaceful resolution. Since the West is not talking them out of their fanatical religious conviction, it can't convince them with arguments outside of religion. Pres. Bush says he has not withdrawn consideration of military means of stopping Iran, but prefaces that by stating his priority is diplomacy. Diplomacy is not taken seriously by Iran. It does not want to negotiate a solution. How can there be a solution, when the West is not committing grievances against Iran, and Iran's interest is in conquering the West? How does one solve the imperialist's wish to dominate? Not by discussion. One either defeats and reforms the imperialist or gets conquered. Would those Westerners who call for diplomacy and only diplomacy suggest what arguments might prevail, other than payments that we can no longer afford and Iran no longer needs? Iran never left its stance of pride, aggression, and paranoia. Would Westerners define how long we should rely on diplomacy, taking a chance that Iran meanwhile will have developed nuclear devices before we realize it? Westerners call for diplomacy blindly. They lack a sense of practicality and responsibility. They engage in wishful thinking. They can't face reality. ESTABLISHMENT BLUNDER When fluoridation was proposed, the recommended dose was 1 milligram. Researchers thought that more than 1 milligram is dangerous, and less than that, ineffective. Why does this proposed medical dosage alone lack a margin between safety and efficacy? The 1 milligram was to come in the 4 glasses of water that they thought people drink. I just saw a medical video recommend, for general health, 8 glasses of water. That would double the supposedly safe amount of fluoride. Its safety is not tested and was not tested. (I read all the fluoride experiments, only one tested for medical effects, only for children meaning no long-term diseases discernable, especially after that test had first ruled out ill children.) Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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CALLING THE BLUFF
Posted by David Frankfurter, July 17, 2008. |
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The tragic close to the abduction of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser brings to our whole nation a deep sense of grief, loss and frustration. It also brings a sense of dismay and foreboding. How will we now deal with the realities of negotiating with Hamas for the return of Gilad Shalit? Have we increased the risk and price of further abductions by taking what many perceived as the only possible and moral course of action? But grief, dismay and foreboding will not bring Gilad home, nor prevent further abductions. Is there a solution? Palestinian treatment of our prisoners and their attacks on civilians launched from civilian neighbourhoods constitute severe breaches of the Geneva Conventions and are clear war crimes. And yet our enemies constantly distort the language and terms of human rights and international law to demonize Israel. It is time to call the Palestinian bluff. Israel should declare that –– after years of this demonization and years of our enemies playing with our emotions over Ron Arad, Eldad Regev, Ehud Goldwasser, Gilad Shalit, Zachary Baumel, Yehuda Katz, Tvi Feldman and Guy Hever –– it is acting against the Palestinian breaches of international law. With no further notice, all Palestinian security prisoners should be denied all access by third parties –– International Committee of the Red Cross, journalists, families –– anyone. Once a prisoner is taken, his whereabouts, condition, status or even the fact of his confinement will not be confirmed or denied. Access to judicial process will be granted, but only to the point that arrest and confinement is proven legal, and to the extent that legal counsel accepts these new rules, and agrees not to leak any information except as necessary to conduct a proper defence. All other contact with the outside world, stipends from foreign governments or the Palestinian Authority, cash, gifts, letters from any source will be forbidden. All opportunities for study, or any other form of advancement or entertainment will be prevented. These people will be held prisoner under the same conditions as our boys. As soon as the fate of our missing soldiers is satisfactorily resolved; as soon as those still alive are treated according to international conventions; as soon as the Palestinians cease their war crimes, we will return to the natural compliance with those rules that we believe in and have complied with for the last 60 years. Illegal? No doubt there will be immediate appeals to the High Court. No doubt there will be international pressure. The Government must not falter. It must immediately prepare the necessary emergency legislation to allow this track. It must filibuster and delay until it can be achieved. We must let the world know that we are no longer prepared to be victims of its double standards. David Frankfurter is a business consultant, corporate executive
and writer who frequently comments on the Middle East.
To subscribe to his 'Letter from Israel', email him at
david.frankfurter@gmail.com. This essay is archived at
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THE BANKS ARE BAMBOOZLING US AGAIN
Posted by Daniel Doron, July 17, 2008. |
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This appeared yesterday in Jerusalem Post. |
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With the unveiling of the much lauded reform in the fees and commissions charged by the banks it is becoming evident that the banks, with their powerful lobbyists and guardians in the bureaucracy, have managed once again to sidetrack essential reforms by offering insignificant concessions. As Zvi Lavi of Ynet has pointed out, instead of focusing efforts on completing the reform in the still concentrated banking sector; instead of making the very wasteful management of the banks efficient –– the highly touted Knesset reform merely consolidated 198 confusing fees to "only" 72, lowering the cost of very few. The reduction is in marginal fees, while the basic fees paid by households and small businesses are going to rise considerably and so will the interest spreads charged on loans. Some reform. A sensational expose in Yediot Aharonot's June 27 Friday
magazine charged the banks with fixing the price of their fees, thus
extorting from their customers billions of shekels in excessive fees.
Excessive fees, however, serious as they may be, are not the root
cause of the banks' troubles. They tell only one-third of the story.
THE DIRECT costs of running the banks are a staggering NIS 25 billion a year. These costs are covered by NIS 14b. earned from the inflated fees, about a third of the banks' profits. The banks make an additional NIS 22b. in interest margins by paying savers less than market interest on their savings and by charging usurious interest to families and small businesses on overdrafts and loans. Surprisingly, this enormous interest income was totally ignored by the Knesset. The low interest the bank duopoly has been paying savers resulted in a huge transfer of wealth from middle-class savers to the few families controlling the banking sector. The banks employ 40,000 workers at an annual cost of NIS 15b. Average cost per employ is NIS 350,000, three times the NIS 100,000 cost of other workers. These outrageous salaries were extracted by the bank workers union with the help of the Histadrut and other monopoly unions when the banks were nationalized. The banks' managements cooperated because keeping the workers happy enabled them to take huge salaries and perks for themselves. The banks have a thousand branches and costly, fragmented information systems that require thousands of maintenance workers. These branches and information systems cost NIS 10b. a year. The banks have to make around 12% return on their capital of about NIS 60b. –– an additional NIS 7b. They pay about NIS 4b. in income tax. In total the banks have to make at least NIS 36b. to cover costs. They simply cannot make such profits without overcharging, a fact overlooked by the Knesset. The bankers and their lobbyists and PR agents managed to focus the public debate and the Knesset's attention on only a small part of the problem, the excessive costs of some fees and commissions. Even in regard to the fees and commissions attention was focused on the fees for managing a bank account. These fees provide the banks only 3%-4% of their income, but they distracted attention from the much costlier fees and commissions and from the exorbitant interest the banks charge on loans and the low interest they pay, far more important issues.
SOME KNESSET members believe that the solution to the banking scandal is to fix the cost of fees and commissions by law. Others believe that only more stringent regulation can avert price fixing. These are false hopes. The country already has the most extensive and stringent banking regulations imaginable. They are mostly unenforceable because the regulators lack determination and are politically too weak, while the banks are politically powerful. The banks employ lobbyists who have great influence on Knesset members dependent on bank loans to finance their primaries. They employ the best lawyers and accountants and many academic "consultants" willing to make their case. Still, the Knesset can help by providing regulators with the effective law helping enforce anti-trust regulations as proposed by Ronit Kan, head of the Anti-Trust Commission. A basic problem of banking regulation is that the body overseeing bank activity, the Bank of Israel's comptroller of the banks, defines its mission as the preservation of bank stability. To achieve this admittedly important goal, the comptroller has ignored many of the banks' offenses. Hoping to protect short-term stability by safeguarding bank profitability even when it has involved anti-competitive practices and worse, the comptroller did not prevent the banks from following, several times, policies that brought them, and the economy, to the verge of ruin. Only the bailout by the taxpayer, to the tune of many billions, saved the banks and the economy from the comptroller's lack of action. This is a pity. Many recent studies indicate that competitive and decentralized banking sector can secure long-term stability better than a centralized banking sector with excessive regulation. True, as we witness now in the US, spontaneous regulation by competitive markets cannot always protect them from all government-created distortions and from human foibles. No system can be perfect, so in rare cases emergency intervention is justified. Over the long run, however, markets prove far better at assuring stability than excessive intervention as practiced here. Daniel Doron is director of The Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress. Contact him at Dorondun@netvision.net.il |
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COLLISION COURSE
Posted by Jonathan Spyer, July 16, 2008. |
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Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak this week called the Iranian nuclear issue "a challenge not just for Israel but for the entire world." He added that "Israel is the strongest country in the region and we have proven in the past that we are not deterred from acting when our vital interests are at stake." Barak's statement reflected the extent of gravity and urgency felt in Israel regarding the ongoing march of Iranian nuclear ambitions. Such remarks do not necessarily portend immediately imminent confrontation. But they point to an underlying dynamic seemingly leading in the direction of conflict. Israel has observed the unfolding of events in Iran over the recent half-decade with increasing trepidation. Israeli concerns are not purely focused on issues of military hardware. The rise within the Iranian clerical-led elite of an ultra-radical faction, centred on the Revolutionary Guards and represented at the highest level by President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, has been noted. Saeed Jalili, Iran's newly-appointed chief nuclear negotiator, is the latest representative of this group to come to international prominence. The desire of this faction is to revive what they see as the authentic spirit of the revolutionary period, in the face of the waste, decay and corruption that is the reality of contemporary Iran. The drive to project Iranian power across the region is a vital aspect of this ambition. A nuclear capability would make this possible. Hatred of Israel is a genuinely felt sentiment in such circles. It is also a useful tool for building regional influence. Israel sees the Iranian nuclear program within the framework of this picture. Israeli planners consider that the Iranians have been playing a clever game of buying time, and using the hopes of the international community to avoid conflict at all costs in order to make progress in their nuclear program. Unanswered questions continue to multiply. A recent IAEA report noted evidence that Iran was with-holding information on high-explosives testing relating to its nuclear program. The report detailed military activities including attempts to develop a re-entry vehicle system designed to house a new payload for the Iranian Shihab-3 missile system. The report stated that "The agency is of the view that Iran may have additional information, in particular on high explosives testing and missile-related activities, which could shed more light on the nature of these alleged studies and which Iran should share with the agency," Alongside the suspicions of Iranian covert projects to develop the military aspects of its nuclear program, the IAEA report also noted that Teheran now has 3,500 uranium centrifuges at its facility in Natanz. The latest revelations indicate that Iran's Revolutionary Guards have set up a network of front companies to develop components for the advanced P2 gas centrifuge, which can enrich uranium to weapons grade two to three times faster than conventional P1 centrifuges –– which Iran claims are in exclusive use at the Natanz conversion facility. So from Israel's point of view, what is taking place is that a regime committed to its destruction appears to be in the ongoing process of developing what looks very much like a nuclear weapons program. The hesitant diplomacy of the international community, meanwhile, appears a poor tool for deterring the Teheran radicals. The incentives packages in return for suspension of enrichment –– contemptuously brushed aside by the Iranians, the half hearted implementation of the three UNSC sanctions resolutions, and the evident desire to avoid confrontation at all costs are unlikely to strike fear into an IRGC man's heart. A former senior Israeli defence official, speaking at a private gathering earlier this week, detailed four means, in reverse order of preference, by which the Iranians could be induced to abandon their nuclear program. These were: as a result of negotiations, as a result of sanctions, as a result of US military action, and, finally and least preferably, as a result of Israeli military action. The former official gave a pessimistic overview of the progress made in the last years using the first two items. He noted that in a situation of extreme threat and lack of total clarity, the threatened party would have no choice but to act according to the worst-case scenario. Such statements should be taken seriously. They reflect an absolute determination to prevent the reality of Israelis being forced to live under the nuclear shadow of a state committed to their destruction. Yet for all this, the underlying logic suggests that we are further from the end-game than might appear from the current saber-rattling. Informed US sources contend that the Iranian enrichment program is beset by technical difficulties and wrong turnings. These mean that despite the bluster, the Iranians are still a considerable distance from the point of nuclear weaponisation. Whatever the accuracy of such statements, they suggest that the US is far from giving a 'green light' to Israeli action against the Iranian nuclear program. Without such approval, an Israeli operation would probably for geographical reasons be a physical impossibility. So fears of imminent confrontation may be premature. Bluffing, brinkmanship and attempts at intimidation have all been much in evidence in the last days. But excessive focus on the theatrical element should not be allowed to obscure the underlying reality. As it stands, the current situation in the Middle East puts Islamist Iran on a collision course with the Jewish state. Dr. Jonathan Spyer is a senior research fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya Israel. Contact GLORIA at info@gloriacenter.org. This appeared yesterday in the Guardian. |
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"NEXT TIME" NOW: KILL, CAPTURE, TORTURE, DESTROY –– TO FREE GILAD SCHALIT
Posted by Dr. Aaron Lerner, July 16, 2008. |
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"Next time it will be different", a nation swears as the caskets of Goldwasser and Regev are broadcast on television in the immoral, grotesque and humiliating bodies for terrorist deal. A deal that sends the message to Israel's enemies not to kidnap more Israelis –– but instead to grab and kill more Israelis. Well. The "next time" is already now. And so. Instead of pondering how many murderers the Jewish State should hand over to the terrorist Hamas to gain the release of Gilad Schalit, the State of Israel must return to its senses and do what a normal state that truly values the lives of its citizens does: Kill, capture, torture (aka "interrogate"), and destroy –– to free Gilad Schalit. We don't know the exact location of Schalit but we know he is in the narrow Gaza Strip. And we know exactly the chain of command that is holding him captive. And so. Like any nation that values its citizens. That does not accept its citizens being taken hostage. Israel should launch now a bloody and violent invasion of the Gaza Strip in search of Gilad Schalit. Every camp, office, warehouse, apartment –– basically any place; every official, officer, gunmen, etc. associated with the organizations that hold Schalit (and that includes first and foremost Hamas) is a target. If there is resistance then the IDF will react like the army of any country that values the lives of its citizens and give priority to the lives of the soldiers engaged in the operation over the lives of those either endangering its soldier or intentionally providing a human shield to those enemy forces. Hamas leadership should find themselves literally facing the decision of their lives: unconditionally release Schalit or be responsible for the utter destruction of Hamas and their own collective one way visit to Paradise. Yes. "Next time" is now. And only a return to a strong and respectful response now to the ongoing challenge presented by the holding of Gilad Schalit by Hamas can restore the deterrence that Israel so critically requires for its survival. Dr. Aaron Lerner is Director of IMRA, Independent Media Review and Analysis, an Israel-based news organization which provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict. Its website address is http://www.imra.org.il Write him at imra@netvision.net.il |
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WHY IS ISRAEL IGNORING CHINA'S JEWS?
Posted by Michael Freund, July 16, 2008. |
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Below is an article of mine from today's Jerusalem Post
regarding Israel's inexplicable policy of ignoring the remnants of
Chinese Jewry. With the Olympic Games coming up in Beijing, this is a good time to try and raise the public profile of the community. China's Jews are a living link between the two civilizations, and their continued existence is not only testimony to the power of Jewish memory, but also to the bonds of friendship that have existed between China and the Jewish people for well over a thousand years. It is time for Israel to stop ignoring them. Comments and feedback may be sent to: letters@jpost.com or to me directly. thanks,
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The world's favorite international competition is a few weeks away, but Israel is already making a blunder of Olympic proportions. The upcoming summer 2008 Games being held in China will once again provide the Jewish state and its athletes with an opportunity to shine on the world stage. As is customary, the Israeli delegation will take part in the traditional opening ceremony, proudly marching into Beijing's National Stadium and unfurling the blue-and-white flag for all to see. It is a moment that inevitably catches the attention, and touches the hearts, of Jews everywhere. This year, it will also have the added effect of underlining for untold millions of Chinese viewers just how much ties have improved between Beijing and Jerusalem since the establishment of diplomatic relations back in 1992. But whereas in previous years, Israel and its athletes have
utilized the Olympic Games as an opportunity to reach out to the host
country's local Jewish community in a show of tribal solidarity and
brotherhood, no such gesture is in the offing for next month's games.
Sadly, China's Jews are being given the cold shoulder by the Jewish
state.
YES, YOU read that correctly. There are in fact Chinese Jews, and they are heirs to a proud and ancient heritage dating back more than 1,000 years. The first Jews are believed to have settled in China's imperial capital of Kaifeng, along the banks of the Yellow River, during the Song Dynasty. Over the centuries, China provided its Jews with a welcome and comfortable home, free of the widespread hatred and persecution that plagued Jewish communities elsewhere in the Diaspora. In 1163, Kaifeng's Jews built a beautiful synagogue, which was subsequently renovated and rebuilt numerous times. At its peak, during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Kaifeng Jewry may have numbered as many as 5,000 people. But by the middle of the 1800s, widespread assimilation and intermarriage had all but erased the Chinese Jews' knowledge of Judaism. After the last rabbi of the community died sometime in the first half of the 19th century, Kaifeng's Jewish community effectively disbanded.
BUT THAT was not the end of the story. Against all odds, Kaifeng's Jews struggled to preserve their Jewish identity, passing down whatever little they knew to their progeny. Today there are still several hundred people in the city who are clearly and verifiably identifiable as descendants of the Jewish community. Nonetheless, the policy of the Israeli government throughout the years has been essentially to ignore Kaifeng's Jewish descendants, out of a dubious fear that China's government might not look kindly on such contacts. Since Jews are not an officially recognized minority group in China's multicultural society, and Judaism is not accorded the status of an official religion, the question of Kaifeng Jewry's status is a sensitive one for Beijing, which views them as full-fledged Han Chinese. And with the burgeoning of economic, cultural and tourism ties between the two nations, it appears that Israel is unwilling to go near the issue. As a result, the Israeli Embassy in Beijing has not kept in touch with Kaifeng Jewry, nor does it make any effort to reach out to them. Representatives of the community are not invited to take part in the annual Yom Ha'atzmaut celebration, nor are they included in any of the embassy's other activities. And despite the existence of various educational exchange programs between China and Israel, the Israeli government has made no effort to enable Kaifeng Jews to take part. Indeed, several members of the community told me recently that they could not recall the last time they had any contact whatsoever with anyone from Israel. This sad turn of events can and should be corrected. There is simply no excuse for Israel to be turning its back on Kaifeng's Jews, many of whom are deeply interested in learning more about their heritage and culture. China has always treated its Jews kindly and graciously, and there is no reason to suspect that this has changed. Israel can and should extend a hand to Kaifeng Jewry, while of course respecting Chinese sensitivities. With its international atmosphere, the Olympic Games would provide an excellent opportunity for Israel to do so, in coordination with Chinese officials. In the past, the Olympic Games have served as just such a venue. In 2000, at the summer games in Sydney, Australia, Israeli and Jewish athletes participated in a range of events that were organized with the local Jewish community. These included the hosting of competitors for Shabbat hospitality as well as the establishment of a memorial for the Israelis who were murdered in the 1972 Munich Games. Similarly, in 2002, at the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, Israeli and Jewish athletes attended two receptions with Utah Jews as well as services with them. Why shouldn't Israeli officials make similar gestures vis-à-vis Kaifeng's remaining Jews at next month's games? China's Jews can serve as an important cultural bridge between the two countries, strengthening our sense of a shared past and common future. The Jews of Kaifeng are a living link between the two civilizations, and their continued existence is not only testimony to the power of Jewish memory, but also to the bonds of friendship that have existed between China and the Jewish people for well over a thousand years. It is time for Israel to stop ignoring them. Hopefully, at next month's games, Israel's athletes will excel and take home numerous medals, bringing honor upon themselves and all of us. But there could be no greater honor, I would think, than for them to renew the link between the State of Israel and Kaifeng Jewry. Michael Freund is Chairman, Shavei Israel (www.shavei.org). |
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ISRAELI FOREIGN POLICY ETHICS; P.A. LIONIZES BABY-KILLER; ISRAEL'S
DEFEATIST FOREIGN MINISTER
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 16, 2008. |
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POLARIZATION July Commentary observes that conservative Americans tend to move into areas whose majority is conservative, and liberals tend to move into areas whose majority is liberal. Areas are becoming culturally and politically homogeneous, i.e., polarized. Candidate Obama reflected this in his diatribe against religious Americans and his failure to understand working people for whom he nevertheless proposes radical programs. A liberal friend remarked twice that we have a stupid President. My conservative dinner companion didn't take the bait. Next time I will. I could assert that Bush's critics, who would tax and spend us into bankruptcy and don't realize we are beset by a Muslim crusade, are more stupid. That would offend and not persuade. Instead, I'd contend that no ideology has all the answers, but all have some. I did remind the liberal that Europe, whose intellectuals and leaders call Bush stupid, may be forfeiting its civilization to Islam, but forgot to mention that he sees some of the danger and they don't. Instead, having the liberal friend's attention, I pointed out to the group that despite Bush's reputation for being pro-Israel, he and Sec. Rice are anti-Israel, yet escape criticism for that from the Jewish people. He and Rice demand that Israel eschew most methods of self-defense from terrorists armed by the US, including retaining defensive borders. Polarization also is coming in Judaism. The Conservative movement is declining fast. The Reform movement probably will follow, though its numbers are not declining now. Numbers of nominally Reform people are not declining, but religious attendance and interest has declined. Men and boys are dropping out. The numbers have not fallen yet, because the movement brought in perfunctory members, such as intermarried gentiles who don't observe Judaism even in attenuated form. The movement also has opened itself up to every variety of belief. The danger is that having no religious ideology, it soon will be seen as standing for nothing. Then people would find no point to pretending. We Jews would be left with two poles: Orthodox [and ultra-Orthodox] and people of Jewish origin who may or may not identify as such. We will have lost a large segment of our people. Only the high birth rate of the Orthodox will keep the Jewish people alive. MISSING FROM ISRAELI FOREIGN POLICY ETHICS When Israel learned that the soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah were killed, in battle or in cold blood, it approved a deal to pay Hizbullah in live prisoners and bodies to return the bodies of the slain soldiers. Nobody called for revenge. Nobody called for executing hundreds of Islamists, so as to deter future murders of prisoners and future kidnappings. Israel simply acquiesced to outlandish Arab demands. Now the Arabs want to kidnap and murder more Israelis, to get more prisoners. Israel's policy is unethical. It is unethical towards its own, innocent people. It is not ruthless towards its enemies, as is popularly believed. It is too lenient towards those enemies, terrorists being no better than pirates. ISRAEL'S DESCENT INTO ISLAMIC IMMORALITY Nazis tried to justify the racist murder of Jews as pest control. The Muslim Arabs adopted the Nazis' racist notion of Jews as genetically inferior. They also called their murderers of Jewish civilians "soldiers," as if on a par, morally. The Israeli [and other Western] media came to adopt much of the Arab view by calling terrorists "militants" and "activists," blurring their vast difference from soldiers. The current prisoner exchange recognizes the Muslim Arab equating of terrorism with war. It exchanged a child-killer and other Muslim murderers for the bodies of Israeli soldiers probably murdered by the Muslims "in cold blood." The Arabs are welcoming the baby-killer as a hero (Prof. Steven Plaut, 6/30). Arab hatred of Jews precedes the rise of Islamism. The bad traits of the Islamists are not that novel, just more activist. The NY Times praised Israel for making many deals and negotiations with the Arabs. The editorial contrasted that with Pres. Bush, whom it accuses of refusing to talk with the enemy (6/30). He does negotiate with the enemy. The Muslim Arabs demonstrate a low level of morality. The Olmert regime and supporters demonstrate moral blindness. The Times is an accomplice of evil. The Times always praises Israeli concessions to the Arabs, without having the integrity to acknowledge that the newspaper long has been anti-Zionist. When Israel acts against its national security, the Times praises it. It specifically cites the non-aggression pact with Egypt. That pact, however, relinquished strategic and economically valuable territory, the traditional Sinai invasion route, to Egypt, a repeat aggressor. From the Sinai, Egypt protects terrorists, as it always has. When the Arabs are ready for their next major war, Egyptians would cut through the Sinai in half the previous time. For that they have been preparing. Guess they didn't read the Times, which states that they are at peace. Israel's peace treaty with Jordan didn't accomplish anything except give Israel a water shortage (from the provision that Israel pay water tribute to Jordan). The people of Jordan refuse to normalize relations. The government had curbed terrorism before the treaty, obviating the need for a treaty. ISRAEL VULNERABLE TO GAS ATTACK The government has taken twice as long to refurbish and redistribute the population's gas masks as estimated. Israel would be vulnerable to gas attack during the next half year (IMRA, 6/30). SYRIAN TROOPS IN LEBANON So states Janes' Weekly. They are not intent [at least now] on occupying the country so much as to block access by Israeli invaders, expected by Syria (6/30). Will this aggression be brought to the Security Council? If not, what is the Security Council for? It's hard to believe that Syria is suspicious that Israel is adventurous. Olmert retreats from every front, making excessive, dangerous, strategic concessions without getting anything worthwhile in return. Such a government, afraid to fight smaller wars when it should, is not likely to initiate a bigger war. P.A. MEDIA TREATS KILLER KUNTAR AS HERO Kuntar is the baby-killing terrorist whom Israel offered to release from prison in return for Israeli corpses. The P.A. lauds him as the ideal fighter against Israel. The P.A. media is headed by Abbas, whom the West calls a moderate. When the Arabs capture wounded Israelis, what incentive have they to treat the wounds? They get just as much if the Israelis die (Arutz-7, 6/30). The correct assumption here is that terrorists have no decency. If Abbas is moderate, how is he different from an extremist? FINALLY JUSTICE FOR DISSENTER Eight years ago, a teacher in Israel had enough of the annual glorification of the slain PM Rabin. Although the teacher deplored the assassination, he said Rabin is due no praise, for he gave the P.A. weapons with which its police murder Israelis. The Education Ministry fired him for it. The parents agitated for him. He went to court. Finally he was reinstated and the Ministry was ordered to pay his legal costs and some damage. The government lost that attempt to silence opposition (Arutz-7, 6/30). The commemoration was disgusting, unearned, really political. Rabin should have been shot during the War for Independence, after he deserted his troops in battle. He was an incompetent officer, but was promoted because of his politics. IRAN WARNS U.S. & ISRAEL "The era of hit-and-run attacks is over." Iran said it would determine the scope of retaliation against an attack on it, and the retaliation would be powerful. That warning is against a raid on its nuclear facilities (IMRA, 7/1). Syria did not retaliate against Israel's attack on its nuclear facility. Iran threatens to retaliate against an attack on its facilities, by war. That means that such an attack must be preceded, accompanied, and followed by demolition of Iran's ability to project force outside its border. It may not mean a long war, but it would mean a tough one and follow-up, as Russia sells arms. Much force must be used in the attack, not, as formerly, just enough to wreck a single target. Through its proxies, Iran has been waging clandestine warfare against the West for years. It has gotten away with it. Even now, the NY Times editorializes against fighting Iran, but not against Iran fighting the US and Israel. Hence, the aggression against us continues. Then the Times criticizes the Administration for not ending the Iraq war sooner. How can the US ends a war fed from outsiders whom the Democrats hold immune? I don't know who this day likes war, but the reluctance to wage it early in a crisis is like letting acute appendicitis incubate until its bursts. UNO PREPARING REPORT ON LEBANON CEASEFIRE Hizbullah has thoroughly violated the terms of the Security Council ceasefire Resolution 1701. Under it, Hizbullah was not supposed to bring in arms nor fortify the border. It did both. [This destabilizes the border.] Secretary-General Ban is preparing a status report on the Resolution. It is expected not to accuse Hizbullah of any violations. Ostensibly the excuse is that otherwise Lebanon might get destabilized (IMRA, 7/1). If Lebanon is stable, it is because Hizbullah dominates it. Hizbullah domination means war and a stronger Iran and Syria. UNO silence serves no legitimate purpose. The UNO is more an obstacle to peace and stability, by blocking efforts to overcome aggression, than a help to it. FOREIGN MIN. LIVNI Foreign Min. Livni voted for the Hizbullah deal to release senior terrorists, with the proviso that she would oppose it afterwards [when too late] if it frees senior terrorists. Did she fail to read it? As usual, she trying to evade responsibility for disaster. She is a defeatist, no leader (Caroline Glick, IMRA, 6/30). Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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ORGANIZER'S PAST RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT MADRID INTERFAITH CONFERENCE
Posted by Dr. Milton Fried, July 16, 2008. |
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Steve Emerson writes: "Below is a very important expose that the Investigative Project on Terrorism (www.investigativeproject.org) posted today about the so-called "Interfaith Conference" being held in Spain tomorrow. Besides radical Islamic leaders, major Jewish and Christian leaders will be attending (please log onto our website and click on the url at the very end of this article to see those attending) from mainstream Jewish and Christian groups. The biggest shocker is that it is being sponsored by Abdullah bin-Turki, head of the Muslim World League MWL). Both Turki and the MWL have long standing ties to radical Islamic groups: Both Turki and MWL were named as defendants connected to Al-Qaeda in 9-11 civil lawsuits, which both groups deny. And Turki is on record in a tape we videoed of him in 2002 as supporting suicide bombings. In our intelligence research, we have dozens of pages of evidence and statements linking both Turki and the MWL and its offshoots to radical Islamic groups including ones that are considered terrorist. That both Jewish and Christian leaders would dignify and legitimize such a radical group and a radical Islamist is both scandalous and dangerous. If you know any of those listed as attending, I would urge you to contact them and their religious organizations to protest." Steve Emerson is Executive Director. The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT). |
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In an ironic twist, an international interfaith conference set to start Wednesday in Madrid was organized by a man accused of working with a senior Al Qaeda financier and who unabashedly supports Palestinian suicide bombings. Abdullah al-Turki is organizing the conference on behalf of the Muslim World League (MWL), where he is secretary general. The MWL was created by the Saudi royal family in 1962 to "promote Islamic unity" and spread Wahhabi doctrine. Wahhabism is an austere form of Islam that seeks to realize the faith as it was practiced by Muhammad and his Companions, barren of the innovations and traditions that arose in the centuries since. The conference is expected to attract more than 100 people from more than 50 countries. But it is a previous Madrid venture by al-Turki that raises questions about the conference. In 1999, al-Turki was a partner in a Madrid construction project with a senior Al Qaeda financier, a pending lawsuit claims. Profits from that deal were routed to Al Qaeda cells, according to allegations in WTC Properties v. Al Baraka et. al. The lawsuit argues that, without the financial support from the banks, charities and other entities targeted, the 9/11 attacks may not have taken place. Similar allegations were made in at least three other lawsuits. In court papers, Al Turki has disputed the lawsuit's allegations and has argued that none of his actions were intended to support terrorist activities. Organizers of this week's gathering say it is expected to attract dozens of American-based Muslims, including Sayyed Syeed and Ingrid Mattson from the Islamic Society of North America, Ibrahim Hooper, Nihad Awad from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, as well as six U.S. rabbis, including Marc Schneier of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and Steven Jacobs of Los Angeles. In addition, John Esposito, director of Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding is among a few American academics invited to attend. Saudi King Abdullah will open the conference, the Agence France Press news service reported Monday. The audience will include World Jewish Congress Secretary General Michael Schneider and Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican's point man on dialogue with Muslims. Al-Turki said the conference will avoid contentious issues and instead serve as an opportunity "to get to know each other and to look for ways to cooperate." At another conference organized by al-Turki in 2002, the assembled scholars of the Islamic Fiqh Academy of the MWL "stated that terrorism is not equal to Jihad," the lawsuit says. The scholars "defined a right to struggle 'against occupiers... and those who renege on their commitments or prevent Muslims from peacefully preaching.'" In the week following the 9/11 attacks, al-Turki told a radio interviewer that U.S. policy was responsible for the attacks. "The attacks are a result of injustice which is carried out in the world, particularly the world which is led by the USA. They are greatly responsible for the injustice which exists in the world today," al-Turki said. He then blamed Israel, which he called "the mother of terrorism. To be able to solve the problem of terrorism in the world, it is necessary first of all to resolve the Palestinian question." Later that year, during a news conference at the National Press Club videotaped by the Investigative Project, al-Turki was asked about Palestinian suicide bombings: (click here to see the video clip.) We can also reverse the question by asking the questioner: "What do you think of the, um, Israeli oppression against the Palestinian people?" Could that be called terrorism as well? Is it coming from –– is it based on religion? This is a question. In regards to the operation, we shall state that first of all, Islam is against the killing of innocent people, civilians, and non-warring people. Those who are involved in so-called 'operation' in fact were put in a very dark (unintelligible word). They have no way-no other alternative. What could be the alternative for them? They came into a state of oppression, and no hope. It's a hopeless case for them. And because there is a strong and organized terrorism being waged against them, so they have no other choice except to do what they do and we shall not look at the issue from only a religious perspective, but rather we shall look at it as a matter of aggression being forced on them, and they had no other choice except that. Bob Blitzer, who served as the FBI's domestic terrorism chief in the 1990s, said he was troubled by a conference purported to be about interfaith dialogue being organized by a group charged with spreading Wahhabism. It's more troubling, he said, when the principal organizer is alleged in court papers to have ties to Al Qaeda. "I'm not sure why in the world they would put someone in a responsible position in that type of forum," Blitzer said. "It sends the wrong message. People of faith are seeking rapprochement with the Muslim world. Most, or all, of these folks are going there for the right reasons. If he's the face of this, what does that say?" Once they learn about al-Turki's alleged ties to Al Qaeda and his previous statements, Americans planning on attending the conference "should walk away and ask the king about this," Blitzer said. That sentiment was echoed by U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC), who founded the bipartisan Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus. "I am very supportive of interfaith dialogue and believe we need to encourage all religions to work together for peace and for the good of mankind," Myrick said. "I am encouraged by King Abdullah's initiative to promote interfaith understanding. However, I fail to understand how the goals of this conference can be achieved when the man running this summit is a suspected financier of terrorism and has made statements in the past saying that only Islam could dominate the Arabian Peninsula. Call me old fashion, but actions always speak louder than words." In WTC Properties v. Al Baraka, et. al. al-Turki is described as having "acted as Saudi Minister of Islamic Affairs for many years and clearly was in a position where he should have known about the reach of international terrorism and al Qaeda." He became a shareholder in a business that "bought real estate but did no actual construction work, although [it] list[ed] itself as a construction company. Instead, that company made direct payments to al Qaeda cells," according to the lawsuit. Al-Turki's partner was Muhammed Galeb Kalaje Zouaydi, described in the litigation as "a high level al Qaeda financier" and a brother in law of Osama bin Laden. Spanish authorities arrested Zouaydi in 2002 for financing al Qaeda operations in Europe, the lawsuit says: "Zouaydi was part of an international terrorist movement for global jihad which encompassed the al Qaeda network. This network channeled money directly to the perpetrators of September 11, 2001, and to similar global jihad movements planning terrorist actions in San Francisco, Bali, and elsewhere." In the Madrid business deal, Zouaydi and al-Turki each were supposed to contribute half the money. But al-Turki stood to receive 70 percent of the profits, the WTC Properties lawsuit said. "The Spanish scheme provided material support directly to al Qaeda operatives and the September 11, 2001 attacks. As investigations continue, additional evidence of such schemes will be uncovered," the WTC Properties lawsuit said. Attorneys for al-Turki sought to have him dismissed from the litigation in September 2005. His inclusion is based "evidently on no basis other than that he is a Muslim who has held important governmental positions relating to Islamic affairs," his attorneys argued. They also argue that he never entered the business deal with Zouaydi despite numerous overtures from Zouaydi. And they cite the 9/11 Commission Report, which found Zouaydi may have given money to an Al Qaeda associate in Hamburg but "no evidence that Zouaydi provided money to the plot participants or that any of his funds were used to support the plot." The High Court of Spain also acquitted Zouaydi of involvement in the September 11 attacks, according to al-Turki's lawyers. Twelve defendants were dismissed from the WTC Properties lawsuit in January 2006 but al-Turki was not among them, court records show. His motion to dismiss is still pending. Among those invited are Bob Edgar, former general secretary of the National Council of Churches, Rabbi Michael Paley of the UJA Federation in New York, and Rabbi David Rosen, chairman of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligiou Consultations. Rosen told the Christian Science Monitor in an e-mail that he saw the conference as a chance to "break down ... stereotypes, suspicion, and bigotry." He added that he would have liked to see Israeli officials invited, too. Click here for a list of invitees, but note that not all those listed will attend. Former Vice President Al Gore, canceled his appearance citing a scheduling conflict. UPDATE July 19, 2008 Saudi-led "interfaith" meeting closes with U.A.E. official's swipe at Zionism, participant complaints of control by Muslim World LeagueTo read the article, see above. Contact Milton Fried at docmiltfried@mindspring.com |
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THE SILENCE OF THE LIKUD LAMBS
Posted by Steven Plaut, July 16, 2008. |
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1. For those who believe that Bibi Netanyahu and the Likud represent a
viable alternative to the Israeli Lemminghood and could produce
national salvation, please note their complete silence over the
Murderers for Corpses deal on Israel's most disgraceful day in
history. Actually, even the Ichud Leumi (National Union) party of the
Right has been silent about this perfidy. (Moshe Arens, who is not a
contender for Prime Minister, is an exception and did denounce the
cowardice and disgrace)
For the past two years, Israel has been filled with Tee shorts and Billboards that read "Don't Let Indifference Kill Them," with photos of the Israeli soldier captives. This week we learn that they were killed not by indifference but by cowardly appeasement and disgraceful stupidity and capitulation. The country that rescued the Entebbe hostages has now rewarded those who murder Israeli captives in cold blood by releasing baby murderers to their freedom. 2. Eldad Regev was shot in the head, murdered in cold blood by his captors. The press here has not yet revealed how Goldwasser was murdered. 3. The people who brought you the "peace process" terminology have now come up with a new term for cowardly capitulation: it is now called "moral victory" and Olmert is fighting the Hizbollah on Youtube. 4. No pig skin in land fill for him.
His family will be getting social security survivor benefits from the
Israeli taxpayer.
5. Handing the Hizbollah its victory: 6. see also www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3569058,00.html 7. The Olmert Memorial Arch: 8. From Tom Gross: "The Terrorists Win"
9. Unanswered Questions:
10. From the Wall Street Journal: The Jerusalem Post reports on a happy event for the Palestinian Authority: President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday sent his regards to the families of Samir Kuntar and the other four Lebanese prisoners scheduled to be transferred to Hizbullah. Abbas praised the prisoner swap and congratulated the Kuntar family. Kuntar was in an Israeli prison for an attack that took place on April 22, 1979. Two years ago we quoted a survivor, Smadar Haran Kaiser, who described the attack: It had been a peaceful Sabbath day. My husband, Danny, and I had picnicked with our little girls, Einat, 4, and Yael, 2, on the beach not far from our home in Nahariya, a city on the northern coast of Israel, about six miles south of the Lebanese border. If smashing a 4-year-old girl's skull with a rifle butt makes Kuntar a hero, you have to wonder what one would have to do for the Palestinians to consider him a coward. The New York Times, meanwhile, describes Kuntar's attack this way: Perhaps Israel's most reviled prisoner, Samir Kuntar, will return to a hero's welcome when he crosses into Lebanon this week, 29 years after he left its shores in a rubber dinghy to kidnap Israelis from the coastal town of Nahariya. That raid went horribly wrong, leaving five people dead, a community terrorized and a nation traumatized. Two Israeli children and their father were among those killed. What does the Times think would have happened if the "raid" had gone right? Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments –– both seriously and satirically –– on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. Or write him at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il |
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THIS IS HOW OUR "MODERATE PEACE PARTNERS" REACTED TO TODAY'S EVENTS!
Posted by Lee Caplan, July 16, 2008. |
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This is the way our so-called "MODERATE PEACE PARTNERS" reacted to today's release of a terrorist whose crime was so heinous that he can hardly even be called a human being. Anyone who still thinks that peace is possible with them, please THINK AGAIN! Abbas Congragulates Kuntar Family (IsraelNN.com) Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) congratulated the family of arch-terrorist Samir Kuntar on his imminent return to Lebanon Wednesday, along with four other live Hizbullah terrorists and the bodies of 199 others who were exhumed by IDF engineers and rabbinical reservists earlier in the week. Abbas also expressed his formal condolences to the families of the terrorists whose remains are to be returned by Israel. Kuntar and his fellow terrorists are being freed by Israel in exchange for the bodies of kidnapped IDF reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who were sent home to their families in two black coffins earlier in the day, after two years in captivity by the Hizbullah terrorists who abducted them. PA: Kuntar "Epitome" of Palestinian Struggle (IsraelNN.com) Palestinian Authority media, controlled by "moderate" PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, has hailed the release of Samir Kuntar, saying the man who crushed the skull of four-year-old Einat Haran in 1979 "epitomizes the ideal Palestinian prisoner." State-run PATV, controlled by Abbas, broadcast a photograph honoring Kuntar against a background of a map of Israel completely covered by the Palestinian flag. Palestinians not just in Gaza, but also in Judea and Samaria, took to the streets to celebrate the return of Kuntar. PA president Mahmoud Abbas –– our "partner" in peace negotiations! –– sent greetings to Kuntar on his return home, and his party organized a celebration in Ramallah. Ahmed Abdel Rahman, an advisor to Abbas, crowed, "This is an historic victory over Israeli arrogance." He referred to Mughrabi as a "martyr who led one of the greatest freedom fighters' operations in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." On this "important" day, he declared Fatah "salutes Hezbollah and its leaders and fighters." Contact Lee Caplan at leescaplan@yahoo.com |
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UNLESS SHALIT IS ALIVE –– NO LIVE EXCHANGES
Posted by Delta Vines, July 16, 2008. |
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Israeli PM Olmert and his cabinet must really be proud of their accomplishment in the Hezbollah prisoner exchange this morning. Correction: It's actually Hezbollah that got live prisoners in the exchange as well as the remains of others. And Israeli defense intel in the form of a map of land mines on the southern Lebanon-northern Israeli border. Hezbollah returned the bodies of Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev who were kidnapped (and killed) just prior to the Lebanonese invasion of Israel in 2006. They were not prisoners of war. They were kidnapped citizens standing guard over their land. Still, Israel gave Hezbollah everything they wanted, including a live terrorist and murderer who deserved the death penalty. To quote that celebrity psycho-babbler extrordinare, Dr. Phil, "What the hell were they thinking?" Why trade live people for dead bodies? Why trade military and security intel for dead bodies? WHY DIDN'T THEY TRADE ONLY THE DEAD FOR THE DEAD? There is something very wrong here.
The world news media is not expressing sympathy over the return of the bodies of two kidnapped Israeli soldiers. They are noting the jubilant ceremonies being held in Lebanon to celebrate the return of it's murderers, terrorists, thugs. They are declaring Israel a defeated foe, much like a wimpering dog dragging it's tail between it's legs. While they do so, Israel is honoring the lives of their fallen citizens who were murdered by terrorists, in somber observances. Now the attentions turn to IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was abducted by Hamas in 2006. It is not known if he is alive or if he is dead. Negotiations for a presumed alive Shalit have been ongoing for two years to no avail. This morning's exchange between Hezbollah and Israel has endangered the life of Shalit in that Hamas will now not feel any obligation to keep Shalit alive, if he is not already dead. An additional "side effect" is that Hamas will feel free to up the price for Shalit. I suggest it should be Israel who ups the price. In order to keep other soldiers, citzens, and even tourists from being abducted from such organizations, Israel should take a hard stance. Every day that passes in which Corporal Shalit is not returned, Israel should drop bombs on the Gaza Strip. Every day that passes that Shalit is not returned, Israel should return the remains of a Hamas prisoner. Every day that passes, Israel should emphasize that it will ONLY return remains, not live prisoners. Abducting people from Israel will not result in the release of terrorists so they can murder again. Every day rockets are fired from Hamas into Israel, Israel should raid the Gaza Strip. Will this lead to an "escallation of hostilities"? Probably. Right now, however, Israel is the only one who is suffering from hostiles trying (and in some cases, succeeding), to take over the land of Israel. It may be through political and historical lies –– or –– it may be through abduction of people, the murder of workers on a kibbutz, or the shelling of towns in the Negev. Make no mistake, Israel IS under attack. It's time for Israel to fight back. What will the world's newspapers say? What will the U.S, U.N., E.U., and the Arab states say? What will happen to oil prices? WHO CARES? The Israeli's are people whose lives are being laid out as insignificant when compared to the lives of terrorists! It appears these are people whose lives are being laid out as unimportant when compared to gas prices. If the world wants independence from being held hostage by Arabian oil wells, let Israel defend herself. It's time for Israel to return to being the fearless defenders of freedom they once were. It's time for Israel to trust G-d. Is there a man or woman who can lead that return? I pray so. Contact Delta Vines at delta_vines@sbcglobal.net. Visit her website:
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HOW COULD THEY CAPITULATE?
Posted by Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis, July 16, 2008. |
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Ominous clouds are hovering over our people, and tragically, we have been caught napping. The Israeli government has capitulated to its foes on every front, and here in the United States, the political situation is, to say the very least, precarious. But that's for another column. For now, let's discuss Israel. One cannot help but wonder how a nation with a blood-drenched history such as ours, a nation that has experienced the most brutal, savage oppression and slaughter, a nation that most recently, suffered through a Holocaust, the barbarism of which is unprecedented in the annals of mankind –– a nation that daily witnesses savage terrorists killing her citizens –– her men, women, children and babes..... how could such a nation forget? How could such a nation capitulate? And mind you, this terror is not unfolding in far-flung battlefields, but in the heart of her villages and cities –– in the very midst of her people. How can such a nation remain asleep? What on earth are Israeli politicians thinking of? I remember many moons ago, when, as a young Beis Yaakov student I made my first journey to Eretz Yisrael and met the citizens of this brave new land. "Jewish blood shall never again flow" they exclaimed. "We have come home. Here we can defend ourselves and fight back!" How comforting those words sounded to me, a survivor of the Holocaust. But where are those brave men today? Oh yes, I am fully aware that the dynamics have changed. Reality dictates a new scenario, and perhaps even more telling, today's political leaders lack the vision that comes with faith. That Divine promise that bequeathed the land to us as an eternal inheritance does not resonate in their hearts. They hear many voices, but alas, they do not hear the voice from Sinai. Terror is everywhere. There is no place to hide –– I met a chasid who said in Yiddish, "Mentchen meinen –– people think that you have to go for a brocha for a shidduch, for a new business, but nowadays, you have to go for a brocha to walk safely on the street and return home b'shalom –– in peace." Was it only a few short months ago that everyone was up in arms at the betrayal of Jimmy Carter? Yes, Jimmy Carter made a trip to the Middle East and gave recognition to terrorists, to Israel's most virulent foes. Everyone was outraged, but lo and behold, Israel's Prime Minister is now doing the very same thing. No –– I must correct that. It's not the very same thing. It's by far more perfidious and damaging. Olmert is reaching out to these terrorists, negotiating with them, offering our land!!! Yes, with Olmert, everything is "negotiable". He has invited the terrorists to expand their murderous activities to Judea and Samaria ... and even into the heart of Jerusalem. He's making amorous overtures to Syria –– offering them the Golan; he is ready to deal with Iran's Lebanese proxy and has placed Mt. Dov, referred to by Hizbollah as "Sheba Farms", a most strategic piece of territory, up for grabs. And to sweeten the offer, he is freeing the most vicious Arab terrorists, among them the monster killer Sami Kuntar who is obsessed with spilling more and more Jewish blood; who smashed in the skull of a little four year old girl with his rifle butt; a killer who swore that his taste for Jewish blood would not be satiated as long as Israel exists. Observing it all, one cannot help but shudder. How are we to understand this madness? The question is all the more puzzling since Olmert himself, in 2006 declared that under his watch, as long as he is Prime Minister, the Golan would remain a part of Israel for it is strategically critical to its security, and Assad cannot be trusted. And I haven't even mentioned Syria's ties to Achmandinejad of Iran who is furiously working, to develop the nuclear arsenal that could, G-d forbid, wipe Israel off the map. So, the question of how to understand Olmert and his policies still begs an answer. "Hafoch boh, Hafoch boh, d'kula boh –– turn the pages, turn the pages, for everything is in it." Whatever the subject may be, if we seek clarity and guidance, we need only turn to our Torah. The Torah sheds light on every dilemma, on every challenge. So what illumination can we find that can give us some understanding of the self destructive course of Israel's Prime Minister? As many of these events became public knowledge, it was parshas Shelach. The parsha is always a good place from which to seek enlightenment. Undoubtedly, Shelach is a most difficult portion to understand. How can one explain that a nation that lived through the crushing bondage of Egypt, that beheld the awesome miracles of redemption, could petition to return to the terror and darkness of that land? How could they have been so misled by their leaders, the Princes of Israel who upon returning from their reconnaissance mission advocated going back to Egypt. What could these princes have possibly been thinking when they lobbied or giving up the long yearned-for dream –– the Promised Land? Our sages explained that the princes had hidden agendas. They were concerned that once the nation entered Eretz Yisroel they might lose their positions as princes. As unbelievable as it may seem, they opted to give up Eretz Yisroel so that they might retain their power! There is always an element of "replay" in our history. The tragedies of yesterday are reenacted today –– so let us try to understand the perfidy of today from the point of view of those princes. And sadly, this pertains not only to Olmert, but to some other Prime Ministers as well. After Barak lost a no confidence vote in the Knesset, he tried to salvage his position by offering PLO arch terrorist, Yassar Arafat, a state in Gaza, ninety percent of Yehuda and Shomron, and parts of Jerusalem. Hashem intervened –– Arafat rejected this "sweetheart deal" and opted for war –– The Intafada. The escalation of Arafat's Intafada placed Barak's survival as Prime Minister at even greater risk. New elections were demanded and to survive, he made deals with the left and the Arabs in the Knesset. So it was that even as Israelis were being blown up and maimed by Arab terrorists, Barak offered more concessions. He was looking for an "agreement:" that would permit him to stay in power. And then there was Arik Sharon, the valorous right-wing general who swore that unilateral withdrawal from Gaza would never be countenanced, but no sooner were accusations of corruption leveled against him then he changed his stance. Not only did he withdraw from Gaza, but shamefully, he forcibly removed Israel's citizens from Gush Katif as well. Consequently, the leftist media ceased plaguing him, the police investigations, which had been instigated by media pressure abated, and he was lauded for his statesmanship. The diversion worked! And now it's Olmert's turn. His political career is hanging by a thread, so he too is trying the time-tested formula: Divert attention from personal problems, appease the leftist media.... give them something to focus on other than the scandals and corruption; strike an agreement with the terrorists and thus retain your position. This Olmert is hoping to save his position. It worked for his predecessors, so why not for him? The Arabs are laughing up their sleeves –– they have discovered that they don't have to do a thing –– they don't even have to go to war. The Israelis will romance them and offer them the whole cookie jar without demanding anything in return. The debacle in Lebanon –– Hizbollah; the malevolent hand of Assad in Syria; not to mention Hamas, Gaza, and Gush Katif... the incessant rain of rockets on Shderot and Ashkelon and the attacks on Yerushalayim, Ahmadinejad and Iran are all put on the back burner. Coming up with an agreement takes precedence. So the question still remains –– how can intelligent people be so blind? Once again we go to our Torah for illumination. As I write this column, it is parshas Bolok in which we encounter the evil heathen prophet, Bilaam. G-d Himself spoke to him and warned him, but the warnings fell on deaf ears, so G-d overturned nature to bring Bilaam to his senses. His donkey spoke to him –– a phenomenon that would stop any normal person in his tracks, but Bilaam obstinately continued on his blind path. The "Bilaam Syndrome" continues to crop up in every generation, and alas today, we are once again witness to it. Only a blind man could fail to see the satanic intent of our Arab neighbors. It is not a piece of real estate that they seek, but (G-d forbid) the annihilation of the State of Israel. But even as Bilaam, today's politicians turn a blind eye and a deaf ear. Even as the princes, the spies of old, Israel's government pursues its suicidal course, and incredibly, the people remain silent. It is as if they have been hit so many times that inertia has set in. They don't want to know –– they don't want to see. They tell themselves, "yiheyeh b'seder –– it will be okay". I agree –– Undoubtedly, yiheyeh b'seder –– it will be okay. I knew that as a young child in Bergen Belsen as well. I was nurtured in the cradle of Torah, so while I could not know whether I would survive, I did know that we, the Jewish people would outlive Hitler. It is a promise from G-d. No nation, no empire has ever prevailed against us for G-d Himself swore that we would be His eternal witnesses. As long as the sun, the moon, and the world exist, we will be here to testify to His one-ness. But again I ask, at what price? How many will be sacrificed before we see the light? But you might argue, what's the point? What can I an average person do? A LOT! First and foremost, wake up and awaken your brothers and sisters! Raise your voice! Protest! The calamities that befall our people never come as "sudden events". It is a slow process. Our G-d is a G-d of mercy. He is our Father.....He sends us wake-up calls so that the calamity may be avoided. So let us wake up before everything comes crashing down on our heads. We are a nation whose strength and might are in our lips. "Ha kol, kol Yaakov... –– the voice is the voice of Jacob". Yes, our strength is in our prayers, in our Torah learning, and in our chesed. So let us bring forth our time-tested weapons –– our prayers, our Torah study, our chesed, and if we do so, we will be worthy of G-d's speedy intervention. He will protect us despite ourselves and usher in our redemption. Speedily in our own day. Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis is founder of Hineni which includes the Hineni Foundation Center in New York City (http://www.hineni.org) and a Jerusalem chapter. She writes a column called "The Rebbetzin's Viewpoint" for the Jewish Press. |
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PRO-ISRAEL REVOLUTION ON CAMPUS
Posted by Ze'ev Ben Yechiel, July 15, 2008. |
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This was in today's Arutz-7
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(IsraelNN.com) Over the last couple of years, the Zionist Freedom Alliance (www.zfa.org.il) has been taking American college campuses by storm with a message of Jewish rights not heard for many decades. Led by veteran IDF soldiers and activists in Israel, the ZFA presents Zionism to the youth as a revolutionary struggle for national liberation. Click here for video of Israel Liberation Week on Hofstra Campus Unlike most pro-Israel advocacy organizations that present Israel as a democracy or focus on the Jewish state's willingness to surrender territory, ZFA speaks of Israel as a Middle Eastern nation with a legitimate moral and historic right to its land. "We tell young people about the fight for freedom from British rule," says ZFA leader Yehuda HaKohen. "And we explain how we are still fighting against nearly the entire world for our right to live freely in the whole of our country. Educating young people to the history of our struggle creates a paradigm shift in how they view our situation today. If people know two basic facts –– that this really is our country and that we fought the British Empire to free it –– their understanding of the Middle East conflict is revolutionized. Suddenly the Jewish people are the natives in the story and international pressure to shrink our borders is an act of Western imperialism against an indigenous population." HaKohen currently lives in Jerusalem but grew up in New York City and often travels to the United States to organize ZFA activities. While some mainstream Jewish groups focus on Israel's security needs, HaKohen's message to campuses is one of Jewish rights. "We must make the world understand that the Jewish nation, like any other nation on the planet, has a right to self-determination in our country. Not in half of our country, but in our whole country. We have nothing against any other peoples, but the world today has no shortage of Arab states. 77% of Palestine (the territory east of the Jordan River) was made into an Arab state, and we are at least entitled to the remaining 23% that was left us by international law to be a Jewish state. No power on earth has the moral authority to rob us of our land."
HaKohen is no stranger to bold declarations, having repeated the same simple message on campuses across the United States and Canada. While other pro-Israel organizations attempt to rationalize or depreciate the stridently nationalistic aspects of Zionism in order to court the favor of high-profile skeptics and to make their message palatable to wealthy and influential benefactors, HaKohen says that his group has learned out of necessity to work on a shoestring budget rather than alter their message. ZFA activists take no pains in concealing their belief in the unequivocal right of the Jewish nation to the entire Land of Israel. And the movement puts forward this message in a clear and simple yet powerful language that resonates with young people across North American campuses. The movement includes an eclectic mix of activists from various backgrounds. When asked what stream of Zionism (Religious, Socialist, Revisionist) they belong to, HaKohen calls the ZFA "Revolutionary Zionism". "History is full of great revolutions. And although many of these revolutions have succeeded in impacting the future course of world history, all of them pale in comparison to the Zionist revolution," HaKohen argues. "Only the Zionist revolution aspires to ingather a scattered nation from the four corners of the earth, to revive a dead language to everyday use, to liberate a homeland from under a mighty world empire and to create a moral society that will serve as an example to the human race. Zionism is the greatest revolution in the history of man, and the ZFA sees it as our mission to drive the revolution forward." Politically Correct Having been raised and educated in the West, many ZFA leaders are sensitive to the reality of the political culture that dominates American campuses. Therefore, the movement is careful not to align with "Right-wing" campus groups, and instead targets students active with the Left. HaKohen defends this position by arguing that "there is nothing 'Right-wing' or 'Conservative' about wanting to keep our homeland free from foreign rule. If we are truly the indigenous natives in the conflict, then our cause should really be championed by liberal students everywhere. Especially since the Bush administration that occupies Iraq and imposes a Patriot Act on the American people is the very same administration pushing to ethnically cleanse the Jewish people from portions of our homeland." It is for this reason that ZFA avoids anti-Arab rhetoric and instead focuses its attacks on Western powers and global corporations who have special interests in forcing Israel to surrender land. The group defends this position by claiming that if the Arabs remained the security problem that they are but all international pressure would cease, Israel would immediately take the necessary measures to defend herself and ensure long term survival. But if the Arabs in Judea and Samaria would somehow disappear, the Western world would most likely find another excuse to shrink and weaken Israel. The true enemy of Zionism, according to the ZFA, is not radical Islam but globalization, which seeks to amalgamate continents into unified blocks and threatens Israel's existence as a small Jewish state situated in a mostly Arab region. ZFA activists argue this to be the true motivation behind international pressure on Israel to make concessions and that the eventual goal of Western governments is for Israel not to exist. While this message has angered many American Jewish groups who tend to see Israel and America as allies in a global war against Islamic terrorism, it has actually earned the ZFA support from students who oppose globalization and America's War in Iraq. And it has neutralized anti-Israel voices who accuse "Zionists" of pushing America into a war that benefits Israel. In fact, most ZFA leaders oppose the Iraq War and see it as an aggressive act of neo-imperialism. And many of the students joining the ZFA today are young Jews who view themselves on the political Left. HaKohen attributes this support not only to his group's unique message, but also to their efforts to reach beyond the Jewish community. ZFA speaks in front of Diverse Crowd
Many ZFA programs, including the "Israel Liberation Week" event, is geared towards promoting Jewish rights on college campuses and educating the general student public to the justice of the Zionist struggle. "Israel Liberation Week" includes a hip hop concert (featuring Jewish and non-Jewish artists), speeches, information campaigns, historical films and an art exhibit honoring the Jewish underground fighters who were executed by the British administration during the struggle for Jewish statehood. By securing strong support from non-Jewish students on many campuses, the ZFA makes it socially acceptable and desirable for Jewish students to support the Zionist cause. HaKohen believes that if young American liberals really understood the history and reality of events in the Middle East, they would naturally support Israel's rights to Judea and Samaria. The problem is that the anti-Israel propaganda and often even the pro-Israel propaganda have worked to present the Jewish state as a Western power occupying indigenous Arab natives. HaKohen argues that nothing can be further from the truth. "The Jewish nation is a Middle Eastern nation and the true native sons of our land. As a result of an injustice perpetrated against us by the Roman Empire, many of us suffered a long and difficult exile. But now we've come home. Israel is our country and like any other people we have a right to freedom in our country."
The ZFA chose a kafiyah (Middle Eastern head dress) with blue Jewish stars as a symbol of the Zionist revolution. The "Jewish kafiyah," as well as t-shirts and other items, will be available on the ZFA website later in July when they launch their online store. The ZFA's cutting edge message and methods have proven successful in taking the wind out of anti-Israel sails. But the movement is small and has been unsuccessful at persuading more established Jewish groups to follow their revolutionary lead. Therefore, says HaKohen, the movement works slowly, one campus at a time, to promote the Zionist revolution as a politically correct struggle for social justice. For more information, visit the ZFA online at http://www.zfa.org.il |
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WHENCE CAME THEY ILLEGAL?
Posted by Daisy Stern, July 15, 2008. |
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This below comes from Jack. |
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Our people should sign up and go with them, preferably native Hebrew speakers, to ask questions such as "when did Jewish settlement here become illegal? Was it illegal in the 1930's? Did it become illegal when the Arabs massacred the Jews and drove them out of Hebron, Gush Etzion, etc.? Did it become illegal when the Arabs insisted that the 1949 Armistice lines NOT be seen as international borders? Or when the PLO first declared the existence of a "Palestinian people" that was previously unheard of? Or how do we know the Arabs want peace with us and not just to take territory for nothing and then make war from the reduced borders which are far more difficult for Israel to defend? What indication have they given us? Statements in English to the Israeli and international media (which are entirely different from those they make on Arab media in Arabic)? Contact Daisy Stern at daisystern1@gmail.com |
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IF I FORGET THEE ...
Posted by David Wilder, July 15, 2008. |
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Tomorrow's planned prisoner exchange is very bittersweet. Almost everyone has an opinion and all sides have some element of legitimacy. On one hand, the price is so very high; on the other hand, we have a responsibility to bring our soldiers home, dead or alive. A soldier, entering battle, must know that anything and everything will be done to bring him home, be it to his family, or to 'kever Yisrael' –– to a Jewish grave. Yet, perhaps the swap will serve as motivation to capture more soldiers, and exchange them for other terrorist killers. But, who can forget the unbelievable 'mesirut nefesh' –– total dedication, of Rabbi Shlomo Goren, then Chief Rabbi of the IDF, to wade through enemy mine fields to recover bodies of Israeli soldiers killed in action. It's something of a catch 22 –– whatever you do is right, and whatever you do is wrong. I know that I've asked myself countless times, 'what would I do if, (G-d forbid), it was one of my sons.' In truth, I don't know. Of course, with the release of two Israeli soldiers, either dead or alive, a huge dark cloud shadows their return: where is Ron Arad, whose fate is still unknown? Is he dead or alive? Is he in Lebanon or Iran? According to Israeli intelligence sources, having studied the newly-released photos of Arad, taken about 20 years ago, the pictures were taken not in Lebanon, rather in Iran. Perhaps Ron Arad is still alive, wasting away in an Iranian dungeon? However, with enigma surrounding Ron Arad and the as of yet unknown condition of Regev and Goldwasser, at least people know their names, show some concern for them and their families. Unfortunately, it's not that way with all Israeli MIAs, POWS. There are those, who, for one reason or another, have been forgotten, despite that fact that they wore the same uniform as the others, fought for the same country as the others, and whose fate is just as unknown as the others. Ron Arad was captured in October, 1986. Four years earlier, in June, 1882, during the battle of Sultan Ya'akub, Israel lost three of its finest. During the battle, commanded by Ehud Barak, three tank warriors, Tzvi Feldman, born in 1956, Yehuda Katz, born in 1959, and Zacharia Baumel, born in 1960, disappeared. They may have been killed during the brutal fighting. However, there were accounts of people who saw them displayed during a parade in Syria. Their families have gathered accounts over the years, which, at the very least, raise a reasonable doubt as to their fate. Perhaps they are long gone. But perhaps not. And, if we use the Regev-Goldwasser measuring stick, what difference does it make? Why have the IDF and the Israeli government totally forgotten about these three men? Why aren't they household names, as is Ron Arad? Why didn't Israel demand a full report from Hizballah concerning the fate and location of these three men just as they did concerning Ron Arad? Why doesn't the Israeli media exert pressure on the government and IDF concerning then, as they did concerning Regev, Goldwasser, Arad and Gilad Shalit? Why does Gilad Shalit's name continue to make headlines, while most Israelis, 22 years later, have no idea who Katz, Feldman and Baumel are? I have an answer, but don't really like it. As a matter of fact, I despise what I think. It really stinks. It's even worse than that. But I can't think of any other viable reason. These three men came from the wrong side of Israeli society. They all had Kippas on their heads. They belonged to religious tank units. Their families were not left-wing supporters of 'peace,' Labor, and Arabs. The men weren't media lovelies. Rather, they were young idealistic patriots, who fought for their country, their people and their belief. Their belief hasn't betrayed them, but their country and their people have. But that's not all. It's clear that serious negotiations for the release of Gilad Shalit will continue between Israel and Hamas. Clearly, Israel should demand information and release of the three above-discussed men. But in my opinion, that's not enough. Hamas terrorists are not stupid. If, as is expected, Israel receives two bodies for killer Kuntar, Hamas is going to demand an even higher price for a 'live' Israeli. That price will almost undoubtedly include Marwan Barghuti, a convicted murderer and leader of the '2nd intidada' which claimed thousands of Israeli lives, dead, maimed and wounded. The present Israeli government will almost assuredly OK the deal. However, Israel must demand more than the release of POW Gilad Shalit. After all, Barghuti will only be one of the hundreds of terrorists freed by Israel. Israel must look towards its best friend and ally, put its foot down, and tell the United States: look at what we are being forced into in order to release one Israeli soldier. What is the price of one man? Is there a price? Yet, the price is too high. We must bring home more than one POW. When we release Barghuti and Hamas releases Shalit, you must free Jonathan Pollard. If we can do it, so can you. At every Jewish wedding, the happiest day in a person's life, we repeat the words, 'If I forget thee Jerusalem....' I add: If we forget thee, Tzvi...
David Wilder is spokesman of The Jewish Community of Hebron. You can contribute directly to The Jewish Community of Hebron, POB10, Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100, hebron@hebron.org.il, 972-2-9965333 or write to The Hebron Fund, 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230, hebronfund@aol.com |
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FROM ISRAEL: NORTHWARD
Posted by Arlene Kushner, July 15, 2008. |
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The Cabinet has ratified the prisoner exchange with Hezbollah. The reason most commonly given was to ease the minds of the Goldwasser and Regev families, and the mind of every mother whose son serves. This decision was made in spite of the fact that heads of the intelligence community were opposed because the report on Arad was insufficient. Shimon Peres, as president, will now pardon the prisoners to be returned to Hezbollah, including Samir Kuntar. The actual exchange will take place tomorrow at 9:00 AM at the Rosh Hanikra crossing. Hezbollah has set up a "triumphal arch" near the crossing and hung flags and photos along the highway. Massive celebrations and a "victory" speech by Nasrallah are planned. Here, the IDF is planning military funerals on Thursday for Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. How do we swallow this? ~~~~~~~~~~ Meanwhile, it has been reported that Hezbollah, with the assistance of the Syrian and Iranian military, has set up radar installations on Mt. Sannine –– 2,600 meters above sea level –– in Lebanon's Beka Valley in central Lebanon, in order to track Israel's planes. Analysts are assuming that this would be utilized in conjunction with air defense systems supplied by Syria. ~~~~~~~~~~ Noam Shalit, Gilad's father, has vociferously objected to Olmert's promise to Abbas to release more Palestinian prisoners, when Gilad is still being held prisoner. ~~~~~~~~~~ Yesterday was Bastille Day –– French Independence Day. And who did French president Sarkozy choose to honor at those celebrations by making him a special guest who sat beside him? None other than Bashar Assad. Reports are that a planned protest by French veterans who hold Syria responsible for the deaths of 58 French members of a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon in 1983 was blocked by the French government. Sarkozy claims to have good motivation for what he is doing in cultivating Assad. But this smacks of appeasement and willful disregard of all that Syria has been involved in of late. It does not speak well for Sarkozy. ~~~~~~~~~~ Tony Blair was supposed to visit Gaza, but his visit has been cancelled because of specific threats. ~~~~~~~~~~ Hopefully more soon on Lebanon... Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info |
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THE DATING MAVEN ALLY
Posted by Dave Alpern, July 15, 2008. | |||
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Contact Dave Alpert at daveyboy@bezeqint.net |
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ARAB STATES FIGHT DOMESTIC TERRORISM; ABBAS INVESTIGATES GAZA TAKEOVER; PA HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 15, 2008. |
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TOUGH TALK An Israeli commander said Israel could take out Iran's nuclear facilities any time, but prefers that the rest of the world impose harsh sanctions on Iran, instead. Such talk has motivated Iran to bolster defense. The result would be deadlier for raiders and perhaps defeat. Iran gains more confidence as it further prepares. How remote is the prospect of greater sanctions on Iran by a world that demonstrated its corruption when France, Germany, and Russia and other countries turned out to have been cashing in on the UNO's Oil-For-Food bribes made by Saddam to pervert the program into financing his power and military! Iran is making so much money from inflated oil prices, and its oil is so badly needed, that it could impose sanctions on some of its critics. Under these circumstances, tough talk means big mouth. LIE DETECTOR TESTING Accused terrorist agent Al-Arian offered to take a "lie detector" test. That is supposed to indicate his faith in his innocence. It does not indicate anything. I read a book on polygraphs. They should not be called lie detectors. They don't detect lies. They measure changes in emotional effects upon the body. Sometimes those effects result from lies that, when asked about, disturb the person being tested. The disturbance does not prove deceit. I would be disturbed, though innocent, just as I used to blush when accused. Then my accuser would assume I was guilty. Psychologically disturbed people, who lie routinely, can pass polygraph tests. Al-Arian is an Islamist, for whom deceit in behalf of holy war is accepted and routine. He may well be able to pass a polygraph test. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS LIE? PM Olmert defends himself from fraud by claiming he did not confer favors in return for receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in envelopes from businessmen "friends." Of course, some of the investigations of him already have shown him intervening in behalf of friends and businesses, but he says that is the way elected officials help constituents in business. Isn't it remarkable how well liked he must be for shrewd businessmen to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to him for nothing? ABBAS INVESTIGATES GAZA TAKEOVER How were Abbas' 50,000 armed men in Gaza unable to prevent Hamas' 20,000 from taking over there? Did his men lack sufficient arms and ammunition? No. Abbas' investigators found that they had ample supplies, though not distributed effectively, not used properly, and largely abandoned. After all, Arafat had used his forces as patronage outlets more than as military organizations. Abbas' men were not sufficiently trained. Neither were Abbas' men well motivated. Fatah and the security forces did not unite, and were, themselves, split by rivalry. Each unit got picked off individually. Moral also was poor because, although those loyal to the P.A. reported that Hamas was planning a putsch, the P.A. did not react. Arafat never had a plan to deal with Hamas except by appeasement. He allowed the growth of independent militias, which then created anarchy and eroded his authority. He brought 12,000 men from wild militias, including Hamas, into his forces. The Hamas men either took over their units at the time of the uprising or deserted. Commanders found themselves without sufficient control over units whose members gave primary loyalty to family or their original groups. During the coup, P.A. commander Dahlan tried to run the defense from abroad and in detail. The assessment is that nothing has changed. Reform is vital. Dr. Aaron Lerner asks why West continues its demonstrated, failed strategy of depending on the P.A. to fend off Hamas in Judea-Samaria, rather than let its arms fall to Hamas (IMRA, 6/28). Dr. Lerner's question is elementary. Why doesn't the West think of it? Why does the West think that when the P.A. recruits militiamen into its official forces, it is disbanding terrorist organizations rather than setting itself up for a coup? Reality requires admitting fault and making tough choices. Do they want Israel to fall? IRAN THREATENS WORLD OIL SUPPLY Iran said that if attacked, it would take over the oil shipping lanes (IMRA, 6/28). Some of the ships with which it could do this were sold to it by an Italian company, ostensibly to combat smuggling (IMRA, 6/28). Pres. Bush wanted Europe not to trade with Iran, but the Europeans prefer to make money, so they pretend their dual use equipment only is for civilian use. They call Bush stupid and leading to war, but they are stupid and leading to war. ISRAEL IS AN UNREPRESENTATIVE "DEMOCRACY" The Olmert regime is making and proposing deals that wreck Israeli national security. When a former commander now active in politics declared excessive the current proposal to release hundreds of convicted murderers for a couple of Israelis, the Israeli (and US) media should have discussed the issue. [It is, after all, a Jewish theme that he played.] Instead, gave full throat to the roars of the father of an Israeli prisoner. The father called the ex-commander merely a politician furthering his career. [By taking a stand against the higher-ranking politicians?] The father thinks that only parents can speak on the issue. To the contrary, the father is not objective. He is not thinking of national security. The politician, Ya'alon, was thinking of the many more Israeli fathers who would become aggrieved when and if released murderers struck their sons. These parents of prisoners have had too much to say, as if they have become spokesman for what Hamas and Hizbullah want. Nobody represents the public (Caroline Glick, IMRA, 6/28). Israel calls itself a democracy but does not represent the people. The system facilitates rule by party boss and Prime Minister without much restraints. Politicians tend to be venal and myopic. The media is ideological. P.A. POLICE IN STOLEN CAR A senior P.A. police officer on Israel's wanted list was caught near Ramallah. He was driving a car stolen in Caesarea a week earlier. The car had been turned into a police car (IMRA, 6/29). A few years ago, we heard more of the mass-theft of Israeli property by, or for the benefit of, P.A. Arabs. They are a parasitic people. Usually one exterminates parasites; Israel turns excise taxes over to the P.A.. P.A. TRUCE VIOLATIONS CONTINUE More rockets were fired on 6/28 (Arutz-7, 6/29). Why doesn't Israel raid Gaza and declare the truce void, and in that order? P.A. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS Human Rights Watch disclosed that the P.A. tortures uncharged prisoners. Britain donates a large sum to train P.A. police (IMRA, 6/29). Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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MISHMERET YESHA: AN OPPORTUNITY TO SAVE YEHUDA AND SHOMRON AS JEWISH LAND AND LIVES
Posted by Aleksandra Fliegler, July 14, 2008. |
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Dear Supporters of Jewish Israel, You have a unique opportunity to help fulfill the mitzvah of saving a Jewish life, as well as take concrete steps to keep the land in Yehuda and Shomron under Jewish control. While the Shmita Year is still in effect, host Mr. Israel Danziger, Director of Operations for Mishmeret Yesha in September. I am the owner of Jewish Club Maoz, the Northern California Chair of Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI), and wear a few other volunteer hats simply because I recognize that what's happening in Israel today is endangering its survival as a Jewish State. Since the Oslo disaster, I am haunted by a feeling of powerlessness to stop the upcoming catastrophe. AFSI & Maoz started inviting speakers from Israel to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2002 in an attempt to wake Jewish consciousness and in hopes to stop the Gaza expulsions. After hosting a number of them, we found one organization, which offers concrete solutions. Unlike 99.9% of the organizations that do nothing but talk, we finally found someone that did something real. Suddenly I felt empowered; I felt that I am now a part of a real effort for Jewish Sovereignty. There is an organization of strong proud Jews right at the heart of Israel, in Yehuda and Shomron. It does not rely on the Israeli government, or the IDF, or the International community to stand up for Jewish interests, Jewish land and the Jewish people. Since the first intifada in 1988, Mishmeret Yesha has trained over 4,000 volunteers to repel terrorists attacks, organizes volunteers to reclaim Jewish land from Arab squatters, cultivates that land, organizes portable trauma units when a wounded Jew is unable to be transported to a hospital, supports families that choose to stay at the outposts regardless of how hard it may be, and most importantly prevents the loss of Jewish lives where the IDF does not reach for various reasons. While there are many organizations that deal with the aftermath of
terrorist attacks, no amount of money can bring back that Jewish life,
or restore harmony in that family after a loss. Mishmeret Yesha
(Guardians of Yesha) refuses to allow Jews to become victims.
TO DATE, OVER 70% OF ALL TERRORIST ATTACKS IN ISRAEL HAPPEN IN YEHUDA AND SHOMRON. The reason we do not hear about these multiple daily attacks is because they do not end-up in casualties. The highly trained MISHMERET YESHA Rapid Response Teams repel those effectively every day. A perfect example is the attack on Merkaz HaRav yeshiva. We all heard about that one because eight students were slain in that attack. Very few people outside Israel are aware of the fact that approximately a month before that deadly attack, an identical attack took place in Kfar Etzion on the Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz's Mekor Chaim yeshiva high school. Both were the high-school yeshivot, both were within plain sight of either a police or the IDF station, in both cases the terrorists proceeded to the study hall. With the exception of one thing: two teachers at the Mekor Chaim Yeshiva shot the two terrorists before any tragedy occurred. This rapid response was the result of three years of training of these yeshiva teachers by Mishmeret Yesha. Another example is a recent e-mail by the last remaining resident of an outpost up north. The plea in Russian was as follows: "Guys, please help! They are forcing me off this outpost. My power and heat are turned off, they are forcing me out. If I leave, the Arabs will occupy my spot and will start bombing Hadera from here" Immediately, MISHMERET YESHA Director of Operations Israel Danziger rushed over there. Over the next seven visits, the resident was supplied with a laptop, mobile phone, internet access, his lapsed firearms permit was restored, agricultural projects were started and two more families have moved in. Not only does that outpost remain under the Jewish control, but the people of Hadera on the coast, however blissfully unaware, are saved as well.
IF MISHMERET YESHA HAD NOT STOOD GUARD IN YEHUDA AND SHOMRON in various capacities, I dare say, the whole Israel would have been wiped off the map within the first Intifada of 1988. It is important to note: there is not a single salaried person working for Mishmeret Yesha, not even the Director of Operations. All 4,000 Rapid Response Team members have their jobs, their businesses, and their families but they each dedicate a portion of their personal time to training in this highly specialized type of combat. The exceptions to this are:
The bottom line is: there is no marketing material published, no fundraiser's hired, no overhead. Every dollar donated goes straight into projects and saves lives directly. I am proud to offer to you the opportunity to save Jewish lives and to feel empowered by knowing that you are able to change the facts on the ground. Please host Mishmeret Yesha's Director of Operations Mr. Israel Danziger in your community today. Hear first-hand accounts of the day-to-day life in Yehuda and Shomron and help raise funds for prevention of terror attacks, reclamation of what's rightfully ours, and other worthwhile projects directly addressing the Jewish Sovereignty.
TAKE A MOMENT TO EXAMINE ATTACHED BROCHURES WITH BASIC FACTS, project descriptions, compilation of articles regarding the yeshivot attacks along with the national call to emulate MISHMERET YESHA success on all Yeshiva campuses, and the links below. Also attached are sample flyers with possible topics for your community. These can be altered to match your location or focus topic. The original MISHMERET YESHA film 15 min:
The most recent 43 minute Interview with Israel Danziger, Director of Operations for MISHMERET YESHA
If you have any questions, please contact me directly:
Contact Aleksandra Fliegler at alex@fliegler.net |
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MEDIA, JOBS AND ARROGANCE
Posted by Seth Frantzman, July 14, 2008. |
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This is Issue 43 of Terra Incognita
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1.) The Most irresponsible people in the world
On July 9th, 2008 a photo made its way around the world. Agence France Presse, like other news organizations, had wanted 'art' to illustrate the Iranian army's firing of a number of missiles. These were missile tests by Iran designed to show the world that should a war break out with the U.S or Israel that Iran's missiles would threaten the entire region. Grainy video-stills of the missile test were originally all the media had to work with until a photo appeared on the website of the Sepah News, the media arm Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Without further ado Agence France Presse lifted the photo and distributed it around the world. It made the front pages of The Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, The Chicago Tribune and several other newspapers as well as on BBC News, MSNBC, Yahoo! News, NYTimes.com. The picture shows four missiles shooting upwards from the desert with smoke filling the desert landscape from their launches. Then on Thursday, June 10th, a new photo appeared from the Associated Press. It showed the exact same image, except there were three missiles being launched. Where a fourth missile had appeared in the first photo, the second photo contained a truck mounted with a missile. Upon closer examination y independent individual it became clear that the first photo had been clearly retouched and parts of two of the other missile launches cut and pasted to make it appear a fourth missile had launched. Defence analyst Mark Fitzpatrick of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies told AFP: "It very much does appear that Iran doctored the photo to cover up what apparently was a misfiring of one of the missiles. "The whole purpose of this testing was to send a signal so Iran both exaggerated the capabilities of the missile in their prose and apparently doctored the photos as well." Most news organizations reported the faking of the image. The New York Times did the best job (http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/ in-an-iranian-image-a-missile-too-many/archives/oldindex.html?hp) by showing the two images side by side with circles indicating which parts had been cut and pasted to create the fake image. Fox News put the image on its home page with a headline that "Photo of launched Iranian missile appears to have been faked." The BBC reported the matter as if it was a point of discussion with the headline "Iran 'faked missile test image'". The BBC said Iran was 'accused' of faking the image but that Iran claimed it had test fired 'nine missiles'. The BBC then reported that "The BBC News website's picture editor, Phil Coomes, said: 'Having examined the photograph from AFP, it can be seen that parts have been edited, with smoke trails and parts of the foreground being cloned.'" What is fascinating here is the degree to which the major news organizations were not only duped but upon being duped did not apologize for their irresponsibility but instead made it seem like this was a controversy. This is typical of the way the media operates in the modern world. Instead of getting a handle on the most mediocre of technologies, such as photoshop, and examining pictures before they are published, the media publishes image with reckless disregard and then complains that by some odd circumstance the image was faked without acknowledging the media's own role in distributing the mockery. There is a famous saying that 'extraordinary claims' need 'extraordinary evidence'. But the media version of this is that extraordinary claims just need a quote or a picture from someone else and they become 'true' enough to go on the front page. It is not the first time the media has been duped and played a role in its duping. The media does not simply report the news, it 'manufactures' the news in the Chomsky sense by creating stories and following stories that it deems important to the readers. Thus the media needs the most gruesome and interesting details for those stories. This was the case with Mohammed al-Dura, a Palestinian boy who apparently died of gunshot wounds on September 30th, 2000. Talal Abu Rahma, a Palestinian journalist, filmed 27 minutes of coverage of a gunbattle between Israelis and Palestinians on that day in Gaza. 59 second of his film was shown on television and it showed a father and his child in the midst of the gunfight, unable to escape. The Palestinian journalist claimed the Israelis shot the child. Charles Enderlin of France 2, the channel's bureau chief provided a voice over for the video in which he claimed that the Palestinian boy had been the "target of fire coming from the Israeli position." Enderlin had not been present at the gun battle. The father of the boy became a convincing victim, declaring to the media that the world should avenge his boy's death by harming Israel and that his boy was a 'martyr for Al-Aqsa' The Muslim world printed postage stamps of the death of the boy and assaults on Jews in the western world followed. It subsequently turned out much of Enderlin's story was caught up in lies. He lied when he said the boy's death had been captured on camera but was too emotional to show on France 2. In actuality the boy's death was not depicted. It turned out some of the footage showed other Palestinian boys playing dead for the camera. In the end the media had not only been duped by its Palestinian reporter and hs sympathies but had in fact created a nice propaganda film designed to sow hatred and anger. During the Second Lebanon War Adnan Hajj, a local Lebanese man with his sympathies for Hizbullah, took a photo of smoke billowing out of Beirut after an Israeli bombing raid. Hajj sold his photos to Reuters which released them to the world, which displayed them unquestionably. It turned out the photos were amateurish fakes in which one piece of smoke had been cut and pasted dozens of times to make the bombing appear worse than it was. Reuters appologized for the 'inconvenience'. In all these cases we see a reckless disregard for the truth and a lack of responsibility. The news organizations simply appear incapable of even examining the photos they use in the most marginal way. Their excuse will be that they are given hundreds of thousand sof photos and they receive them from trusted sources, such as Reuters and the AFP and therefore cannot be responsible for examining them all. Under their contract with Reuters they except that the due diligence has already been done. But when these mistakes happen again and again one would think that the media would employ someone to examine the photos for evidence of simple fakery (the images by Hajj and from Sepah could be created by anyone using the most simple devices in Microsoft's Paint, they don't even require the expertise of Photoshop and the deception is so easy to spot that average people have been the one's blowing the wistles on the photos, not media watchdogs.) One would assume that the media might have at least a modicum of prudence when it comes to trusting images from 'freelance' Arab Muslim Shiite photographers in Lebanon during a war with Israel or from the website of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. The media, in a clear mark of irresponsibility, does not bother to check the source. Yet the same media, and especially the BBC, always puts quotes around any stories that eminate from event he highest levels of government in England, Washington or Tel Aviv. Thus when the American government claims something it appears in quotes. Death tolls often appear in quotes. But an image does not appear in quotes, nor does its caption. There is the typical saying that a 'picture is worth a thousand words'. Since the BBC puts so many of its words in quotes one would think that it would have the common decency to put images it displays in quotes or at least explain the source of the material. To blindly pass off the propaganda of the Revolutionary Guards of Iran makes the BBC, in effect, a subsidiary of the Iranian regime. This is, in fact, what has taken place. The media is, for all intents and purposes, part of the propaganda efforts of various Middle Eastern potentates and terrorists. Its lack of responsibility means that it is used by terrorists to get their message out and inflate their claims and fake their 'suffering'. The media always plays the victim in this, acting as it it was given fake material. But who is the victim? If a person buys rotten fruit that is obviously rotten is he truly being 'tricked'. As a famous Muslim imam in Australia asked 'if someone leaves meat outside and another person takes it, who is to blame, the person who left the meat out or the person who took it?' It is unlawful and irresponsible for someone to manipulate images. But given the fact that so many images are maniupated the media should doubly examine any image coming from the Middle East, especially during a time of conflict, as to its authenticity. If one buys rotten produce again and again from the same market at some point they themselves are at fault. If they buy the rotten produce and then give it away to others, as the AFP and Reuters do with these forged and altered images, then they are passing on the rotten fruit and they are at fault for not inspecting it. This is the situation we are dealing with. It is a situation of the utmost in irresponsible behaviour and it means that when dealing with the Middle East and reporting on Muslim countries ones should not only stop trusting the stories eminating from the media but should also no longer trust any of the images. The pictures are no longer worth a thousand words. They are worth nothing. 2. Where did all the jobs go?
In 1714 the following jobs were the occupations of the residents of Bradford, England. Three percent were owners of land. 14 percent were 'landless labour'. Three percent were involved in coal mining. 23 percent were involved in textiles. 19 percent made their daily bread in 'clothing and footwear'. Five percent worked in 'food and drink'. 9 percent were employed in building. 12 percent worked in 'minor trades and industries'. Seven percent worked in 'services'. Three percent were in the professions. 1 percent were 'gentry' and 1 percent were in the militia. In nearby villages the main occupations were coalmining, landless labour and work in the textile industry. In nearby Scotland a list of 'old occupations' contains many interesting, and forgotten, jobs. There was the 'beadman' (Bedeswoman and Beildsman as well) or licensed beggars. There was the 'Alewife' or woman who ran a pub. There were 'Berlin Blackers' who applied black varnish to iron tools. There was the Chapman who dealt goods from his donkey cart by traveling from village to village. There were Byremen who looked after cows. There were Cork Cutters who cut cork imported from Portugal. There was the Cowan (and Dyker) who built dry stone walls. There was a Fethelar or town fiddler. There was the Ghillie or 'highland guard of wild game'. There was a Moneyer, the man who made coins. There was the Rope spinner or maker of rope and the Rove Carrier who moved fibres and flax before spinning. There was the Sprigger who made fine linen. There was the Thong Maker who made leather whips and other leather goods. There was a Walkser whose job was to wet cloth and step on it in order to thicken and clean it. There was also the Wadsetter or holder of a mortgage. Today's human looks with disdain on these jobs and celebrates the fact that either they no longer exist, machines do them or 'other people' do them. In the Western countries and other wealthy states these jobs have been exported overseas or they have been usurped by machines. Such were the results of industrialization, globalization and the increasing abilities of assembly line robots to do intricate work. There was a time when most people did labour with their hands. But there have been at least two generations, if not three or four, that have separated us from our forbears. Such mundane textile jobs and farm labour is something so remote that most could not imagine it. But society increases daily with more and more people as populations grow (except in Europe). So as these 'old' occupations have disappeared new occupations have had to replace them. Most people, even in this technologically advanced society, must work in order to survive. But given the flaccid nature of people and the fact that so few of them are capable of doing work with their hands any longer society has had to increase the number of jobs that do not require much work. In order to do this we have created a generation of people employed in what was then called 'services'. One example of these new kind of jobs that have come to replace the 'Walkser' and the 'Dyker' are jobs described as "Community and External Affairs and Business diversity." This was the description of Michelle Obama's job at a hospital for which she was paid $275,000 a year. Michelle Obama might be the posterchild of a generation for whome work is an abstract theoretical concept. Michelle may have grown up in a modest home but she aspired to higher things. She got into Princeton and spent her time there complaining about how racist it was (although the fact that she was allowed to go there seems to belie this claim). She became wealthy through working a variety of non-jobs, non-occupations, for which no work was required and no results could be provided. After all, how does someone measure 'community outreach' for a hospital? People are dying everyday, they must go to the hospital. Does one need to outreach to them? In the end Michelle became a bandleader of the movement against occupation. She has publicly stated to college students that they should not "go into corporate America." Yet at the same time she claims that "Barack Obama will require you to work." But what will this 'work' look like? This work is entirely predicated on the idea that things that are not real occupations can be subsumed under the idea of what 'work' is and then meaningless labels can be dished out to this years college students so that they will all work as 'grant writers' or 'community representatives' or 'organizers' or some other noncupation. In fact that is what these jobs are, they are the opposite of an occupation, they are noncupations. It was inevitable that technology would produce this. Movies about the future made between the 1950s and the present have always shown a future where no one works. People are always portrayed walking around in similar track suits but they never seem to have jobs. If they have occupations it is as some sort of officer or deckhand on a star cruiser. In Aliens the movie the directors created a universe that involved futuristic soldiers, but no one had an occupation outside of the military. What jobs were there in Star Wars. There were all the imperial soldiers of Darth Vader and the people who drove his star ships around. Luke Skywalker's uncle was a farmer. But those were basically the only occupations shown in the film. People can't imagine occupations in the future because we have witnessed to many honest occupations fall by the wayside. We imagine a future in which no one works. The present state of society, in which people hold jobs that are not real occupations and in which few if any people use their hands during work (except to type), has created all the need for 'meaning' in life. People even volunteer to do old occupations so as to find themselves. They believe that through a few weeks of 'work' they will suddenly have an awakening. The need for all this meaning in life may stem from a lack of actual skills in life but the remedy, psychologists, psychiatrists and 'meditation' does not seem to bring people any closer to knowing what work once was. People in movies speak of owning farms and living off the land but most are ill-equipped to do so. The stories of people like Chris Mcandlis in Into the Wild appeal to people because they wish they too could abandon all to live in a pre-modern state of being. The romanticism of the late 19th and early 20th century, both among the Communists and Fascists, saw nations of people working together to build themselves up. These mass ideologies or 'Sacred Causes' tried to re-envision a nation of romantic workers and peasants, all happily working as cogs in the machine. Both the Germans and the Soviets romanticized the countryside and each had their ideologies of 'returning to the soil'. In Russia it was the peasant commune and in Germany it was 'blood and soil'. Either way it was a reaction to modernity which saw ever more people crammed into cities and the land turning fallow as the agricultural people left it to find work in factories. This was a harbinger of doom for folk tradition. But the solution found in Nazism and Communism was mass industrialization. There was to be no true return to the land. Attempts were made to colonize vast swaths of hitherto useless land as shown in David Blackbourn's excellent study Conquest of Nature. In essence, however, this was the irony of these mass movements based on a romantic notion of nature: there was no return, merely a conquest of nature and a slow destruction of it. In the Democratic west the conquest of nature proceeded apace with a conquest of the soul that was the result of a lack of occupations being open to the youth. There simply are no more jobs. They have all disappeared. The fact that the best and brightest in the West abhor the 'corporation' and blame all of societies ills on it merely shows the degree to which the wool has been pulled over our eyes. Corporate life holds some of the last actual occupations that are left over from the ancient world. It still has some attachment to the idea of work as a way of life and as an ethos. While small businesses are rightly celebrated as a wonderful part of society few people aspire to work in small businesses. People aspire to the nameless occupations where the real money is. Since people can pull down huge salaries such as $275,000 a year for working as a 'community relations consultant' there is no reason to aspire to having a real occupation. Everyday there are fewer and fewer occupations. There are fewer and fewer skills. Everyday people become more and more separated from any sense of their surrounding environment. Karl Marx spoke of factory workers being alienated from their labour but today's people are alienated from humanity. They are alienated from the environment. They are alienated from nature. They are mindless automatons who have no real skills and cannot even explain what it is they actually do for a 'living'. 3. Biting the Hand that feeds: the path of the immigrant and the
terrorist
There was, we are told, a time when the immigrant arrived and paid homage to his new land. He was proud of his new nation. His new country offered him the freedoms and opportunity so sorely lacking in his home country. In some periods the immigrant has lived up this image. In some periods he has become patriotic and he has assimilated and he has even become part of the mainstream culture of his new country. After a few generations his descendants even forget their foreign roots, such has been their assimilation. Sometimes he has preserved his culture and made it part of the culture of his adopted country. But there is another type of immigrant. There is another type of person out there. This person, who is present in ever greater numbers in society, has disdain for his new country. (his disdain however is matched by the disdain which citizens today hold for their own countries as well) He has a deep hatred and contempt for it. The more he becomes familiar with it the more he is exposed to the new culture the more he hates it. As states are ever more giving to immigrants, granting them ever more freedoms, they become ever more immodest in their treatment of their adopted countries. As society comes to appreciate diversity, multiculturalism and tolerance more and more there is an ever greater attempt to worship the culture of the immigrant, the 'other', and to encourage him to maintain his values. This, in itself, is not a terrible thing except for the fact that increasingly cultures of intolerance are encouraged and multi-culturalism is used as an excuse for supporting hatred. There is an ever greater attempt, on the part of the immigrant and the mutli-culturalists, to isolate the immigrant in a certain place next to his kin. Then the immigrant, angry at what he now considers his low station in life, explodes with rage over some perceived offense. Take two cases in Europe as examples. In Scotland in June of 2008 the police department distributed fliers advertising a non-emergency number on them. To draw attention to the cards that were mailed to residents and given to shopkeepers to display a small 6 month old puppy named 'Rebel' was pictured on the cover next to a policeman's cap. Soon newspaper articles were appearing saying that the cards were offensive. Pray tell who was offended? It turns out Muslims find dogs offensive because they are unclean. Of course, the postcards were not actual dogs, just pictures of them. Muslims don't like dogs, perhaps the way normal people don't like pictures of shit (one should note here that in the Koran dogs are compared to Jews and pigs, so one might assume that a picture of a Jew on a postcard would have been equally offensive. But there are few Jews in the Scottish police force whose faces merit being put on postcards.) When one puts themselves in the Muslim's position, as we are all apt to do in our modern leftist multi-cultural society, we think of ourselves living as immigrants in some place like Taiwan and receiving a postcard with a picture of a pile of shit on it and being 'offended'. But would we react with rage and anger and demand, as the Muslim councilor of Dundee(Scotland), Mohammed Asif did, that the dog cards be withdrawn and apologies issued? No. As good tolerant multi-cultural people we would accept that this is the Taiwanese culture (it is not, by the way). If we were more intelligent and honorable we might realize that as immigrants we should respect the culture of the people whose country we had immigrated to. But the response of the Scottish police department was to note that they had not intended to cause offense. Rather than asking why people, immigrants in fact, dared to be offended the police made the ridiculous choice to claim they didn't mean to cause offense. In Italy the rural village schools have had crosses in them since people can remember. When a Muslim moved to one such community and found out about the crosses he immediately demanded that they be removed because his children should not have to go to school and see them. They were 'offensive'. Such was this Muslim's arrogance and inhospitable way of living with his adopted country that he sued Italy over the crosses. The court, in its rare display of intelligence and strength, noted that the Christian religion was an integral part of Italian culture and that there was no compelling reason to remove the cross. Here are two cases of the way of the immigrant. In ever increasing numbers the modern Muslim immigrant does not move to a country and respect its values and culture. Muslims always claim that indeed they merely want to be left alone to their own traditions and that they respect the traditions of others. But the truth is far from this. Muslim immigrants do not respect the local cultures they find themselves in. A Muslim will move from his country, where the Koran is displayed in every school, to a small town in Europe and complain that a cross is displayed in the local school. He will never learn anything about the culture of his new country and will demand that wherever he goes that the people adapt to him. In the U.K for instance one school forced all the pupils to pray to Allah and the girls to cover their hair so as to 'learn about Islam' and in another school the Holocaust was stricken from the curriculum because Muslims would be 'offended' by learning about Jewish suffering. One should not have to have immigrants that act in this manner. One should certainly not have to apologize to them because they are offended by something that the local people have always been doing or are offended by something that local people like. Yet everywhere today people are adjusting to immigrants rather than demanding that immigrants adjust. There is a short answer that every immigrant and his descendants need to learn. 'If you don't like it go back to your country.' This is the only answer that any local police department or school anywhere should ever give to a Muslim who complains. Is there pork on the menu at the local schools? If the Muslims don't like it they have a school to go to: in Saudi Arabia or any other of the 40 Muslim countries in the world where Islam is the official religion. (in contrast to Islam, Jews have long adjusted to the pork consuming habits of locals in places like the American South). Muslim don't like dogs. Then they should not move to countries where the people like dogs. Yet the liberal is of the opinion that should a Muslim appear in an apartment building than people should suddenly be careful about letting their dogs out, lest the dog cause offence. In Minnesota the local taxi companies no longer allow dogs in the taxis because the Muslim drivers took offense to them. In Singapore the same response was given to Muslims. It is a worldwide phenomenon. Wherever Muslims are a minority they get what they want. Wherever they are a majority they get what they want. When police use dogs against criminals we now hear that the dogs might offend the criminal Muslims. There is one response: if you don't like dogs, if you find them unclean, then don't be a criminal and don't attract the attention of the police. The Palestinians who complain about the Israeli use of dogs can learn from this: stop throwing rocks at the police and the dogs will stop being used. If the Muslim criminals suddenly decide that being put in a prison is 'offensive' and 'against the Koran' will the state suddenly decide to have special places for Muslim criminals? The path of the arrogant immigrant and the terrorist are implacably linked. Not all immigrants are terrorists. But an ever increasing number of Muslim immigrants are terrorists. The reason they become terrorists is because of their notion that society should always change to suit them. The two recent terror attacks carried out in Jerusalem were carried out by Arab workers hired by Israelis. The hiring of the Arabs caused them to become terrorists. This may seem like a strange logic. How can hiring someone cause them to become a terrorist? Aren't we all told that terror is the result of poverty and unemployed 'angry' youth, thus hiring them would cause them to be thankful? The terrorists didn't become terrorists because they lost their jobs either. This is not a matter of people 'going postal' and gunning down their co-workers and bosses. The reason hiring people can turn them into terrorists is because it makes them familiar. Their familiarity breeds their contempt and soon one finds that their anger and 'rage' boils over and because they are now working in an environment around the 'other' they not have the possibility to challenge that 'rage' and 'resentment' into an act of murder. Were they merely peasants working in their own society their rage and anger would lie undirected. But the Arabs hired in East Jerusalem who come to work in West Jerusalem become terrorists more and more. They are all ticking bombs. Jews say "we hire them because they are cheap labor." But is it worth an extra few dollars saved a day when compared with the people murdered by the, for all intents and purposes, immigrant workers? No human is worth a small amount of cost savings. The Israeli employers are never targeted (as mentioned before, the terrorist is not 'going postal' but directing his anger against the 'other' around him, rather than against his employer and fellow employees). Instead the result of hiring East Jerusalem Arabs is the deaths of innocent bystanders, murdered because someone decided to save some money. In the case of the Merkaz Ha Rav Yeshiva shooting the terrorist had been a driver for the Yeshiva. For years he earned a living from Jews. Then one day he killed them. The July 2nd, 2008 attack was carried out by a gainfully employed bulldozer driver. The Arab man was entrusted with great responsibility to drive a bulldozer and he made a living doing it. Then he murdered people. Dealing with terrorism that comes from Muslim immigrants is a process of waiting. It is a process of waiting for the 'next one' to have his 'rage'. It is always being at the mercy of people. One has to be nice to them every day, never knowing when 'today might be the day' that they decide to transform from a worker to a terrorist. The media and the police paint a picture where there is 'nothing that can be done'. One is always supposed to wait for the next one. Imagine such a society. A society waiting to die. In Europe it is always a matter of waiting until the Muslim immigrants (or his descendants) feel that 'today is the day to be offended and have a riot'. The solution, so we are told, is to be one step ahead of them. Dealing with immigrant rage is a process of making sure beforehand not to offend the special people who take offense. Dealing with terrorism from 'within' is a matter of having actionable intelligence and arresting the terrorist just before he has his 'special day'. There are two stories worth relating that bear on this subject. In December of 1919 Emma Goldman and 200 other foreign born extremists were rousted from their beds on Ellis island and put aboard a ship. Goldman stood defiant, saying she was 'proud of the honor of being deported from the United States.' She had been born in Kovno in 1869 in Lithuania to an Orthodox Jewish family. They moved from there to Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad) and to St. Petersburg. Fleeing Anti-semitism the family booked ship for the United States, where they arrived in 1885. It did not take long before the teenage immigrant became involved in radical politics. During the Homestead strike she and Alexander Berkman (a wealthy Russian born Jew who immigrated to the U.S at the age of 17 in 1887) resolved to murder the owner of a steel plant named Henry Frick. Berkman, the immigrant, first tried to build a small bomb and then bought a gun which he used to shoot Frick three time. He was beaten unconscious by the very workers he was trying to 'liberate'. Imagine the arrogance here: a country gives these people a new lease on life, free from the anti-semitism of the Old Country, and they decide to murder people in their new country. Goldman became more extreme, ordering her followers in 1893 to "take everything by force...demonstrate before the palaces of the rich...demand work." She was arrested for inciting a riot and then threw a glass of water at the judge, such was her respect for the institutions of her new land. When a son of Polish immigrants and an Anarchist named Leon Czolgosz murdered President Mckinley the U.S finally began to understand the danger and arrogance of foreign extremists. But America was a patient nation and it did not deport Emma or her colleagues. Instead they had the freedom to found their 'Free Speech League' to support the entry of more anarchists into the country and their newspaper 'Mother Earth' which showed anti-American drawings on its cover, one of which depicted a man jabbing the American flag down another mans throat entitled 'Patriotism in Action'. In 1917 when America joined the Great War and when average Americans went to serve their country the immigrant Goldman helped form a No Conscription League that was composed of 'internationalists' who refused to fight the 'capitalists war'. It may have been no surprise the immigrants didn't want to fight the war, after all, it was not their country. Had they been back home in their homelands they would, of course, had no choice. Emma had great arrogance in her fight against entry into the First World War she declared America "must first make democracy safe in America. How else is the world to take America seriously, when democracy at home is daily being outraged, free speech suppressed, peaceable assemblies broken up by overbearing and brutal gangsters in uniform." Oddly Ms. Goldman did not recall that since 1890 she had engaged in the most radical forms of free speech and yet been allowed to remain in her new nation. But she, of course, had no appreciation for America for having allowed her to immigrate. Instead she bit the hand that fed her. When Communism triumphed in Russia after the Revolution she declared that it offered "the most fundamental, far-reaching and all-embracing principles of human freedom and of economic well-being." But Emma, who hated America so much, did not return home to her mother country. It was America that finally returned her home. It put her and many of her fellow haters who hated their new country, on a boat and shipped them back. But Communism didn't turn out to be the utopia she thought it would. The Communists viewed freedom of speech as a 'bourquiese supersition'. Other countrites took her in: Lativa, England and Canada. When she was finally allowed to return to the U.S in 1934, albeit only to lecture on drama and her autobiography, she was, ironically, criticized in the Communist press. During the Spanish Civil War she was a supporter of the Anarchists that fought on the side of the 'Republic' (the wonderful anarchists did great open minded things in Barcelona, such as destroying Gaudi's sketches for the completion of the Sagrada Familia). In 1939, on the eve of the Second World War, she was residing in England and could not help but to, once again, insult her host country, calling it "more fascist than the fascists." In yet another irony for the immigrant Goldman it would be hundreds of thousands of those 'fascist' Englishmen who would die opposing Hitler whose Nazis would completely exterminate the Jews of Kovno, her birthplace. Goldman opposed any fight against Nazism, noting that "I would not support a war against them [Germany and Italy] and for the democracies which, in the last analysis, are only Fascist in disguise." The Democracies had taken in this immigrant again and again and again and never received one word of priase. Emma died in 1940. She probably deserved to have been killed earlier in her beloved Communist Soviet Union. She probably deserved to die by the hands of her beloved Nazis who she would not have fought. But Communism and Nazism eluded her. She lived at the dole and favor of the capitalist democracies she hated so much, going from one to another to spit on them. Emma and her immigrant friends were very much like the Muslim immigrants of today. Everyone who opposes Islamism should realize this is not the first time the West has had to encounter immigrant terrorists who used the West's good graces and tolerance against it. Emma's life is the model for the Muslim terrorist. Her arrogance and her hatred of the very countries that took her in are no different than that of the modern terrorist. The West did not defeat the Emma Goldmans. The West was weak and flacid in the face of them as well. The decision to finally deport her in 1919 should have been made in 1890. She should have deported after the first negative, hateful, extremist word she uttered. Immigrants need to learn a lesson. Free speech does not apply to them. The freedoms that westerners have do not apply to foreigners. Free speech must be earned and appreciated. Westerners have died in numerous wars for their freedoms. Usually they have fought those wars against the very nations from which the immigrants come. I recall a very personal story that is representative of the attitude of the hateful immigrant and the terrorist. I was the president of a small home owners association (HOA) for a development community in Arizona. We had 200 similar looking houses and very harsh codes of conduct for the residents. The properties had to be kept clean and tidy. Trash bins had to be removed from the street after collection. There were two residents of the community, a husband and wife, who ceaselessly complained against their neighbours. They complained over the most miniscule things, such as a neighbour having a light in the backyard that was 'too bright'. According to these complainers the role of the HOA should be to force 'compliance' upon these other residents. But the infractions were mostly in the heads of the complainers, there was no reason to enforce outlandish complaints. In the end I had to confront these people and I demanded of them "if you hate having neighbours so much why did you move into such a close knit community" (in truth I gave them a greater tongue lashing). These people had no answer except to threaten to sue the HOA for not enforcing the 'rules'. These complainers were like the immigrant-terrorist. They had moved into a community that had an established way of life. It was their choice to move to this new community. Soon after arriving, rather than assimilating and learning about the values of the community, they took it upon themselves to try to force the entire community to bend to their minority viewpoint. Others might have met this complaining with action and apologies and forced innocent people to change their lives so as not to offend the new arrivals. But the proper response, the one I gave, was to fight this complaining with fire. Complaining must be smashed before it grows. People that complain must be taught a lesson. They must be opposed at every crossroads. There must be no appeasing or bending to their will. People who take offense must be opposed through the use of greater offense. Otherwise such things get out of control. Then, all of a sudden, the complainer has his 'rage' and 'anger' and 'resentment'. Unless the rules are laid down immediately and with extreme strength then they will always be broken. Had Emma Goldman been deported in 1890 she would have been taught a lesson. She would have lived out her life in Luthuania and died at the hands of Stalin or Hitler. That would have been her path and a path well deserved given the amount of hatred that dwelled within her. By the same token Muslim immigrants who do not appreciate the hospitality of Europe should be sent home. Europeans are always worried that Muslims might be 'tortured' if deported. But if a few were deported and subsequently tortured and flayed alive perhaps the rest would stop complaining about a puppy on a postcard or a small cross in a school and realize that such things were trivial compared with the treatment metted out to them in their home country. Should they prefer the home country, they should be welcome to it and they should deported, immediately. Tolerance is a goal. A society should be tolerant. But it should not have to be tolerant of intolerance. It should not have to be tolerant of the rights of immigrants. Immigrants have no rights. Their rights are in their home country. They should fulfill their responsibility as immigrants first and then, and only then, obtain the rights of their new country. They should have to prove themselves. There should be zero tolerance for their hatred, their endless complaining and their 'taking offense'. Terrorism is the result of a weak policy. It is the result of
allowing Muslim Arabs or Emma Goldmans, to come to a country, enjoy
its fruits and then spit on it. Hatred eminating from the mouth must
be met with the fist. People want to call a country 'fascist' then
they should learn what fascism is. Emma Goldman deserved fascism. She
deserved it so much and yet she never received it. Her whole life she
spit on the soil of others by insulting them. She called everyone
'fascist' and yet she never received fascism. She deserved it.
Today's terrorists-in-waiting deserve it. They deserve the very thing
they think they are receiving. If they find the puppy offensive they
deserve to be truly offended, perhaps through an annual 'running of
the pigs' through their communities. Then, suddenly, the puppy
postcard might seem like a welcome reprive. Strength against
immigration. Strength in the face of arrogance. Strength in the face
of complaints. Strength in the face of terror. Only when a society
learns to project strength against the most minor things will it use
it against the larger things. Otherwise it is just limping along
claiming that 'one day we will respond.'
Contact Seth Frantzman at sfrantzman@hotmail.com
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WOAH!... OBAMA CAMP FREAKS OVER NEW YORKER COVER
Posted by Gateway Pundit, July 14, 2008. |
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From:
"We know what kind of campaign they are going to run. They're going to try to make you afraid. They're going to try to make you afraid of me. He's young. He's inexperienced and he's got a funny name. And, did I mention he's black." Yuck –– Barack Obama Plays the Race Card (Video)
"The post-racial candidate plays the first race card of the campaign today. (Actually, the "typical white person" line was probably the first card played?) "Despite the fact that the most glaring racist attacks in the campaign this year came from his mentor and close friends, Barack Obama thought he would lash out at those who would dare make race an issue in the coming months."gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/06/yuck-barack-obama-plays-race-card.html The Republicans are nothing.. The New Yorker unveiled their latest magazine cover today:
Wow! They even have Osama hanging over the fireplace!
The Politico The Obama campaign is condemning as "tasteless and offensive" a New Yorker magazine cover that depicts Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in a turban, fist-bumping his gun-slinging wife. If you think the New Yorker cover is bad for Obama –– read the article inside the magazine by Ryan Lizza on how the Chicago scene shaped Obama.
If the cover didn't scare you about Obama –– the content inside the magazine will. Flopping Aces (http://www.floppingaces.net/2008/07/13/obama-your-typical-politician/) reviews the ugly article on Obama's upbringing in Chicago-style politics. The Corner (http://www.newyorker.com/) has more on Obama's Far Left loony response to the 9-11 attacks described in the Lizza article. It is truly frightening. Michelle Malkin offers advice to Obama at
Blogger Dale in Atlanta said... New Yorker Magazine at the Newstand: $6.95 |
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THE KUNTAR FILE EXPOSED
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 14, 2008. |
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This is by Nir Gontarz and was published in Hebrew in Yediot Aharonot. It has been translated and reprinted with permission. Lior El-Hai and Meir Turgeman contributed to this report. |
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After almost 30 years of being classified, File No. 578/79 has been granted permission for publication: the murderer's testimony, the shots in Danny Haran's back and the death blow to toddler Einat's head.
For almost 30 years the Samir Kuntar file has sat in the district courthouse archives in Haifa. Its contents were never authorized for publication. Until yesterday. Right before his expected release in two days' time, the court acceded to Yediot Aharonot's request and allowed Kuntar's testimony, copies of the copious evidence and other testimonies in the file, the indictment and the judges' verdict, to be perused... Besides the Pardons Department, no one has ever read the file –– which was considered top secret by court administrators. On the few occasions that it was removed from the archives, it was accompanied by an armed security officer. Being a classified security file, the contents of File No. 578/79 had never been released for publication. Due to the obvious public interest, Justice Ron Shapira has permitted publication of everything in the file except one person's testimony. The judge also asked not to publish the pathological reports or any other detail that could harm the memory of the victims. "I saw no reason to restrict access to the indictment and the sentence [as demanded by the prosecutors' office –– N.G.]," explained the judge. "No one disputes that the matter of Kuntar's release and therefore the circumstances of his detention are subjects of public interest. I'm certain that the newspaper's request is justified." Kuntar, a Druze Lebanese, was 17 when he commanded the terrorist cell of the Popular Front for the National Liberation of Palestine. He has never expressed remorse for killing Einat (age 4) and Danny (age 32) Haran and the police officer Eliyahu Shahar (age 24). He and the other surviving cell member, Ahmed Assad Abras, were sentenced to five life terms and another 47 years of imprisonment. In the Nahariya terror attack on April 22, 1979, Yael Haran (age 2) was also killed while hiding from the terrorists with her mother Smadar Haran. "I Did Not Kill" Kuntar was supposed to rot in jail until his dying day, but barring further delays in the deal with Hezbullah, on Wednesday morning he will say goodbye to his cellmates in Cell 33, Wing 3, in Hadarim Prison, be transported to the Rosh Hanikra border crossing, and celebrate his 46th birthday at home in the village of Aabey near the Beirut airport. On the night of April 22, 1979, Kuntar and his accomplices sailed from Lebanon in a rubber dinghy and landed on the Nahariya beach. They shot at a police car, killing officer Eliyahu Shahar. Moving on, they broke into the nearby Haran family apartment at 61 Jabotinsky Street, and dragged Danny and four-year-old Einat to the beach. Smadar and two-year-old Yael hid in the attic, where Yael suffocated to death as her mother tried to keep her quiet –– so the terrorists would not find them. On the beach, during an exchange of fire with security forces, Kuntar shot Danny in the back at close range and murdered Einat as well. Two of his fellow terror cell members were killed; Kuntar and Abras survived and were put on trial. Immediately following his capture, when his remand was extended, Kuntar confessed that he had bludgeoned Einat to death with the butt of his rifle. Later, however, when testifying in court, Kuntar denied the charges. "I reached Nahariya beach at 2:30 in the morning," he testified on January 6, 1980. "We tied our boat to a rock. We had instructions to avoid opening fire, to take hostages and bring them to Lebanon. I was commander of the cell. I planned to knock on the door at one of the houses. Majeed and I walked towards the building. I told him to ring the bell but not to speak, because I planned to speak English with the people living there. When we went in, Majeed buzzed one of the apartments, and Majeed spoke to the woman in Arabic and she answered him in Hebrew. He made a mistake and she didn't open the door.
"I then heard the sound of a car driving up and stopping... I opened fire, then we went up to one of the apartments, where we pulled out a man and a girl so we could take them with us. I decided we should take the girl with us to ensure we'd stay alive, and then return her from Lebanon to Israel via the Red Cross. However, in court, prosecution witness no. 4 testified that he saw Danny Haran stand up and shout, "Cease your fire, don't shoot. My little girl is here." Immediately thereafter he saw Danny shot by Kuntar. Testimony was also given in court by a doctor who ruled that Einat's death had been caused by a direct blow with a blunt instrument, something like a stick or a rifle butt. Satanic Act The court sessions were unbearable for Smadar Haran. In one of them, Kuntar's defense attorney claimed that he had been beaten in the detention center. Smadar, who could not stand it any longer, muttered something at the murderers –– causing the head judge to demand that she apologize. Smadar elected to exit the courtroom quietly, but refused to give an apology. Slain officer Eliyahu Shahar's mother did not attend the reading of the sentence in January 1980. Her heart had given out four days earlier. All those present in the courtroom, accustomed to seeing her there every session, felt her absence. Smadar Haran sat with her head downcast, bowed over in pain. Kuntar, according to the report in Yediot Aharonot at the time, actually looked amused. "Kuntar went over to Einat Haran and hit her head twice with the butt of his rifle, with the intent of killing her," wrote the judges in their verdict. "The other defendant also struck her head forcefully. As a result of the blows, Einat suffered skull fractures and fatal brain damage, causing her death. They murdered the hostages –– a helpless father and daughter, in cold blood." They wrote in the sentence, "By these acts the defendants reached an all-time moral low... an unparalleled satanic act... the punishments we are about to impose on the defendants cannot begin to match the brutality of their actions..."Kuntar, who managed to complete a bachelor's degree in social studies and humanities while in Israeli prison, was categorized by the Israeli government as a bargaining chip in the Ron Arad affair. That was four years ago, during the deal to return Elhanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of three IDF soldiers who had been kidnapped from Mt. Dov in 2000. Israel agreed to release Kuntar only in exchange for information on Ron. No information was received, and Kuntar remained in jail. Two weeks ago, Smadar Haran held a press conference, and made it clear that she is reconciled to the deal being made with Hezbullah. Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser will be returned to Israel in exchange for Kuntar's release. "Kuntar is not my personal prisoner," she explained. In two days, apparently, her family's murderer will be liberated, and Israel still will not have any reliable information on the fate of the captured navigator.
Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com
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DR. GOEBBELS RIDES AGAIN
Posted by Shaul and Aviva Ceder, July 14, 2008. |
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This was written by John W Cassell and it appeared July 7, 2008 on
the Gather website
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Nicholson Baker and Pat Buchanan are high on the list of Osama Bin Laden's "Favorite Infidels". They have done the impossible. They have written well-selling books proclaiming that World War II should NOT have been fought. Sir Winston Churchill was the real villian of the Forties they claim. They claim that World War II marked the destruction of the West. Because Britain, France and The Netherlands, were bled white by the war, they could no longer hold on to their colonies. Aw pshaw. To digress a moment, young presidential candidate Adolf Hitler perceived a problem selling Nazism to the German people. [I wonder why?]. To his rescue came Dr. Josef Goebbels. He told that much maligned and misunderstood man [apparently –– if we are to accept the premises of these two pieces of literary excrement] that the solution was to simply tell a Big Lie [not a small one, mark you] and repeat it over and over. Well, poor Hitler didn't get the presidency, but the Nazi gains in the Reischstag and their repeated, energetic attacks on the Weimar State so weakened the Republic that by 1933 the guy who won the presidency had to make Hitler the Chancellor...the real power in the Government. Score one for Dr. Goebbels. Well folks...believe it or not....he's back. And as Madison Avenue would say, he's bigger and better than ever. There is even two of him! Deft, Dextrous [see amazon's product page for the book] Nicky Baker and Ol' Archconservative Pat Buchanan. The Big Lie was probably just a matter of time...for two reasons. The first is that Lyndon Baines Johnson told so many little ones about Vietnam that Bill and Hillary Clinton were able to tell lots of little ones about anything and everything...even things they didn't have to. The second is that the Big Lie told by Pat and Nicky is the ONLY WAY America and Europe will sit still for another Holocaust. You see the jihadists need to stage another Holocaust to please their god. And according to the British Government, ALL Muslims are offended by mention of the Holocaust. That's why the British Goverment ordered its teachers to STOP teaching the Holocaust to British children. Maybe there are three Dr. Goebbelses. Add the Rightly Dishonourable UK Minister of Education. Anybody else want to get on the Bandwagon? Any frustrated Nazis out there itching for another shot at the Jews, the Slavs, the Catholics, the gays and the gypsies? How about the California "Minister of Education"? You already force Jewish and Christian children to take Muslim names and pray to Allah on prayer rugs. Why not go all the way? How about the defeatists in Israel? Ye who desecrate the agony of your ancestors and demean the War of Survival? There is still time to get on the Favorite Infidel List. I'm sure you'll get lavender scented gas when it's your turn. World War II was unnecessary? I suppose Hitler didn't keep conquering countries as Chamberlain kept trying to appease him. I suppose Hitler never divested a whole ethnic group of their property and civil rights...then starved and killed them in awful camps. I suppose the Japanese were never conducting genocide on the Pacific Island territories given to them by League of Nations mandate or in China or Manchuria. I suppose ALL OF THIS was never done BEFORE A SHOT WAS FIRED by the Aliies.... My only beef with World War II is it caused the Imperialist countries to be inundated with Muslim refugees who are offended both by the freedoms Europeans have and mention of the Holocaust. [The Netherlands: Dutch East Indies, France: Morocco,Tunisia and Algeria and Britain: India and Palestine]. That's what you get for Imperialism guys. The question is what are you going to do about it? Are you next going to give up your precious freedoms because they too are offensive to Muslims? To Ol' archconservative Pat, Deft and Dextrous Nicky and the Rightly Dishonourable UK Minister of Education: may all your teeth fall out the day before Thanksgiving. I've seen saner people in mental hospitals. Contact Shaul and Aviva Ceder at ceder@netvision.net.il |
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HEZBOLLAH'S HOLDOUT IN ISRAELI PRISONER "EXCHANGE
Posted by Delta Vines, July 14, 2008. |
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I shake my head in utter disbelief. Israel and Hezbollah negotiated a "prisoner exchange of sorts"; agreeing to return the bodies of Israeli Airman Ron Arad as well as the bodies of captured IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser in exchange for the return of terrorist prisoners from Israel. Hezbollah recently sent an 80 page report to Israel regarding Col. Ron Arad, an Israeli soldier. There are photos and pages of writing.....and apparently it is lacking in meeting the qualifications agreed upon between Israel and Hezbollah. Now, the terrorist group says they know he's dead...they just don't know where his body is. Since they can't find his body, they can't return it. They can still return the other two. Yet, these developments are not surprising. What I find unbelievable is that PM Olmert did not see this coming. Among the murderers and terrorists Israel has agreed to release is Samir Kuntar, who killed four people including the repeated blugeoning of a screaming four year old Israeli girl until she was dead. Not only will Israel be returning Kuntar and three other terrorists; it is also returning the remains of other Hezbollah operatives. Information will be supplied to Hezbollah on four Iranian diplomats who are considered missing. AND...Israel is going to be leaving her northern border with Lebanon exposed to more attacks by providing Hezbollah maps of the mines which the IDF has placed in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel. Israel is giving all this up for three dead bodies....sorry, make that two. It will not be surprising if next month, these same Hezbollah negotiators will miraculously "find" the remains of Arad, for another exchange of a murderer in Israeli prison. Yet, this Olmert diplomacy sure is helping Israel! These dhimmitude efforts for peace will do nothing but continue to walk Israel to it's destruction. When will Israel show it's strength to defend it's people and stand it's ground? Not while it's keeps releasing terrorists in "gestures of goodwill". (I can think of a different gesture and it's NOT a peace sign!) Where will these gestures get Israel? It will not be secure borders with it's neighbors. Hezbollah, Hamas, and other enemies of Israel will be encouraged to kidnap more soldiers, murder them, then dangle their remains out there like a carrot on the end of a stick for the release of even more murderers! Kuntar will have the opportunity to kill more Jews ... ... ... including innocent four year old girls. Try explaining that one, Olmert! Contact Delta Vines at delta_vines@sbcglobal.net. Visit her website:
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JEW LAUNCHES ROCKET INTO PALESTINIAN CITY
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, July 14, 2008. |
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Stop complaining and fight back! Here's how:
This article below was written by Aaron Klein and published yesterday in
World Net Daily
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Would be 1st-ever Israeli homemade projectile firing JAFFA, Israel –– The Israeli media is reporting today a Jew was arrested in conjunction with an attempted rocket attack aimed at a Palestinian village. If the report turns out to be accurate, the arrest would be the first-ever for a Jew implicated in a rocket attack against a Palestinian population center. The Palestinians have fired thousands of rockets from Gaza into Jewish cities, devastating communities outside the Gaza Strip and killing 13 Israelis. Hundreds more Jews were injuring in Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks. Israeli Police Spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld would only confirm to WND that Gilad Herman, a West Bank Jewish religious school student, was arrested yesterday "on suspicion of weapons charges following a house-to-house search one month ago." Israel's leading Yediot Aharonot newspaper reported Herman was arrested on information he was involved in a failed rocket attack last month on the Palestinian West Bank village of Burin, which neighbors Herman's school in the town of Yitzhar. In that attempted rocket attack, the projectile failed to reach its destination, landing short just outside the parameter of Yitzhar. At the time, police and Israeli forces suspected the blast was a Palestinian attack on Yitzhar's Jewish residents, but they later found the rocket and information indicating Jews were behind the blast. Police suspect the perpetrator of the failed attack used Internet material to learn how to build a homemade rocket. Palestinian police officials last month also claimed two mortars were fired from a West Bank Jewish town into the Burin Palestinian village. The police officials said the mortars had labels with the names "Sharon-1" and "Sharon-2," apparently named after former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Meanwhile today, Gazan Palestinians fired two mortar shells aimed at Israel, once again violating a cease fire agreed to last month between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization. Yesterday, Palestinians fired a Qassam rocket into Israel, bringing to over a dozen the number of mortars and rockets launched from Gaza since the truce was forged. Daisy Stern, who also submitted this, wrote: It's about time! If our army can't do it, maybe the time has come for the citizenry to teach the murderers a lesson, I'd say. Isn't the whole purpose of a national army to defend its citizens.?Well, Tsahal is not doing its job. So maybe the time has come for a NEW army to take shape, one that WILL protect its citizens... That young man is a hero and should be treated as such. Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel. |
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STOP FINANCING TERRORISTS!
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, July 14, 2008. |
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A plethora of battery operated hybrid vehicles, able to run for 200 miles on one overnight charge, plugged into sockets connected at a distance to electricity generating power plants powered by wind farms and the sun, would go a long way in eliminating terrorists, financed by fossil fuel rich regimes like Saudi Arabia and Iran, economies consequently in tatters, revenue flows from extorted industrial nations dried up as a result of heretofore untapped 'infidel' brainpower now flowing in a sane direction. Indeed, stop the unconscionable enormous transfer of wealth to the raw material oil cartel OPEC and the world will be enormously safer. A no brainer! Alas, easier imagined then realized. Superpower Uncle Sam, no doubt listing terrorist concerns atop a short list of priorities, victim of an insidious attack on his homeland on 9/11, also must rely on his petrodollar to maintain the ever sinking value of his greenback. Without a world addicted to oil, how indeed would his dollar fare? If it's starring role as the planet's primary oil trading currency becomes irrelevant, what would stop industrial nations from trading their ample dollar reserves for that more desirable new kid on the block, the euro? What would Uncle 'Got Rocks', rocked by debt, do if his most prized export, the dollar, lost its charm, pulling down his economy, sending seismic tremors through his challenged nation from Wall Street to Main Street, with perhaps the further consequence of taking the globally connected economy with him? Might this however be avoided by merging the dollar and euro, fending off flag waving and jingoistic rhetoric by those who cannot see the big picture? The blood, sweat, and fears of captive citizens shed, wasted, and exploited respectively in a Kafkaesque scenario where the victims of terror become their own worst enemies, purchasing oil thus indirectly financing homicide/suicide bombers and their handlers, as well as ceding civil liberties for security while in panic mode, could all be avoided if wealth accumulating raw material power supplying regimes were not so empowered. It is that simple! Furthermore, might such a regime like Iran manipulate the price of oil by threatening to 'wipe Israel off the map', causing Israel to react by flexing her muscles, giving Iran an excuse to intensify the threat to her and her great ally the U.S., thus causing speculators in oil futures and consequently the per barrel price of oil to spin out of control, using the excuse of potential supply shortages due to a potential Middle East war, enhancing the revenue flow to those not so crazy Persian Shiites? Is Mahmoud AhMADinejad, Iran's president and Jew-bashing mouthpiece, merely a fundamentalist Islamic lunatic awaiting the coming of his 12th Imam, or a 21st Century P.T. Barnum playing the industrial fossil fuel addicted world for suckers? Is modern day Persia truly willing to launch a missile attack on Tel Aviv from within its borders, aware such monstrous aggression would undoubtedly lead to its own demise? Would modern day Persia attempt to inflict significant casualties upon Israel through a proxy such as Hizbullah, aware that Israeli intelligence would identify the indirect culprit, aware that a mighty response could reduce Tehran to cinders? Alternatively, is Iran, perhaps in sync with the mind-set of other OPEC regimes, Big Oil, speculators, and other Machiavellian profiteers playing the rest of world for patsies, stoking fears of 250 dollar per barrel oil as the Middle East burns, using bellicose rhetoric directed at Israel and U.S. interests as a means to its manipulative ends? Neither terrorist jihadists nor unscrupulous oil tycoons, robed or otherwise, can succeed if plug-in hybrid vehicles, if wind and solar powered electricity generating plants, become all the rage, relegating fossil fuels to a bygone era. It would however take much effort to persuade less than attentive movers and shakers to abandon misdirected strategies like searching for more sources of oil, prompted by those with ties to the most dominant industry on earth. Indeed, note how critical global warming issues have been pushed to the back burner while duped worldwide populations watch their disposable incomes shrink, believing drilling for more oil will somehow lower prices of a commodity little affected by supply and demand. If there was a substantial connection, wouldn't a more than doubling of pump prices, say in America, in less than two years, diminish vehicle traffic by close to a similar amount? Of course that did not happen, albeit consumers of gasoline do drive less, are beginning to purchase more fuel efficient vehicles, but such diminished usage pales in comparison to the extreme price hikes. Why? What we have is an inelastic demand for a necessary commodity, much less affected by price increases than under typical supply and demand conditions. This fact is further emphasized by the huge profit margins of Big Oil and the OPEC cartel during this period, their incremental costs not at all rising while consumers are soaked more and more. No doubt, as the price of oil is denominated in dollars, and the dollar continues to lose value, it takes more dollars to purchase the same quantity of oil, also causing the per barrel price to rise. Again, if the faltering greenback were to merge with the euro as suggested, the shadow currency war between the U.S. and E.U. thus thankfully ended, a stabilization process should occur, U.S. foreign debts would have to be recalculated, oil would be denominated in the new stable currency, let's call it the duro, and hopefully the world' s one superpower and global economy would avert a plunge into catastrophe canyon. Furthermore, the dollar oil linkage would be broken allowing Uncle Sam to get aboard the hybrid express with gusto. There is one doable solution for a world perilously close to disaster, financing the very culprits who do it the most harm; stop relying on the flow of fossil fuels, stop the flow of revenue to terrorists! Lawrence Uniglicht is a career civil servant. He advocates for the State of Israel with an American perspective. He writes, "Advocating for the disrespected underdog has been my passion, no doubt Israel falls into that category." Contact him by email at larose@snip.net |
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REPLACEMENT GEOGRAPHY; OLMERT'S FIRE SALE; ARE WE WINNING THE WAR ON TERROR
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 14, 2008. |
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WHO'S BIGGEST FINANCIER OF HAMAS? It might be Israel. The Olmert regime asks banks and foreign governments not to transfer money to the Hamas regime in Gaza. Simultaneously, the Israeli government transfers hundreds of millions of dollars to the Hamas regime. This helps finance terrorism (IMRA, 6/26). I asked IMRA's source how much Hamas gets from Abbas, who also gets sums from Israel and the US, and how much Hamas gets from Iran. I asked whether Israel legally is obliged to collect excise taxes for the P.A. and, if so, whether the Knesset could eliminate that. I think that Israel at least should deduct from the P.A. the amount it spends on counter-terrorism against the P.A.. Of course, that would consume the whole amount. Why shouldn't the enemy pay for defense from the enemy, rather than Israel help pay for enemy aggression? ISRAEL HELPS THE ENEMY FOR NOTHING? In the lopsided prisoner-exchange deal proposed with Hizbullah, Israel would give Iran information about four Iranian agents supposedly killed by a Christian Lebanese militia. Israel is not getting anything in return from Iran. Iran has something to offer. Some years ago, a dozen Jews tried to flee Iran, at the encouragement of Israel. They never were heard from. Representing their families, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner reminds the government of Israel that it is under court order to do what it can to find out what happened to the dozen. The letter demands that the government insist on getting information about their fate, in exchange for giving information about the Iranian agents' fate (IMRA, 6/26). REPLACEMENT GEOGRAPHY LIKE REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY Replacement theology is a Christian doctrine, once the dominant one, that held that Christianity superseded Judaism and therefore gentile claims upon the Land of Israel superseded the Jews' or at least that the Jewish return to their homeland contradicts Christian claims of superiority. Google Geography treats Israel, and only Israel, like that, in its maps. It replaces Israeli entitlement to the country with that of Palestinian Arabs. It has a red dot with linkage to a narrative that explains that that area was an Arab village destroyed in 1948. The idea is to make Israel seem colonialist. Many of those villages either still exist or had been abandoned by 1946. Google is letting false allegations into its maps. That is not geography but propaganda (IMRA, 6/26). If the Arabs had won, they would have exterminated the Jews. "DIPLOMATIC FIRE SALE" "Diplomatic fire sale" is how Dr. Aaron Lerner characterizes PM Olmert's policy. Olmert makes concession-after-concessions to the Arabs and to the State Dept., apparently in a desperate to keep in the good graces of leftist prosecutors. Olmert's desperation reveals how undemocratic and unwise his regime is. He is planning to make a prisoner exchange for two, probably dead Israeli soldiers. He would free a terrorist named Kuntar. Kuntar's attacks include murdering a Jew in front of his little daughter, then bashing the child's head in. Although warned and begged, Olmert evinces no concern that trading live prisoners for dead ones encourages the murderous Islamists to murder prisoners before exchanging them. [Neither does he express concern about the high recidivist rate among released prisoners, yet he releases large numbers of them in relation to the number of Jews he gets, such that the large numbers are sure to kill more Jews than Olmert gets back.] Olmert has an excuse for this trade: that Jewish law prohibits the wives of the Israeli prisoners from marrying until it is determined that the prisoners are dead, which the trade would reveal. The Chief Rabbi is studying the issue. Olmert tried to order the Chief Rabbi not to make the determination before the trade. In other words, the rabbi should not get a chance to make a finding that would cancel Olmert's excuse for the trade. How low can a politician get, when he betrays his people like that? (Dr. Aaron Lerner, IMRA, 6/27). Releasing Kuntar indicates that Muslim Arabs who murder Israeli prisoners can exchange the cadavers for Muslim Arab prisoners who murdered Israelis savagely, because Israeli leaders are stupid (Arutz-7, 6/26). ISLAMIST ATTACK ON THE DOLLAR Islamists are trying to get foreigners to stop patronizing the dollar. They think a weaker US dollar would weaken US resolve against Islamism (Arutz-7, 6/26). Foreign purchases of Treasury bonds enable the US government to spend more than it receives. If those bonds didn't sell, the government would have to tax more and spend less. Not a bad idea. P.A. TRUCE VIOLATIONS Muslim Arabs violate the truce daily, but Israel does not respond. Having showed it controls Gaza, Hamas can't pretend powerlessness now. Both sides are doing a lot of talking about it (IMRA, 6/27), but this is posturing. Israel is beset with weak leadership. "ARE WE WINNING THE WAR ON TERROR" That is the lead article in July's Commentary. The answer is that we are winning in many areas but terrorism is growing elsewhere, even in Pakistan, where al-Qaeda has a sanctuary. Al-Qaeda has become unpopular among Muslims, because they don't like getting killed by its random bombings. Iran is gaining power via proxy. The danger of terrorists acquiring weapons of mass-destruction is present, and must be crushed before it happens. A letter in the same issue worries about having Arab-Israel negotiations before the Arabs have taken any significant steps against terrorism and for peace. When the negotiation is done, pressure would mount to confer sovereignty upon the P.A., without waiting for it first to end terrorism. Then it would have no incentive to end terrorism. Excuses would be made for not waiting. [The Arabs would be rewarded as a result of their bigoted, imperialist, terrorism.] The article omitted two important points. One is that Iran's proxies gain from Israeli timidity and US complicity against Israel. The other is that the discussion focuses on military aspects of terrorism, but not on fundraising for it nor on religious indoctrination in it, except that leading Muslims are condemning it. A liberal used to complain to me that Pres. Bush's doctrine made pre-emptive warfare part of US policy. I think that is over-simplifying it, and doing so rather than admit that the US had cause to attack Iraq. However, I think that doctrine makes sense. It makes sense to someone who realizes that there is a global jihad to which various countries and organizations contribute militarily and in other ways, openly or secretly, now and then. It would be foolish to wait for them to attack us, and perhaps attack us devastatingly. It would be foolish to wait for them to build up greater forces for the attack (as Israel does with its enemies). Pre-emption should not be the prerogative of imperialist aggressors. The only caveat is that the country or organization we choose to attack really is an enemy and not some country, such as Panama, with which the Administration has some lesser quarrel. Actually, that liberal does believe in certain pre-emption. He opposes the Iraq war but not the judicial and economic attacks on terrorists nor the work of thwarting terrorist plots, so long as it doesn't infringe upon our civil liberties. In those cases, he approves of our taking the initiative. Why not militarily and against a country? The trouble with that fellow is that he thinks superficially, based on ideological slogans. The real world is more complex. He doesn't realize how little he knows of it. He supposes that his newspaper has fully informed him. It doesn't occur to him to check other sources for news and logic, to test how valid are his own. Most people are like that. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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NOT A SPOOF. HEBREW UNIVERSITY TO READMIT CONVICTED TERRORIST TO CHEMISTRY LAB
Posted by Steven Plaut, July 14, 2008. |
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(IsraelNN.com) A professor at Hebrew University wants to allow a convicted Arab terrorist who stole bomb-making materials from his chemistry lab to be allowed back to the lab, Channel 2 TV reported Sunday. Six years ago, 160 liters of acetone –– a chemical which is used for making the common explosive acetone peroxide –– disappeared from the Laboratory for Medicinal Chemistry at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The theft led to an investigation by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), which in turn led to the arrest of Adel Hadmi, a doctoral student at the laboratory. According to Channel 2, Hadmi was convicted of being a member of a terror cell that planned suicide attacks against Israelis. In addition, he recruited other Arabs to the cell. He was convicted and jailed but is now free again, and would like to complete his doctoral studies in the very same laboratory the acetone was stolen from. Prof. Goldblum thinks otherwise The laboratory's previous director, Prof. Avi Domb, adamantly vetoed the idea of Hadmi's return, but his successor, Prof. Amiram Goldblum, thinks otherwise. Goldblum, one of the founders of radical leftist group "Peace Now," said that the university has no grounds to refuse to readmit Hadmi and allow him to finish his doctorate, because he has already been punished and served his jail sentence. Last week, the lab's students were told to free a table in the lab for Hadmi. Domb, who was shocked to hear of Goldblum's decision, wrote a letter to the university in which he said that allowing the convicted terrorist back to the scene of his crime was both irresponsible and immoral. Students in the lab also protested but as of now, the university has not rescinded the decision to let the terrorist back in. The university did say, however, that he will probably not be allowed near dangerous substances because of his terrorist past. According to watchdog group CAMERA, Prof. Goldblum was considered a radical even by his colleagues in Peace Now "after he explained away Saddam Hussein's Scud attacks and threats of annihilation as due only to Israel's alleged failure to make concessions to the Palestinians." In 1990, after an Arab stabbed and killed three Israelis in the Baka neighborhood of Jerusalem where Goldblum lives, "even his own neighbors began to stone his house in frustration at what they saw as his outspokenly pro-PLO views." Want to tell the heads of the Hebrew U what you think of this? Contact President of the Hebrew University Prof. Menachem Magidor
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Rector of the Hebrew University
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hebrew University "Friends of" Offices:
Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments –– both seriously and satirically –– on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. Or write him at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il This was written by Gil Ronen and published in Arutz-7
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BURIED WITH KALONYMUS
Posted by Daisy Stern, July 14, 2008. |
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This was published by Sarah Honig July 10, 2008 in
Jerusalem Post
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When US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was here last and reproved us with a sanctimonious schoolmarm's sternness, she pro-forma professed to genuinely believe that Jews unlawfully seized "Arab Jerusalem." To facilitate Washington's self-serving cockamamie "two-state vision," it's therefore incumbent upon Jewish trespassers to renounce what isn't theirs, and certainly not construct more housing for more unwanted Jews. But I bet anything that self-righteous Condi never heard of Rabbi
Kalonymus the Miracle Maker (Kalonymus Ba'al Ha-ness). He's my direct
ancestor. Until 1948, a massive mound of stones marked his final
resting place on the Mount of Olives' slopes. The Arabs smashed all
that. What was once a conspicuous landmark is now gone. But does
unbridled vandalism grant Arabs an unassailable deed of ownership?
MY FATHER'S family knew for sure of at least two illustrious forebears' graves in this country. One was of Rabbi Elazar Rokeach, the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Amsterdam, to whom we trace our lineage directly, generation-by-generation, without omission. He left everything to live in Safed, where he died and was buried in 1741 –– a full 35 years before American independence. Kalonymus Haberkasten, another of my paternal grandmother's direct and indisputable forefathers, headed the Ashkenazi community of Jerusalem over 200 years before Rabbi Elazar left Holland to settle in the Galilee. Kalonymus died in Jerusalem in 1550, and was reputed to have been the holy Ari's teacher. But his greatest renown came from having saved the then-Sephardi
Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue from the bloody consequences of a blood
libel. On the last Saturday before Passover, neighboring Arabs dumped
the body of a young boy at the synagogue and charged that Jews had
baked matzos with his blood –– a popular calumny that originated in
1144 in Norwich England and for spurious spin-offs of which many Jews
in diverse corners of the world were to pay with their lives for
centuries. Somehow my great-great-great...great grandfather Kalonymus
pulled off his day's counterpart of a forensic whodunit-sensation,
proved the accusers' deceit and foiled the rioters.
THOSE OF us not big on miracles can skip the details. Suffice it to say that tradition ascribes the rescue of congregants and synagogue to Kalonymus, and that he was revered equally by Ashkenazim and Sephardim. His bold feat had become a staple of Jerusalem folklore. The 3,000-year-old Jewish...
 But Kalonymus didn't savor his victory. He berated himself for having violated the Sabbath in the course of performing his miracle. To punish himself he requested that no tombstone be erected atop his grave. He was interred on the lower mountain gradient, near Rabbi Ovadia of Bertinoro (the "Bartenura"), and ordinary Jerusalemites passing by would always place stones on his unmarked grave. Over the centuries this folksy homage grew to considerable proportions and was visible from afar. That was the case until 1948, when Arab occupiers ransacked and
defiled the Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue (along with 57 others), ripped
out tombstones from the 3,000-year-old Mount of Olives Jewish cemetery
and used them to construct public latrines –– the ultimate humiliation
and desecration. At that time they also savagely pulled down the giant
stack of stones piled up as Kalonymus's marker during almost 400
years. This was maximal ethnic cleansing, deliberately calculated to
purge Jerusalem of its Jewish past and pretend it was never anything
but Arab. So what if Jews constituted the largest ethnic group in
Jerusalem as far back as the first available testimonies and records
of the earliest decades of the 19th century (borne out by noted
travelers like Richardson, Carne and Scholtz)?
THE FIRST official census of 1844 showed 7,130 Jews and 5,760 Muslims. By 1875 the number of Jews exceeded 12,000 and the Muslims increased to 7,560. By the 20th century the Jewish majority was incontrovertible –– 45,000 Jews and 12,000 Muslims in 1909. On the eve of the 1948 Arab contravention of the UN Partition Resolution and the Arab Legion's illegal occupation of east Jerusalem, the city included some 100,000 Jews and 36,680 Muslims. That year, 1948, the Jordanians occupied east Jerusalem illegally. They stayed for 19 years, destroyed 58 synagogues, sadistically despoiled the ancient incomparable Jewish pantheon on the Mount of Olives and denied Jews the right to pray at the Western Wall. But there was no global outrage until, in 1967's Six Day War, Israel undid the Arab illegality (only following extreme belligerent provocation). The Arabs' 19-year illegality is now perceived as the legality that must be restored. Arab conquest and barbarism must be rewarded and recognized by all decent observers as the status quo ante. Hence it's forbidden to develop the Ma'ale Hazeitim neighborhood adjacent to Ras-el-Amud and the cemetery that was Jewish for three millennia. Condi surely cannot fathom the meaning of 3,000 years. For her and her like, Jews lost their rights to the Mount when Arabs uprooted its tombstones. Jewish life near the site that housed the Jewish dead –– before the collective memories of assorted admonishing Condis ever began –– will, asserts Condi, impede peace. She doesn't care that Ma'ale Hazeitim is located on land purchased by Jews (Moshe Weinberg and Nissan Bek) in the 19th century. Irresponsible Israeli politicians –– and this didn't start with the corrupt Sharon and his sleazy sidekick and heir Olmert –– managed in their scandalous ineptitude to acknowledge the cynical equivalence between Israeli settlements and Arab suicide-bombers or rocket barrages on innocent families. Inimical foreign statesmen –– out to further their interests at our existential expense –– deem both home-construction and indiscriminate attacks as identical "obstacles to peace." Imbecilely, Israeli hotshots imbibe and regurgitate the lie that the Land of Israel doesn't belong to Israel and that Jewish revival in the Jewish homeland is sinful occupation. Israel's own misguided headliners have put settlements into deep freeze. So why the ceaseless squawk and the relentless bad press abroad? It's mostly about Jerusalem. Israeli incompetents helped demonize settlements and, by delegitimizing them, thereby also rendered entire Jerusalem quarters vulnerable. The bottom line is that it's no longer permissible by the international community's insincere criteria to build homes for Jews in Jerusalem. The presence in Jerusalem of Kalonymus and his like has been effectively erased. The Jewish state's own defeatism helps paint Jews as latecoming interlopers in the cradle of their nationhood, as usurpers who displaced supposedly indigenous Arabs, who –– according to truth-slaying historical revisionism –– had once comprised the majority. The truth lies buried with Kalonymus –– shamed and disgraced –– in a grave as unmarked and as forgotten as his.
Contact Daisy Stern at daisystern1@gmail.com
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FROM ISRAEL: SUSTAINING FOOLISHNESS
Posted by Arlene Kushner, July 14, 2008. |
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Some day –– please G-d, before too long –– I'll be able to share with all of you wise and thoughtful decisions being made by the government of Israel. Needless to say, that day has not yet arrived. A couple of days ago, Ashraf al-Ajami, the PA Minister for Prisoner Affairs, lamented that "On the Palestinian street there is now an understanding that without kidnapping soldiers, we can't get prisoners released. Through negotiation, we haven't managed to get prisoners released." Putting aside the fact that we have released hundreds of their prisoners in so-called "good-will" gestures, we must understand that this comment is in response to our negotiated trade with Hezbollah. I believe some Palestinian prisoners were included in the deal; and if this is the case it would make the PA feel doubly foolish: Hezbollah even gets our guys released better than we do in negotiations. Well...this might have been anticipated as part of the fall-out from the deal struck with Hezbollah, but it seems it wasn't. ~~~~~~~~~~ And so, what do we see next? Why even ask? More concessions, of course. Olmert went to Paris Saturday night for the launching of the Union of the Mediterranean (see below). Abbas also went. And sure enough, in Paris yesterday, Olmert promised Abbas that we would release more Palestinian prisoners as a "good-will" gesture. No information is forthcoming on the identity or number to be released, or when this might happen. Clearly, this has yet to be worked out. ~~~~~~~~~~ Oh, and there's more: Reportedly Abbas also asked Olmert to reopen Nablus institutions shut down by the IDF in its action against Hamas. These institutions –– charities and commercial enterprises –– were all linked by the IDF to fund-raising for Hamas. This is how ludicrous the situation is. We're not supposed to come down too strongly on Hamas –– identified clearly as a terrorist organization sworn to Israel's destruction –– because it rebounds badly in the street on our purported "peace partner." Shall I ask, for the millionth time, what sort of peace partner this is that cannot take a strong stand against overtly terrorist organizations (as compared to the relatively covert support of terrorism of Fatah itself), and what the implications are for a PA-led state if this is their position? It cannot be emphasized enough: Hamas sets the agenda, not Fatah. The first loyalty of the leaders of Fatah –– never mind their ostensible readiness to negotiate with us –– is to their brothers in Fatah, and not us. And Hamas is, in any event, much stronger than Fatah. I have no information on how Olmert responded to Abbas on this request. ~~~~~~~~~~ Following the announcement about Olmert's readiness to release more Palestinian prisoners, Menachem Landau, former Shin Bet (secret service) section chief, spoke out against it on Israel Radio. It has often been the case, he said, as we look at previous releases, that the standing of PA leaders was not boosted significantly, but that, rather, forces acting against us were strengthened. Additionally, this affects the morale of Israeli security forces when they expend enormous efforts to capture terrorists and then see them released. ~~~~~~~~~~ As to the negotiations with Hezbollah there is this:
Arad was shot down over Lebanon in 1986 and was captured by a Lebanese Shi'ite movement called Amal. In May 1988, Israel conducted an operation in the area where Arad was held. From that point on, there is no information on him. Apparently the Shi'ites who were guarding him left him to go fight with their comrades. Speculation is that he was either killed by the guards before they left, or that he escaped. (There is also speculation –– largely considered unlikely at present –– that he was traded to Iran.) If he did escape, he would have run into mountainous terrain and might have died in his effort. But no one knows for certain, in spite of extensive efforts by Israel to discover the facts. ~~~~~~~~~~ The material supplied by Hezbollah in its 80-page report in Arabic –– which includes old photos of Arad that have purely sentimental value for the family –– provides no new information; it describes Hezbollah's search for him and is essentially no more than an updated version of a report that Hezbollah had provided to Israel in 2004. It was reviewed by members of the Mossad, the Shin Bet, and Military Intelligence. In spite of this paucity of information, Barak says we are continuing with the deal –– the official Cabinet vote to proceed is expected to come tomorrow. The Arad family is decidedly not happy about the current state of affairs; they are convinced that Hezbollah is holding back. ~~~~~~~~~~ What is perhaps most startling about the decision to move forward on the Hezbollah deal is an expressed concern by the IDF that Hezbollah might be planning to carry out an attack along the northern border after the exchange is complete. There is also some concern in Israel that Hezbollah, which has veto power in a reformulated Lebanese government, might block renewal of the mandate for UNIFIL, which comes due in August. According to the Post, however, senior IDF officials believe that while Hezbollah might delay the renewal they would be hesitant to totally block it. My favorite line in the Post article: "Still, the feeling in the IDF is that UNIFIL is not completely implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which...calls for the disarming of Hezbollah." ~~~~~~~~~~ The Union of the Mediterranean, initiated by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, is intended as a forum to bring together nations in the region of the Mediterranean from Europe, the Middle East and N. Africa. Over 40 nations participated in the summit, presided over jointly by Sarkozy and Egypt's president, Mubarak, yesterday. Much was made of the fact that Syria's Assad came in from the cold and attended the summit –– thereby attracting much media attention. He apparently sat at a table with Olmert (first time they were ever in a room together), but got up and left before Olmert spoke. He also snubbed Olmert, refusing to shake his hand –– such a handshake, he said, was for the end of successful negotiations, not now. ~~~~~~~~~~ On Friday night, a Palestinian with a gun snuck up on two Israeli border policeman at the Lions Gate in the Old City, shooting one in the head and one in the stomach, and then fleeing. The policeman shot in the head at close range, David Chriqui, 19, is fighting for his life. A rocket was fired from Gaza into Israel on Saturday. Yesterday two mortar shells were fired. ~~~~~~~~~~ A bill, promoted by MK Gideon Sa'ar (Likud), allowing the State to confiscate the property of anyone convicted of committing an act of terror passed its preliminary Knesset reading five days ago. (I am assuming that this would apply equally to anyone who blows himself up in the course of terrorism and thus is never convicted.) The goal is deterrence: terrorists might think twice if their families would be deprived of their property. ~~~~~~~~~~ Two other similar bills have passed through their respective committees and will now go to the Knesset: One, also proposed by Gideon Sa'ar, would give the minister of welfare the authority to cancel funds from the State for burial for terrorists. Currently, Israeli residents, even if they die in the course of committing terrorist acts, are eligible for funeral expenses from the National Insurance Institute. (Yes, I know, this is nuts. But hopefully is about to be changed.) The second, proposed by Yoel Hasson (Kadima), would give the minister of the interior the authority to cancel the citizenship or permanent residency status of anyone taking part in a terror activity or holding membership in a terror organization. Finally, a bit of sanity in an atmosphere that has been politically correct to the point of the ludicrous. It tells us a great deal that chairman of the United Arab List faction, Taleb a-Sana'a, calls this "illegal legislation that...is endangering democracy." Sana'a apparently thinks that terrorists also have rights in a democracy, but I would beg to differ. ~~~~~~~~~~ Jim Hoagland, writing in the Washington Post, shared this significant perspective from the Israeli ambassador to the US, Salai Meridor (emphasis added): "'Sanctions on insurance and maritime and air transportation would raise the cost of Iran's doing business. But effective sanctions on the import of refined petroleum products could be a game-changer,' since Iran produces crude oil but lacks refining capacity. The world's oil companies 'should not sell gasoline that is used by Iran's nuclear scientists and its terror chiefs to drive to work.'" ~~~~~~~~~~ What I am observing is that while unease is expressed regarding the chaos that might result from an Israeli military attack on Iran, and lip service is given to sanctions, the international community is not serious. Russia has just signed an agreement with Iran for the development of oil and fields and the construction of refineries. Similarly, there is an unrealistic take on what the Iranian regime is truly all about. I have just read a statement by a French official about how perhaps Iranian leaders will "come to their senses." But there is a radical religious elite in Iran that is apocalyptic in its vision, not rational at all. ~~~~~~~~~~ Irwin Cotler, former justice minister of Canada, taking an activist position on Iran, is initiating an international effort to bring Ahmadinejad to justice for incitement to genocide. Cotler is hoping that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be able to work with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to promote this initiative. Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info |
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NEUTRALIZE A LEFTIST! MOCK HIM!
Posted by Steven Plaut, July 14, 2008. |
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I have a confession. I really love Sacha Baron Cohen. Not just because both he and I are both graduates of Habonim, the Labor Party youth movement (he, in the UK of course). His Ali G character always has me in stitches, and I have tried to imitate it. While containing many a crude and vulgar moment, his Borat film was also madly funny. My favorite scene: when the drunk frat boys tell Borat that they endeavor to have sex with women whom they never telephone afterwards and Borat asks if this is because the women have no phones in their village. I loved how he spoke Hebrew in the film and pretended it was Kazakhstani. But if there was ever a doubt as to the greatness of Cohen, it is gone now that he has decided to make a public fool out of Yossi Alpher. The US-born Alpher was once an IDF intelligence officer and then a Mossad officer, and like so many Israeli intelligence officers he became a far-leftist of the sort so familiar in Israel. He used to be director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, then senior advisor to Ehud Barak, and has ties with far-leftist Peace Now. These days he co-runs a far-leftist web site together with Palestinian terrorist Ghassan Khatib (ex-minister of labor in the Palestinian Authority and Vice President of Bir Zeit "University"), called Bitter Lemons. Khatib is a guy who thinks Hamas is moderate, although Alpher holds the same idea. Like all such collaborations between leftist Jews and Arabs, it is essentially pro-Arab and anti-Israel. It is also anti-American. Alpher's ideas about peace? "The United States should talk to Iran without preconditions and encourage Tehran to talk to Jerusalem and seek modes of coexistence before it is engulfed in war." The only good thing one can say about Bitter Lemons is that it is less extremist and anti-Semitic than most other leftist web sites. Alpher invented the "Alpher Plan" back in 1994 under which 89% of the West Bank would be turned over to the PLO to become a Palestinian terror state.
Sacha Cohen's new comedy character is a gay Austrian fashion freak named Bruno. Cohen set up Alpher and his Palestinian sidekick Khatib to be ridiculed by inviting them for an interview, signing them onto ironclad releases they could not wiggle out of (Cohen got sued a lot over his Borat interviews, which made people look stupid) and then filming them trying to answer really funny questions. Cohen asked them things like: "When will you Jews return the pyramids?" and asked why the militant group Hamas was named after the dip, hummus. Bruno complains to them that he had to throw his pita away cause it was dripping hummus, and adds, 'Your conflict is not so bad. Jennifer-Angelina is worse.'" The AP scooped the story, which was also carried in many other newspapers and magazines. Alpher tried to prettify the situation and paint himself as a victim in his column at the leftist Jewish weekly Forward, where he is one of the newspaper's stable of leftist columnists. He reports how he sat there with a straight face and responded seriously to Bruno's questions, which included: "Vy don't you Jews and Arabs settle the conflict with a time share on the land?" "Ven vill you Jews return the pyramids?" "Vy can't Jews and Hindus get along?" Even Michael Handelzalts, the book editor at Israeli leftist daily Haaretz, has an Op-Ed in which he mocks the stupidity of Alpher and his sidekick. Alpher disagrees about being shown to be stupid, cited in the Jerusalem Post as saying, "We ourselves were not being ridiculed –– only the conflict that occupies and preoccupies us." I have long believed that mocking leftists is far more effective
than insulting them. They love it when they are accused of being
traitors, unpatriotic, and supporting the enemy. But they can't stand
being laughed at because they take themselves so seriously. There is a
lesson in Cohen's antics for all of us in the Anti-Left trenches.
Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist,
a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author
of "The Scout." He frequently comments –– both seriously and
satirically –– on Israeli politics and the left wing academic
community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com.
Or write him at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il
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MY VISIT TO KIBBUTZ EIN HAROD
Posted by Ted Belman, July 13, 2008. |
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Mike Packard, a longtime friend of Israpundit, invited me to spend Shabbat with him and his family in Kibbutz Ein Harod. I gratefully accepted. So on Friday I hopped on a bus in Jerusalem headed for Beit Shean. The bus travelled down to Jericho, a trip I had taken in 1968 when I was first in Israel. The drop in elevation went from 2100 feet above sea level to 1200 feet below. What surprised me was that the Bedouin camps I remembered from the first trip were still there with their decrepit black tents and lifestyle. One cannot help but notice as one drives through the Judean Hills east of Jerusalem, the complete barrenness of the landscape which consists entirely of white-beige sandstone. At Jericho, which is close to the north end of the Dead Sea, we turned left and traveled North parallel to the Jordan River. On the east side could be seen the very prominent Jordanian hills which dominate the valley. These hills are known as the Moabite Mountains from biblical times. It is where Moses died after G-d refused him entry into the promised land for doubting him. Joshua went on to cross the Jordan and conquer Jericho. Progressively, as we moved north, farming communities appeared amidst the otherwise inhospitable surroundings. This farming is made possible because it is all done under plastic tents which serve to protect the plants from excessive sunshine and to capture evaporated water and return it to the soil. Before the soil was useable it had to be washed for weeks to cleanse it of excess salt. Finally, we arrived at Beit Shean which is a community of some 16,000 residents mainly of Sephardic origin. It is a "frontier town" thereby entitling residents and businesses to various tax breaks. It sits about five miles north of the northern greenline. From there we drove west for 10 miles to Kibbutz Ein Harod, my destination.
MIKE WAS THERE TO MEET ME and take me to his place on a scooter. His wife Sherry, from New York originally, welcomed me with open arms. Their guests included Iris who was a Sabra, born of Iraqi expellees, with her young daughter. In addition two of their daughters were present and participated in the "family" gathering, the oldest of which was married to a Russian who made aliya in 1990. Kibbutz Ein Harod is situated in Jezreel Valley, which is the bread basket of Israel. (It is not to be confused with the Huala Valley which lies at the foot of the Golan Heights). It wasn't always so productive. Originally it was all mosquito infested swampland. These are the lands the Halutzim reclaimed through backbreaking work and dedication. To accomplish this task they lived in collective communities which still exist today as separate Kibbutzim. Ein Harod, having been started in 1921, is the oldest. The swamps had to be drained and kept drained. So it was necessary to lay drainage pipes underground enabling the excess water to be continuously drained away. In my ignorance, I thought, that once drained that's the end of it. For supper we made our way to the dining room which functioned like a cafeteria and was large enough to accommodate 1500 persons. The building which housed it, looked out over a fertile value which had as its backdrop, Gilboa Mountains. One particular mountain in this range is known as Mount Saul where King Saul committed suicide by falling on his sword after losing a battle with the Phillistines.(not the Palestinians) Thereupon David cursed the mountain and it remained barren for 3000 years. Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil. When we went back to the house we walked along the main drag which was notable for its very large trees which lined the road and produced welcomed relief from the noonday sun and beautified the place.
WE HAD BREAKFAST SHABBAT MORNING OUT ON THE PORCH. Mike proudly pointed out his fig trees, producing red figs on one and white on the other. Unfortunately for me, the figs weren't ready to be eaten. But the Muskat grapes were just about ready and I ate them off the vine. Date palms were all over the place. I was told a century ago that there were no dates growing in Israel. Israel got date palm trees from Iraq in 1950 and started improving the strain so that these date trees produce many times more dates in Israel per tree than they did in Iraq and elsewhere. Of historical note is the fact that seeds 2000 years old were found at Massada. Israeli scientists manage to germinate the seeds and we now have a date tree growing from one seed. When it is old enough to bear fruit, it will bear exactly the same fruit it produced in the first century. Wikipedia has some interesting things to say about this. Apparently
Sherry served me various cheeses that were made on the Kibbutz and this led to a discussion about their dairy herd. I always thought that cows just gave milk. Little did I know that the cows had to be impregnated first in order to give milk. The cows produce milk for about seven months after birth and then had to be impregnated again for the next cycle. Of course they gave birth after a nine month gestation period producing male and female calves. The males end up in the abattoir when the time comes for a good steak. In the afternoon we went for a swim in the Olympic sized pool. Was that great or what? In passing Mike mentioned that many soldiers come to the kibbutz from nearby training camps to enjoy their day off and swim in the pool. They end up sleeping outdoors. Also of note was that many youths come from all all over the world to serve in the IDF for Zionistic reasons and they get "adopted" by families in the kibbutz so they have a "home" to come home to when off duty. Two years ago this was written up under the title Israeli families help 'lonely soldiers'. As for the Israelis in the IDF you can't help but notice them going home in large numbers before Shabbat and then returning to camp afterwards. They do this on a rotation basis because obviously every soldier can go home every week for chicken soup. Everyone between forty and sixty has a child in the army, one already out of the army and one getting ready to go in the army or something like that. Everyone has a friend or relative or many of them, in the army. This really is a peoples army.
Then Mike took me on his ATV (all terrain vehicle) to the top of Mount Saul where I encountered a monument to the Canadian gift that enabled the development of the Recreation Area of the Gilboa National Park. These funds were raised at the 2000 Negev Dinner in Toronto. One of the features of this park is a takeoff ramp for paragliders. They simply need run off the lip of the mountain and to enjoy a beautiful flight over the valley 1500 feet below. Sometimes, if the winds are right, the updraft can keep them aloft for hours and even raise their elevation. Tonight we are off to visit Tsafrir Ronen, who lives with his Canadian wife, Judy, and three lovely daughters in Moshav Moledet, five miles away. Most people on the Kibbutz, if not all, don't own a car. On the other hand the kibbutz has a fleet of about 60 cars which the kibbutz members can reserve. They simply go on the internet and advise when and for how long they need a car. Each person goes to the community centre when he or she is ready to use the car and uses a code to get access to the keys and one key is released to him or her. He or she then locates the car in the parking lot and must use a code before the car will start up and must swipe a card so the kibbutz knows who to charge the car to and how many kilometers to charge for. You probably are aware that Arab gangs from the Westbank steal cars on a full time basis and quickly drive them to the Westbank to be cut up for parts. Mike tells me that in the last year about 20 to 25 cars were stolen from his kibbutz alone. No matter how sophisticated security measures are for avoiding thefts, the Arabs have the answer. They disconnect the computer on the car which restricts the starting of the car and replaces it with their own computer. The police rarely get involved because they don't go into the west bank to apprehend the thieves or to shut down the "chop shops". And that's not all they steal. Evidently they sneak into the kibbutz and steal livestock sometimes slaughtering them on the premises for the meat. They also come into homes and night and administer drugs to keep the householders asleep as they rob them blind. Of additional interest is how the children are integrated into the workforce. Beginning in the third grade, the children first put to work in the zoo feeding the rabbits and other critters after school. From that time on their duties slowly increase but are not overwhelming. Tsafrir has promised to take me back to Jerusalem on Sunday,thereby ending my great sojourn with Mike in Kibbutz Ein Harod. My thanks to Mike for a great Shabbat and for helping me with this essay. (Please go to all the links above and read more on the area and see loads of gorgeous pictures.)
Ted Belman is a Canadian lawyer and editor of
the IsraPundit.com website, an activist pro-Israel website. Contact
him at tedbel@rogers.com
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RECOGNISING THE JEWISH 'NAKBA'
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 13, 2008. |
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This was written by Lyn Julius and it appeared in The
Guardian
Acknowledging the plight of Jewish refugees from Arab countries –– written out of history –– could be the key to Middle East peace |
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This week, before an audience of peers and MPs, an 80-year-old Jewish refugee named Sarah told the story of her traumatic departure in 1956 in the wake of the Suez crisis. Her husband lost his job. Taken ill, she had remained behind in Egypt with her new baby, while he left to look for work in Europe. She departed with nothing –– along with 25,000 other Jews expelled by Nasser and forced to sign a document pledging that they would never return. In a final act of spite, the customs officers ransacked her suitcase and even her baby's carrycot. Sarah was speaking at a House of Lords briefing as part of the Justice for Jews from Arab Countries congress. JJAC, an international coalition of 77 organisations, is holding its inaugural congress in London, and aims to highlight the neglected rights of (according to indisputable UN figures) 856,000 Jewish refugees like Sarah. The exodus began 60 years ago when Arab states, hell-bent on crushing the new state of Israel militarily, also turned on their peaceful Jewish communities. Street violence killed over 150 Jews. Within 10 years, more than half the Jews had fled or been expelled, following discriminatory legislation, extortion, arrests, internment and executions. Those who remained became subjugated, political hostages of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Today 99.5% –– all but 4,500 –– have gone. As the historian Nathan Weinstock has observed, not even the Jews of 1939 Germany had been so thoroughly "ethnically cleansed". The displacement of Jews from Arab countries was not just a backlash to the creation of Israel and the Arabs' humiliating defeat. The "push" factors were already in place. Arab League states drafted a law in November 1947 branding their Jews as enemy aliens. But non-Muslim minorities, historically despised as dhimmis with few rights, were already being oppressed by Nazi-inspired pan-Arabism and Islamism. These factors sparked the conflict with Zionism, and drive it to this day. The Jewish "Nakba" –– Arabic for "catastrophe" –– not only emptied cities like Baghdad (a third Jewish); it tore apart the cultural, social and economic fabric in Arab lands. Jews lost homes, synagogues, hospitals, schools, shrines and deeded land five times the size of Israel. Their ancient heritage –– predating Islam by 1,000 years –– was destroyed. The Jewish state, which struggled to take in 600,000, many of them stateless, is both a response to Arab antisemitism, and the legitimate political expression of an indigenous Middle Eastern people. Half Israel's Jewish population is descended from refugees from Arab and Muslim lands. Arab governments have never admitted committing mass violations of Jewish human and civil rights, much less apologised or offered restitution. Over 120 UN resolutions deal with the 711,000 Palestinian refugees; not one refers to the greater number of Jewish refugees. Although peace initiatives have been worded to refer generically to the "refugee problem", Jewish and Arab, Israel has been reluctant to politicise the Jewish refugee issue, having successfully integrated them as full citizens: Arab denial has thus conspired with Israeli silence to airbrush Jewish refugees out of the picture, leading to obfuscation, distortion and decontextualisation. This April, JJAC scored a major success, however, when the US House of Representatives adopted its first resolution (pdf) on Jewish refugees; future resolutions mentioning Palestinian refugees must refer explicitly to Jewish refugees from Arab countries. The resolution is about recognition, not restitution, although Jewish losses have been quantified at twice Palestinian losses. Such resolutions could lead to a peace settlement by recognising that there were victims on both sides. Thus justice for Jews is not just a moral imperative, but the key to reconciliation. Moreover, a major hurdle to peace could be removed if the Palestinian "right of return" were counterbalanced by the Jewish right not to return to Arab tyrannies, recognising a de facto population exchange of roughly equal numbers. The Jewish refugees, who spent up to 12 years in Israeli ma'abarot (transit camps), could also serve as a model for the resettlement (in host Arab countries or an eventual Palestinian state) of Arab refugees languishing in camps. Meanwhile, awareness of the "Jewish Nakba" is growing: a Libyan Jew who fled in fear of her life has addressed the UN Human Rights Council. Jewish refugees were mentioned at Westminster and discussed on BBC radio. In the US, Canada and at the European parliament, the campaign for justice is steaming ahead. At Tuesday's briefing, Sarah will be testifying to the fact that two sets of refugees emerged from the Arab-Israeli conflict. The UK will be urged to look at what role it could usefully play in seeking to resolve issues affecting all Middle East refugees. Fifty-two years ago, Sarah rejoined her husband in England; they rebuilt their lives and put Egypt behind them. This does not mean that she should be denied justice. Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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IRAN PULLS SWIMMER FROM OLYMPIC TRIALS AFTER HE DRAWS SAME HEAT AS ISRAELI ATHLETE
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 13, 2008. |
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This comes from the Gateway Pundit website
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The regime refused to have its athlete swim in the same race as the Israeli athlete. The regime in Iran pulled its swimmer from the 100-meter breaststroke event after he was drawn to swim in the same heat as an Israeli athlete. Iran Press News reported:
Alirezaei is the highest ranked swimmer in Iranian history.
Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com
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ISRAEL HAS 'AMBER LIGHT' FROM US ON IRAN STRIKE, BUT NO SUPPORT
Posted by Ze'ev Ben-Yechiel, July 13, 2008. |
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Israel will have an "amber light" from the U.S. to launch a strike on Iran if other measures fail, according to a source in the Pentagon. The statement, appearing Sunday in Britain's Sunday Times, said that American President George Bush has given Israel conditional approval for an attack on the Islamic Republic if current diplomatic initiatives fail in stopping the latter's nuclear weapons program. According to the source, a high-level defense official in the Pentagon, the President has given Israel the go-ahead on an Iran strike if sanctions and other non-military means fail, reports Jerusalem Post. The unconfirmed report acknowledged that the "amber light" came in spite of opposition among top brass in the U.S. armed forces, and despite American worries over the political and economic consequences that such an attack would carry. "Amber means get on with your preparations, stand by for immediate attack and tell us when you're ready," said the official. However, Israel will not be able to count on U.S. military support for the strike, according to the official. Despite hopes that Israel will carry out the onerous task of eliminating the Iranian nuclear threat, the official added that the Israeli Air Force would not be permitted to refuel at American air bases in Iraq. This contradicts recent reports indicating a willingness to allow Israel to use American bases as a staging area for the operation. According to a Friday report from officials in the Iraqi Defense Ministry, there is already an IAF presence in Iraq, with Israeli war planes landing on U.S. air bases and practicing in Iraqi airspace. The report, published in a local Iraqi newspaper, said that IAF activity in Iraq is believed to be part of Israeli preparations for a possible strike on Iran. America, as the leading Western nation, expects Israel to take on the Iranian threat single-handedly, despite the global nature of the threat, according to the Pentagon official,. "It's really all down to the Israelis," said the official. "This administration will not attack Iran. This has already been decided. But the president is really preoccupied with the nuclear threat against Israel and I know he doesn't believe that anything but force will deter Iran." However, the official added, "if there is no solid plan, the amber will never turn to green," noting that Israel has yet to offer Bush a convincing military proposal. He admitted that the prospect of American support for an Israeli strike has met considerable resistance within the Pentagon, mainly from officers who fear a counterattack from Iranian. "The uniform people are opposed to the attack plans, mainly because they think it will endanger our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan," said the official. As recently as Saturday Iranian leaders repeated their threat to destroy Israel. Mojtaba Zolnour, an aide to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, added that his country would also wipe out the 32 US army bases in the region in response to an attack on the Islamic Republic. "If Israel and the US fire a bullet or a missile at Iran, its forces will attack the heart of Israel and 32 American bases in the region before the dust from such an attack has settled," threatened Zolnour, according to Iran's Fars news agency. He warned that such targets would be "destroyed" by the Iranian counterstrike. Ze'ev Ben-Yechiel writes for Arutz-7
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THE PEACE TEST
Posted by Goldwater, Gabrielle, July 13, 2008. |
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This was written by Clifford D. May and it appeared July 3,
2008 in National Review online |
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Bush offered Palestinians a state; they said no deal. The anniversary passed with scarcely a mention. Six years ago, on June 24, 2002, President Bush turned American policy in the Middle East in a new direction. In a ground-breaking speech, he announced that the U.S. would support the creation of a Palestinian state. His only condition was that Palestinians first choose "leaders not compromised by terror." He asked also that they "confront corruption," and "build a practicing democracy based on tolerance and liberty." Bush was optimistic that this would come to pass, and that by the time he left the White House, a Palestinian state and a Jewish state would be living side by side in peace. In the years that followed, the stars appeared to be aligning. In 2004, Yasser Arafat died, removing from the scene the longtime Palestinian leader most identified with terrorism and corruption (and never seriously tempted by tolerance or liberty). In 2005, Israel ended its occupation of Gaza, pulling out every soldier, farmer, and grave, but leaving behind greenhouses for Palestinians to use to grow vegetables and flowers. (They were trashed instead.) In 2006, elections were held in Gaza and the West Bank. Those elections were widely regarded as free and fair. (That required ignoring the fact that Palestinians did not enjoy freedom of speech, the press, or assembly.) Hamas, a terrorist organization, declared itself a political party and won. Even so, there was hope that, entrusted with authority, Hamas would demonstrate responsibility over time. But it was more power that Hamas' leaders coveted so, in 2007, they launched a wave of violence against rival Fatah security forces. Since then, Hamas has been unchallenged in Gaza and no one talks of new elections or civil rights. Nor has Hamas attempted to build an economic base. Instead, it turned to Iran's rulers for money and guidance –– and then complained that Palestinians were living in squalor because they weren't receiving sufficient funds from the U.S. and Europe. Hamas rains missiles on Israeli towns, sends terrorists into Israel on killing and kidnapping missions, and assigns suicide-bombers to blow up the few border crossings with Israel. Then Hamas complains that Israel is not delivering as much food, medicine, gasoline, and electricity as Palestinians require. (United Nations employees in Gaza complain about that, too.) Meanwhile, in the West Bank, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas is in charge of increasingly less. Is he at least uncompromised by terror? Samir Quntar has been incarcerated in an Israeli prison for having used his rifle to crush the head of a four-year-old Israeli girl, after first killing her father. As I write this, Quntar is expected to be freed in a prisoner swap with Hezbollah, Iran's proxy in neighboring Lebanon. Palestinian Media Watch reports that on the Palestinian television station run by Abbas, Qunar is being celebrated as a "hero" and a "brave warrior." Despite all this, on his most recent visit to the Middle East in May, President Bush expressed optimism that an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement could be struck before his term ends in January 2009. The basis for his optimism is elusive. He might just as well hold out hope that before New Year's Eve, Social Security will be reformed, the tax code will be simplified, a bipartisan agreement will be struck on immigration and Harriet Miers will take her seat on the Supreme Court. Six years ago last month, President Bush established a new paradigm for American policy in the Middle East –– but he did not take into account the reality of the radical ideologies ascendant in the Muslim world. He believed that Palestinians wanted a state to call their own –– and that they wanted that more than they wanted the destruction of the Jewish state next door. With that in mind, in 2002 Bush said: "If liberty can blossom in the rocky soil of the West Bank and Gaza, it will inspire millions of men and women around the globe who are equally weary of poverty and oppression. ... This moment is both an opportunity and a test for all parties in the Middle East: an opportunity to lay the foundations for future peace; a test to show who is serious about peace and who is not." He was right. It was a test. And now it's time to be candid about the results. Israelis, Americans, and Europeans are serious about peace. The enemies of Israelis, Americans, and European are serious about defeating Israelis, Americans, and Europeans. It's as simple –– and as complex –– as that. Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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FROM ISRAEL: WILL THIS DO IT?
Posted by Arlene Kushner, July 14, 2008. |
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Finally, finally are we seeing an accumulation of evidence against Olmert that will finish his career? On Friday, the police and State Prosecution announced yet new evidence against him. He seems to be involved in a bottomless pit of alleged misdeeds, illegal and immoral. It reminds me of a magic act in which the magician finds one more scarf up his sleeve, and then another from his hat, and then another inside his jacket, endlessly. But in Olmert's case the nation is not entertained. It's a question of awaiting specific evidence that is so solid, so definitive, that even he, as slippery as he is, can find no way out of it. Just possibly we've reached that point. ~~~~~~~~~~ The announcement Friday involved allegations that Olmert "double-dipped" and even "triple-dipped." It is believed that he sought and received donations from multiple agencies for the same trips abroad. From 1998 to 2005, during the period when he was mayor of Jerusalem and minister of trade, it is alleged that he booked flights with a travel agency called Rishon, which then, at his instructions, sent invoices for each trip in question to several non-profit agencies –– including Yad Vashem, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and the Soldiers Welfare Association –– each of which was under the impression it was covering the entire cost of that trip. Allegedly, the extra money that accumulated –– some $100,000 –– was put into a special account for Olmert managed by Rishon, which he used for private travel. What is said to be different here from other cases –– even the Talansky case –– is that it does not depend upon someone's testimony, but on hard evidence of invoices, bank accounts, etc. ~~~~~~~~~~ Former Israel Police chief investigator Cmdr. (ret.) Moshe Mizrahi gave The Jerusalem Post a statement on the matter yesterday: "When you look at the statement released by state prosecutors and the police, you can see unusually harsh wording, which is uncharacteristic. There can be no explanation for releasing such a bold and harshly worded statement other than the fact that police are in possession of concrete evidence... "The allegations are so ugly and base –– it is inconceivable that they were released simply to harm the prime minister. The evidence must exist...Here, there is firm documentation of money transferred, of requests to organizations for money, and proof of the transfer of funds to a private account for Olmert by the travel agency. "Clearly, Olmert will not be able to say, as he has done in response to the Talansky investigation, that he was unaware of what was happening, or that he trusted others to handle the funds for him...What transpired here was a consequence of orders from [Olmert]. "If you look at your account and suddenly see tens of thousands of dollars in it...how could you not be aware of that?" ~~~~~~~~~~ It goes without saying that Olmert's lawyers, family and close associates are tripping all over themselves explaining this. My favorites: One lawyer explained that it was common practice to invoice more than one organization for a trip as it was impossible to know if any specific organization would come through. When asked, then, when money came through from more than one place why some of it wasn't returned, he replied that "this will have to be looked into." Indeed. Then there is the highly indignant public protest by Olmert's children, whose statement declared: "We want to unequivocally clarify that our father explicitly told us that the plane tickets given to us were a gift from him paid for out of his own pocket." Well, indeed he may have told them just that, but this proves less than nothing, as surely they know. ~~~~~~~~~~ The police, saying the two cases are not really related, are declining to give Olmert's lawyers all of the evidence they have acquired until after the cross-examination of Talansky later this week. There continues to be talk of a possible August indictment. We'll see... ~~~~~~~~~~ According to today's Sunday Times (London), a "senior Pentagon official" has given Israel an "amber light" with regard to attacking Iran. This means the US will give Israel the green light to proceed if diplomatic efforts fail and an Israeli plan is in place. In the meantime, Israel is to proceed with preparations, but not expect any military backup from the US if the time comes for attack –– or even expect that the US would permit Israeli planes to utilize American bases in Iraq. I am not certain how much to make of this, as it has not been confirmed by sources beyond this one official. According to him, the US decision not to attack has already been made; but that's not necessarily what I'm picking up in other quarters. As to the US not providing any backup militarily, I wonder how this can be when this very same official is cited as saying, "...the president is really preoccupied with the nuclear threat against Israel and I know he doesn't believe that anything but force will deter Iran." Nor does this dovetail with the statement of Rice the other day that the US has strengthened it "security presence" in the Gulf. "We will defend American interests and the interests of our allies..." ~~~~~~~~~~ It must be noted that Israel has the capacity only to set back Iran's nuclear ambitions by five years; it would require US involvement to truly destroy Iran's nuclear ability. No one deludes himself that any of this would be easy, or that it would be free of Iranian backlash of one sort and another. But the alternative, from the Israeli perspective, certainly, is unthinkable. One complication here is the up-coming US election and concern that if Obama wins there would be no US support for a military operation –– thus leading those who are proponents of such an operation to feel that there is a limited window within which to operate. ~~~~~~~~~~ Salam Fayyad, PA prime minister, has been seen as the most moderate of all within the PA upper echelon, and has been a favorite within Western governments. But right now Fayyad is being made very uncomfortable by Israeli actions against Hamas institutions in Judea and Samaria, as they make it seem as if he's siding with Israel against Hamas –– not a popular position on the street. And so, he has spoken out against these operations, accusing Israel of sabotaging PA efforts. Yesterday he called upon Hamas to form a unity government, saying, "The response to the Israeli measures should be the immediate reunification of the two parts of the homeland. We must end the division and restore unity immediately." Fayyad, however, is no darling of Hamas. When it took over Gaza last year, PA President Mahmoud Abbas disbanded the government and replaced Hamas-affiliated prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, with Fayyad, in what he called a transitional or emergency government. Hamas claims this action was unconstitutional and holds Fayyad responsible for being willing to participate. Because of his participation, Hamas is calling him "the most dangerous man for the Palestinian cause." Hamas is now holding Fayyad responsible for the closure of 30 institutions in Nablus and Ramallah. His call for unity will fall on deaf ears within Hamas circles. Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info |
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THE (SUNDAY)TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN'
Posted by Jonathan Spyer, July 12, 2008. |
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An interview with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair appeared in the Sunday Times this week. The interview took place in Jerusalem's American Colony Hotel. It was concerned with Blair's role as the Quartet's Middle East envoy, and was written by journalist Lesley White. Journalist Lesley White is evidently not a specialist on the Middle East. I say "evidently" because the article contains a series of ludicrous errors which leave one slack-jawed in astonishment at the standards apparently now prevailing in this august publication. Lesley White starts as she means to go on. Lunch with Blair, we are told, takes place under parasols which overlook "east Jerusalem's temples and mosques." I have lived in Jerusalem for just under two decades. It does contain quite a large number of mosques. Temples, however, are conspicuous largely by their absence. The clue is that religions worshipping in temples –– Hindus, Buddhists –– have scant regard for Jerusalem, and hence don't bother to build facilities for worship in it. Another reason is that religions not involving the worship of one deity have generally had a hard time of it building facilities in areas where Muslims have been in control for the best part of the last thousand years. There was of course a quite important Temple in Jerusalem at one time. But this particular one, built by the Jews, was destroyed by the Romans in ad 70, and a rather large Mosque currently coincidentally stands where it once stood, so it's unlikely that Lesley White saw it, unless she was being unwittingly affected by a bout of the well-known "Jerusalem Syndrome." This syndrome causes visitors to Jerusalem to imagine themselves as Biblical figures, and experience visions and hallucinations. An additional religion that has facilities called temples –– US Reform Judaism, –– is also not known to have constructed any places of worship of this type in the area of the American Colony Hotel, where the White-Blair lunch occurred. Lesley White mentions the "Palestinians I spoke to" in her article. These, however, do not seem to have been offset by any Israelis that were "spoken to" –– at least they appear nowhere in the text. This perhaps explains another, more interesting error. Lesley White refers to a person described as Israel's "head of security." This person, apparently, is called Gabi Ashkenazi, and he is, Lesley White tells us, "considered by many the nation's de facto leader." Well, Lesley White, first of all allow me to tell you that Israel, like most other countries, doesn't have a post called "head of security." The Tel Aviv Hilton Hotel has a head of security. I dare say Annabel's nightclub in London has a "head of security." The State of Israel doesn't. What Israel does have is its armed forces, and Gabi Ashkenazi is currently what is called the Chief of Staff of the said armed forces. Israel has some other things, too. Israel has universal adult suffrage, a parliament, regular free elections, a defence minister, a prime minister and a president. Not all of these necessarily always contribute to effective or wise decision-making. But Lesley White, if she had found the time to talk to any Israelis, might have learned a little about these institutions, and would have discovered that Israel is a democracy, and that Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi is no more "de facto ruler" of Israel than is General Sir Richard Dannatt the de facto ruler of Great Britain. Would a little fact-checking have been so difficult? This article was, after all, not just any old article. It was an interview with a former British Prime Minister. It did, after all, appear in a newspaper –– and not just any old newspaper. The Times, including its Sunday edition, used to be one of the most venerable publications in the western world, with a reputation based on the delivery of meticulous, carefully examined information. Not any more, apparently. Still, perhaps we should look on the bright side. It is of course quite impossible (perish the excitable, paranoid thought) that large parts of the British media could be employing a uniquely one-sided, wilfully ignorant approach to the coverage of Israel, with sometimes unintentionally hilarious, if also troubling, results. Absolutely not. Since this is clearly impossible, I expect that Lesley White's article is one of a comic series, in which she pretends to interview former leaders while displaying lovable ignorance about her surroundings. In next week's instalment, Lesley White will reveal that Admiral Mike Mullen is the de facto ruler of the United States –– a revelation she will discover by interviewing former President Jimmy Carter, viewing the many prominent Zoroastrian structures of worship in downtown Washington and having conversations with some Mexicans. Don't miss it! Dr. Jonathan Spyer is a senior research fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya Israel. Contact GLORIA at info@gloriacenter.org |
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NOW MUSLIMS USE "THE BLOODY SHIRT" STRATEGY
Posted by Judith Apter Klinghoffer, July 12, 2008. |
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The Post-Appomattox South was filled with bloody shirts but the misremembered transgression is the supposed "waving" of it. Reading Stephen Budiansky passionate summary of the long forgotten history of The Bloody shirt: Terror After Appomattox, I could not help but muse about the similar dynamics operating today. Then, it was confederates leaders covering up for the Klan who accused Republicans of waving the bloody shirt. Today, it is Muslim governing elites covering up for Islamist terrorists who accuse Westerners of waving the bloody shirt. They even claim to be the new Jews! Just try substituting Muslim for Southerner: To white conservative Southerners, the outrage was never in the acts they committed, only the effrontery of having those acts held against them. The outrage was never the manly inflicting well deserved punishment on poltroons, only the craving sniveling whines of the recipients of their wrath. And the outrage was never the violent defense of "honor" by the aristocrat, only the vulgar rabble-rousing by his social inferior. ... Indeed, crime exposure was considered betrayal and was dangerous. An aristocrat quoted by Budiansky was careful to maintain his anonymity: "So bitterly do Southerners hate to have the truth come out that it is at the risk of life that any man dares to speak it." That was in 1977. In 2008, a muslim wishing to tell the truth calls him self the Myth of Islamophobia when he writes: "Let's be realistic: how did the term "Islamophobia" originate? And, who benefits from it? Who is threatening whom? Is it true that the West is afraid of Islam? If there is a fear of Islam in the West, which Islam is the West afraid of? Is it Islam as a religion, or is it rather political Islam, that has produced Irhab,* and continues to commit its ugly crimes against humanity in the name of Islam? Which side suffers the most from these crimes, is it the West, or the Islamic peoples? ... Of course, successful strategies are always repeated. It is the Communist "bloody shirt" that Myth of Islamophobia remembers: During the lifetime of the USSR, it was customary for the Russian Communists and their fellow-travelers, to attempt to silence anyone who disagreed with their Marxist ideology. So they resorted to vilifying their adversaries by painting them as "bourgeois reactionaries" and "enemies of the toiling masses." They acted according to the age long principle that attack was the best defence. Wise King Solomon's oft quoted maxim is that there "there is nothing new under the sun." Missing is the reason he gives: [But] there is no remembrance of former [generations], neither will the later ones that will be have any remembrance among those that will be afterwards.. Who is responsible for such dangerous forgetfulness? Public intellectuals, academics and members of the media who for reasons of their own help sell the myths. The result? The powerless die and so do young, idealists who fall prey to Islamist utopia in the same manner previous generation fell pray to Communist ones. Just note the manner in the historian who tells the story of misguided Americans who ended in the Gulag blames American diplomats for their being Forsaken. Be that as it may, the Muslim version of the "bloody shirt" campaign, like it's Southern and Soviet predecessors, is garnering success after success. The UN, EU, the American and British State Departments are issuing decrees forbidding coupling Islam with terror. This at a time when misnamed "honor killings" are making it to America and Turkish social scientists are finding that such dishonorable murderers are welcomed by society! If blacks were the oppressed in the South, women and non Muslims are the oppressed in the Muslim world and their blood is calling to us all not to let this "bloody shirt" strategy succeed yet again. Contact Judith Apter Klinghoffer at jklinghoff@aol.com. This article appeared on the History News Network website(http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/52239.html). |
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INTERVIEW WITH DANIEL PIPES IN FINLAND
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 12, 2008. |
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The interview was conducted June 22, 2008 by Anna Masso for the Finish paper Uusisuomi.fi. It's available at: www.danielpipes.org/article/5736 |
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Q: European media often treats Israel as the rogue state of the region. It has been even suggested that the creation of the state was a mistake. Do you see Israel as a "rogue state"? DP: It's strange that one should have to argue that Israel's not a rogue state, and that it is a state worthy of support, because it is by any standard a free state, a prosperous state, a state that has the rule of law. It is in short a Western state with the standard of living and the way of life similar to that one finds in Europe and very much different from that of its enemies in the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iran and so forth. It is a turning around of the facts. A Flash Eurobarometer poll in November 2003 established that Europeans saw Israel as the most dangerous state of the world. It's an extraordinary view, one that reflects not on Israel but on the sorry state of European politics, a lack of knowledge about the Middle East, about the Arab-Israeli conflict, about who one's allies are and who one's enemies are, about problems and solutions. It is a very distressing development. Q: Do you see the relationship between Europe and Israel getting better of worse? DP: I think there has been some improvement in recent years, in particular with the change of government in a number of countries towards a more favorable one, most dramatically in France. But the reputation of Israel has been very low for some years now and it'll take considerable work to see that changed. Q: Do you think Hamas should be respected as a legitimate political force, because the Palestinian people supported it in democratic elections? DP: Hamas is an Islamist movement that has heavily relied on terrorism to achieve its goals, and its primary goal is the elimination of Israel, its replacement by an Islamist order. It is terrorist and Islamist, it is the enemy. It is strange to me that anyone in the West should wish to support Hamas or help Hamas when it's clearly not just the enemy of Israel but the enemy of the West as a whole. I think it'd be a great mistake to legitimize it and to deal with it. Q: You wrote the foreword to a forthcoming book by Jonathan Schanzer about the conflict between Hamas and Fatah. Can that conflict be seen as part of the development of a Palestinian democracy? DP: Hamas and Fatah share the same goals; both wish to eliminate Israel. But they have different approaches, different philosophies, different personnel, different tactics. So, sometimes they work together and sometimes they fight, and there's no permanent fight or a permanent cooperation, its fluid, it changes over time. At the moment it has been very bad for a couple of years but it could well improve. Q: Is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict political (nationalist) or theological? DP: Ultimately the Arab-Israeli conflict rests on a Muslim assumption that territory that has been ruled by Muslims must not be ruled by non-Muslims, that it is permanently Muslim territory. That a non-Muslim people should come, take it over, and rule it is deeply inimical. That said, there have been four different stages of the Arab-Israeli conflict over the past century, four different stages of Arab approach. The first was pan-Syrian, to create a greater Syria; the second was pan-Arab, to create a greater Arab state, the third was Palestinian nationalist, and now the fourth is Islamist. There could be a fifth and a sixth. The key here is not the approach which changes every few decades, but rather the deep belief among Muslims that Israel is an illegitimate state because it is in a territory that for over a millenium was controlled by Muslims. Q: Do you see an end to this conflict? DP: I do see a possible end. I don't see it going on forever, as no conflict goes on forever. I do see that it's possibly going to end in 20-30 years, when the Palestinians are convinced that Israel is there and it's permanent, and realize that there's nothing they can do about that, accept it, and instead of trying to eliminate Israel will instead try to fix their own polity, economy, society and culture. Islam Q: You have written extensively about the distinction between Islam and "Islamism", also called "militant Islam", or "fundamentalism". How do you explain the difference? DP: Islam is a personal faith, and there are many different ways of understanding what it means to be a Muslim. One can be a Sufi, a mystic, one can be someone who lives by the law in a very strict way, one can be a nominal Muslim, who does not pay that much attention to his faith; all these and other ways are possible within the religion of Islam. Islamism is a very specific approach, one that holds that Muslims would be powerful and rich were Muslims to follow the Islamic law in its complete detail, who aspire to apply the law everywhere in the world, and who see non-Muslims as inferior and to be defeated. It's an ideology that has its roots at the origins of Islam, but developed in its present state about 80 years ago. It is part of Islam, but not the whole of Islam. Q: However, hard-line Muslims as well as some critics of Islam insist that you cannot be a real Muslim unless you follow the Islamic law –– that would make the distinction between Islam and Islamism disappear? DP: It is curious to note that Islamists and those who say that Islam itself is the problem agree that I'm wrong, and that Islamism is Islam. The Islamists say that because they want to portray their version of Islam as the only one. And those who see Islam as the problem, conflate the religion and the ideology. I think it a mistake. Even if you believe that's the case, and you're a Westerner and a non-Muslim, I would argue that you'd have to adopt my point of view, because a Western government cannot fight Islam. Ours are not crusader states. Therefore, you have to fight the ideology of Islamism, not the religion of Islam. We know how to fight ideologies. We fought Fascism and Communism and now there's Islamism. We can't fight a religion. So if it's reduced to a religion, then we lack the tools to protect ourselves. Q: Would non-Islamist Islam mean a secularized, privatized Islam? DP: Secularism means two different things. A secular person is one who is not religious. A secular society is one that divides religion from politics. Non-Islamist Islam needs not be secular in a personal sense; a person can be pious, but not Islamist. But it does mean secular in the latter sense, in that society divides politics from religion. For example, the Atatürk regime in Turkey is secular; you can be religious, but you cannot bring religion into the political sphere. Q: What do you think about the term "Islamophobia" –– it has been used a lot in Europe lately? DP: "Islamophobia" is a fundamentally flawed notion, because the people who are worried about Islam are not phobic. "Phobic" implies they have a unjustifed, wrongful dislike of something, whereas people who are worried about terrorism, about the imposition of the Islamic law, the Sharia, are dealing with an actual set of problems. To call them names is both unfair and delegitimizing. These are people whose concerns are real and legitimate, and which need to be addressed. Europe Q: In a recent video interview you said about the future of Islam in Europe that there's a 5% chance of harmony, and 47,5% chance for either Islam becoming dominant and Europeans reasserting control, and that the latter option might imply a civil strife? Would you explain what you mean? DP: It's striking to see that the default assumption of most Europeans is that somehow the European-Muslim relationship will work out. There may be problems today, but in the future it will be resolved. And yet I can't see the sources of that optimism. If one looks at Muslims living in Europe one finds retreat rather than engagement. The children of the immigrants are more hostile toward existing European civilization than are the immigrants themselves. On the European side, one finds increasing worry, concern, fear of the Muslim presence. So the hope that everyone will get along seems to be not based on reality. Therefore I give it a very low possibility of working out. Not zero, but mimimal. On the other hand, the alternatives between Muslim domination and European reassertion seem to me rather balanced. I can't predict which of them is more likely to happen. Crises ahead that have not taken place which will help determine which way Europe goes. Q: What kind of crises are to be expected, beyond those we have already seen? DP: There have been small crises. The Rushdie affair. The Foulard affair. The pope affair. But these are not real crises. Little riots here and there. But nothing that has really led to major changes. So I think there's a gap of five, ten, fifteen years to the future. I can't predict but it could be something like the French riots of 2005, but far more violent –– not burning cars but killing people. It could be the election of a government that could decide to send Muslim immigrants back to their home countries. I'm unable to predict the specific nature, I just think there are problems ahead that will show us which way Europe is likely to head. Q: What could Europeans do to prevent a worse crisis? DP: There are many steps that Europeans could take. For example, there is the step of integrating Muslim immigrants. In general European countries are what I call large families. You are a member of a country because you come from the bloodline of that country, went to school there, know its language, and share its religion. And now first time ever many European countries, indeed all European countries except France, are faced with the question: what does it mean to be Finnish, what does it mean to be Swedish, what does it mean to be Estonian. You did not have to explain that until now. Now you do. This is a crisis. I think it is a crisis that needs to be attended to. What does one do with people that look different, pray differently, eat differently? How does one create a nationality that includes them? Also, Europeans need to have more children, if they're going to sustain their civilisation. Birthrates are very low now. Short of some significant increase, it's hard to see how a century from now there will be a Europe that is still the Europe of today. On the immigrant side, there needs to be a greater willingness to participate, and to accept the existence of the European civilisation, and not try to change it, but live within it. Freedom of Speech Q: You wrote a book about the "Rushdie Affair" in 1990, right after it happened. Now there have been several similar conflicts about "offending Islam" in the West. Has anything changed from Rushdie affair to today? DP: The Rushdie affair came as a shock, because for the first time ever Muslims said what could and could not be written about, or stated, in the West. The other examples, of which there have been quite a few, have reiterated and confirmed that point. As time goes by, Muslims have become more determined to restrict speech; they are going to the UN, for example, to have legal basis for prohibiting such speech. Westerners in general, Europeans in particular, are increasingly uneasy with such restrictions. Q: With the pressure in the UN to ban "defamation of religion" worldwide, will the West just have to accept that in the increasingly intertwined and multicultural world the freedom of speech will not be what it used to be for at least the last decades? DP: One can see a real reduction of the freedom of speech in many Western countries. One curious development took place in Saudi Arabia earlier this year when the Saudi consultative council was asked to confirm the idea that no criticism of religion could take place. But the council rejected it, because the members noted it would recognize polytheistic religions, which they found "unacceptable". So really what it's meant to do is protect Islam, and I would be surprised if such legislation passed. Q: So if the restriction of critique of religion would concern all equaly, Muslims do actually not want it? DP: Right. Q: Regarding what we can and cannot say, you have written that the West itself, even the US have increasing problems naming the enemy in the "war on terror"? DP: It is difficult for the modern Western person to speak bluntly about the problem of this sort. That results from a sense of confidence and a feeling that it's impolite and unnecessary to speak bluntly. It is enough to speak obliquely and carefully. However, I think it is necessary in a time of war to speak clearly about the identity of the enemy. If one traces, for example, President George W. Bush's statements, one finds that they began very vaguely and then became more accurate and now they've become vague again. That's rather typical of the West as a whole, in its uncertainty how to understand who the enemy is, and what the nature of this war is. That's problematic. It's now almost seven years since 9/11, it's almost 30 years since the Iranian seizure of the American embassy in Teheran, and in all these years the US government still has not figured out who the enemy is, and what the problem is. Q: How would you name the enemy? DP: I would name the enemy as radical Islam or Islamism. It's a movement, a body of ideas. Like Fascism and Communism. Q: Has talking about this conflict become even harder during the last few years? DP: There are so many conflicting currents. It's hard for me to generalize, to say what the trend is, which way things are going. One could say that one finds a great deal of euphemism and indirect speech at this point and it's not getting better. Q: Before 9/11, even left-wing papers wrote about "Islamic Fascism", now it seems unthinkable. DP: One has seen an increase in a Left-Islamist alliance. It goes back to Michel Foucault's visit to Teheran in 1978-79. He was very excited to see what was taking place. And initially his view met with considerable resistance on the left, but with time that resistance has eroded. I think the major event was in February 2003 when throughout Europe Islamists and leftists organized together against the forthcoming war in Iraq. This created the basis of the bond. One finds they have the same opponents –– they oppose the same ideas and institutions, countries and people. They are not in favor of the same thing, but they're against the same things. So they're not really deep allies, they don't have a strategic co-operation, they have a tactical co-operation. One finds it over and over again throughout the West. Interestingly one does not find it in the Muslim world. For example in Turkey, if you were against the Islamists in the elections a year ago, you voted for the Left. Over and over again one finds that the Left and the Islamists in Egypt, Pakistan, elsewhere are opposed to each other. But in the West, they work close together, and not just the West; in India too, one finds the same thing. And it is very troubling. It is an alliance that is comparable to the Hitler-Stalin alliance, that was a brown-red alliance and this is a green-red alliance, green in the sense of the color of Islam. It's a great danger to the civilized world. Q: This alliance is particularly confusing because the goals of the Islamist movement look rather like far right than left. DP: If you look at it as a negative, then you understand it better than when you try to see what they have in common. They don't have principles in common. Socialism, gender equality and belief in God are not in common. But if you look at what they are against –– George W. Bush is a symbol of it, but more broadly Western civilization, specifically the US, the UK, Israel, Jews, practicing Christians, globalization –– that is what they're against. Q: So when academic, pro-gay-rights feminists declare Hamas and Hizbollah "progressive", this is what it is about –– a common enemy? DP: Feminists who ignore what Islam says do so because that is tactically useful at the moment. Like in Iran in the 1970s, the Left and the Islamists worked together against the shah. Once they defeated the shah, they had completely opposite goals, and one defeated the other. So this is tactical, it's just so long as the opponent is there. But if the opponent would be defeated, then their differences would come out, as each works for its own very different goals. US politics Q: What do you think about the term "neo-conservative"? Would you accept it describing yourself? DP: I'm ambivalent. Neoconservatives may number 40 or 50 in the world. It's not exactly a big movement. And they are considered to have so much power. So I'd rather like the idea of being one of them. On the other hand, when you look at specific policies, such as the war in Iraq, or the effort rapidly to democratize the Middle East, I've real differences. So I don't think that the term fits me. Q: You have recently written about the possibility of US attacking Iran. In this conflict, Europe again sees the US as the main potential aggressor. DP: Europeans have the luxury of not having to make hard decisions. Because they know that the US will be there and do it for them, and then they can criticize the US. I think that the US has made a mistake since World War II of taking on too much responsibility. I think we should have said vis-a-vis the Soviets and others: Look, if you don't think we are doing this correct, then you do it. If you don't like it, if you don't want Pershing missiles in 1981-82, fine –– you figure out your relationship with the Soviets. And now it's the same thing: if you think Iran having missiles is fine, ok –– we won't protect you. That would create a much greater sense of realism. But unfortunately, as it is, we take initiative, and then others criticize us for that. It would be far more constructive for Europeans to have to make hard decisions themselves than simply criticize us. We Americans make Europeans act as children who don't have to make key decisions, they are made for them. I don't think that is healthy for Europeans or ourselves. Q: Would tightened European integration make Europe a more "grown up" unit? DP: I believe the European Union has its limits. I think it's useful economic and political union, but I don't think it should try to be more than a confederation. I don't think it should become a single state. That would be a mistake, given the history of Europe. Turning EU into a military unit would also be a mistake. I think NATO is far better. Q: In what sense is the upcoming US presidential election important for the world? Barack Obama would turn US government policy into European policy. The US would be another European polity as opposed to what it has been at least for decades. So it's a very fundamental set of choices –– more fundamental than any time since 1972, when [the Democratic candidate] George McGovern also had a left-wing, European approach. Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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HOMECOMING FOR A CHILD-KILLER
Posted by Jonathan Spyer, July 12, 2008. |
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The deal for the return of convicted terrorist Samir Kuntar, four Hizbullah men captured in the 2006 Second Lebanon War and a number of corpses in return for the remains of kidnapped IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser comes at an opportune moment for the Hizbullah leadership. Indeed, some analysts have suggested that group leader Hassan Nasrallah accepted a less favourable deal than he had originally held out for, in order to conclude the negotiations as speedily as possible. What is clear is that the prisoner swap is having the desired effect for Hizbullah –– rebuilding its legitimacy. Most (though not all) of the leaders of the pro-western and pro-Saudi March 14 movement appear to be accepting the portrayal of the swap as a victory for Lebanon, and the consequent depiction of the infanticidal Kuntar as a Lebanese national hero. Why did Nasrallah need the deal so badly? In May of this year, Hizbullah brought 18 months of smoldering political tension to a head. The March 14-led government had attempted to move against Hizbullah's control of security at Rafik Hariri Airport in Beirut, and to limit the growth of Hizbullah's extensive internal communication system within Lebanon. Hizbullah saw this as an assault on its independent military infrastructure. The movement, which had been engaged in a campaign to bring down the Saniora government since the end of 2006, reacted swiftly. Hizbullah and its allied forces poured onto the streets of West Beirut and other key parts of the country –– inflicting an unambiguous military humiliation on their enemies in the Sunni-led al-Mustaqbal movement of Saad Hariri and Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, which leads the March 14 coalition. Hizbullah then went on to negotiate a deal reflecting this victory with Qatari mediation in Doha. But Hizbullah's achievement had come with a substantial price. Throughout its history, the movement, despite its Shi'ite nature, had tried to claim for itself a role above the Lebanese sectarian framework. It had justified its uniquely-tolerated military infrastructure by claiming that it existed for the sole purpose of fighting Israel –– and would never be turned against fellow Lebanese. This pledge had now been broken. Hizbullah was in increasing danger of appearing unambiguously as a Shi'ite Islamist client of Iran. The attempts to swiftly form a government following Doha have also run aground, amid wrangling over portfolios. Hizbullah was therefore in need of a gesture, a spectacle which could enable it to recall the 2006 war, and wrap itself in the flag of victory against Israel. The prisoner swap looks set to provide this opportunity. Hizbullah long ago made the cause of Samir Kuntar its own. Kuntar, a Lebanese Druse and member of the Palestine Liberation Front, took part in an operation in Israel in 1979, in which he was responsible, among other things, for the murder with his own hands of a four-year-old girl, Einat Haran. Prior to killing Einat, Kuntar had shot and killed her father, Danny, before the child's eyes. The freeing of Kuntar was the purpose for which Hizbullah carried out the raids –– intended to secure captive IDF soldiers for use as bargaining chips –– which began the Second Lebanon War. Securing his release would thus add significant weight to Nasrallah's claims of victory in 2006, despite the extensive damage and loss of life among Lebanese Shi'ites. The news of the planned swap has been greeted with enthusiasm from politicians on both sides of the divide. Lebanese President Michel Suleiman has told Hizbullah that he would like to take part in the welcome-home ceremony for Kuntar. Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Druse Progressive Socialist Party and a major March 14 figure, said that a PSP delegation would visit Kuntar to welcome him home and congratulate him on his release. He called the return of the Lebanese prisoners a "national occasion" which would bring people together. Other March 14 leaders spoke in similarly glowing terms. Saniora said that "the success of Hizbullah in the negotiations led by a third party is a national success for the party and for the struggle of the Lebanese because it secured national goals which Israel always refused to respect." Saniora, according to one Lebanese newspaper, As-Safir, is "inclined in principle" toward taking part in planned events to welcome the prisoners home. As-Safir also reported that there are plans to make the day of the return of the prisoners a national holiday. From Israel's point of view, the remarks made by the March 14 leaders, while edifying, are of secondary interest. Israel has never placed a great deal of faith in either the intentions or the abilities of the individuals in question. Of greater importance, however, is the extent to which the prisoner swap is serving to strengthen Hizbullah. In so doing, it is delivering a very significant achievement to the movement, and to its regional supporters –– Israel's sworn foes –– in Damascus and Teheran. Dr. Jonathan Spyer is a senior research fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya Israel. Contact GLORIA at info@gloriacenter.org |
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A TALE OF TWO HOSTAGES
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 11, 2008. |
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This was written by Caroline B. Glick and it appeared in
today in Jewish World Review
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Exalting at her liberation by the Colombian military last week, former hostage Ingrid Bentancourt exclaimed, "This is a miracle, a miracle! We have an amazing military. I think only the Israelis can possibly pull off something like this." Bentancourt's statement made thousands of Israelis wince. Held hostage in the Colombian jungles for six years by the narco-terror group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC, Bentancourt, a dual Colombian-French citizen who was a Colombian senator and presidential candidate at the time she was abducted, obviously had not heard the news about the "new Israel." Her statements were based on her historical memory of the "old Israel." She didn't know that the "new Israel" doesn't fight terrorists. The "new Israel" views fighting terrorists as an exercise in futility. Its leaders and military chiefs alike repeat endlessly the mantra that there is no military victory to be had, only a political accommodation. She didn't know that the week before she was rescued, the "new Israel" made a deal with Hizbullah to release five senior Lebanese terrorists, an unknown number of Palestinian terrorists and hundreds of bodies of dead terrorists in exchange for the bodies of IDF reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goladwasser who were murdered by Hizbullah two years ago. The "new Israel" is the Israel that maintains one-sided "ceasefires" with Hamas and is poised to make a deal with Hamas by which it will release up to a thousand Palestinian terrorists in exchange for IDF hostage Gilad Shalit. No, Betancourt, was thinking of the "old Israel" –– the Israel that electrified the world when it sent its commandos thousands of miles to free its hostages in Entebbe 32 years ago. It was that memory of Israeli heroism that doubtless gave hope to Bentancourt and her fellow hostages as they languished in FARC captivity in the jungle, malnourished, ill-treated and terrorized. The Entebbe rescue allowed them to fantasize that one day, they too would be rescued and their tormentors would be brought to justice. And last week, their dreams came true. Betancourt had reasons beside her plight as a hostage to associate Colombia's struggle with Israel's. At the time she was abducted, both countries faced similar political and military challenges and at the time both countries seemed to be embarking on similar paths to surmount them. When Betancourt was kidnapped in April 2002, Colombia had just disavowed a failed strategy of appeasing FARC. To bring FARC to the negotiating table, former president Andres Pastrana agreed to transfer control over a swathe of Colombian territory the size of Switzerland to FARC. Rather than reciprocate this peace offering with one of its own, FARC used its safe haven to increase its recruitment of terrorists and intensify its kidnapping campaign and drug trafficking operations. For nearly four years, Pastrana refused to disavow the phony "peace process" in spite of repeated FARC attacks. It was only in February 2002, after FARC hijacked an airliner and kidnapped its fifth lawmaker in a year that Pastrana finally repudiated his appeasement drive. Similarly, in 2002, Israel was in the grips of an unprecedented Palestinian terror campaign with suicide bombings going off almost daily. Then prime minister Ariel Sharon had been elected the previous year to replace the discredited Ehud Barak as premier after the latter's appeasement strategy at Camp David had failed and Israel's eight-year-old Oslo appeasement strategy had fallen apart. When Betancourt was taken prisoner, Sharon had just launched Operation Defensive Shield with the express purpose of defeating the Palestinian terror networks in Judea and Samaria. What Bentancourt didn't know was that since her abduction, Israel and Colombia have gone their separate ways. Under President Alvero Uribe who was elected after her capture, Colombia has moved steadily toward full victory over FARC. On the other hand, Israel has abandoned victory as a strategic concept for contending with its enemies. Israel's abdication of its struggle against its terrorist enemies was as swift and unmistakable as it was inexplicable. Rather than following up Israel's military defeat of the Palestinian terror machine in Judea and Samaria in 2002 with a similar operation in Gaza or with a political offensive against the PLO which Defensive Shield exposed as the central engine behind the Palestinian terror war, Sharon opted to withdraw from the fight and return to the discredited policy of appeasement which Israeli voters twice rejected. First Sharon accepted the so-called Roadmap to Peace in 2003. Predicated on the false assumption that the Palestinians are interested in peace with Israel and can be appeased into accepting statehood and Israel's right to exist, the Roadmap precludes any Israeli option for victory. When the Palestinians refused to end their support for Israel's destruction in spite of the Roadmap, Sharon abandoned appeasement for peace and opting instead for surrender for "quiet." His unilateral surrender of Gaza demoralized Israeli society, weakened Israel's democratic institutions and propelled Hamas and Iran to power in Gaza. Rather than recognize that the move had been a strategic catastrophe which called into question Israel's ability to act as an ally in the US-led war on terror, Sharon launched Kadima as a new political party dedicated entirely to appeasement and capitulation. After Ehud Olmert replaced Sharon as premier in November 2005, he brought Kadima to victory in the March 2006 elections by pledging to expand Sharon's "capitulation for quiet" strategy to Judea and Samaria. When Israel's neighbors responded to that agenda with war from Lebanon and Gaza, Olmert and his colleagues were forced to return to their previous appeasement for peace agenda. But their refusal to countenance the option of victory over Israel's implacable foes remains the order of the day. In contrast, the Uribe government in Colombia has never veered from its single-minded goal of defeating FARC both militarily and politically. With US assistance, Uribe has rebuilt Colombia's military into a highly competent counter-insurgency force. His counterinsurgency has brought both defeat and demoralization to FARC's doorstep. FARC's guerilla force which numbered 18,000 just a few years ago, has been reduced by an estimated 50 percent. Busy with their own survival, FARC's remaining forces have been unable to conduct any sustained operations against the Uribe government or rank and file Colombians in recent years. Restored security has brought economic growth and prosperity. And both have stabilized the Uribe government. Like the Palestinians, FARC enjoys the support of the international Left and leftist governments. In FARC's case, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez has been the terror group's primary military, financial and political backer. Ecuador, led by Rafael Correa's Chavez-allied leftist government, has also become a major sponsor of FARC. In March, Uribe risked regional war in order to defeat FARC by raiding a FARC base on the Ecuadoran side of the border. The raid was immensely successful. FARC's deputy commander Raul Reyes was killed and his computers –– carrying massive intelligence information –– were seized. As Ecuador cut off diplomatic relations and Chavez deployed troops to his border with Colombia, Uribe stalwartly defended the raid. He defended the raid even as the French government attacked him claiming that Reyes had been their negotiating partner in their quest to secure Betancourt's release. Israel's governments have systematically prevented the publication of information regarding Fatah's leadership role in the terror war, and its ties to Iran, and Syria. They have also refused to take any action against Israeli organizations and politicians bankrolled illegally by foreign governments. In contrast, Uribe moved quickly to use the information exposed by Reyes's computers to discredit Chavez, FARC and their Colombian and foreign sympathizers. Reyes's files showed that neither FARC nor Chavez nor pro-Chavez Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba were negotiating Betancourt's release in good faith. Understanding that she was their most powerful bargaining chip against the Uribe government, in their internal discussions, all three attested to their opposition to her release. Uribe's release of the information decreased French pressure for a deal. Chavez was further discredited and Bogota's prosecutor opened a criminal probe against Cordoba on treason-related charges. According to media reports, the Ecuador raid also provided the Colombian military with actionable intelligence it needed to move forward with its plans for last week's rescue mission. That is, each successful raid paved the way for the next achievement. The Israeli media's response to the Colombia rescue mission has been to inflate the "Israeli role" in the mission. Numerous reports have been published in the local press about the fact that the Colombians hired retired IDF generals Yisrael Ziv and Yossi Kupperwasser to help them build up their counter-terror capabilities. Far from obscuring the yawning gap between Colombia and Israel, these reports bring Israel's abandonment of the fight into sharp relief. They show clearly that Israel's decision to capitulate has nothing to do with an inability to fight to victory. It is a failure of will rather than a failure of capacity that has brought Israel to its current cowed and humiliated condition where its media argues over how many terrorists should be exchanged for Shalit and ignores completely the very notion that he can be rescued. And of Israel could attempt to rescue him. While success is never assured, it is a fact that just as Colombia was able to find and rescue Betancourt and her fellow hostages in the jungle, so Israel could, if it dared, conduct a competent operation aimed at rescuing Shalit in Gaza. Like Colombia it could acquire the intelligence necessary to plan and carry out such a raid. Like Colombia, its forces are competent to succeed in such an endeavor. Until last week's raid, one of the main sources of pressure on the Uribe government was Betancourt's family. Her mother and her children met frequently with Chavez and railed against Uribe in their eagerness to see her released. Speaking of her experience and of her rescue in Paris this week, Betancourt, who over the years tried to escape five times, was clear that she preferred freedom to slavery, even if it came only in death. As French philosopher Andre Glucksmann wrote in City Journal, it was freedom, not life that she held most sacred. And while she understood her family's actions, she clearly did not embrace their pacifism as she praised Uribe for rescuing her despite the risk that the mission would fail and she and her fellow hostages would be killed. It is hard to imagine that as a soldier, Shalit feels any differently from Betancourt. Why should we assume that he prefers live as a slave than die in a quest for freedom? It is a travesty, that in their inexplicable abandonment of honorable struggle against murderous foes in favor of dangerous appeasement, Olmert and his colleagues have denied Shalit the respect due a warrior and have denied the IDF the right to fight for Israel's freedom. Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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HOW TO EVALUATE CANDIDATES; HAMAS EXCUSE FOR CEASEFIRE BREACHES; QUARTET PRETENDS P.A. IS FIGHTING TERRORISM
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 11, 2008. |
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HOW TO EVALUATE CANDIDATES When people accuse a candidate of lying or of changing policy simply because his new policy became more popular, his advocates are likely to counter-charge the opponent of doing the same. They all are right. How then to evaluate which candidate to support? I can offer a guideline but not a guarantee. Can't guarantee that what a candidate says is what he would do, even if appointed today, much less months from now. The guideline is to make suitable distinctions. Few candidates are perfect or have perfect integrity. Distinguish between the candidate who lies routinely, totally without scruples, and the one who has occasional lapses. Distinguish between the candidate who rethinks policy or who occasionally realigns his positions with that of the electorate but without risking national security. I think that Obama and Clinton fail the test and McCain passes it, though each of his lapses dismays me. The idea is that the difference in quantity of lying and waffling is so great as to be a difference in quality. Obama and Clinton are pathological liars and wafflers. McCain is not. I also think that if all candidates for the Presidency learned basic economics, they would pick more useful policies and suggest more creative solutions. MOVIE REVIEW: ZOHAN This movie is very funny and even delightful. It handles off-color situations without seeming vulgar. The heroes perform some fine acrobatics but go overboard in super-human traits. The plot is about the Arab-Israel conflict. On that it is misinformed and impractically sentimental. There is not hatred "on both sides." The Arabs are a hating people. Their religion cultivates hatred. The Jews tend not to hate –– Israel and Judaism cultivate tolerance. The movie gives the impression that the Arab-Israel conflict is nationalist, which is amenable to resolution, rather than religious, which is not. It encourages inter-marriage, which I consider another way of eradicating the Jewish people. The stated notion that the Jews have been fighting for 2,000 years is false. The Jews were beaten until the rise of Israel. WHO ATTACKS WHOM, IN TERRITORIES Isabel Kershner followed up on her claim that "settlers" attack Arabs in Judea-Samaria. She said that BTselem, an Arab "rights" group in Israel, gave video cameras to Arabs in Judea-Samaria. One filmed the photo accompanying the article –– "what appeared to be masked Jewish settlers viciously beating members of her family with clubs –– images that have since been broadcast by news networks all over the world." (Broadcast without verification.) She writes that Israeli police arrested three suspects from a nearby Jewish settlement. The family attacked claims to have a deed for the land. A novel element in the article is an observation about artifacts proving ancient Jewish residency there (NY Times, 6/24, A8). Usually the newspaper omits testimony that reinforces Jewish claims to territory. My source indicated, as I wrote previously, that nobody was arrested, and those interrogated were released. He said that the film does not prove the attackers were settlers or even Jews. I'll take the reporter's word for it that the reports of injury are accurate. Many alleged attacks on Arabs are staged. Unfortunately, the many attacks on Jews are not staged. Bear in mind that the Israeli secret service has actually had Arabs attacked, not by settlers, but by its agents in the name of Jewish religious nationalists, so as to defame them all and to make it easier for the government to dispossess them. As for the title deeds, the reporter does not indicate she had them authenticated. In many cases, Arabs wave lapsed, superseded, or forged deeds. They don't stand up in court, if the court is objective. Arabs often try to assert claims to property owned by Jews or, lest they be executed, deny their selling property to Jews. If Kershner rejects any Arab testimony, she doesn't say. HAMAS' EXCUSE FOR CEASEFIRE BREACHES Islamic Jihad said it was firing rockets into Israel, during what was supposed to be a ceasefire. Hamas refuses to stop Islamic Jihad. Israel closed some border crossings, but it is unclear how long that will be for (IMRA, 6/25). This again shows the need for getting the truce in writing and signed, so Israel can show what was agreed to. Did Israel make a truce just with Hamas? Did Hamas turn the rockets over to Islamic Jihad, in order to get around the terms of the truce? Doesn't Hamas' refusal to discipline Islamic Jihad contradict its assertion to rule Gaza, which it does very strictly? Why doesn't Israel void the truce after these Muslim violations? Why doesn't it capture all the terrorists? When will Israel learn it can't make peace with Islamists? HAMAS SPLITS, IN GAZA The armed forces of Hamas split, in what appears to be a dispute over its leadership. Some of the Hamas men have become attached to smuggling and other criminal activity. This is reminiscent of Fatah rivalry (IMRA, 6/25). Keep it up! QUARTET PRETENDS P.A. IS FIGHTING TERRORISM Its statement ran, ""Likewise, Palestinian security performance has improved, including recent efforts in Jenin. Continued Palestinian efforts to fight terrorism and to implement a more comprehensive security strategy are necessary for sustainable long-term improvement." Actually, the P.A. does not fight terrorism in Judea-Samaria. It tries to stop other criminality. It apprehends a few terrorists, but then lets them go. That is not fighting terrorism (IMRA, 6/25). Time to retire the Quartet. It does more harm than good. DEMOCRATIC MOVE IN ISRAEL Israeli police were ordered to keep complainants apprised of such developments as arrests (IMRA, 6/25). MORE GAZA VIOLATIONS For the third time, terrorists fired rockets into Israel, this time wounding two and traumatizing children. The IDF spotted the rocket crews but did not fire (Arutz-7, 6/26). They should have destroyed the crews. Otherwise, the ceasefire means free shots at Israelis. What truce binds only Israel? The government either is pretending there is a truce or it thinks that its retaliation would end the truce. But the truce is ended. That is what always happens. The Arabs break the truce. The terrorists who claim responsibility for the attacks say it is in retaliation for Israeli counter-terrorism in Judea-Samaria, but the government of Israel did not include Judea-Samaria in the truce. Therefore, the terrorists are lying about their motives. That also is what they always do. They always come up with flimsy pretexts for their aggression and their violations. We'll probably hear admonitions that "both sides" should stand down. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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THEY HANGED HER FOR TEACHING LOVE
Posted by Amil Imani, July 11, 2008. |
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She is called the Angel of Iran, because she lived her short life angelically. The demonic Islamist Mullahs, true to their nature, couldn't bear an angel in their midst. They hanged the young woman, barely past childhood, for refusing to renounce her belief: the belief in love, justice, and equality for all children of God. Her name was Mona, a 17-year old Baha'i Character School (Sunday school) teacher. Her pupils loved the indescribably gentle loving teacher who taught them to grow up as exemplary humans with hearts brimming with the love of God, all his people and his creation. One day the Mullahs' agents came to her house while the young school-girl was studying for her next day English exam. The savage Islamists had another much tougher exam in mind for her to be administered in the horrific prison of the Mullahs. They were certain that they could break the frail young woman under pressure and torture; that they could make her recant her faith and adopt their bigoted creed. Our great Zoroaster, the luminous ancient prophet of Persia, spoke of the ongoing battle between the forces of good under Ahuramazda –– God, and the forces of evil directed by Ahriman –– the Satan. Zoroaster warned us not to fall for the enticements or be deceived by the machinations of Ahriman. He further informed us that evil can be recognized by the deeds of its people; people who would oppose the precepts of Ahuramazda. And the child-woman Mona was seen by the Islamist clergy as a threat to their very demonic precepts and practices. They felt compelled to either convert her to their creed of darkness or extinguish her young life. Mona, the young teacher, deeply loved children and believed that they had to be brought up as champion workers for Ahuramazda. Baha'is claim that the founder of their religion, Baha'u'llah, is the reappearance of the spirit of Zoroaster; that Zoroaster's triad teachings of Good Thoughts, Good Speech, and Good Behavior are elaborated in greater details by Baha'u'llah. Mona's lessons for the children, a detailed exposition of Zoroaster's teachings, are summarized in the passage below by Baha'u'llah. "Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity. Be worthy of the trust of thy neighbor, and look upon him with a bright and friendly face. Be a treasure to the poor, an admonisher to the rich, an answerer to the cry of the needy, a preserver of the sanctity of thy pledge. Be fair in thy judgment, and guarded in thy speech. Be unjust to no man, and show all meekness to all men. Be as a lamp unto them that walk in darkness, a joy to the sorrowful, a sea for the thirsty, a haven for the distressed, an upholder and defender of the victim of oppression. Let integrity and uprightness distinguish all thine acts. Be a home for the stranger, a balm to the suffering, and a tower of strength for the fugitive. Be eyes to the blind, and a guiding light unto the feet of the erring. Be an ornament to the countenance of truth, a crown to the brow of fidelity, a pillar of the temple of righteousness, a breath of life to the body of mankind, an ensign of the hosts of justice, a luminary above the horizon of virtue, a dew to the soil of the human heart, an ark on the ocean of knowledge, a sun in the heaven of bounty, a gem on the diadem of wisdom, a shining light in the firmament of thy generation, a fruit upon the tree of humility." Ten Baha'i women of Shiraz, Iran were among the many Baha'is who were arrested by the Islamists for their faith. The young Mona was one of them. These women endured months of endless abuse in the prison of the Mullahs, yet every one of them refused under threat of death to recant their faith of love. The heartless Mullahs finally decided to make good on their threat and hanged these magnificent human beings, one-by-one. The Angel of Iran was the last to be hanged for she wished to pray for each woman as she was hanged. When Mona's turn came, she kissed the noose and placed it around her own neck with prayers on her lips. The savage Islamists hanged the magnificent child-woman Mona after a long period of tortuous imprisonment. By killing her, the agents of Ahriman aimed to kill love. But assuredly they can never kill love. They only kill the lover. Oh, you earthly angels!
I see the poor black swallows,
My heart stops palpitating!
Contact Amil Imani at amil_imani@yahoo.com.
This essay can be found at
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ANTISEMITIC QUOTES FROM SPANISH BOOKS
Posted by Carlos Graizbord, July 11, 2008. |
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I traveled to Spain for the first time with my wife in September of this year. Before I traveled there I was told that it is common in Spain to call the Jews "The Damned Race" ("La Raza Maldita"). It is surprising that in the 21st century that might happen. Since I speak Spanish, I bought two books related to the history of the Jews and was shocked by their archaic anti-Semitic content. Here are the two books that I'm referring to: I bought the first one in a book store at "El Corte Inglés" (a big department store in Madrid): Vicente Risco: "Historia de los Judíos". Desde la Destrucción del Templo. Ediciones Gloria.
The book mentions expulsions and massacres against Jews in Europe as to justify their own expulsion and violence throughout history. Since this particular book is full of anti-Semitic diatribes, I will only mention a few examples: I must also say that the bibliography includes many anti-Semitic books such as "The Elders of Zion" and "The International Jew" by Henry Ford etc. STEREOTYPES. ON THE JEWISH PERSONALITY OR CHARACTER I FOUND IN THE BOOK: This is my translation of paragraphs on pages10 to 13:
THE JEW UNDER ISLAM, THE KORAN: In the book there is a text from the Koran, when the author writes about the Jews under Islam, the quote is as follows: Page150:
"Haven't you looked at the Jews? They sell their error [sic] and would like to go away from the straight path; but the Lord knows your enemies. The powerful protection of the Lord is a secure refuge against their malice.
ON THE "BLOOD LIBEL": Page 238:
The following book I bought in the Sephardic Museum at the "Sinagoga Del Tránsito" in Toledo. Considering the fact that this book is comparatively less direct in its hostility than the first one, I think it is outrageous to find such text in a museum dedicated to the Jewish presence in Toledo, especially since Spain expelled the Jews in 1492: Marta López-Ibor: "Los Judíos en España".
STEREOTYPES. ON THE JEWISH PERSONALITY OR CHARACTER FOUND IN THE BOOK: Page 56:
ON THE BLOOD LIBEL: Page 56:
Page 58:
Page 84:
Letter to TIP Dear Ms. Mizrahi: I want to congratulate you for the work you are doing in the interest of Israel and the Jewish people. As a Mexican Jew naturalized U.S. citizen I am interested in improving ISRAEL's PR. For this reason I would like to suggest the following ideas for TIP's efforts on the 60th anniversary of Israel. We need to present some facts to the world and eliminate current myths that have been disseminated by the media. Some of the main facts and myths are the following:
The possible tools to present the above ideas can be to tell to the world about:
Contact Carlos Graizbord at cargra@san.rr.com |
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THE ISRAELI CONNECTION
Posted by Fred Reifenberg, July 11, 2008. |
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I found this to be extremely exciting and made me proud that the Israelis are Jews and a most remarkable people unto themselves. It actually gave me shivers (of pride) up and down my spine. |
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Israelis are justifiably proud today to have learned last night that a sizeable group of agents from the Mossad and the Shin Bet were involved in the dramatic and successful release of hostages in Colombia who had been imprisoned for five years. Israeli TV Channels 2 and 10 broke the news last night, saying that for the first time it could be reported that the Israelis were "intimately involved in great depth" in the successful liberation of the captives, along with their American counterparts. Ingrid Betancourt, the Colombia politician who was restored to her family (pictured above embracing her daughter) said in her statement to reporters after her release: "I am not aware of a precedent to such a perfect mission. Maybe only the Israelis with their wonderful commandos may be reminiscent of the mission that took place here." Betancourt's reference to Israel's military history is not by chance. Last year, a group of Israeli military advisors, receiving approval from the Israeli Defense Ministry, resided in Colombia in order to assist the army there and especially the special units. The Israeli mission was focused mainly on intelligence issues, special operations and integration and coordination between different security elements. This was in order to prepare them for a coordinated and productive campaign within a short period of time. The group was headed by Major-General (Res.) Israel Ziv, who served as the head of operations in the elite Sayeret Matkal unit up until four years ago. Ziv and at least some of his men have already returned to Israel but the assistance the Israeli team provided to the Colombian security forces assisted them in attaining the list of successes they have been achieving lately against the FARC rebel organization, most notably the "perfect" rescue of the hostages. The TV announcer said last night, "The names of the agents involved will never be made public but they are in fact our anonymous heroes."
Contact Fred Reifenberg's at freify@netvision.net.il
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FROM ISRAEL: STILL IRAN
Posted by Arlene Kushner, July 11, 12008. |
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Iran remains very much in the news –– and with solid reason. No one –– except the parties both here and the US who are directly involved –– know exactly what's going on. And probably even they don't all know, because so much remains in the air. There is, first, the question of how far Iran has progressed towards nuclear capability –– with Israel convinced that it's closer than US experts believe; there's apparently a discrepancy of some six to 12 months in terms of how close Iran is perceived as being. Then, as I've indicated before, there is disagreement within the US on whether to hit Iran. There is also the issue of what Israel, which is inclined to go the military route, needs in terms of US cooperation, agreement, support, before proceeding. ~~~~~~~~~~ On Wednesday, Iran launched a missile as part of an exercise, claiming that this was an improved version of the Shahab-3, capable of reaching Israel. Defense Secretary Robert Gates declared, The test "is certainly contrary to the spirit of Security Council resolutions and the will of the international community." Well, wake up, guys! (As one of my readers, Michael Poppers, pointed out to me the other day, it is not only Israel that has leaders that refuse to see long-range consequences –– and here is a stunning example of just that.) Why should Gates remotely imagine that Iran is interested in the will of the international community? But, said William Burns, to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, "We view force as an option that is on the table but a last resort. We do not believe we have exhausted all the diplomatic possibilities." ~~~~~~~~~~ The US, for its part, did anti-missile training last week: two Aegis warships –– one off the coast of Israel, and the other in the Persian Gulf –– practiced defeating a combined missile attack from Syria, Lebanon, and Iran against Israel. In tests to date, the Aegis system has knocked down nearly 90% of the missiles fired towards it. ~~~~~~~~~~ In concert with this came warnings from Sec. Rice: Washington, she said, had strengthened its "security presence" in the Gulf. "We will defend American interests and the interests of our allies...In the Gulf area, the United States has enhanced its security capacity, its security presence, and we are working closely with all our allies...to make [sure] they are capable of defending themselves. These are all elements of America's intention and determination to prevent Iran from threatening our interest or the interests of our friends and allies." ~~~~~~~~~~ Minister of Defense Ehud Barak will be headed for Washington on Monday, where –– in the course of three days –– he will meet with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and probably President Bush. Mossad Chief Meir Dagan just returned from Washington, and Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi will be going within days. The urgent goal of the Israelis is said to be convincing American officials that Iran is closer to becoming nuclear than many believe. Close consultations are on-going as the time for final decisions and planning comes closer. Barak told his Labor party faction that: "The Iranian issue is a challenge not just for Israel but for the entire world. Israel is the strongest country in the region and we have proven in the past that we are not deterred from acting when our vital interests are at stake." ~~~~~~~~~~ In reporting other happenings (or potential happenings) here, I have an enormous sense of deja vu, and so am reluctant to belabor too much what has been said and said again. Take, for example, comments by senior Israeli defense officials that the "ceasefire" –– which is seeing almost daily violations –– may be ending soon. The IDF, we are told, is preparing for a possible military action. Yes, we know. The IDF has been preparing for military action for a long time. But is Olmert about to stop being "patient" and give the order now, when he's in so much political trouble? ~~~~~~~~~~ Then there is the announcement by the PA that it is "considering" a freeze on negotiations with Israel because of Israeli plans to build more housing in Jerusalem. If I had a shekel for every time the PA has made such a threat, I'd be a rich woman by now. ~~~~~~~~~~ Today Olmert will be interrogated, and Talansky is back in Israel in preparation for his cross-examination next Thursday. Olmert's lawyers are hoping to discredit him. I will, of course, deal with this in greater detail next week. The off-the-record assumption (offered, for example, by the former head of police investigations) is that when the dust settles and all is done, Olmert indeed will be indicted, possibly in August. According to reports offered via Kadima officials, Olmert has just agreed –– after previously balking –– that when the Kadima primary is held in September, the winner can form a new government and take over immediately. My take on this is that he agreed because he knows he likely to be indicted and forced to resign anyway. Seeing –– at long last! –– the fall of Ehud Barak will be blessing. But it is not enough for this country. Kadima needs to be out of power completely –– we need a clean sweep, not Livni or Mofaz moving in with the same crew carrying on. Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info |
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HARVARD USING HATRED TO TEACH ARABIC LANGUAGE CLASSES (AND ITS FEDERALLY FUNDED)
Posted by Shaul and Aviva Ceder, July 10, 2008. |
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This comes from the Yid with Lid website (http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2008/07/ harvard-using-hatred-to-teach-arabic.html). Contact him at yidwithlid@aol.com
If you are taking introduction to Arabic at Harvard or other American Universities this is what you learn: Arabs are a depressingly morose people Israel Doesn't Exist Gamal Abdel Nasser Israeli Soldiers are vicious, blood thirsty killers of Palestinian babies Christians in Lebanon are Bad People The Jews have no Claim To Jerusalem' The main culprit for all of this is the text book Al-Kitaab is published by Georgetown University Press, with some assistance from the National Endowment for the Humanities, another fine example of your tax dollars at work. Below is the experience of one Harvard student, Joel B. Pollak, who used the textbook and related DVDs in his Arabic Language class. His essay is entitled, "Propaganda has no place in Arabic textbooks." |
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At Harvard, the star of Arabic A is a girl named Maha. Maha Muhammed Abulaal, to be precise. She's the pouty protagonist in the melodrama that runs throughout "Al-Kitaab," the standard beginning text in Arabic classes at Harvard and other American universities. We are taught to speak our first Arabic sentences by expressing Maha's incurable angst. We learn in Chapter 1 that Maha is desperately lonely. In later chapters, we are told that she hates New York, has no boyfriend and resents her mother. Soon we encounter her equally depressing relatives in Egypt –– such as her first cousin Khalid, whose mother died in a car accident and who was forced to study business administration after his father told him literature "has no future." Like Maha, Khalid is loveless; his only romantic prospect ran away with a rich engineer. The family eventually intervenes with plans to marry the cousins off to each other. This makes everyone equally unhappy. Then the story ends. Since Sept. 11, 2001, the number of Americans studying Arabic has more than doubled. Nearly 24,000 U.S. students enrolled in Arabic classes in the fall of 2006, the Modern Language Association reported in November. In 2002, 264 colleges offered Arabic; as of the 2006-07 academic year, 466 did. Young, ambitious Americans are responding constructively to our country's new challenges by demanding Arabic classes. But there are not enough teachers to meet this demand, and the available textbooks are suffused with the stale prejudices and preoccupations of the pre-Sept. 11 Middle East. To study Arabic in America today is to be inducted into a world of longing, abandonment and regret. And that's before you even touch the political issues. Most maps of the Middle East in "Al-Kitaab" do not include Israel, though a substantial minority of Israelis, both Jews and Arabs, are native Arabic speakers. Alongside simple Arabic poems, students read about anti-Western heroes such as Gamal Abdel Nasser. The DVD that comes with "Al-Kitaab" includes footage of Nasser's mass rallies in Cairo –– including slogans in Arabic and French such as "Brother Nations in Struggle, We Are By Your Side." These scenes of totalitarian rage are fondly described by the narrator as "dreams of his youth." The accompanying lesson describes the highlights of Nasser's career, including the nationalization of the Suez Canal and the formation of the United Arab Republic. No mention is made of Egypt's defeat in the Six-Day War or of Nasser's brutal, repressive rule. In my class, we were asked to recite a passage about Nasser to practice our vocalization. (I refused.) The last lesson in the book –– which we skipped –– features Maha's mother speaking wistfully of her childhood in Palestine: "My childhood was taken from me!" Over mournful music on the DVD, she talks about returning to Jerusalem, as if she were a refugee, but the images suggest that she left voluntarily after the Six-Day War, when Israel offered citizenship to the Arab residents of East Jerusalem. The fact that Israel also claims Jerusalem as its capital is ignored. My class watched three movies this semester, all with political themes. One was "West Beirut," which cast Christians as the prime bad guys in Lebanon's civil war (though, to be fair, there was plenty of hatred all around). Another was "The Tale of Three Jewels," an allegorical film about Palestinian nationalism that portrayed Israeli soldiers as bloodthirsty child-killers. The third movie, "Destiny," told the story of the great medieval Islamic philosopher Averroes and his struggles against Islamic religious fundamentalism. It was a bit more nuanced than the first two. But the film omitted the fact that it was only through the Hebrew transcription of Averroes' writings by Jewish scholars in Egypt that his works were preserved for posterity. Friends and relatives who have used "Al-Kitaab" at other American universities report similarly morose experiences. At several colleges and high schools, students have created Facebook profiles for Maha. The Harvard profile for Maha informs visitors in the "About Me" section: "I'm pretty lonely. I only have one friend. My parents are always busy." We may laugh, but there is something fundamentally wrong with this indoctrination into misery. Most introductory language classes avoid controversial political subjects. In fact, they often highlight the brighter side of different cultures. Particularly with the growing importance of Arabic, can't we do better? The U.S. government has funded studies on anti-Semitism in Palestinian textbooks. Fairfax County, Va., officials have asked the State Department to investigate the teaching materials at a Saudi-funded school. "Al-Kitaab" is published by Georgetown University Press, with some assistance from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Perhaps we should also be looking into the content of the federally funded materials used in Arabic programs at our own universities. Learning Arabic should not include lessons in political propaganda. Contact Shaul and Aviva Ceder at ceder@netvision.net.il |
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31 YEAR-OLD DANISH WOMAN SHOT DEAD IN PAKISTAN 'HONOR KILLING', ETC.
Posted by Center for Security Policy, July 10, 2008. |
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Examples of Shari'a Law in practice.
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1. Woman Shot Dead In Pakistan 'Honor Killing'
LAHORE –– A man in a small Pakistani town killed his Danish sister-in-law because he suspected her of having a "bad character", police Tuesday said. Faisal Bashir shot dead 31-year-old Tahira Bibi, who was of Pakistani origin, local police official Mohammad Shahbaz Cheema told Agence France-Presse. "It's a case of honor killing as Faisal suspected his brother's wife had bad character," Cheema said. He added that police arrested Faisal, his two brothers and father after a complaint by the parents of Tahira, who settled in Kharian after marrying Mohammad Shehbaz 10 years ago. Her parents accused Shehbaz of asking his family to kill Tahira for not delivering him a baby boy. More than 4,000 people, mostly women, have been killed in conservative rural areas of Pakistan in recent years in the name of protecting family honor. 2. 17 Women Removed From Brussels Hotel For Being "Enslaved" By UAE Royals
Seventeen women have been taken by police from a luxury hotel in Brussels amid allegations that they had been enslaved by an Arab royal family. Police officers and officials from Belgium's Labour Audit Authority raided the Conrad Hotel, the city's most prestigious and the preferred choice of many national leaders during European Union summits, on Tuesday evening. Officials took away 17 people, from countries including the Philippines, Morocco, India, Egypt, Turkey, Iraq and Syria, amid allegations they had been held captive for eight months. Several members of the royal party have been questioned, police said yesterday. No charges have been brought but the investigation continues. "We are convinced that these 17 girls are victims of people trafficking," said an official. In a separate case in Gevena involving a senior figure from the UAE, Sheikh Fallah bin Zayed Al-Nahayan, the brother of the president has been found guilty and fined after using his belt to beat an American man who he thought had suggested he was gay. 3. Italy: Pakistani Girl 'Leaps From Balcony After Refusing Arranged Marriage'
A 15-year-old Pakistani girl was hospitalised after reportedly jumping from a balcony in the northern Italian town of Alessandria. She had refused an arranged marriage with a 16-year-old Pakistani. "My parents had already been in touch with his and told me I would be marrying him. I have nothing against him but I do not love him," La Stampa called the girl 'Piccola' and said medics had operated on fractures to her legs sustained after falling from the family's balcony onto a roof below. Piccola, who has grown up in Italy, is said to be well integrated here. Neighbours described Piccola and her family as "good, really polite people, all of them." She wears western-style clothes and has Italian school friends. The previous centre-left Italian government issued a 'charter of values' for immigrants after the tragic case of another young Pakistani girl, Hina Saleem who was murdered by male relatives in August 2006. Hina's father Mohammed, confessed to slitting 20-year-old Hina's throat for 'dishonouring the family' because she lived with an Italian man, wore jeans and worked in a pizzeria. 4. Malmo: Sports Club Sued For Rejecting Woman With Headscarf
A sports club in Malmo is being sued for 50,000 kroner in damages by the Ombudsman against Ethnic Discrimination, DO, for refusing access to a woman with a headscarf. The woman was prevented from doing aerobics and spinning at a gym visit two years ago. According to the club's rules at the time, headgear was banned for safety reasons, also because caps aren't allowed in international sport. DO claims that the club treated her unfairly because she was a religious Muslim and demands they pay damages for insult. The issue will be decided by the Malmo court. Newspaper Sydsvenskan writes that the club's rules now allow headgear in gym training. Contact the Center for Security Policy by email at shariah@centerforsecuritypolicy.org |
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AN NGO BLACK HOLE IN THE FOREIGN MINISTRY
Posted by Professor Gerald M. Steinberg, July 10, 2008. |
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For many years, the rhetoric of human rights has been one of the most effective weapons used against Israel. The strategy is simple –– Israel is attacked, responds, and is instantly condemned for "war crimes," "apartheid" and "collective punishment." As a result, one would have thought that the Israeli government would have long ago launched a counter-offensive to expose and defeat such campaigns, led by powerful non-governmental organizations and amplified in the UN and the press. But despite repeated defeats on this propaganda battlefield, the government, and the Foreign Ministry in particular, have failed to understand the danger or invest significantly in effective responses. For many years, the Foreign Ministry declared: "We only deal with governments, and not with non-government organizations (NGOs)." This may have been logical, but in practice, it meant that the intense bombardment from powerful organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and local NGOs such as B'Tselem, Adalah, Machsom Watch, and many more went unanswered. The officials of these groups used their resources to set the media agenda, invent (or distort) the terms of international law, falsify facts, and violate the universality of human rights. Israeli silence changed briefly following the notorious NGO Forum of the UN's 2001 Durban Conference on Racism. Four thousand officials from 2,000 NGOs declared Zionism to be apartheid, and adopted an anti-Israel strategy of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS), propelled by human rights rhetoric, and in parallel to the Palestinian campaign of mass terror. The racist goal of this ostensibly anti-racist gathering was to delegitimize Israel as the home of the Jewish people. In response, the Foreign Ministry finally set up a desk to monitor and respond to the NGO attack. This was a small and grossly inadequate step, but at least it was moving in the right direction. Now, as the UN and the anti-Israel NGO network prepare for the Durban Review Conference to be held in Geneva in April 2009, the Foreign Ministry has left the minimalist NGO desk empty. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has denounced the anti-Semitism of the UN's Durban process, and announced that Israel will not participate if this continues. But the Israeli diplomatic corps was surprised when the Preparatory Committee for this review conference accredited the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign. European members of the committee simply waved them through, and no Israeli official was aware of the process. The damage from this black hole in the Israeli diplomatic universe goes far beyond the Durban process. Some of the NGOs promoting the demonization campaigns get more then half their annual budgets from European governments, under the misleading headlines of "partnerships for peace" or projects claiming to promote democracy and Palestinian development. Additional funds come from the Ford Foundation and from often well-intentioned Jewish donors to the New Israeli Fund based in the US, Britain and Canada. In every discussion with the ambassadors, heads of state and foreign ministers, as well as NIF members, Israeli officials should make the case for a halt in this funding of demonization. Officials from the United States government, while generally less prone to repeat the mantras of human rights rhetoric and the false factual claims directed against Israel, are not immune. As NGO Monitor's detailed analysis show, the State Department's annual human rights reports often copy NGO claims without bothering to check their accuracy or the underlying bias. And recently, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice condemned Israel for barring candidates for a Fulbright fellowship from traveling from Gaza to Jerusalem for interviews. (Rice failed to mention the attack on the Fulbright convoy that killed three Americans 2003, after which video interviews were initiated.) The false charge was linked to press reports of the activities of a political NGO known as Gisha, which receives funds from the Dutch and Norwegian governments. Gisha published a typically one-sided report condemning Israeli responses to rocket attacks in Gaza, including the closure to prevent movement in and out, as "collective punishment." (Gisha's concern for students does not extend to Israelis in Ashkelon and Sapir Colleges.) MK Rabbi Michael Melchior, who heads the Knesset Education Committee and is a member of the governing coalition, gave Gisha a public platform, and he repeated the false claim of "collective punishment." Gisha translated his words in a press release, and they were quoted in The New York Times and other major newspapers. Then, without consulting Israel, the State Department announced that as a result, it was canceling the scholarships for Gazans. By the time the facts were checked and corrections were published, the considerable damage based on Gisha's human rights warfare was done. Had the Foreign Ministry been prepared to refute and repel this NGO attack, the harm could have been avoided. If Israel is to defeat this kind of attack, the government must first find the battlefield. Mr. Steinberg is executive director of NGO Monitor and chairman of the Political Studies Department at Bar Ilan University. This article appeared July 8, 2008 in the Jerusalem Post. |
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RISE LIKE A LION
Posted by Moshe Feiglin, July 10, 2008. |
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"Behold a people that rises up as a lioness, and as a lion he lifts himself up; he shall not lie down until he eats of the prey, and drinks the blood of the slain." (Numbers 23:24) How removed the passage from this week's Torah portion of Balak seems from our current reality. Every routine rocket on Sderot makes the blood of all the Jews –– wherever they are –– meaningless. Every bulldozer or truck in the country has turned into a potential weapon of death and destruction. Israel is desperate to be loved by the nations. But much to our chagrin, the nations only love dead Jews. So without a second thought, Israel's government summarily whisks every visiting foreign dignitary from the airport straight to the holocaust memorial museum, Yad Vashem. Maybe if we remind them just how dead we are, they will give us a bit of love? The Arabs, on the other hand, aren't looking for love. They demand respect and the fear of the nations. So much so that when the BBC aired the footage of the Jew shooting the Arab bulldozer terrorist in the head, the Arabs complained. It is degrading to show an Arab being eliminated like a flea. Naturally, the BBC apologized for allowing the reality of a Jew shooting an Arab to appear on the screen and removed the offensive footage. The police officer who was incapable of shooting the terrorist on the bulldozer is the epitome of the modern-day Samson; his long locks shorn and his eyes blinded. The pre-Expulsion brainwashing perpetrated by Israel's government against all of its armed forces has rendered our security forces incapable of fighting anyone but settlers. I have complete faith that Israel will rise up as a lion. But for that to happen, we need new leadership –– leadership that doesn't desperately seek the love of the nations and is not concerned with finding favor in the eyes of the 'enlightened' elite. We need the type of leadership displayed by the brave off-duty soldier who killed the terrorist. That is our only hope. There is only one movement today that works realistically toward the goal of Jewish leadership for Israel. That movement is Manhigut Yehudit. How much have you personally done to create leadership that will not allow Jewish blood to be spilled like water? The path has already been paved, the tools are ready and all that is left is for you to use them to save yourselves, your families and your country. The lull before the next elections is vitally important. Now is the time to help Manhigut Yehudit. Shabbat Shalom,
Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) is a group of people inside
the Likud party who want to see Israel adopt a more Jewish character.
Moshe Feiglin, its cofounder, has emphatically said he does not want a
theocracy, but he does want a State based on Jewish values. The
Manhigut Yehudit website address is http://www.manhigut.org.
To learn more about Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) and to read
their plan for Israel's future, visit www.jewishisrael.org.
Or contact Shmuel Sackett, International Director (516) 330-4922
(cell)
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MISUNDERSTANDING HOW TERRORISM WORKS; WHAT TO TELL OBAMA SUPPORTERS; ABOUT THAT CEASE AND FIRE
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 10, 2008. |
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MISUNDERSTANDING HOW TERRORISM WORKS Usually the P.A. neither contests lawsuits for damages from terrorism by its agents nor pays court-awarded damages. (The State Dept. tries to prevent the winners from collecting.) Now the P.A. is asking US courts to re-open settled cases. It doesn't want donors withholding gifts likely to be transferred to plaintiffs. The P.A. claims that in future, it would pay court-ordered awards. To show good faith, it paid a small one. It thinks it could beat some charges by contending that P.A. police who commit terrorism are rogue agents, not its responsibility. Disputing the P.A. request, some argue that the P.A. would not pay much, and is not arguing in good faith. I agree, but the opponents didn't back up their argument. It should not be difficult to show that the P.A. does not deal with the US or Israel in good faith. The P.A., holy warriors, believe that their ends justify their means, such as duplicity. I think that Americans tend to think of warfare and even terrorism in conventional terms. They misunderstand how terrorism works. A minor but immediate rebuttal to the P.A. request is that it has to take responsibility for the actions of its police, whom it arms, trains, and recruited from the ranks of terrorists. (The Arabs are ashamed to admit wrongdoing, and try to redefine terrorism so it is permissible.) Terrorists they were; terrorists they remain. Would a rational person expect otherwise? The State Dept. and Israel expect otherwise –– they are not rational. That is, their arguments are not rational. Their arguments are excuses for a policy of appeasement. A more important rebuttal is that the P.A. goal., aside from loot, is Islamic conquest. Jihad's primary weapon for smaller militaries is terrorism. The P.A. promotes terrorism in its schools, media, and mosques. Abbas honors terrorists, Abbas recruits terrorists, and Abbas seeks to get terrorists released by Israel. The P.A. compensates families of slain terrorists. It arms illegally. It violates its signed agreements to combat terrorism. The P.A. demands that Israel stop combating terrorists too, and that Israel dismantle checkpoints erected to block or detect terrorists. (That policy, which promotes terrorism, is US policy, too.) The P.A. devotes much effort to tracking down and liquidating Arabs who cooperate with Israel against terrorism. When Arafat was running the PLO and P.A. with Abbas, he secretly had P.A. police forces commit terrorism. All those facts prove that the P.A., whether under Abbas or Hamas, is a terrorist entity and protects terrorism. Therefore, it should be held accountable for terrorism committed by its agents and by residents not its agents but incited by its Islamist propaganda. A new factor is Iranian influence. Terrorists often have state sponsors. HOW DOES IRAN WORK? The big question of the day is whether to take out Iran's nuclear factories and how Iran would react to the attack. The discussion often hinges on whether Iran is rational. "Rational" is not defined. Hence, the discussion is not too rational. That is, it is not based on reality. What is reality, about Iran? Iran's government follows a certain ideology within Islam. Like the Muslim Arabs, Iran's leaders think differently from Westerners. They also have different values. Our own leaders have not advised us, nor even studied, what those values and ways of thinking are. That makes it difficult to understand what to expect from Iran and what we should do. Our government and Israel's seem to make up policy without regard to a realistic assessment of the enemy. If the US publicly identified the enemy, it would be much broader than the enemy we declared. By not identifying the enemy broadly, many people are left supposing that the enemy is only Afghanistan's Islamists and al-Qaeda. Iran's ideology holds survival and dominance of Islam paramount. Its leaders believe that death for the cause means eternal bliss. For the cause, it is willing to sacrifice millions of innocent people, infidels or Muslims. Therefore, if enemy retaliation leaves it relatively more powerful than the enemy, then Iran will attack. Compounding this death cult, the President of Iran believes that the "end of days" is imminent, and hints that he is the Shiite savior who would make himself manifest during a nuclear holocaust. If Iran were attacked, it would retaliate against a possible variety of what the newspapers call "targets." They are not targets. They include civilians and facilities in countries that Iran has no particular quarrel with. Anything to attract attention! That may not seem rational to us. We think one fights enemies. Islamic terrorists think about terrorizing and gaining notoriety. FAILURE TO DEFINE CONFUSES PEOPLE We are told that before Iran learns how to build a nuclear bomb, it could build a nuclear device. We are not told what a "nuclear device" is. How dangerous is it? Must we stop Iran before it gets a device or before it gets a bomb? It seems irresponsible of officials to give statements about an undefined nuclear "device" and for the media to fail to request definition and implications. WHAT TO TELL OBAMA SUPPORTERS Tell them you like the policy he advocates today, but are not sure you will like the one he advocates tomorrow. CEASEFIRE BROKEN Arab terrorists fired a mortar round into Israel (IMRA, 6/23). They fired three rockets into Israel. PM Olmert called it a "blatant violation" of the truce. He also said that continued arms smuggling is another violation (IMRA, 6/24). Will he void the truce? ABBAS' UNRELIABILITY Israel has let the P.A. keep some terrorists in its own prisons, rather than pursue the wanted terrorists itself. The P.A. wanted this, claiming it would be more dignified. The P.A. pledged to Israel that it would not release the prisoners early. Meanwhile, Abbas has been seeking reconciliation with Hamas. He just arranged a prisoner exchange with Hamas. Hamas released some Fatah men in Gaza, and Abbas released three Hamas men in Judea-Samaria, in violation of his pledge to Israel (IMRA, 6/24). WHO IS SARKOZY TO SUGGEST CEDING ISRAELI LAND! When one adds up the land that France conquered and absorbed, starting with Nice and Corsica, one finds a bigger proportion than the Israeli territory that French Pres. Sarkozy suggests Israel cede (Prof. Steven Plaut, 6/24). The difference is that Israel acquired no territory by imperialism, historically it all is Jewish, and in the case of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, had no other sovereign owners and Israel has the best right to claim it. DEFENSE MIN. BARAK'S RATIONALE FOR CEASE-FIRE He claims that Israel had to try all seemingly peaceful alternatives, so families whose sons get killed in the anticipated Israel offensive into Gaza would know that Israel tried to prevent their deaths. He wants to impress Egypt, likewise His rationalization is specious. He knows that Hamas intends to use the truce to build up its forces. When Israel's offensive opens, Hamas could inflict more casualties upon the sons and improved rockets, upon the families. Egypt helps arm Hamas. It would not be understanding, either. It's simply a foe. His real reason? To get credit from the appeasers in advance of the offensive. That reason is political. Problem is, the appeasers are intractable. Arabs make up a high proportion of his Labor Party (Caroline Glick, IMRA, 6/24). ISRAEL TALKS BIG, AGAIN Foreign Min. Livni told conferees in Germany that the truce requires Hamas not use the ceasefire to strengthen itself. However, the conditions of the truce do not require that. Neither did Israel take any measures that would enforce its requirements. This is Israel's usual way: make a defective agreement but describe a perfect one (IMRA, 6/24). IMRA always catches Israel in these appeasement-minded self-contradictions. The major media do not. The major media is dull or biased. The minor media needs greater circulation. (I do.) ISRAELI SECURITY CHIEF CATCHES ON The head of the Shin Bet warned the government that if it agrees to prisoner exchanges that take back Israelis dead or alive, the Israeli ones will be killed (IMRA, 6/24). IMRA and I had made a point of it. Why did it take the head of Israel's secret service agency so long to figure it out and the government remained silent? Is Olmert totally unintelligent about such things? He favors such deals, but how much favorable publicity would he get from giving corpses to parents, while hundreds of live terrorists return to resume their depredations and make more Israeli parents grieve? CAN THE TRUCE IN GAZA LAST? In a complicated and learned article, Denis MacEoin explained by reference tok Islamic history what the various Arabic terms for truce mean. He shows that unless Western negotiators understand that historical context, they will not realize what the Muslims intend from these arrangements just from the Western one-word translation of what the Muslims say the agreement is for. Muslims cannot make peace so long as their religion still deems other faiths and their adherents to be evil, inferior, ignorant, and deserving to be conquered. They cannot make peace with the Jews, now that they have adopted the Nazi antisemitic view, which is racist. Nor can they be expected to keep their agreements, when some of their judicial rulings consider, based on their interpretation of Muhammad' s behavior (but God help those Westerners who utter the same interpretation, which to Westerners, seems disgraceful), some of the types of truces to be temporary and Muslims entitled to end them when strong enough not to need them. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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OFFICIAL STATEMENT ON JOHN PILGER ALLEGATIONS
Posted by Simon McIlwaine, July 10, 2008. |
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In an article in the Guardian, John Pilger made exceptionally serious allegations about the treatment of a colleague, Mohammed Omer. Dear ICAN members, Here is the official response from the Israeli Government Press Office. In regard to recent media reports about Mohammed Omer al-Mughaier,security sources wish to state: [EDITOR'S COMMENT: Whenever there has been a disparity between the statement by an Arab or a pro-Palestinian journalist and the IDF, it turns out the IDF is telling the truth. Yet the Arab story is immediately believed. The Israelis usually accepted blame immediately before the facts were known. For example, Olmert apologized when an explosive blew up an Arab family having a picnic on the beach in Gaza. Turned out, the Arabs has strewn mines around and the daddy poked at one. And remember Al-Durah –– it took years before it was established that that was a deliberate hoax, promoted by an Arab photographer. In the Rachel Corrie story, we now know that she was standing in a ditch so she could not have been seen by the bulldozer driver. She had anticipated that the driver would stop when he saw her –– she knew that Israelis didn't drive over people –– but she ignored that she was at too low an angle to be seen. The eyewitness accounts that the bulldozer had driven over her –– twice –– were obvious nonsense because she would have been totally flattened and crushed, yet her buddy's "AFTER" pix shows her alive and in 3D condition. And remember in Qana the Hizbollah man ran around with a baby who'd been dead for some time. He put on an act like he was running for medical help to save the baby's life. And all the "reputable" newspapers like the New York Times ran the picture like his was a life-saving mission. Israelis are getting better at keeping their mouths shut till the facts are known. But they still aren't effective –– the story that Mohammed Omer had been harassed hit the anti-Israeli sites before the IDF fininshed its investigation. Who do I belief? Well, to date, the score has been: [ADDENDUM July 11, 2008: From Haaretz
Omer's allegation of being forced to strip naked appeared unusual. Israel's Government Press Office said in a statement that Omer was never subjected to physical or mental abuse. It said his account was full of contradictions and was without foundation." He [Omer] claims that when he came to, an Israeli scratched his face deeply under his eyes, then someone gouged his head, clawed at his eyes and tore his skin. An Israeli pressed his neck to the floor with a boot, he charges, saying he suffered beating, scratching and assaults before Israelis summoned an ambulance that took him to a hospital in Jericho. Dr. Diaa Husseini, who examined Omer at the hospital, said the journalist had no signs of physical injury. He said Omer had suffered a nervous breakdown brought on by emotional stress and was given stomach medication and released after two hours. Simon McIlwaine is with Anglican Friends of Israel (www.anglicanfriendsofisrael.com). Contact him at Simon.McIlwaine@ormerods.co.uk |
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KUWAITI COLUMNIST ON BRAINWASHING IN RELIGIOUS SUMMER CAMPS
Posted by Dave Nathan, July 10, 2008. |
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This was translated by MEMRI and is archived at
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
Special Dispatch Series –– No. 1980, July 10, 2008.
In an article in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Jarida, columnist Fatima Dashti denounced how religious summer camps subject children to religious brainwashing, including jihadist indoctrination, out of sight of parents and the authorities. Following are excerpts from the article, titled "Religious Summer Camps –– Brainwashing, Not Entertainment." [1] |
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The Camps Aim to "Protect the Youths from Western Culture" "'The Virtuous Youth Camp,' 'The Noble Aspiration Camp,' 'The Camp of the Fearless,' 'The Budding Youth Club,' 'The Young Generation Camp' –– all these and others are names of summer camps that are constantly and prominently advertised in our papers, presenting their programs and competing for [the readers' attention]. "In their margins, many [of the ads] state 'limited space or 'a summer after your own heart' –– proclamations aimed at encouraging the public to register. [Other ads] include assurances aimed at the devout religious [public], such as 'no mixing [of the genders].' For those too lazy to register their son or daughter, [some ads even] stress that 'a registration agent will come to your home.' "The organizers of these camps make [every] effort to bring as many children and youths as possible to their camps. [To this end], they stress that the [program] includes 'English lessons' or 'Koran lessons.' "But in practice, those who register are compelled [to participate] in intensive religion classes, taught using implausible traditions and stories that have no basis in history. Moreover, the only goal [of these lessons] is to frighten the youths or to 'protect them from Western culture.' This is evident from the testimony of a parent..." A Camper Reports: "The Teacher at Camp [Said] that Allah Will Build a House in Paradise for Anyone who Goes to Afghanistan and Fights Those Who Oppose Islam" "Bou 'Abd Al-Wahhab told us that last year he was busy and could not send his children to vacation abroad during the summer holidays. Therefore, he decided to register two of them for a summer camp advertised in one of the papers. The cost was negligible –– 10 dinars for a whole month. "[However,] Bou 'Abd Al-Wahhab was distressed when his nine-year-old son asked him [one day] about Afghanistan, and how far it was from Kuwait. When [the father] asked the reason for the questions, [the boy] replied: 'The teacher at camp said that Allah would build a house in Paradise for anyone who goes to Afghanistan and fights those who oppose Islam.' "Bou 'Abd Al-Wahhab['s story] is genuine. He found it difficult to believe that what he heard from his son was part of a lesson given at the camp. Despite the denials of the teacher –– who was an Arab –– he insisted on taking his sons out of camp and refrained from registering them for another camp or club of the same sort. "...Brainwashing means changing an individual's ideas, principles, beliefs and values... In his book The Mind Managers, [sociologist] Herbert I. Schiller states that 'the various methods of brainwashing work best on youths; while the brainwashing of adults is more difficult, because it takes more time. [Brainwashing] can be achieved through various proven methods, such as [arousing] psychological and physical sensations, [triggering] strong emotions, both painful and pleasurable; and using [various] techniques of stimulation, intimidation and mental persuasion. [Used] over a long period of time, [such techniques] cause most people to change their ideology, values and beliefs.'" Unless the Government Regains Control of the Camps, "We May One Day Wake Up To the Worst Possible Scenario" "What Schiller describes is exactly the goal of some of the religious summer camps... which operate behind closed doors, out of the sight of parents and the authorities. Al-Jarida tried to contact one of these camps by [calling] the number in its newspaper ad. When we asked about the nature of the camp, the [man] in charge was happy to tell us all about it. He said that the main goal of the camp was to make [good] use of the youngsters' free time and to keep them away from 'hazardous pitfalls.' He did not try to explain this term, but avoided the issue by inviting us to a [face-to-face meeting] to receive more information. "What is happening behind the scenes in these summer camps should be a warning sign to the authorities to regain the role that they have abandoned, either deliberately or through neglect, and that they have left to this extremist faction. They must do what the families wish, and bring the summer camps back under the [authority of the] Education Ministry schools. [Otherwise,] we may one day wake up to the worst possible scenario." [1] Al-Jarida (Kuwait), June 13, 2008. Contact Dave Nathan at DaveNathan@aol.com |
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JOHN HAGEE AND CUFI –– FRIEND OR FOE?
Posted by Gerald A. Honigman, July 9, 2008. |
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There's a debate going on among Jews these days about organizations like Pastor John Hagee's Christians United For Israel. Millennia of forced conversions, massacres, expulsions, autos-da-fes, dehumanization, demonization, and so forth –– frequently done in the name of the Christian Prince Of Peace –– have taken their toll. The road to Auschwitz itself was indeed paved with many 'religious' stones. A good friend of mine and myself were recently discussing Christian support for Jews and Israel. Neither of us are naive, and both of us are seasoned observers of the Jewish scene. I remember, as a small child, having Christians knocking on my door telling me that my family was going to Hell...in Philadelphia, no less –– with some 400,000 Jews in its environs. Imagine what it's like out yonder ways. As a doctoral student, I remember studying Christian theology as part of my interest in 1st century C.E. Judaism and the revolt against Rome. So I know the theological reasons for some Christians' support of Israel as well as the fate of Jews after the 2nd Coming in that theology. While doing those graduate studies, I also worked for years for an organization which monitored Christian proselytizing groups (among other things). So, when it comes to skeptics on this issue, I'm no greenhorn. Having said this, I'm convinced that groups like Pastor John Hagee's Christians United For Israel (CUFI) and Christian Action For Israel (CAFI) are among the best friends both Israel and Jews have right now...at a time when any of such friends are indeed a rarity. CAFI has helped me spread such articles as Thinking Jerusalem
around for years now
http://christianactionforisrael.org/thinking.html. And check out CUFI'
s Nights To Honor Israel and tell me you see something other than good
here...
FEW THINGS ARE EVER CLEAR CUT OR RISK FREE, and many Christians still embrace replacement theology. But, here in the States, tens of millions of these folks have more clout than a relative handful of Jews –– over half of whom don't really care about Israel anyway. I deal with the latter too. They're funding Obama, crying about the poor 'Palestinians' Israel allegedly abuses, asking Israel to make suicidal concessions, etc. and so forth. I worry about such tribal members more than Evangelicals right now –– especially since there are plenty of similar Hebrew morons in Israel too. I've worked with local pastors involved in John Hagee-type activities ('Peace For Israel' celebrations, interfaith pilgrimages to Israel, and so forth) for years now. I've seen tears in their eyes as they and their flocks embraced Jews and asked them for forgiveness for past Christian sins towards the Jewish People. Thousands of folks –– mostly Christians –– attended these local events. Not a Jewish dime was involved –– all Christian sponsored, raising huge amounts of $$$ for Israel at same time. But, again, as I stated, I'm not naive. I understand Christian theology quite well. They believe what they believe, we believe what we believe. But, as long as they're not forcing it up our derrieres (as was done far too often in the past) and focusing on what they're focusing on instead, I don't know what else one can ask for. These particular folks are not actively proselytizing us...indeed, I have openly discussed this with them. And they have rejected replacement theology and frequently speak of this rejection. Do some other Christian groups engage so –– including some associated with CUFI? I'm sure... But, again, that's more our problem than theirs. Would they like us all to be good Christians. Probably...And we'd like them all to see where they strayed as well. So what? On this particular issue, the real question is, what are Jews doing wrong if the beauty and messages of our Hebraic Prophets, Psalms, and Torah are being ignored or simply bypassed by our own people? Sorry, but if you want someone to blame, then start with our own religious leaders. If our Bible teaches "Love thy neighbor as thyself;" "What does the Lord require of thee but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy G_d;" "Offer Me not vain sacrifices if ye do not justice for the widow and the orphan;" etc. and so forth, and our kids still think they have to go elsewhere to find a G_d of love, then –– again –– whose fault is it? Not CUFI's...that's for sure. If one has never seen thousands of Christians at a rally for Israel, lobbying Congress, the President, etc., then please try to imagine this. I have...Such support is critical here in the States –– and thus for Israel too. We have too many Hebrews like James Baker's "Jew Boy," Dan Kurtzer (now Obama's Middle East point man), in the Government instead who, to get ahead, accept the oil-tainted State Department's view that to be pro-America one has to be hostile to Israel. I'll take my chances with John Hagee any day over such fellow tribal members. CUFI, CAFI, et al are fighting for a better here and now for Israel –– something such above Jew landsmen don't think twice about undermining. Are they concerned about the Hereafter too.? Sure! But the deal is that they don't get the latter without the former... So, along with my Christian friends (and not all Christians are our friends), I'll worry about the World To Come after this one is made safer for Israel and Jews in the here and now. Gerald A. Honigman, a Florida educator, has created and conducted counter-Arab propaganda programs for college youth, has lectured on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has publicly debated Arab spokesmen. His articles and op-eds have been published in both the print media and on websites. Contact him at honigman6@msn.com or go to his website: http://geraldahonigman.com/blog.php |
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FROM ISRAEL: MADDENING MENTALITY
Posted by Arlene Kushner, July 9, 2008. |
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There's a common Hebrew expression: yeeyeh b'seder. "It'll be OK." Routinely said by way of assurance in any one of a number of situations. Words of comfort are good, but often a situation will be "b'seder" only if proper action has been taken towards that end. And what is commonly seen is that the action is missing while the comfort is offered. I've lived in Israel for seven years now and proudly consider myself Israeli in many ways. But this thinking baffles me. We're talking here not just about things like whether someone will find a new apartment. We're talking about the major issues the nation deals with. I raise all of this now because we are facing one of the worst droughts in Israel's history and all sorts of emergency measures have just been announced. The baffling part of this, however, is that it was evident by the end of the winter –– say, by April –– that we had had insufficient rainfall over the winter rainy season, just as we had had insufficient last winter. And yet the emergency measures were not put into place until the situation had become dire. We might have saved considerable water between April and now, had action been taken sooner. ~~~~~~~~~~ This paradigm of thinking: a lack of planning –– a lack of ability to anticipate potential consequences and then move in a timely fashion to avert them –– can be found in matters concerning serious security and political issues that affect Israel deeply. What is this? In part –– I don't delude myself otherwise –– this comes with self-concerned politicians who don't look beyond their own noses. They're in it for the short term, and concerned with looking good now –– the future be damned. But in part, I am convinced, it comes with living perpetually in a state of stress and crisis, so that perhaps the only way that it becomes bearable to function is by closing some of it out and imagining that all will be well. Unfortunately, this national mentality puts us at serious and unnecessary risk. And over and over in the last couple of years, I've had the maddening feeling that the government should have seen this or that coming –– "duhh," as they say –– and yet seemed to be blind-sided instead. ~~~~~~~~~~ So, now, here's the sort of thing we are seeing –– and this is so typical: Senior Israeli defense officials have announced that Security Council resolution 1701 –– passed at the end of the Lebanon war two years ago –– is failing. It set in place what was supposed to be an enhanced UNIFIL (international) force in Lebanon that would work with the Lebanese army to stop Hezbollah from re-arming and re-deploying in the south of Lebanon. But guess what? It didn't work. Syria is re-arming Hezbollah at a rapid clip. Should anyone who has been staying abreast of happenings be surprised? I'm not surprised. Most of you are likely not surprised. So why do our officials announce this now as if it were news and not something that could have been anticipated from the beginning? Anyone who's followed the situation in southern Lebanon over the past several years knows that UNIFIL tilted towards the Arabs. And I here have written about the declared reluctance of UNIFIL troops to do patrols at night and the fact that eye witnesses near the Syrian border attested to the presence of trucks driving over that border at night carrying weapons and supplies. Is there anything I knew that Olmert and company were unaware of? Certainly not. But this resolution seemed to Olmert and Livni at the time a way out of the morass of the war. Livni, breathtakingly, referred to it as a diplomatic victory. No concern for consequences down the road. "Yeeyeh b'seder." Except that now these consequences have caught up with us. So Livni is reported to have said this week, "Hezbollah must be disarmed." Fat chance. And Olmert is convening the Security Cabinet to discuss the situation. ~~~~~~~~~~ In spite of the fact that more mortars were shot from Gaza, we're keeping crossings open. This is, I suspect, linked to threats Hamas has made that only if this is done will there be progress on Shalit negotiations. If I am correct –– I cannot prove it –– then we're seeing one more sign of caving and loss of deterrence power. ~~~~~~~~~~ Two Israeli Bedouin, who were arrested some weeks ago, have been indicted on charges of supplying information to al-Qaida that included routes for infiltrating the country and potential targets for terror attacks. They are both from the Bedouin city of Rahat, in the Negev, near Beersheva. ~~~~~~~~~~ Announcement has been made of the arrest in May of four Hamas affiliated members of a cell in Nablus that was plotting suicide attacks inside of Israel utilizing chemical bombs. Apparently major hi-rise buildings in Tel Aviv were planned targets for these attacks. The cell members were working with an instructional video prepared by a senior Hamas bomb maker who was killed by the IDF in 2002. ~~~~~~~~~~ A bill allowing the State to confiscate the property of terrorists has passed its preliminary reading in the Knesset. ~~~~~~~~~~ As expected, the appeal to the High Court to block the trade with Hezbollah has not been accepted by the court, which declined to be involved. ~~~~~~~~~~ Look for the Olmert-Talansky scandal to start becoming news again. Olmert has now admitted that he took envelopes of cash from Talansky, but says they contained only hundreds of dollars and were intended for expenses. Olmert is scheduled to be interrogated on Friday, and Talansky is due back here and is scheduled to be cross-examined by Olmert's lawyers next week. Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info |
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WITH OR WITHOUT NUKES, IRAN IS A MORTAL THREAT
Posted by Elan Journo, July 9, 2008. |
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Imagine that your neighborhood is overrun by a gang. These brutes are wielding crowbars, knives, and pistols in a frenzied spree of home break-ins and mugging and murder. Now suppose the police reveal that their grand strategy for dealing with this gang is to block them from getting submachine guns –– as if without such weapons, the gang would no longer bother people. Would you sleep soundly at night? Or would you be outraged? Of course you would, because this gang –– even without more powerful weapons –– is already a serious menace that must be stopped. Now, what would you say if this ridiculous what-if scenario resembled our actual response to the very real threat from Iran? Ever since taking U.S. embassy staff hostage in 1979, the Islamist regime in Teheran has led an international spree of bombings, hijackings, and other terrorist attacks on Americans and Westerners. Now politicians and diplomats, who put up with Iranian aggression for years, are loudly promising to block Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. On the campaign trail, for instance, the candidates debate how (i.e., with or without preconditions) they'd negotiate to dissuade Iran from pursuing a nuke –– on the idea that without such a weapon in Iranian hands, everything will be hunky-dory. But the uncomfortable truth is that if the mullahs got a nuke, Iran would not suddenly undergo a Jekyll-and-Hyde transformation from a friendly neighbor into a rabid enemy. Iran long ago proved itself a threat that must be stopped; a nuclear arsenal would only make it a far worse threat. For three decades the ayatollahs of Iran have been using proxies –– such as Hezbollah –– to carry out murderous attacks. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps helped create and train Hezbollah, which hijacked a TWA airliner and which kidnapped and tortured to death American citizens. Iran pulled the strings behind the 1983 bomb attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon and later the barracks of U.S. Marines, killing 241 Americans. Iran also orchestrated the 1996 car bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, where 19 U.S. servicemen died. There's more: The 9/11 Commission found that "senior al Qaeda operatives and trainers traveled to Iran to receive training in explosives," and that "8 to 10 of the 14 Saudi 'muscle' operatives traveled into or out of Iran between October 2000 and February 2001." During the Afghanistan war, Iran welcomed fleeing al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Today, according to the U.S. military, Iran is running training camps near Teheran for Iraqi insurgents, who return to Iraq to practice and train others in their bomb-making skills. There's also growing evidence that Iraqi insurgents get bomb technology from Iran. What's going on here? A rational assessment of Iran would have to recognize that the mullahs in Teheran have been conducting a proxy war against America. The inspiration for this war is Iran's jihadist goal of imposing Islamic totalitarianism globally. Iran is a leading sponsor of jihadists and the self-identified role model for exporting its Islamic revolution to other countries. It is the sworn enemy of the West. We should take seriously its call to bring "Death to America!" –– because it has already done so. But too many American diplomats and commentators refuse to judge Iran. Instead, they regard its past hostility as a string of disconnected crises, unrelated to Iran's ideological agenda. They avoid naming the nature of the regime and behave as if its acquisition of a nuclear weapon would be the decisive event. But that particular weapon –– despite its power –– cannot be the whole story, since we don't worry about other countries, such as France and Britain, having nukes. The rarely admitted difference is that the regime in Iran would eagerly press the launch button. This fear-the-weapon-not-the-killer mentality refuses to understand the threat posed by Iran right now. This view holds that only the concrete facts about Iran's arsenal have any practical significance, while its abstract, ideological goals and character can be disregarded with impunity. But whether Iran uses one nuke, or attacks with more conventional weapons, its victims are still dead. Our leaders' narrow concern with Iran's nuclear capability cannot make the regime's longstanding hostility to America go away. Americans should face the real character and conduct of the Iranian regime, before it is too late. Elan Journo is a resident fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute (http://www.aynrand.org/) in Irvine, Calif. The Institute promotes Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand –– author of "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead." Contact the writer at media@aynrand.org. |
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OLD WORLD GAME: ROBBING AND KILLING JEWS!
Posted by Steven Shamrak, July 9, 2008. |
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Every four years, the world waits with great anticipation for the start of the next Olympic Games. Meanwhile, another world game has been going on for almost two millennia. It all started with the traditional attitude of the Church toward Jews as the "killers of the Saviour" which provided a pretext for traditional anti-Semitism in Europe and America. However, the true reason for anti-Semitism has always been a financial one. Even the early Christians, in spite of persecution by the Romans, wanted to disassociate themselves from their Jewishness mainly in order to avoid paying the humiliating additional tax that the Romans imposed on Jews after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Later, any local king, baron, knight or abbot could kill, rob and displace Jews without fear of any retribution and with feeling of moral superiority promoted by the Church. Many royals borrowed heavily from the Jews in the past in order to maintain their lavish lifestyle or conduct wars. In return, existence under royal protection was offered to Jews, but often the debt was annulled and Jewish communities were forced to leave their homes. England expelled Jews long before the Inquisition. In the beginning of the 14th century, the king of France, Philippe Le Bel, cancelled his debt to the Jews. The expulsions of Jews all over Europe were often accompanied by confiscation of their properties as well. The Church found this enterprise quite profitable during the time of the Inquisition. At least in the middle ages Jews were allowed to leave and face danger in foreign lands! The Nazis and their willing 'dogs' in many countries were not satisfied by just making themselves rich with confiscated Jewish properties; they needed Jewish blood! During the 1930s the United State congress unleashed anti-Communist propaganda, which coincided with the governmental 'tolerance' toward the rise of anti-Semitism and racism. Fascist and racist organizations like the KKK flourished! Jews were branded as war-mongers for their anti-Fascist position and were scared of governmental and mob reprisal. The US denied shelter to Jewish refugees from Europe, even to those who had entry visas. At the same time, the trade with fascist Germany and Italy thrived and goods from American steel to IBM computers were sold to "defenders against Communism". Morality and decency were discarded and replaced by the corporate bottom line! Since the birth of the modern Zionist movement, a new game has been invented: "It is all about money (actually oil), stupid!" The British government promised support for the creation of the Jewish state in Palestine during the WW1. In 1922, almost immediately after the League of Nations gave control over the Palestinian mandate to Britain, in order to facilitate the creation of the Jewish state, 77% of Jewish land was ceded to Muslims in exchange for the control of oil in Kirkut. At the same time the Sinai Peninsula was given to Egypt in order to gain lucrative control of Suez Canal. Some Jews still have a warm feeling about US support for Jewish immigration from the Soviet Union. I am one who benefited from this policy. Was it an altruistic gesture made by the United States on behalf of Soviet Jewry or a well calculated and planned collusion by enemies? Couldn't it be that the 'outrageous' demands to allow Jews to be able to leave the USSR permitted the continuation of the charade of the Cold war? This war, which divided the world on spheres of economic and political influence and more importantly arm trade! The USSR had been supplying arms to world revolutionaries, to most Arab countries and India, and the US were in charge of Israel and the rest of the 'free world'. Every state of the world was paranoid and paralysed by fear. All of them were buying weapons! During this game, for almost 12 years, the Soviets 'graciously' allowed Jews to leave the Soviet Union with nothing! During the last few years, we can see Russia under president Putin has been re-establishing the same 'balance of power' with minimal (or even no) 'resistance' from the USA. As they say: "The game must go on!" Over two millennia Jews have become used to enraged religious fanatics; to enrich local rulers by borrowing from or robbing Jews; to divert public opinion and the anger of the mob from the failure of the ruling class or government. What is absolutely amazing is that all religious and political spectrums did it; Christians, Muslims, Capitalists, Fascists and godless Communists have been quite skilfully playing this game of robbing and killing Jews! Contrary to the common misconception that "we (Jews) can't do anything about it", it has only happened because throughout history, after the trauma Jews suffered during the destruction of the Temple and expulsion from Judea and Samaria, we have remained paralysed victims and, after hundreds of years of indoctrination, many Jews started to believe to the lies of our enemies that we are at fault. We did not organise our own defence even when we had sufficient numbers to crush our enemies because we always were made feel as strangers in the strangers' land and feared the reprisal of our enemies. After 60 years of the independence of the Jewish state, it is time to shake off this subservient mentality and not just ask but demand the due respect from others and proudly obtain full ownership of the land of our ancestors. Steven Shamrak was involved in the Moscow Zionist movement. He worked as a construction engineer at the Moscow Olympic Games project and as a computer consultant in Australia. For several years, he has been publishing an Internet editorial letter about the Arab-Israel conflict since August 2001 and has a website www.shamrak.com. Contact him at stevenshamrak@gmail.com |
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BAD ADVICE FOR MCCAIN
Posted by Moshe Dann, July 9, 2008. |
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This appeared today in Front Page Magazine
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Following his lecture at the Hebrew University's Truman Center, I asked Anthony Cordesman, national security expert, strategist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and advisor to Senator John McCain, what he thought of U.S. policy in the Middle East, particularly Sec of State Condalezza Rice's efforts to bring about an Israeli-Palestinian "peace agreement." "I don't think either side wants peace." Cordesman said. "Both sides are too weak." "Why do you say Israel 'doesn't want peace'? I asked. "Didn't Israel withdraw from the Gaza Strip and destroy the Jewish communities there and in the Shomron? And what about all the Israeli assistance to Palestinian institutions? Weapons. Money." "They (Israel) haven't done enough to back up Abbas," he said curtly. "And the settlements." "The settlements?" "They're an obstacle to peace. But I don't want to get into that." "But that assumes the 'two-state solution' is still relevant," I added. "The Palestinians have rejected this (plan), and engage in incitement and terrorism." There was no response. Cordesman reflects a mindset that has misguided American foreign policy with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades: the belief that this is a territorial dispute and that steps toward the creation of an independent Palestinian state between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River will bring peace. The basis of the Oslo agreements, various American initiatives and interventions and the "Road Map" –– all of which stipulated that Palestinian terrorism and incitement was a prerequisite –– these conditions were totally ignored. Strangely, Cordesman's position has not changed, despite the reality. His book (with Jennifer Moravitz) The Israeli-Palestinian War: Escalation to Nowhere, (2005) charges Israel with indiscriminately killing innocent Palestinians. At times, his reports (based on unconfirmed secondary sources) sound as if they were written by anti-Israel NGOs. In an article in the same year he advocated "rolling back Israel occupation...removing marginal settlements (such as Maale Adumim, Ariel and several Jerusalem neighborhoods) and excessive security zones." He opposed "expanding security zones around Jerusalem...settlements...and security roads." "There is no real hope for a pragmatic and meaningful peace settlement as long as Israel only looks towards security, and lacks grand strategic vision." In the July 18, 2006, Financial Times he wrote: It never made sense for Israel to expect any gratitude for leaving Gaza. It clearly withdrew because it was to Israel's overwhelming advantage to do so. The settlers in Gaza were a drain on the national budget and the Israeli Defence Force.This reasoning was utter nonsense, as quickly became obvious. He continues: Israel made things worse by not having a post-withdrawal plan to give economic options and hope to the people it left behind in Gaza. Its small withdrawals from settlements in Gaza and the most exposed areas of the West Bank did not conceal the steady buildup of other settlements, and the growth of the Israel security barrier far to the east of the 1967 boundary. Faulting Israel for not giving up more territory and destroying more settlements, –– not terrorism –– turns the Palestinians, once again into victims. His solution: to halt unilateral (Israeli) expansion into the West Bank and aid moderate Palestinian voices such as Mr Abbas; and on the Palestinians, to understand that aid and support are tied to either Hamas changing or going. While understanding that Abbas' administration, like that of Arafat is hopelessly corrupt and inefficient, he ignores its direct role in supporting terrorism and promoting incitement. That someone like Cordesman, a serious behind-the-scenes policy-maker, hangs on to the 'two-state' illusion and contradictions uniquely in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is disturbing. In lock-step, Cordesman's views seem virtually identical with those of Barack Obama's advisors. "Settlements are obstacles to peace," and "Israeli occupation of Palestinian land" are code words for Israel's destruction, no matter who uses them. That leaves voters wondering if Sen. McCain has the courage and wisdom to reject this policy, or follow a path that has led to failure and more terrorism. "Time will tell," but by then it may be too late. Contact Moshe Dann at moshedan@netvision.net.il |
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OBAMA AND JFK –– TWINS OR OPPOSITES?
Posted by Sultan Knish, July 9, 2008. |
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What does it take to be President? Apparently if you believe Obama supporters, all it takes is two terms in the Illinois State Senate and an aborted term in the US Senate where you hardly bother to show up and vote since right after you get to D.C. you're already running for the big chair in the White House. Obama's supporters like to compare him to JFK. I'm not sure why Obama supporters think that comparing their candidate to the man responsible for the Bay of Pigs, the Vietnam War and who backed the Baath Party in Iraq that would eventually put Saddam in power is such a selling point. But there you have it. Still let's look at JFK's qualifications and Obama's. In his 20's JFK was commanding a PT boat in the Pacific. In his 20's, by his own admission, Obama was busy doing drugs in New York and creating a phony story of being "oppressed by the man" before moving to Chicago to learn at the feet of Reverend Jeremiah "God Damn America" Wright. By the time JFK ran for President in 1960 he had served three terms in Congress and was on his second term in the US Senate. Obama officially announced his candidacy for President two years after he was sworn in and his unofficial candidacy goes back much earlier than that. JFK had written a bestselling book but it was a book that had started out as his thesis and was written about the follies of appeasement. Obama by contrast penned a whiny memoir filled with hate for white people and himself. Where JFK's book served to establish his credentials on national policy, Obama's book was meant to make us feel sorry for him. The irony is that Obama is running on his biography. The problem is he doesn't have one. What he has is an elaborately fictionalized narrative that turns his own life into a vehicle for self-promotion with himself in the starring role. Obama's biography is a hollow facade just as he is.
Obama substitutes personal drama for personal achievement and promises to cater to our emotional neediness if we just cater to his. Obama's entire candidacy is marketed as a very upbeat pity party in which we feel sorry for him, he feels sorry for us and we feel sorry for him some more and elect him to be our President. Devoid of any trace of statesmanship it's politics at the High School level. "We are the ones we have been waiting for," he proclaims, always eager to shift the burden of leadership and confuse the fact that it is his personal ambition we're supposed to fulfill not our own. Yet at the center of everything is Obama's ego. He has thrown every single one of his mentors under the train when they got in his way, from Alice Palmer, the woman who gave him his start in politics before he stabbed her in the back and took her seat to the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who legitimized an ambitious half white and quarter black wannabe community organizer from Hawaii in the African-American Chicago district that began his rise to power. Obama's pleasant demeanor conceals his ruthless lack of principles, all in the service of his own self-esteem.
Where JFK was a flawed leader, Obama isn't a leader at all. Where JFK had a record, Obama barely shows up. Where JFK was concerned with policy, Obama is concerned with self-esteem.
Like any charismatic figure eager to create a cult of personality around himself, Obama has found success by convincing his followers that their fate and their future depends on him.
He has proclaimed himself as the Messiah of Hope and Change without
the experience or the ability to deliver any of it. But the one thing
he has learned in the course of his brief political life is that a
lack of substance can be compensated for with another coat of polish.
But when the heat is turned up, Obama begins to run at the edges and
melts.
This is from today's Sultan Knish website:
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SHARIA SHOWDOWN ON WALL STREET
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 9, 2008. |
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This was written by Paul Sperry. It appeared today in Front
Page Magazine
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Sheik Muhammad Taqi Usmani has been a rock star of the Islamic finance world, sitting on the sharia supervisory boards of no fewer than a dozen Islamic banks and financial institutions worldwide. For nearly a decade, the mufti also has advised the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index, which licenses more than 25 stock funds that comply with Islamic laws forbidding certain Western-style investments. The venerable Dow Jones & Co. first retained him in 1999. Usmani's name is now missing from the Dow Jones website, where it had previously been prominently displayed. His bio and photo suddenly vanished without explanation. Meanwhile, all references to Dow Jones disappeared from the website of the North American Islamic Trust, or NAIT, which runs a sharia-compliant mutual fund out of Burr Ridge, Ill. For years the fund had been called the Dow Jones Islamic Fund. Dow had lent NAIT its good name under a licensing agreement. But recently the trust felt compelled to rename its lead portfolio the "Iman Fund," and amend several pages in its prospectus to remove all references to Dow Jones, as well as Usmani. Again, no explanation was offered. What's behind the mystery? It's all been very hush-hush, but according to a high-level document I've obtained, along with interviews with company insiders, Dow Jones recently terminated NAIT's license and dumped Usmani to protect its brand. The company, now under new management, no longer wants to be associated with either of them, especially after they received a spate of bad publicity this year. Articles published on this webzine –– as well as in the National Review, Investor's Business Daily and the Washington Times, among other media –– have called attention to Usmani's fatwahs demanding that Muslims living in the West conduct or support violent jihad against infidels at every opportunity. "Killing is to continue until the unbelievers pay jizyah (subjugation tax) after they are humbled or overpowered," the radical Pakistani cleric wrote in his book, "Islam and Modernism," which in 2006 was translated from his native Urdu into English. Usmani advocates spreading sharia law in America and the West –– the barbaric legal code that not only justifies holy war, but the stonings, floggings, amputations and even beheadings for petty crimes seen in Muslim nations such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Sudan. The aim of Muslims, he wrote, is to "take out people from the rule of people and put them under the rule of Allah." More, Usmani has run a Pakistani madrassa that's trained thousands of Taliban, according to the Washington-based Center for Security Policy. Usmani is no longer employed by Dow Jones, which says it only recently learned of such "allegations." NAIT, which until a few months ago managed a $40 million Dow Jones portfolio, also has come under fire. Allegedly, the trust is a Saudi-tied front for the pro-jihad Muslim Brotherhood that holds title to some of the most radical mosques in America. The Justice Department last year named NAIT an unindicted co-conspirator in a terror money-laundering scheme to funnel more than $12 million to Hamas suicide bombers and their families under the guise of charity. Dow has since revoked NAIT's license. The moves against Usmani and NAIT were made quietly, without any media announcements, by Dow Jones' front office in South Brunswick, N.J. After NAIT's links to terrorism were brought to its attention by the media, "Dow Jones terminated its license agreement with the NAIT subsidiary and required it to remove all reference to Dow Jones from its website and fund-related offering materials," Dow Jones Indexes President Michael Petronella confirmed, following the mysterious disappearance of such references from NAIT's website. Explaining Usmani's departure, he cited "certain allegations related to Mr. Usmani who was, at the time, a member of the DJIM Index Sharia Advisory Board." "Mr. Usmani has since resigned from our board," he asserted. Petronella explained the changes in a May 29 letter to officials with the Center for Security Policy, a leading watchdog against the spread of Islamofascism in the West. CSP president Frank Gaffney and the group's top lawyer had fired off a legal memo to Dow charging it with "covering up" material facts from the investing public about the sharia-compliant funds it licenses –– namely, that sharia advisers like Usmani "embrace the law of violent jihad that seeks America's destruction." Petronella responded that Dow Jones had already taken corrective action based on earlier media reports. Indeed, sharia-compliant funds offer little transparency. They disclose neither the radical ties of the scholars who are advising and running them, nor the subversive tenets that dictate the structuring of the investments. The prospectuses merely state the investments are "ethical" or "socially acceptable," when in fact they're grounded in a religious doctrine that threatens America and the West. Lost in Wall Street's scramble to grab management and other fees from these Islamic-compliant funds, which are growing fast thanks to Arab petrodollars, is that the funds must "purify" their returns by transferring at least 3% into Islamic charities, many of which funnel funds to terrorists. So, the American financial community may unwittingly be helping our sworn enemy. Dow Jones' dumping of one of its top sharia advisers and licensees is a welcome setback to the burgeoning sharia-finance industry in America, which forbids investments in key businesses that drive our economy, including financial services, entertainment and aerospace-defense, as well as alcohol, tobacco and pork-related products. It's also a serious blow to the credibility of one of the world's leading sharia-finance authorities, as well as that of America's largest mosque landlord. But the case merely points up the unknown risks associated with Islamic finance. What other sharia advisers are closet jihadists lusting after the blood of infidels? What other Islamic investment funds may be steering money to terrorists with the imprimatur of one of Wall Street's most respected institutions? Paul Sperry is a Hoover Institution media fellow and author of Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington. He can be conacted at Sperry@SperryFiles.com. Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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AMERICAN CHILDREN INDOCTRINATED AGAINST THEIR WILL IN TALIBAN-BACKED MADRASSA IN PAKISTAN
Posted by Karachi Kids, July 9, 2008. |
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Up to 80 Americans Instructed by Taliban "Karachi Kids" Documentary Highlights Their Plight |
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(Atlanta, GA –– July 9, 2008) –– A Muslim father, a taxi driver in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States on a green card, flew his American born-boys against their will to Saudi Arabia, and then to the a radical, Taliban-backed Jamia Binoria madrassa in Karachi, Pakistan with instructions to the head master for his sons to memorize the entire Koran before returning to America. This is their story.
Children in the documentary film "The Karachi Kids" describe beatings and human rights violations for those who reject the radical teachings of their Taliban masters. Children from California and Georgia are interviewed in the film from inside the madrassa and discuss coming back to the United States to spread extremism within our borders. The trailer of the documentary can be seen at www.KarachiKids.com. Film producer Imran Raza, a Southern California native, discovered the children and captures on film the hard-core Islamic indoctrination and radical transformation of these kids. "American children are being indoctrinated by a radical and violent Islamic sect," Raza said. "Kids as young as five live in an Islamic version of the walled compound of religious radicals with little contact with their parents or any information not allowed inside the walls," Raza said. "I hope release of 'The Karachi Kids' will help end the abuse and sever the pipeline between Jihadists who want war on the values of freedom and American children who are being trained to spread radicalism back home.". There are now, according to the founder of the madrassa, between 70 and 80 other American children at the Jamia Binoria madrassa –– and more than 100 Americans have already graduated from this diet of 24/7 Koran. Raza said "This is a not only personal tragedy for the children but a new and dangerous national security question." In a chilling interview for the documentary, the headmaster of the madrassa –– who visits the United States to personally recruit American children during Ramadan –– tells Raza: "We work on altering the mindset of the students we are training, so when they return to their home countries, their mindset is such that they will work on altering the minds of others. That is why I'm appealing to you that at least 1000 to 2000 boys come to us so we can train them. Imran Raza is available to discuss the discovery of the children
and his efforts to return them to the United States. Please call (404)
524-2244 or email News@KarachiKids.com to arrange an interview or
obtain a preview copy of the documentary. The trailer of the film can
be found at www.KarachiKids.com.
Contact Karachi Kids at news@karachikids.com
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WHEN COURTS RUN AMOK
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, July 9, 2008. |
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Israeli Courts from the Supreme Court down to local Municipal Courts have in the main become political. That means they do not dispense justice in an equal way but rather through a political lens. The average citizen thinks that a Judge must dismiss personal prejudice and only deal with the facts. If he or she has a personal vested interest in the outcome of a case they are supposed to be honor bound to rescue themselves. No doubt, there are some Israeli Judges who are honest, ethical and recognize any personal bias of their own. But, in Israel over time the Israeli Court system has become wired to the politics of the government, particularly to the Left Liberal ideology. One of the leading figures in molding the Superior and Lower Courts in their thinking was Aharon Barak, former Chief Justice. In brief, the stream of rulings reflect a belief that the Jews encroached on Arab land, resulting in decisions which bent over backwards toward the Arabs. Jews who dared to defend themselves (both civilians and soldiers) came to know that Israeli judges would tilt toward the Muslim Arabs' claims and send the Jews to prison. This attitude crept into the Police, reinforced both by the Judges and whatever Leftist Government was in power. A great deal of American law guided by the U.S. Constitution came from Torah Law. Of course, no system is perfect and the tendency of the Courts can be political activism. That means that they do not judge from exiting law but they institute laws of their own. I recall Judge Bork commenting on the Israeli Supreme Court as one of the most activist court systems in the world. It wasn't always like that but, once Aharon Barak gained power as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the purpose of dispensing objective Justice faded and the Court became political activists. In brief, "they knew what was the best for the nation". They were not subject to any control, particularly since they could appoint all their successor judges. They became equivalent to a separate ruling body that could not be fired nor voted out of office no matter how egregious their rulings. They, in collusion with the Police and General Security Services could and did sentence Jews to prison for defending themselves and their loved ones from assaults by Arab Muslims. The rulings were seldom based upon evidence or mitigating circumstances but, rather political lessons to the Jewish people. Lessons or messages to the public are not Justice but a form of coercion to cower the people into submission. That is not the Jewish way but the Muslim way. Islam means "submission". History is replete with such regimes, using crafted laws and court systems to control any of their people who object to government policy. In the region of the Middle East Islamic Courts impose religion's driven edicts on anyone who is disobedient to Islam, according to the Muslim judges. Thus heads, hands, feet are cut off. We all recall how the once honored Courts of Germany were co-opted by Adolph Hitler and still, using a modified form of law became a life-and-death threat to humanity. It was a murderous court with a legal cover of twisted laws. Some of the Judges were hung at the discretion of the Nuremberg Tribunal. Stalin's courts were even worse as they dispensed swift "(in)-justice" often 'in camera' (closed courts). Some were immediately executed; some political dissidents were sent to insane asylums and pumped full of drugs while others were imprisoned in the Gulag to freeze or starve. In the Israeli system anyone defying government doctrine can be arrested, detained without trial, tried numerous times in court to break their spirit and bankrupt their families, and finally, given draconian sentences as an "example" to not defy Leftist government policy. If there is ever to be compensatory judgement for this political Judiciary, each Judge who has ruled on the basis of political expediency should be made to serve equal or double the time for which they sentenced Jews. There should be no time limit for their activism. Each Judge should be tracked and, whether still in office or retired, they should notified that a record is being kept of his or her rulings and they should be prepared to defend themselves in a future Peoples' Court. An 'ad hoc' Peoples' Court should now be assembled to accumulate evidence on the Judiciary, the Police or the Secret Services. This would include government officials from the PM on down to whoever influenced policy to harass and/or jail citizens who legally protected government policy. This would include but, not limited to abandonment of the Land, release of Terrorists, imprisoning Jews for defending themselves, their families, homes and property. There is sufficient precedent for criminal prosecution for government institutions who committed crimes against humanity. Nuremberg was merely one example. We observed the Justice meted out to Saddam Hussein and his two sons, Uday and Qusai. No doubt, one day Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe will be judged and likely hanged. The same for Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. At sometime I have, no doubt, that Ehud Olmert, his Kadima Party cohorts, Aharon Barak and others of the Supreme Court will be made to face a Peoples' Court. Granted it many not help those who will die and be injured but, as oft said: "The wheels of justice, grind slowly." I have sent to you a substantive example of the Courts collusion on several cases as described by Nadia and David Matar.[See below.] Don't let Judges escape Justice –– no matter how long it takes. There is little doubt that when a Peoples' Court is convened, such miscreants who used their powers to send Jews to prison for defending themselves, their Land and homes will receive sentences equal to and more than the sentences they passed on Jews. P.S. Experts in International Law could comment on the Israeli Courts and allow their peers in every nation to judge their shame. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). Contact him at gwinston@gwinston.interaccess.com |
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SOME INTERESTING VIDEOS
Posted by Different Sources, July 9, 2008. |
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Up against the anti-Israel, anti-semitic machine propelled by the
Arab world, it has been hard to fight back and give Israel the image
she deserves. As a gift to Israel for her 60th birthday, David Suissa
(you can read his op-eds in the LA Jewish Journal) has put his
advertising talent and his passion for Israel together in a new
organization called ads4israel.com. Take a minute to check out the ads
he created –– they are brilliant!
Saudi billionaire Khalid Bin Mafhouz exploited the British legal system and sued Rachel Ehrenfeld for libel when she accused him of funding terrorism. In The Libel Tourist Rachel Ehrenfeld speaks about her shocking experience of modern-day book burning by British courts, and the First Amendment lawsuit she filed against Mahfouz. Her law suit was the impetus for "Rachel's Law". In March 31, 2008, the New York State Legislature unanimously passed the Libel Terrorism Protection Act To Protect American journalists and authors from overseas defamation lawsuits. With the new law on her side, Dr. Ehrenfeld is heading back to court to win her lawsuit against bin Mahfouz. Nothing in her book about Saudi funding of terrorism was ever disproved. The new updated video The Libel Tourist has been posted. You can see it here:
From the Sderot Media Center News Site:
Despite politicians coming around for photo ops, life is still hell
for Sderot residents who are shelled with Kassam missiles from Gaza.
Hello Friends,
Below Is The Link To The Website Of A Video About "Gog-Umagog"
Which Is Produced By "Torah Ohr". I Recommend It And To Spread It
Around To Others. They Can Send Also Mail You The Dvd At Home. It's
Powerful, Relevant To Today's World Events And Of The Very Near
Future As Related By Our Ancient, Holy Prophets And The Torah.
Interested To Know What Is To Come? Enjoy......
Hamas TV is broadcasting a video clip showing Hamas training
exercises that include the simulated kidnapping of an Israeli soldier.
The segment includes an Israeli tank exploding, followed by images of
a Hamas fighter carrying and running with a captured Israeli soldier.
Once a Synagogue, Now a Terror Nest! Exclusive Footage from Hamas
terror trainings in the ruins of Atzmona Synagogue
In a "60 Minutes" video clip an Iraqi tells of the ongoing wide-scale persecution, including murder of Christians. He said, "They were like telling us that Christians were against Islam, that we're infidels, that women shouldn't drive and a woman that doesn't wear a scarf would get her head cut off," Since 60 Minutes first reported this story, the purge has continued.
In February, gunman ambushed, kidnapped and eventually murdered Iraqi
Archbishop Paul Faraj Rahho. Canon Andrew White is still ministering
to what's left of his congregation
Obama: "There has been a shift in Islam that I believe is connected to the failures of governments and the failures of the West to work with many of these countries" "CNN exclusive: Obama on foreign policy" –– Fareed Zakaria
interviews Barack Obama for CNN, July 13: Israel's Foreign Ministry released a video to the Arab world, in Arabic, blasting Samir Kuntar, Hizbullah, and the Arab listeners who continue to support terrorism. The video, which can be viewed on YouTube, is part of an international
media campaign targeting the Arabic-speaking world. The video explains
who "the real Samir Kuntar" and his supporters are: "Hizbullah is a
terrorist organization that sees a cold-blooded child murderer as
hero," reveals the narrator of the video, which aims to establish an
Israeli moral victory over Hizbullah.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SlXoIVLJWCY [*] Please watch this five minutes video prepared by an Israeli woman living in Samaria. You may learn a few new things about the history and significance
of this land. Although the video is not touching on defense, I think
you will clearly see how crucial it is for Israel, particularly in
view of recent events in Lebanon and Gaza. Handing over Judea &
Samaria (aka the West Bank) means the certain demise of Israel!
Perfectly "normal" Arabs teach perfectly normal Arab children to
murder Jews. The teachers are the religious leaders, the political
leaders, the clan leaders, the parents of the children and older
children. These are the new assassins. The religion of "Peace" in
action!
From Fred Reisenberg
This young man was in Israel not long ago and did a panoramic
drawing of Rome in three days. This is one of the most amazing things
you will ever see.
From Mark Samberg
This is being sent to several groups. For those of you that don't
"get it", I am a Jew and I am NOT an ape or a pig. I am a freaking
human being, just like the rest of you. You have no idea how hurtful
this crap is. Whats more hurtful is that this crap is being taught to
children who will hate Jews immediately. Using the term Zionist is
just political correctness bull dung.
This is what the Arabs are teaching toddlers
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WHOSE VICTORY IS GAZA TRUCE?; NY TIMES CONFUSES PACTS WITH PEACE; TERRORIST ATTACK NEAR DISMANTLED CHECKPOINTS
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 9, 2008. |
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PM OLMERT ON NEGOTIATIONS PM Olmert said that Israel and Syria are not far apart on negotiations, because each side knows what the other wants. [That is a non-sequitur. Knowing the distance between two sides doesn't shorten it. Islamists don't compromise. When Israel relents, as it usually does, the Arabs tend to demand still more.] He thinks it would suffice for the two sides to sit in the same room and work things out. [How can Israel, which wants security and peace, work anything out with Syria, that wants to conquer Israel, using diplomacy to erase Israel's secure border?] Olmert noted that the border with Syria has been quiet for decades. [Yes, because it is secure, in Israel's hands. But Syria has threatened nevertheless to heat up that border with raids and subversion. Probably Syria is emboldened by Olmert's having allowed its enemies to accumulate tens of thousands of missiles that deter Israel, and Olmert seems incapable to destroying foreign enemies.] Olmert states that once they make peace, i.e., sign a peace treaty, Israel would gain security. How naïve! To the Muslims, a treaty is just a piece of paper (IMRA, 6/21). Israel has a treaty with Egypt, but Egypt violates it, foments terrorism against Israel, and has been building up a military comparable with Israel's in some respects and whose doctrine is to invade through the Sinai. Some security! ISRAEL REMOVED 100 CHECKPOINTS IMRA calls that "Operation Open Barn Door." (IMRA, 6/21.) That opens the path to terrorism. That is a macabre accomplishment for Sec. Rice. WHOSE VICTORY IS GAZA TRUCE'S? Hamas points out that it rejected Israel's demands to stop smuggling arms in and to free its Israeli captive. It exults that in 10 days, the siege of Gaza will be lifted. Its head concluded that Israel's siege failed to isolate the Hamas regime (IMRA, 6/21). Obviously Hamas came out on top of Israel, over the truce. The people of Israel will find that out, when Hamas ends the truce with a withering attack on Israel and from a strong defensive position. Will the people of Israel have time to string Olmert up before he flees the country he set up to be conquered? NY TIMES STILL CONFUSES PACTS WITH PEACE "Seen from far away, last week must have offered some hope that the region was finally at, or near, a turning point: the truce with Hamas...started on Thursday; other Palestinian-Israeli talks were taking place on numerous levels that both sides said were opening long-closed issues; there were also Turkish-mediated Israeli negotiations with Syria, and a new offer to yield territory to Lebanon along with a call for direct talks between Jerusalem and Beirut." Most Israelis, however, consider the truce with Hamas a victory for it and a failure to recover Hamas' captive Israeli, and improper for Syria to get the Golan, while Iran continues developing nuclear weapons. Israelis consider these negotiations appeasement. Tony Blair says the next task is to rebuild the credibility of the peace process (Ethan Bronner, Week in Review, 6/22, p.1). Omitted is the Israeli belief that PM Olmert is offering to give away Jewish territory right and left, in order to keep himself in the graces of the leftist Attorney-General, who otherwise could indict him for several corruption scandals. There never was a genuine peace process. The Arabs weren't interested in peace. They wanted what they could get from Israel on the way to conquering it. The process was a scam, encouraged by the State Dept. and the Times. Therefore, there is no hope "seen from far away." The Times deliberately is conflating prospective pacts with peace. Mr. Blair is mistaken about rebuilding the credibility of a peace process that never existed. The task is to defeat radical Islam and to reform Islam sufficiently that it can want peace with infidels. CARTOONS OF THE WEEK Of the three political cartoons in the News of the Week section, one finally did make fun of Obama –– over his abandoning the public financing system. Another mocked the truce with Hamas –– one terrorist says they're out of rockets, and so the other calls "Ceasefire!" The third points out that allowing more oil to be drilled would not have an effect on the immediate costs of gasoline (NY Times, 6/22). I think those cartoons all are appropriate. However, the one about Obama missed the point, that he spent years as champion of public campaign financing. His abandonment of it upon finding he can raise more privately demonstrates his hypocrisy. Then he is not the candidate of "change," just a sneakier politician. The cartoon on rockets contradicts the article finding hope for peace in the lull. The article should have admitted that the purpose of the lull is for Hamas to prepare for war without interference and for Olmert to pretend to be doing something for Israel. The lull means worse war! WHAT IS CONDITION OF IRAQ'S OIL INDUSTRY? The NY Times editorialized against the suspicious introduction of no-bid contracts that Iraq is signing with US oil companies to refurbish the industry there. Are the contracts corrupt? Why does Iraq's oil industry need rehabilitation? "Years of UN sanctions and war" (Sunday Opinion, 6/22). Not war, but Islamist sabotage. Sanctions didn't harm the industry as much as Saddam's spending on pals and palaces. The editorial fails to mention that Saddam had let the industry run down even before sanctions. HAMAS: MADE IN TAIWAN Hamas has acquired phones made in Taiwan that furnish secure communications. Hamas is being transformed into a regular army, with far greater offensive and defensive capability than when the IDF could easily have demolished it. When Hamas chooses to attack, Israelis will pay with their lives for Olmert's delay of that demolition (IMRA, 6/22). NOT CONSIDERED IN PRISONER EXCHANGE Olmert was briefed on whether to declare Hizbullah's Israeli prisoners as killed in action. Neither he nor the media reporting the meeting mentioned what should be obvious. It should be obvious that if Israel exchanges live Arabs for dead Israelis, thereafter, the Arabs would be sure to murder captured Israelis before releasing them (IMRA, 6/22). IMRA did think of it. OLMERT WANTS JEWISH VALUES IN DIASPORA PM Olmert reported that most Jews now live in Israel. That reduces the potential Jewish immigration. It also changes the relationship between foreign and domestic Jews. He wants to encourage foreign Jews to study Hebrew, as a common language, and to learn Jewish values (IMRA, 6/22). I agree. But Israelis should learn Jewish values, too. At least, they ought to learn to value the Jewish homeland and to respect and protect the Jewish religion and heritage. Unfortunately, Olmert wants to give away the core of the Jewish homeland and his secret police frame religious and nationalist Jews to do so and favor the Arabs against them. Like PM Sharon, he lets the Arabs destroy Jewish religious artifacts and sites. His education minister, as leftists have done for years, reduces Jewish content and values in the public schools. The public schools, however, are losing students rapidly to the religious ones. S. KOREA DEVELOPING IRAN OIL INDUSTRY The two countries just signed a deal (IMRA, 6/22). The US once saved S. Korea, but now Korea seeks economic advantage building up our main enemy. As they say, countries don't have allies, they have interests. As I say, they usually indulge their short-range interests at the expense of their long-range ones. Their short-range interest is to make money; their long-range interest is to preserve civilization from Iran and its axis. Anti-US Americans think the US exploitive and foreign countries idealistic. Often, however, foreign countries are exploitive and the US, which boycotts many rogue states even if not our enemies, often is idealistic. The US could have made a fortune if it were as mercenary as China, Russia, and France. China and Russia, run by gangsters, cannot be expected to behave decently. Both have veto power in the Security Council. Nevertheless, my liberal friends expect great things from the Security Council. When I point out what kind of governments run the UNO, they fall silent. The truth is difficult for them, so they ignore it. They would rather retain their ideology than make sense and do the right thing. NATURE OF THE LULL IN GAZA DISPUTED A report on 6/22 states that Gaza recently stepped up arms smuggling and training (IMRA). The report did not specify whether this increase occurred after the lull went into effect, on 6/19. Although Hamas says that the lull agreement does not forbid arms smuggling, Israel asserts that it does. (No signed or even written document was produced.) TERRORIST ATTACK NEAR DISMANTLED CHECKPOINTS Arab terrorists wounded Israeli hikers near dismantled checkpoints, which had been erected were terrorists had found ambush convenient (sorry lost source). ASK, "THEN WHAT?" What happens when Iran tests a nuclear weapon? That's an important question, lost sight of. People assume it means Iran would use it or not use it and that Iran's neighbors would develop nuclear weapons, too. (They already are trying.) That is one answer. Another answer is that Iran would intimidate with it. Iran's vow to destroy Israel would gain credibility. Hamas and Hizbullah would gain a nuclear umbrella. What foreign investors would sink more money into Israel, then? How many Israelis would stay for the attack? (NY Sun, 6/23, Ed..) Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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ISRAEL'S WINSTON CHURCHILL: SHMUEL KATZ
Posted by Crystal, July 8, 2008. |
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Like Winston Churchill prior to World War II, Shmuel Katz was Israel's voice of clarity, unheeded. With a child-like laugh and a youthful twinkle in his eye, Shmuel had the charisma, integrity, and vision to be Israel's greatest leader. Sadly, Israel never elevated the principled and visionary Shmuel Katz to political leadership. Instead, a cadre of weak, naïve, or ego driven individuals, from the power hungry to the felonious, rose and clung to office". This essay was written by Joel Gilbert, who wrote and directed
Farewell Israel: Bush, Iran and The Revolt of Islam. It
appeared May 29, 2008 on the Mideast Outpost website
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In the history of modern Zionism, Shmuel Katz was a giant. His clear and concise logic made him unique amongst Jewish political thinkers. I met Shmuel when I was a student in Israel at the age of 18. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship. Only a year later, I began studying at the University of London. I was honored when Shmuel asked me to be his London researcher for his planned two volume work on Vladimir Zeev Jabotinsky, Lone Wolf (or just "Jabo" in Hebrew). Shmuel had told me many stories of his affection for Zeev Jabotinsky, and the time he spent with him in Europe prior to World War II as his traveling secretary. Shmuel attended speech after speech, as Jabotinsky encouraged Jewish immigration to Palestine, while warning of impending disaster for European Jewry. Shmuel also told me of his time in London, as editor and publisher of the Revisionist Zionist Weekly in the late 1930's (at Jabotinsky's request), and of observing Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler, which within 24 months resulted in bombs falling in the streets of London where Shmuel was living. Over the next three years, I dug deep into the historic files of the British Mandatory authority in Palestine which were housed at the British Public Record Office in Kew Gardens. Many of the files I examined had only recently been released by the British government, after being sealed for 40 years. I extracted for Shmuel a number of letters between Jabotinsky and the British authorities, as well as numerous documents illustrating British policy to suppress Jewish immigration during Hitler's romp through Europe. Hand written notes by British officials on the margins of documents revealed anti-Semitic attitudes as a force in British thinking. Shmuel wrote for seven years until "Jabo" was finally completed –– an epic 2 volume, 1,000 page document. After Menachem Begin's death, I recall in 1983 asking Tzachi Hanegbi, then foreign policy advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Shamir, "Why doesn't the Likud turn to Shmuel Katz for leadership?" Hanegbi, later the subject of several ethical probes, answered, "Shmuel Katz could never be Prime Minister, because he would never compromise on his principles." Indeed, Shmuel had resigned from the Herut Knesset list in the early 1950's, then once again as Menachem Begin's advisor in 1977 for reasons of abandonment of principle. Shmuel often reminded me that Jabotinsky did not like Menachem Begin, and didn't think he would make a good leader. Jabotinsky likened Begin's speeches to the sound of a creaking old door. Central to Shmuel's writings over the past 30 years was what he described as the tragic void of leadership in Israeli politics and a political system which simply recycled its failed leaders over and over. Moshe Dayan, Shmuel wrote, was a total failure. As chief of staff of the IDF, Dayan had opposed pre-empting the war in 1967 against Egypt and Syria, and along with Golda Meir had acquiesced to Henry Kissinger's demand that Israel not pre-empt the 1973 attack by Egypt and Syria, despite their pre-knowledge. The later episode so unnerved Dayan, Shmuel wrote, that Dayan broke down and cried, and called for Israel to surrender to Egypt! When Menachem Begin pulled Dayan from these depths to appoint him as his foreign minister to negotiate "peace" with Egypt, Shmuel knew great things were not in the offing. Meanwhile, Begin's Defense Minister, Ezer Weizmann, Shmuel told me, acted in effect as a spy for Egypt. Weizmann would meet with the Egyptian delegation and tell them how to deal with each of the persons in the Israeli negotiating teams, and how to overcome their positions. Just as with Moshe Dayan, Shmuel pointed out, Israel's recycling of failed leadership continued. Rabin was reelected as Prime Minister after a previous failure, only to help rescue the exiled and defeated PLO as Israel's "partners for peace." Prime Minister Ehud Barak implemented the unilateral withdrawal from Southern Lebanon, without any security arrangements, leading to the Hizbullah takeover of the area and the Second Lebanon War. Today Ehud Barak is the Israeli Defense Minister, charged with negotiating a truce with HAMAS! Shimon Peres engineered the disastrous Oslo Accords –– yet Peres was elevated to President! Like Winston Churchill prior to World War II, Shmuel Katz was Israel's voice of clarity, unheeded. With a child-like laugh and a youthful twinkle in his eye, Shmuel had the charisma, integrity, and vision to be Israel's greatest leader. Sadly, Israel never elevated the principled and visionary Shmuel Katz to political leadership. Instead, a cadre of weak, naïve, or ego driven individuals, from the power hungry to the felonious, rose and clung to office. A writer of many epic works, including Days of Fire and Battleground, Shmuel had the ability to explain the realities of history, while others simply accepted simplistic concepts echoed in the media or invented by Israel's enemies. I once paid Shmuel what he said was the biggest compliment he ever got, "Shmuel, I used to think you were a genius, but now I realize that all you write about is really just common sense." Crystal is moderator of EUROPEANS_WHO_SUPPORT_ISRAEL@yahoogroups.com. Contact her at k_hallal@yahoo.com |
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UN DECLARES: ISLAMIC SHARI'A TABOO IN COUNCIL DEBATES
Posted by Marc Samberg, July 8, 2008. |
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This is from U.N. Watch. |
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Geneva –– From now on, all references to human rights violations related to Islamic Shar'ia law are prohibited in the chamber of the UN Human Rights Council. So ruled council president Doru Costea after a dramatic debate in the recently concluded June session. It all started when veteran rights activist David Littman –– undaunted by the repressive regimes who only last month sought to expel him from the UN –– tried to deliver a speech on violence against women and what Islamic scholars can do to prevent it. Egypt's Amr Roshdy Hassan repeatedly interrupted, aggressively challenging the council president: "Regardless of the result of the vote –– I couldn't care less if I will win or lose this vote –– my point is that Islam will not be crucified in this council!" The president ultimately gave in, declaring: "Statements should refrain from making judgments or evaluations of a particular religion... I can promise that at the next evaluation of a religious creed, law, or document, I will interrupt the speaker and we'll go on to the next one." The new ruling follows an Islamic-sponsored text adopted by the council in March that turned its mandate on freedom of expression upside down. Instead of investigating the actions of governments in order to protect individual freedom, the expert is now charged with investigating individuals –– those who "abuse" their freedom of speech through religious or racial discrimination, i.e., by saying anything deemed offensive to Islamic sensibilities. Everyone in the world is now potentially subject to the UN's new speech control. What does all of this signify? An iron curtain has descended across the world's highest human rights body. Behind that line lie all the human rights violations committed in the name of a certain religion, about which no one dare speak: suicide terror attacks, honor killings, female genital mutilation, forced child marriage, violence against gays, stonings, state censorship of free speech, jailing of bloggers, prohibitions against freedom of religion, and much, much more. UN officials, diplomats and even major human rights figures have been afraid to take on this new regime, which now exercises an almost total control over the Human Rights Council, as well as increasing measures of influence over other forums of world opinion. "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil," said Edmund Burke, "is that good men do nothing." Would that more people showed the courage of Mr. Littman. Contact Marc Samberg at marcsamberg@yahoo.com |
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GAME MUST END; ANTI-PATRIOTIC IDF; MESSIANIC JEWS CLAIM DISCRIMINATION; RESTORING FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Posted by Steven Shamrak, July 8, 2008. |
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Game Must End –– Remove Them All! "I saw the bulldozer smash the car with its shovel. He smashed the guy sitting in the driver's seat," said Yaakov Ashkenazi, an 18-year-old seminary student. A 30-year-old Arab from East Jerusalem, an employee for the Jerusalem Municipality and an Israeli ID card holder, used bulldozer to ram into packed buses, tossed cars into the air and rolled over pedestrians in a deadly rampage last Wednesday that killed three Jews and wounded over 45 on Jerusalem's Jaffa Road. He left two children orphan, but his wife celebrated joyfully his 'martyrdom'! Moshe Plesser, the soldier who shot and killed the terrorist, was among the youths who protested the Disengagement and faced criminal charges for his actions. An eyewitness, Dr. Yitzchak Noi, a veteran broadcaster for Voice of Israel government radio, said that the police behaved in an inexplicably hesitant fashion during the event: "I think the instructions for opening fire have been made so stringent that people are afraid to shoot." The three organizations that took responsibility for the attack included the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, which is affiliated with PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement. The other two are the Galilee Freedom Battalion, which is suspected of being affiliated with Lebanon's Hezbollah, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a fringe left-wing militant group. The Hamas militant group, which runs the Gaza Strip, said it did not carry out the attack but nevertheless praised it. In keeping with the tradition of 'the rule of the game', the Knesset ratified a preliminary law, which gives the Minister of Interior the right to deny terrorists and their family members permanent residence status in Israel (does it include deportation?). Representatives of Kadima, Labor, Meretz and Arab parties voted against the law, which did not have the government's support. Another law that the Knesset passed (which is long overdue!) would prevent any sort of public or ostentatious mourning ceremonies for terrorists. (While Fatah was 'making' peace with Israel, Hamas went on a terror rampage. As the 'Calm' has come to Gaza, Fatah assumed the role of the bad guy. There are dozens of different terrorist organizations that are eager to jump into the role of the 'national' hero. And if this is not enough, there are thousands of blood-thirsty and Jew-hateful 'Palestinians' who will willingly do the dirty job! Stop playing this 'cat and mouse' game with Islamic terror: "Israel closed Gaza crossings in response to rocket attacks –– Hamas has suspended negotiations with Israel on the release of Gilad Shalit, because Israel sealed off the Gaza Strip. Israel Opened Gaza Crossings Despite Kassams' attacks" Eradicate enemy terror from Israel! Israel must realise that only by freeing Jewish land from its enemy population will there be an end terror in Israel. Let the 'Palestinians' have their own terror state in Sinai, which is contiguous land with a current population less than 250,000 and a size of land comparable with the entire Palestinian mandate: Israel, Gaza, Judea, Samaria, Golan Heights and Jordan!) PS: It has just become public that the government is buying two new armoured vehicles, each costing $750,000, to protect the 'precious' life of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Most Jews in Israel are unable to afford such a luxury. NOTE: Bulldozer terrorist Hussam Duwiyat of eastern Jerusalem served two years in prison for rape. Negotiating with the Thugs: Hamas warned it will withhold signs Gilad Shalit is alive and no progress will be made to free him if Israel keeps the Gaza crossings closed, which were closed by Israel after deadly attack in Jerusalem. –– Rocket Attack Breaks 'Truce' Sixth Time in Two Weeks! Anti-Patriotic IDF. The off-duty soldier who killed the bulldozer terrorist was an anti-expulsion activist who had to fight the IDF in order to join the army. The IDF acted to bar from the army hundreds of youth who actively opposed the Disengagement program that ended up with the expulsion of thousands of Jews from their Gaza and northern Samaria homes. Food for Thought. There are dozens of so-called think tanks around the world dedicated to the study of the Middle-East affair and Arab-Israel conflict. And yet, ceding of Jewish land to Arabs is the only solution to the conflict under consideration. Strangely, none of them has expressed any support for an alternative solution –– creation of Eretz-Israel and removing the terrorist population from Jewish land! Arabs: 39% Hope for Israel's Destruction. A recent poll in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Morocco, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates revealed that 39 percent of those polled felt the defeat and destruction of Israel is only "a matter of time." All the countries polled are considered allies of the United States in the region. Hamas: What Rocket? After Israel closed the border crossings into Gaza following a rocket attack, Hamas denied that such an attack was carried out at all. "The closing of the border today is unjustified and provides further proof that Israel is trying to avoid the 'lull' agreement," Hamas Gaza spokesman Sami Abu-Zuheri said. (Unadulterated lies have always been their weapon of choice!) Hamas Emboldened by Swap. Hamas terrorists holding an Israeli soldier said they would stick to their tough demands in negotiations over his release, emboldened by the high price Israel is paying in a planned prisoner swap for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers with Hezbollah. The declaration could complicate Israel's efforts to bring Sgt. Gilad Schalit home after two years in captivity. (Wouldn't it be more prudent and logical to push for a deal with Hamas for the release of the soldier who is still alive first? Or is it just too much to ask from inept and demoralised government?) Iran is Readying for War. Iran has divided the country up into 31 military sectors as part of its stepped up preparations for war. Iranian official sources said that 320,000 graves were to be dug. Israeli Electric Car Project Reaches Congress. Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi told a Congressional Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming that "For the price of one year's worth of oil, some $500 billion, we can go even further [and] create fully renewable electrical generation sufficient to power all of the nation's vehicles". The cost of operating an electric car is six cents a mile compared with 16 cents a mile for gasoline-powered vehicles. Quote of the Week: "The masses don't want to be disturbed, even though they may be in misery, but they are accustomed to the misery. And anybody who is not miserable looks like a stranger" –– Zen philosophy –– May be that is why slaves tolerated their masters for so long, nations endured the tyranny of Communism and Fascism and Jews do nothing about self-hating, corrupt and traitorous leadership in Israel and Diaspora! "It is today we must create the world of the future." –– Eleanor Roosevelt. Uphill Battle to Restore Freedom of Speech. The Jerusalem District Court has struck down an eight-year-old Education Ministry decision that prohibited Yisrael Shiran from continuing to teach because he circulated a letter against the "Rabin Peace Legacy." Shiran charged that assassinated Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin was largely responsible for Israel's security problem because he gave the PA rifles under the Oslo agreements. (It took 8 years!) Messianic Jews Claim Discrimination. The United Messianic Jewish Congregations umbrella organization overwhelmingly passed a resolution at their annual business meeting on June 26 calling on the government of Israel to "eliminate discrimination against Messianic Jews under Israel's Law of Return." (They have betrayed the 2 millennia of the Jewish struggle to return to Israel and now are complaining? If they are really so eager to come to Israel it would take a minute to denounce their non-Jewish utterances; otherwise it is just yet another ploy to undermine the Jewish state by self-Hating Jews!) Setting Excuse for the Next War. Hizbullah, which is allied with other pro-Syrian parties in the Lebanese government, has threatened war if Israel does not hand over maps detailing locations of minefields. (...so that they will be able to freely attack Israel.) Rare Jewish Books from Iraq. A collection of 300 rare and valuable books that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein confiscated from the Jewish community has been brought to Israel. The 'Authority' of Robbers and Thugs. A senior Palestinian Authority security officer, a relative of convicted terrorist Marwan Barghouti, stole a Pajero jeep in Caesarea, Israel, and converted it to a PA police car. Israel is Helping Africa. Israel will be sending 2 million baby chicks to Cameroon in an effort to jump-start the chicken producing capabilities of the central African country. Israel is considered a world leader in chicken production, with strains of fowl that can better resist heat and epidemics. Steven Shamrak was involved in the Moscow Zionist movement. He worked as a construction engineer at the Moscow Olympic Games project and as a computer consultant in Australia. He has been publishing an Internet editorial letter about the Arab-Israel conflict since August 2001 and has a website www.shamrak.com. He can be reached by email at StevenShamrak@gmail.com |
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BRIEF FACTS ON THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT TODAY
Posted by Marc Samberg, July 8, 2008. |
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This comes from Neil Walker from Toronto ON. #12 is most interesting!!! This may come in handy when you are engaged in debate. |
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1. Nationhood and Jerusalem: Israel became a nation in 1312 B.C.E. Two thousand years before the rise of Islam. 2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel. 3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 B.C.E., the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years. 4. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 C.E. Lasted no more than 22 years. 5. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital. Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit. 6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy Scriptures. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran. 7. King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to Jerusalem. 8. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem. 9. Arab and Jewish Refugees: In 1948 the Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. Sixty-eight percent left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier. 10 The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms. 11. The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated to be around 630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be the same. 12. Arab refugees were INTENTIONALLY not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own peoples' lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey. 13. The Arab –– Israeli Conflict: The Arabs are represented by eight separate nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won. 14. The P.L.O.'s Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. Israel has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them. 15. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and the Jews were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths. 16. The U.N. Record on Israel and the Arabs: of the 175 Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel. 17. Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel. 18. The U.N was silent while 58 Jerusalem Synagogues were destroyed by the Jordanians. 19. The U.N. Was silent while the Jordanians systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives. 20. The U.N. Was silent while the Jordanians enforced an apartheid-like policy of preventing Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. These are incredible times. We have to ask what our role should be. What will we tell our grandchildren we did when there was a turning point in Jewish destiny, an opportunity to make a difference? Contact Marc Samberg at marcsamberg@yahoo.com |
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WORST WATER CRISIS IN 80 YEARS
Posted by Daisy Stern, July 8, 2008. |
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This is a news item from Arutz-7. |
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Israel Water Authority chief Uri Shans announced this morning at a special press conference in Tel Aviv that Israel faces "the worst crisis in 80 years, since they started keeping records" in its water supply. Major sources of drinking water in Israel, including the Kinneret and the Mountain Aquifer are all below their "red lines" and the Coastal Aquifer has fallen below the "black line" indicating it will suffer rapid and possibly irreversible damage. Shani predicted that the Kinneret itself could fall below its "black line" by December 2008. "Mainly," according to Shani,"Israel's water need shave been met by borrowing on the future." To ameliorate the crisis, the Israel Water Authority has authorized the following emergency measures: water will be pumped from the sources of the Kinneret (water which should have reached the Kinneret in 2010), desalination plants will increase output and polluted wells will be purified. Water use for gardening will also be limited. The price of water will nearly double from NIS 3.90 per cubic meter to NIS 7.40. The price hike and a government NIS 1 billion investment will be used over the next five years for water infrastructure, desalination, and sewage treatment for agriculture. MEKOROT: WE ARE GIVING PA MORE WATER THAN REQUIRED 1 July 2008 (IsraelNN.com) Israel's water company, Mekorot, denied on Tuesday allegations made by Arab rights group B'Tselem that Israel is creating a severe water shortage in Judea and Samaria through a discriminatory policy. Mekorot added that despite water cutbacks and severe shortage in Israel, the water supply to Judea and Samaria had even increased. The company said it provided 500 million cubic meters per year, or 30 percent more than required under the Oslo agreement. The company also accused Arab water thieves of stealing up to 50 percent of the supply in Bethlehem, Hevron and other areas. Contact Daisy Stern at daisystern1@gmail.com |
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FORMER GUSH KATIF ARAB WORKERS SUE EMPLOYERS
Posted by Daisy Stern, July 8, 2008. |
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This is an Arutz-7 item. [EDITOR'S NOTE: One reader commented: Talk about chutzpah. and irony. They were given the greenhouses as a free gift by idiotic American Jews when the Jews were expelled from Gush Katif. Makes you wonder why they couldn't keep up the greenhouses by themselves? Instead, the Arabs did what they do brilliantly –– they vandalized and destroyed the greenhouses.] |
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(IsraelNN.com) A Channel One report shows that Gush Katif refugees are facing a new challenge. Former Arab workers are reportedly trying to sue their former Israeli employers for "wrongful dismissal" and other benefits. The SELA Administration reportedly told former Gush Katif residents, employers and businessmen: "It's your problem." Yossi Schwartz, former owner of a clothing factory interviewed in
the report, said that former workers' claims could be more than NIS 1
million in his case alone. In addition, more than 50 percent of former
Gush Katif residents, including Mr. Schwartz, are still unemployed.
Contact Daisy Stern at daisystern1@gmail.com
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AFI: OPEN SEASON ON THE COPTS
Posted by David Meir-Levi, July 8, 2008. |
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Dear Christian leaders, The Copts of Egypt are among the world's oldest churches. Their founders date back to the days of the Egyptian Therapeutae ("Ideal Christians" according to Iraneaus), brethren to Jesus and the original Jerusalem Church. Christian Coptic Egypt was conquered and oppressed by the Muslims in the late 7th century, and it has been a downward spiral for the Egyptian Christians since then. Does anyone want to organize a million-Christian-march on the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, in support of the Copts and in opposition to Egypt's endless lethal persecutions? Or, at least, a press conference of leading Christian spokespersons, demanding publicly that the Egyptian Government protect its Christian citizens from the depredations of Muslim religious terrorism? Or, at very least, a full page ad in the NY Times denouncing Egyptian Muslim persecution of Copts –– the ad being signed by major national Christian leaders? Remember Leviticus XIX:16, "stand not idly by when your brother is in mortal danger". The Christian Copts are on the verge of extinction due to Muslim animosity and persecution. That qualifies for "mortal danger". Ahmad Al-Aswani, an Egyptian writer, writes extensively on political topics from a critical and reformist perspective. In the following essay, posted June 7, 2008 on the liberal website Aafaq.org, he focuses on the escalating series of physical attacks on members of the Coptic minority in Egypt. The following are excerpts from the article. |
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"What Is Happening to Our Coptic Brothers... Is No Longer a Matter of Sporadic Incidents" "I hope that I have not exaggerated in using the word '[open] season' for what is happening in Egypt to our Coptic brothers, but it is the closest description to what is happening. It is no longer a matter of sporadic incidents, but an uninterrupted series of events. "Today, you read of the incident in Zeitoun, and tomorrow of the one in Alexandria, [2] and after that of the one in Deir Abu-Fana in Minya, [3] and thus of the diverse incidents, ranging from killing without reason to armed robbery, kidnapping of monks, torching of houses and cars, and waylaying and kidnapping of girls. "As usual, all then repudiate and condemn, accompanied by official and media denial of any sectarian or terrorist motive. And if that isn't appropriate, the standard excuse [is trotted out]: the criminal was mentally disturbed and did not mean to do what he did. "This is what has happened in individual incidents... such as the Zeitoun incident a few days ago, or the Alexandria incident two years ago. [4] If we observe closely, we find that these criminals then disappear, and are not brought [to trial in] any court, and no one hears about them afterward."
"Mass Incidents... Follow a Friday Sermon Inciting [Worshipers] to Burn the Homes of the Village's Copts" "[In] mass incidents, such as marches after Friday prayers –– which follow a Friday sermon inciting [worshipers] to burn the homes of the villages Copts, on the pretext that these 'infidels' seek to turn one such home into a church that will pollute the pure village –– the [allegations that sparked the incident] are later proven untrue. [This proof, however, comes] after houses, shops, and cars have been burned, [and] after police and government officials arrive to make sure that the burning is complete. "Then the media, as usual, accuses rumormongers of being behind the regrettable events, saying that they must be agents of Israel or America. "Of course, the usual Coptic notables deny any suspicion of sectarianism, and affirm national unity, and the sheikh and the priest embrace. "The matter is concluded with no investigation and no trial for anyone –– as if nothing had happened. [All then] wait for the opening of the next season, and for the recurrence of the same events, the same responses, and a promise that parliament's new unified law for houses of worship will solve all problems –– in the knowledge that this law does not yet exist."
"Prominent Copts Voluntarily Deny Any Suspicion that Sectarianism Is Fueling Recent Events" "[Thus] continues the cycle of sad events in Egypt, without end –– and one saddening thing is that some prominent Copts voluntarily deny any suspicion that sectarianism is fueling recent events [even] before the truth becomes known. I do not know whether they are aware that their words both increase the suffering and will fail to end this series [of incidents]. "[Instead,] why don't they use their media presence to defend their people, the Copts, and to urge the enactment of laws to prohibit what is happening, and to purge the educational system and media of the explosive mines of sedition, discrimination, and incitement?"
"An Attempt to Terrorize the Copts... and Force Them... To Either Emigrate... or Convert" "What is happening is an attempt to terrorize Egypt's Copts, and to force them either to emigrate from the homeland once and for all, or to convert to Islam to protect themselves and their families [from harm] and to protect their property from the confiscation mentioned by many Islamic publications. "It causes me regret, and as an Egyptian it makes my heart bleed, to see this farce endlessly repeated, and to see the same prominent individuals say the same words –– and [then to see] the matter forgotten a short time later. "Frankly, I blame the Coptic leadership in Egypt, headed by His Eminence Pope [Shenouda III] himself, because it has reached the point where lives and property are taken with impunity, and clearly with the authorities' collusion –– with no fear of effective response, and with the confidence of all that, as always, the matter will end with beard-kissing and forgetting. "Although I fully believe that the majority of Egypt's Muslims side with their Coptic brothers and against these incidents, [I must point out that] in light of the incitement, and in light of the seditious clerics on the religious [television] channels, things have changed, with the suspect collusion of the government. "Perhaps the most recent farce is the June 5 report in [the Egyptian government daily] Al-Ahram... accusing Copts residing abroad of being behind the Zeitoun incident, [and of] forming an armed Coptic organization to instigate civil strife in Egypt. "Can you imagine such far-out nonsense? I implore you: For God's sake, oh Egypt!" David Meir-Levi is an American-born Israeli, currently living in Palo Alto. His expertise is in Near Eastern studies and the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is Director of Peace and Education at Israel Peace Initiative (www.ipi-usa.org). Contact him at david_meirlevi@hotmail.com |
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YAD VASHEM AND HILLEL KOOK
Posted by Isi Leibler, July 8, 2008. |
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I was privileged to sign a petition to Yad Vashem with over a 100 leading Israeli intellectuals and public figures encompassing the entire political spectrum, from Moshe Arens to former Supreme Court Justice Meir Shamgar to Yossi Beilin. The petition appealed to Yad Vashem to emulate the recent decision of the Holocaust Museum in Washington and incorporate an exhibit relating to the valiant efforts of Hillel Kook (aka Peter Bergson) to rescue European Jews at the height of the Auschwitz inferno. Regrettably, the Yad Vashem authorities responded that "Yad Vashem determines exhibits in its museum on balanced considerations rather than pressures and petitions." They cynically added that the request could be reviewed 10 years hence. Hillel Kook was the embodiment of tenacity and devotion, in stark contrast to the leaders of the American Jewish establishment of his time, whose deafening silence in the face of the Nazi extermination was scandalous. Yet, only over the last few decades has Kook's role truly been appreciated. The most powerful Diaspora Jewish leader at the time was Rabbi Stephen Wise, president of the World Jewish Congress. On August 8, 1942, his Geneva-based Secretary General, Dr. Gerhardt Riegner, informed him of the systematic genocidal slaughter of European Jews. In an unforgivable lapse of judgment, acceding to a request of the US State Department, Wise failed to inform the world until November 25 of that year when a small item about Nazis murdering Jews appeared in the back section of The New York Times. When I was chairman of the WJC Governing Board, I was never able to obtain a satisfactory explanation from the late Dr. Riegner why this chilling telegram exposing the mass murders remained buried so long in a State Department file and why Jewish leaders failed to initiate a public campaign immediately. When Wise, who prided himself on being a friend and confidante of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, finally asked the US president to intervene, Roosevelt said: "The only way to stop the slaughter is to win the war. Tell your Jewish associates to keep quiet." Wise decided not to rock the boat. Alas, not only did he remain silent, but he also brutally attacked and branded as extremists those who tried to raise the alarm, predicting that they would unleash unprecedented waves of anti-Semitism on American Jews. His attitude, which was shared by the majority of the Jewish establishment, was the most shameful failure of Jewish leadership in the 20th century. This was the environment in which Kook found himself. Born 1915 in Lithuania, a nephew of the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Eretz Yisrael, the legendary religious Zionist leader Avraham Kook, Hillel arrived in Palestine as a child with his father, the first community rabbi of Afula. Kook became a disciple of Jabotinsky and was soon engaged in Etzel underground activities. In 1940, Jabotinsky sent him to New York to create a Jewish Brigade to fight the Nazis. He adopted the name Bergson after his favorite philosopher and linked up with Ben Hecht, the brilliant playwright and publicist. When news of the Nazi genocide emerged and Kook witnessed the impotence of the Jewish leaders, he concentrated his efforts on raising alarm bells in a desperate effort to save the doomed European Jews. Despite their shoe-string budget and pariah-like treatment, Kook and Ben Hecht launched an extraordinarily effective campaign of press releases, highly provocative full-page advertisements and even successful pageants, which for the first time made the American public aware of the horrors European Jews were undergoing. Wise and his WJC co-president Nahum Goldmann spared no efforts to undermine Kook's efforts, reviling his group as irresponsible fanatics. They tried to sabotage the effective 1943 march to the White House by 400 Orthodox rabbis who urged the administration to intervene to save Jews. In 1944 they even went as far as to call on the US administration to deport Kook, alluding to him as great an enemy to the Jews as Hitler. But Kook was undeterred, dismissing his opposition as "the ghetto Jewish leadership" whose concept of "responsibility" amounted to doing nothing and keeping quiet.
IN 1944, Kook's efforts bore fruit when the administration set up the War Refugee Board which obliged Roosevelt to take action to save the surviving Jews, utilizing diplomatic intermediaries like Raoul Wallenberg. It may have been too little and too late but it is estimated that 200,000 Hungarian Jews owe their lives to Kook's intervention. Kook subsequently launched other projects, including the Hebrew Committee of National Liberation which unsuccessfully tried to present itself as a government of exile. Disappointed at having failed to save the majority of European Jews, Kook returned to Israel, became a member of the Knesset, and after parting from Menahem Begin, retired from active politics. He died in 2001. In recent years, Kook has become a symbol for the Jewish activism and self-confidence which played such a crucial role in support of Israel and the freedom of Soviet Jewry. When Nachum Goldmann of the WJC tried to continue on the path of shtadlanut (silent diplomacy) in relation to Soviet Jewry, Kook was one of the role models who motivated Jews at the grass roots to override him. Kook taught us not to place our faith in princes and in the last resort, to rely on ourselves. He demonstrated that silence in the face of evil and genocide is a crime and that quite diplomacy achieves nothing unless accompanied by a concerted public campaign. We are indebted to Hillel's daughter, Dr. Becky Kook, who initiated the effort to encourage Yad Vashem to create an exhibit to honor her father. The negative response by their spokesman to the petition should not be considered the last word. Yad Vashem is not a private fiefdom. Its management has erred previously, showing crass ill judgment in erecting a plaque which explicitly names and expresses gratitude to the president and office-bearers of the Claims Conference, for their "generosity" in passing German restitution funds on to them as though it was their money and not the revenue from unclaimed properties or reparations for Holocaust victims. It is inexplicable why this shameful plaque has not been removed. The Yad Vashem Board responsible for approving such an unedifying display should think twice before arrogantly rejecting out of hand Dr Becky Kook's documented proposal to eternalize the name of Hillel Kook. All of us have a share in Yad Vashem and wish to identify with it. It is not merely a museum perpetuating the memory of those murdered during the Shoah. It is also intended to convey a message for the future. Hillel Kook's courageous struggle is an important reminder that Jews are responsible for one another and that we must never again stand by and permit a repetition of the shameful dereliction of responsibility displayed by Jewish leaders during that black era. Contact Isi Leibler at ileibler@netvision.net.il This article appeared in Jerusalem Post |
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RANSOM AGREEMENT WITH HIZBULLAH SIGNED, IMPLEMENTATION BEGINS
Posted by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz, July 8, 2008. |
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Government sources have confirmed that Israel has taken the first steps towards paying the ransom agreed upon with the Lebanese Hizbullah for the return of two kidnapped IDF soldiers, information about a third MIA and the bodies of several others. Implementation of the deal began on Monday with the exhumation of over 190 graves by the IDF Chief Rabinate at the Cemetary for Enemy Dead in northern Israel. "The continued implementation of the deal is conditioned on several components regarding which no details will be given," a spokesperson for the Prime Minister explained in a statement. The Prime Minister's Office responded to questions about the implementation of the exchange, dubbed Operation Return of the Sons, by stating that it formally got underway with the signing of terms. Ofer Dekel, the government's appointee for MIA negotiations, signed the deal Monday evening during a meeting with the UN-appointed German mediator Gerhard Konrad. This confirmed earlier statements by Hizbullah sources that the ransom agreement negotiated with Israel had been given final approval with the signature of a representative of the Iran-backed terrorist organization. While the date for the release of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, or their remains, will be determined later this week, Hizbullah sources have proposed that the exchange take place as early as next week. Contrary to earlier reports, Dekel did not receive the Hizbullah report on the whereabouts and status of captured IAF navigator Ron Arad, shot down over Lebanon in 1986. "It will be received following the completion of the clarification process between the UN envoy and Hizbullah," the PMO statement said. Israel has passed along a set of questions to be answered by the Lebanese terrorists. The continuation of the exchange is contingent on the information contained in the Hizbullah's report on Arad, according to sources in the Prime Minister's Office. "After the report is received, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will convene the Cabinet to discuss the continued implementation of the deal," Olmert's spokesperson said. Even as the deal with the Iranian proxy militia, Hizbullah, gets underway, the Iranian Ambassador to the UN called on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to assist Tehran in "returning the four diplomats" missing since the first Lebanon War in 1982. Iran has stated previously that it believes Israel is aware of the whereabouts and fate of four Iranian agents who were in Lebanon at the time. Israel has repeatedly stated that the four were killed by Christian militias. Israel is expected to pass on a report containing intelligence regarding the issue to Hizbullah as part of the ongoing ransom process. On the other hand, Israel's Supreme Court rejected a petition by the families of 12 missing Iranian Jews to hold up the deal until information on their whereabouts is received. Nissan Ratzlav-Katz writes for Arutz-7. |
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ISRAEL GIVES KIDNAPPERS INCENTIVE; HA'ARETZ VS. ISRAEL; RICE CARELESS ABOUT TERRORISM
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 8, 2008. |
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DON'T UNDER-ESTIMATE OBAMA
Don't under-estimate Obama's cunning. David Brooks thinks he is the cleverest politician in memory. Obama pretended to be idealistic, but he rarely took a stand on anything lest it cost him political capital. He jettison's one position after another, when it becomes unpopular. His only criterion is whether it would help him get elected. Contrary to appearances, he is not naïve, his excessive idealism is just a pose (NY Times, 6/21, Op.-Ed.). If he were to get elected, then what? Who knows? He has lied too much for us to know He does seem to be radical. He is a disgrace and a danger. OBAMA'S SUPPORTER, GOV. RICHARDSON Gov. Richardson told the dictators of Egypt that Egypt could play a pivotal role in stabilizing the Mideast, and that if President, Obama would work more closely with Egypt. Richardson criticized Pres. Bush for not having someone work full-time to push both Israel and the P.A. to make peace (IMRA, 6/20). Those remarks display Richardson's know-nothing, radical ignorance that used to make me flinch when friends favored him as the candidate for the Democrats. First, Sec. Rice practically is full-time on the Mideast, but she pushes only Israel and wrongfully so. The Arabs don't want peace, but the Establishment thinks that if they sign a peace agreement, it means peace. The Establishment doesn't realize that the P.A. did sign peace agreements. They don't abide by them. They don't want peace, they want to destroy Israel and its Jews. Therefore, what the Establishment wants the US to do about the Arab-Israel conflict is counter-productive and unjust. Nor can one trust the State Dept.. Egypt helps arm Hamas to make terrorism. Egypt plays a pivotal role in destabilizing the Mideast. The Establishment still wants the US to subsidize Egypt, even as it turns from old-fashioned dictatorship and demagoguery to Islamism. Richardson seems to be a cut below Establishment mediocrity. ISRAELI CORPSES FOR MANY ARAB PRISONERS The families of the several Israeli prisoners of Muslim terrorists have persuaded most Israelis to exchange captured Israelis for captives of Israel. Since Israel usually fails to stipulate that the Israelis released must be alive, they give the vicious terrorists an incentive to release them dead. The parents, in their blind selfishness, don't think of that. Moreover, Israel usually releases hundreds of Arabs for a handful of Jews. That many freed terrorists could murder many Israelis. Exchanges that free so many terrorists encourage more kidnapping of Israelis. Do the families want those deaths on their consciences? HA'ARETZ VS. ISRAEL Haaretz is a daily for "Post-Zionism and Post-Judaism, where Israeli survival is an archaic idea whose time has past." It basically allows only one view, that "Israel (and America) are always wrong and the Islamofascists are always right. Like other antisemitic newspapers (or appeasers of the Arabs and of political correctness), Ha'aretz refers to murderers of Jews as "activists" and "militants." Finally it used the word, "terrorist," but to refer to a mentally deranged Jewish deserter who shot some Arabs unprovoked and then was lynched by others. When the government, after years, announced that it would prosecute the lynch mob, Ha'aretz urged it not to, for the victim of the mob was a terrorist. That same newspaper urged prosecution of Jewish security agents who, after having captured an Arab terrorist, murdered him. What is the newspaper's standard, Jews are terrorists and Arabs are not, and it is right to prosecute Jews who murder Arabs but not Arabs who murder Jews? It gets worse. A Jewish farmer raided repeatedly by Arab bandits, finally shot two. The editors urge that he be prosecuted. They oppose a proposed law that exempts defense of one's homestead. They argue that marauders should be turned over to the police. Otherwise, farmers and householders would injure their own families. [The farmer would have had difficulty capturing the four bandits. He defended himself as best he could, by ambush. I approve.] Now the prosecutors decided not to indict the lynch mob (Prof. Steven Plaut, 6/20). Still think Israel is a Jewish state, when it condones Arabs who lynch Jews? Still think Israel is a democracy with a "vibrant media," as exemplified by its so-called "flagship" newspaper, Ha'aretz? Ha'aretz is Israel's sickest manifestation. Why is political correctness almost always on the side of Arabs or other antisemites? Because the notion of political correctness has been perverted by the Left, which is not tolerant, and not just. WHO COMPELLED WHOM TO MAKE THE LULL IN GAZA? "Official sources in Israel have explained that Hamas' interest in a lull in the fighting is a result of its "distress." But the organization did not experience "distress." It views the lull as a way to end Israeli siege, so afterwards it can fight harder. Hamas has introduced and maintained law and order in Gaza, strengthened its overall control, suppressed opposition, and achieved broad popular support for its policies." The lull, involving negotiations with Hamas, appears to confer legitimacy on its Gaza rule. It can move on to win P.A. elections. The lull is an opportunity for Hamas (IMRA, 6/20) and only a temporary refuge from jail for PM Olmert. RICE CARELESS ABOUT TERRORISM Hamas founded and runs The Islamic University of Gaza. Reportedly, it teaches how to make bombs, had an arms cache, and was a holding pen for the Israeli soldier Hamas kidnapped. Three Gaza winners of Fullbright scholarships, which US taxpayers finance, attended that university or worked in it. US Rep. Park Kirk (Rep., Ill.) wrote to the State Dept. that its award of scholarships to affiliates of Islamic U. "is a direct violation of new US law." He wants the US Agency for Intl. Development to apply to the Fullbrights its new procedure for screening out trrorists. The State Dept. refuses. Sec. Rice, the NY Times and Washington Post demanded that Israel allow the trio to leave Gaza. Israel announced that two of them were on an Israeli terror watch list (Eli Lake, NY Sun, 6/20, p.1). When the issue first came up, Rice claimed to have checked the scholarship winners. It seems that she didn't check well. Remember, 9/11 could not have occurred if the State Dept. had checked the visa applications of the terrorists. The Department remains careless about whom it invites into our country. She might find that some of the scholarship winners do not have criminal records yet. Perhaps what they learn in the US will enable them to develop such a record. She's too pro-Arab for our own good. TERMS OF THE LULL & ARAB FANTASIES ABOUT IT The lull to which Israel agreed applies, for now, only to Gaza. Hamas, however, unilaterally is extending it to Judea-Samaria. Hamas warns that if Israel continues to pursue gunmen there, it would deem Israel in violation of the agreement's terms (that are not in the agreement). The verbal agreement to which Israel acceded states that certain border crossings would be open for shipping goods into Gaza if Hamas frees the Israeli soldier it captured. A Gaza terrorist organization said that if Israel doesn't open the crossings regardless, it would deem Israel in violations of the agreement's terms (Arutz-7, 6/20) that, again, are not in the agreement. The Muslim Arabs customarily break their agreements and even dispute what is in them. Israel should have insisted on getting the agreements in writing and signed. Is seems to me that Hamas' unilateral arrogance shows disrespect for Israel, which keeps backing down, thereby inviting more Muslim deceit. See how dangerous it is to keep Olmert in office, where, like Sharon, he makes excessive concessions to the Arabs in order to stave off prosecution for corruption? MAYOR BLOOMBERG DEFENDS OBAMA AGAINST LIES Strangers have been sending e-mails to voters, accusing candidate Obama of secretly being a Muslim. There is no evidence behind the accusation. New York's Mayor Bloomberg went to a Jewish group in Florida to denounce the e-mails as lies (Michael Barbaro, NY Times, 6/21, D1). Why didn't Bloomberg also denounce as lies Obama's claim never to have been a Muslim or to have thought to have been one, when as a boy he was registered as one and was thought by neighbors to have been a religious one? Obama's volume of lies is shocking. But Bloomberg is no paragon. He juggles statistics to pretend that he has greatly improved education in New York City. It hasn't improved, though he spends 79% more on it now than when he started. He should be investigated for wasting the additional funding while lying about it. Upon his deceit, he has built a reputation for efficiency. UNFAIR SPECULATION Discussing the Cuban missile crisis, Richard Holbrooke is thankful that we avoided nuclear warfare. He ends by speculating that our current leaders would have stumbled into war, because it is "the team that invaded Iraq" (NY Times, 6/22, Books). I think that is unfair. He might have questioned whether later regimes would have been as wise as Kennedy's. Singling out Bush seems to indulge his usual Bush-bashing in an inappropriate arena. After all, Bush's team didn't attack Iran, and therefore we may stumble into nuclear war at Iran's initiative. ARE EUROPEANS PREJUDICED AGAINST MUSLIMS? A member of the Council on Foreign Relations attributes growing European distrust of Muslims to prejudice against immigrants. He discounts fear of Islamic terrorism, alleging that Europeans are used to terrorism, citing the Basques and the Baider-Meinhoff gang (Noah Feldman, NY Times, 6/22, Magazine, p. 5). Europe welcomed the Muslims, disproving Feldman's thesis. Europe' s Left still welcomes them. As for terrorism, the Basqes are isolated, and the Baider gang folded decades ago. Native terrorism doesn't compare with the Muslims' potential. European Muslims increasingly radicalize and segregate. Their imams preach bigotry and violence. They keep pouring in and out-reproducing natives, while their leaders boast they will take over. European peoples have good reason to fear that the Muslims will destroy their culture, their freedom, and their very lives. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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ITALY TO EXPEL PALESTINIAN WHO TOOK PART IN ACHILLE LAURO CRUISE HIJACKING
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 7, 2008. |
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This is by the Associated Press and appeared today in
Haaretz
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Italian authorities have ordered a Palestinian man expelled after he served his sentence for taking part in the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship, which resulted in the murder of an American citizen. The 43-year-old Ibrahim Fatayer Abdelatif was freed Monday from a temporary holding center for illegal immigrants in Rome, his lawyer said. Lawyer Francesco Romeo said authorities have ordered Abdelatif to leave Italy within 15 days. Romeo said a request for political asylum had been turned down, but he plans to appeal the expulsion order because his client has nowhere to go. Abdelatif was born in a refugee camp in Lebanon but is not a citizen of that country and Beirut will not let him back in, he said. Abdelatif was given a 25-year sentence for being a member of the four-man team that took over the Italian cruise ship off the Egyptian coast. During the hijacking an elderly, wheelchair-bound American from New York, Leon Klinghoffer, was shot and pushed overboard. Romeo said his client's sentence was reduced for good behavior. Before ending up in the holding center in April he spent 20 years in prison and three on parole working for a Catholic charity in the central Italian city of Perugia, the lawyer told The Associated Press by telephone. Others convicted in Italy for the hijacking include Youssef Magied al-Molqi, who was sentenced to 30 years for shooting Klinghoffer, and Khaled Husain Abdullrahim, who was given life in prison. The hijacking was organized by the militant Palestinian Liberation Front in part to demand the freedom of Samir Kantar, the convicted gunman now at the center of a prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah. Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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JEWISH VALUES NEEDED TO FIGHT TERROR
Posted by Manhigut Yehudit, July 7, 2008. |
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It is sadly ironic that a bulldozer was used last week by an Israeli-Arab as the murder weapon to claim the lives of the three precious Jews in Jerusalem: Batsheva Unterman HY"D, Elizabeth Goren-Friedman HY"D and Jean Relevy HY"D. The irony stems from the fact that the Jewish people have been bulldozed by their own Israeli governments into accepting suicidal policies based on values that have nothing to do with their Jewish heritage. Manhigut Yehudit's platform of "Jewish leadership based on Jewish values" stands in stark contrast to the platform of those that are leading us to disaster. Manhigut Yehudit calls for Jewish Labor inside Israel so that Jews will not have to live in mortal fear that cab drivers (the Israeli-Arab murderer who killed eight Yeshiva students earlier this year) and construction workers (the Israeli-Arab who bulldozed three Jews to death) can turn an ordinary day into a horrific one leading to funerals. Under the Oslo co-conspirators' regimes, a Jew in Israel cannot eat in a restaurant, learn in a Yeshiva, go shopping, ride on a bus or drive in their car without knowing if they will be, G-d forbid, poisoned, blown up, shot, stabbed or bulldozed. Jewish Leadership calls for zero tolerance for Arab uprising –– both from Israeli-Arabs and from neighboring countries. Under current and previous governments Israel has given up its power of deterrence as it is clearly seen that there are no consequences for attacks. Not only does the government not punish the communities from where the terrorism emanates (except for razing an occasional building) but terrorism is rewarded with the promise of Jewish Land and the release of murderers. This sense that Israel must only respond with the most minimal of force and never go on the offensive to either pre-empt an attack or end one quickly pervades the entire Israeli establishment, which appears all too eager to offer up Jewish lives as "sacrifices for peace" on the altar of world opinion. Real Jewish leadership would take whatever steps necessary to safeguard Jewish lives. Additionally, leadership based on Jewish values understands that Arabs can not feel loyal to Israel as a Jewish State. The Israeli government pretends that this problem does not exist, as it points out the facts that Israeli-Arabs have a higher standard of living than Arabs in any Arab country, and that Israeli-Arabs have more rights in Israel than they would have in any Arab country. The above statements are true, yet they are not a complete picture. Israeli-Arabs certainly enjoy these rights, yet how can anyone think that they will ever sing the Israeli national anthem, HaTikvah, whose lyrics discuss the yearning of the Jewish soul for the Land of Israel and Jerusalem. How can anyone think that Israeli-Arabs will ever feel like anything less than second-class citizens while Israel even nominally pretends to be a Jewish state? The current and previous Israeli governments have allowed areas where "Israeli"-Arabs live throughout Israel to become unpoliced terrorist safe havens where anti-Israel resentment runs deep. The results of this policy have proven disastrous. Jews know all too well that a wrong turn while driving almost anywhere in Israel can spell the end of their lives. Is this any way to live? Israeli-Arabs should be encouraged with significant financial incentives to make their homes and futures elsewhere. Instead of financing the fraudulent "peace process" at the cost of 1.5 billion dollars each year, Israel could easily underwrite this emigration in less than a decade. Moshe Feiglin –– chairman of the Manhigut Yehudit faction of the Likud party –– sums up the entire problem and its solution when he states that: "The only answer to the lethal Arab nationalism is a return to our values." Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) is a group of people inside the Likud party who want to see Israel adopt a more Jewish character. Moshe Feiglin, its cofounder, has emphatically said he does not want a theocracy, but he does want a State based on Jewish values. The Manhigut Yehudit website address is http://www.manhigut.org. To learn more about Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) and to read their plan for Israel's future, visit www.jewishisrael.org. Or contact Shmuel Sackett, International Director (516) 330-4922 (cell) |
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FROM ISRAEL: IRAN AND THE US
Posted by Arlene Kushner, July 7, 2008. |
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In the last few days, there has been a series of leaks from the American establishment with regard to the possibility of an Israeli attack on Iran. None was more startling than the comment last week by Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, that an Israeli strike on Iran might "destabilize" the region. One was forced to ponder whether Mullen considered the possibility that Iran might develop nuclear capacity something that would lead to relative stability in the admittedly volatile Middle East. Mullen had been briefed by Israeli military brass in Washington recently, but declines to indicate what he knows about Israeli intentions. His concern, as voiced, was that opening a "third front" –– in addition to Iraq and Afghanistan –– would be very stressful, though not impossible, for the US. ~~~~~~~~~~ According to some analysts the intensifying US debate regarding the repercussions of what Israel might do reflects two camps at odds with each other within the US: Vice President Dick Cheney, who is for an attack on Iran, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who is opposed. At the end of the day, Israel requires US support in order to attack, because we would go through US controlled airspace over Iraq and because we would require help in responding after the fact. ~~~~~~~~~~ The sense I've had in the last few days regarding Arabs with Jerusalem residency cards is that they're running scared. There were loud protests from the neighborhood of Sur Bahir that Husam Taysir Dwayat wasn't a terrorist at all, but only an Arab who liked Jews and happened to go berserk. There are several flaws in this reasoning, however. One is the fact that he shouted Allah Akhbar! which is what terrorists shout when about to kill Jews. And that an aunt of his, on hearing the news, yelled, "He's a shahid ! (martyr)." Then there is the information that Dwayat was convicted a few years ago of raping a Jewish woman. Rape is an act of aggression. And in an interview given yesterday to the Post, the Jewish woman who lived with him for some time (and with whom he fathered a child) said she left him because he was abusive: "He would really hit me hard..." ~~~~~~~~~~ The decision was made a few days ago to raze his house, and with it the house of Ala Abu Dhaim of Jebl Mukaber, the Mercaz Harav yeshiva terrorist. This was after Attorney General Menahem Mazuz had informed the government that "In view of the rulings of the High Court of Justice over many years, it cannot be said that there is a legal obstacle to activating the authority to demolish homes." However, he said, in a statement that was not clarified in the press, "such action arouses significant legal difficulties." And so, Defense Minister Barak gave the IDF the order to begin the demolition process. But –– wouldn't you know it? –– in short order there was backtracking. Seems another family lives in the house where the Dwayat family lives. So it has been decided to seal the living quarters of the Dwayat family, which doesn't not have the same impact. Apparently no one was interested in pursuing the option of simply relocating that other family. The home of the family of Abu Dhaim will also be sealed rather than razed, even though I haven't heard of any other family living there. ~~~~~~~~~~ Preliminary work has begun on adjusting legislation so that families of terrorists will not receive Israeli benefits. As the law is structured now, Dwayat's widow is eligible for benefits. Yes, I know this is incredible. And the family of Dwayat has been prohibited by the police from erecting a traditional mourning tent. ~~~~~~~~~~ An update on the "pretend" ceasefire: Intermittently we continue to be hit by rockets and mortars (a mortar was fired just today). Although Hamas has not fired any of these weapons, Israel is holding it responsible. One of the groups that does fire rockets –– along with Fatah's Al Aksa Brigades –– is Islamic Jihad, ostensibly because of "ceasefire violations" in Judea and Samaria. But we hadn't agreed to a ceasefire in Judea and Samaria, although that is what the terrorists had been plugging for. We're continuing to take out terrorists there, which isn't sitting well with IJ. ~~~~~~~~~~ In fact, the IDF is also gearing up for major operations in Judea and Samaria against Hamas civilian infrastructure. A senior IDF officer was reported by Haaretz as saying of Hamas: "They have knowledge, funds and skilled people, much more so than Fatah....They won the elections in many towns and local authorities, and they are gradually gaining control of more education, health, welfare and religious institutions...The Palestinian public prefers Hamas, because they are less corrupt and more efficient." As Hamas has taken over not just blatantly Islamic bodies, but also those that used to be under PA control, this is an attempt to strengthen the PA, which currently has little control. The IDF has received permission to confiscate buses, prohibit the opening of a school with Islamic ties, and shut down offices and warehouses tied to providing funds for Hamas. Just today four facilities associated with a Hamas-affiliated charity were closed in Nablus. The first question that comes to mind in is how long the "lull" in Gaza will last with this going on. And the second is how it can be imagined that this will "strengthen" the PA if it needs the IDF to step in for it. ~~~~~~~~~~ In spite of the intermittent fire alluded to above, we have opened crossings into Gaza off and on. Presumably we are closing the crossings for a day or two every time there are rockets fired, but it doesn't seem to have a noticeable effect. In a breathtakingly foolish statement last week, Olmert declared that "an absolute lull cannot be imposed within a short while, and therefore we have shown and will show some patience. However, no one should interpret this patience as weakness." Really? Please see the Jerusalem Post article detailing what Hamas is doing to strengthen for war under cover of the ceasefire, and then decide for yourself if our sitting still is a weakness: www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1214726193470&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull ~~~~~~~~~~ Meanwhile, Hamas declared on Friday that it was discontinuing negotiations on Shalit –– with Abu Marzuk telling Al Hayat in London that Hamas would not send a delegation to the talks that were supposed to take place in Cairo. First there was some claim about unspecified ceasefire violations that Israel was said to be guilty of. But then came the truth of the matter, with an unnamed "activist" with Hamas telling the paper that: "After the prisoner swap deal between Israel and Lebanon, according to which Lebanese prisoner Samir Kuntar is slated to go free, Israel is expected to display greater flexibility in talks over a prisoner swap with Hamas." This was so predictable. So painfully predictable. ~~~~~~~~~~ Today the brothers of Eliyahu Shahar, a police office killed by Kuntar at the same time that he murdered Danny Haran and his daughter in 1979, have appealed to the High Court to block his release. The way these things work, I have doubts that the appeal will be successful, but it's certainly worth the try. The process for releasing Kuntar apparently requires having the president, Shimon Peres, pardon him. That won't happen until a "certain" stage, when everything is in place, but the mere thought of "pardoning" him, even if it is simply form, brings shudders. At present Israel is exhuming bodies of some 200 terrorists, which are to be returned. Someone from the rabbinate, which will be supervising this, made a point of saying that dead bodies are treated with respect, no matter whose they are. Let the world note this. The Israeli government doesn't consider the deal finalized yet, as a report on Ron Arad that was part of the agreement has not yet been read. Arad was captured after his plane went down over Lebanon in 1886; while he is now presumed dead, no definitive information on him has been forthcoming. Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info |
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29 MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN ARE IN DANGER –– YOU CAN HELP THEM
Posted by Lee Caplan, July 7, 2008. |
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As you know, terrorists are about to be released into the streets of the free world, however, this "deal" is fortunately not yet final. The chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, MK Zachi Hanegbi, caused a sensation when he revealed to Maariv this week that last time, 29 Israelis were murdered by terrorists who were released by the Sharon government, within only 18 months of the release date. Be part of the solution –– not part of the problem. We can all help save the next 29 lives. Jot down the telephone number of Prime Minister Olmert's office on a piece of paper: 02-6705555. Then, call that office EVERY DAY unless G-d forbid you hear that Samir Kuntar and the other terrorists have been released. Say to the phone-person who answers: "I would like to dictate to you, a message for the Prime Minister". Dictate a short message, and ask the phone-person to please read it back to you to make sure it's right. Thank you so much for caring. Incidentally you are helping not only innocent Israelis but ALSO the families of the soldiers, because when people pressure the government to release terrorists, foolishly thinking they are helping the families, the result is in fact the exact opposite (as disclosed by Maariv deputy editor Ben-Dror Yemini this week): the terrorist organizations immediately jack up their demands. So, do the right thing –– make a daily phone call to Olmert with a message: DON'T RELEASE TERRORISTS. You can fax, too: 02-6546717. Pass this on, please. Contact Lee Caplan at leescaplan@yahoo.com |
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WORST OF TIMES FOR IRAN
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 7, 2008. |
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This was written by Spengler and it appeared in Asia Times http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JF24Ak03.html |
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"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure 19 pounds 19 shillings and six pence, result happiness. Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure 20 pounds and six pence, result misery," said Charles Dickens' Wilkins Micawber in the novel David Copperfield. Households in President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's Iran must suffer on a Dickensian scale, for they spend 10% more than their income, according to the country's central bank. Iran's data are more hilarious than reliable, to be sure, but they illustrate how ordinary Iranians are perishing in a sea of petrodollars. The price of oil more than doubled since I warned last year (Why Iran will fight, not compromise Asia Times Online, May 30, 2007) that Iran's Islamic kleptocracy had reached the end of its rope. Despite the surge in oil revenues, conditions are worse than they were a year ago, as the price of necessities soars out of ordinary reach. Not only the theft of the oil windfall, but the manner of the heft, puts Adhmadinejad's political future in doubt, as Sami Moubayed reported on this site on June 21 ('President' Larijani: A star is born). Changing the man at the top, however, is no cure for fecklessness of Central African proportions. Underneath Iran's imperial ambitions and messianic pretensions suppurates a pre-modern patronage system that corrupts everyone who comes near it. The system is rotten, and must either break down, or break out, that is, through military adventures. Western observers who hope for reduced tensions through replacing the feckless Ahmadinejad with Majlis (parliament) speaker Ali Larijani will be disappointed. On that more below. Iran's economic disaster looms large in the twilight war now in progress in the Middle East. Israel has just conducted the sort of public display of force that a nation does not do if it actually plans a surprise attack. Israel engages Syria, Egypt engages Hamas, and everyone else engages Iran –– but to what end? It may be Sitzkrieg (sitting or phony war), but it is war nonetheless. Wars arise not from whim, but from circumstances that the prospective belligerents cannot bear. Iran has shown in the most vivid fashion that it cannot solve its internal problems. It is therefore likely to seek an external solution. What happened to the US$35 billion of oil revenues that Iran's Shabab News, in a now notorious account, claims disappeared from official accounting during the year through March 2008? Half the country's oil revenues disappeared from the books. A great deal of it left the country for banks in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere; capital flight already was running at a $15 billion annual rate last year, by my estimate. During the past year, though, conspicuous consumption in the form of a luxury housing boom has absorbed even more of Iran's oil windfall. Luxury apartments in Tehran's better neighborhoods now sell for $15,000 per square meter, Agence France Presse reported May 26, equal to the best neighborhoods in Paris or New York. A 200-square-meter apartment in northern Tehran sells for about $1 million. Real estate prices in outlying suburbs and some provincial cities have doubled over the past year. Corruption has metastasized, that is to say, for the scale of the property boom implies that tens of thousands of Iranians are taking six-to-seven figure bites out of the oil budget. Rather than a handful of officials siphoning state funds into bank accounts in Dubai, an entire class of hangers-on of the Islamic revolution is spending sums beyond the dreams of the average Iranian, and in brazen public view. Ahmadinejad's patronage system generates payoffs to the political class that have set in motion uncontrolled inflation –– officially 25% per year but certainly much higher –– and a rush into real assets. A side effect is that the average Iranian urban household, which spends $316 a month, is gradually being priced out of the rental market. Not only rents but foodstuffs, fuel and other essentials have registered double- or triple-digit price increases during recent months, according to fragmentary reports trickling out of the country. The government's 25% inflation figure cannot be correct. The German Suddeutsche Zeitung's Tehran correspondent wrote on June 17, "Price increases follow one another in batches. After the prices of rice and detergent suddenly jumped by a multiple, tea prices have their turn. In just a few days different types of tea have become 300% to 700% more expensive." It is too early to speak of hyperinflation, but the the Iranian bazaar already presents with symptoms of incipient hyperinflation. How do households survive? "Iranian urban households spent an average of 35 million rials (US$$3,700) for current annual living expenses (about 2.9 million rials per month)" in fiscal year 2005-2006, reports the country's central bank, of which just under 30% bought food. But it also reports that "urban households had an annual average gross income of 31,674 thousand rials [US$$3,423], about 2,640 thousand rials per month, out of which 74.6% was the share of money income and 25.4% was the share of non-money income." These are the most recent data available from the central bank, which does not explain how it is possible for households to spend more than they earn in a country that has no consumer credit (nor for that matter what "non-money income" involves). Part of the explanation seems to be that every poor Iranian has a part-time job, from selling black-market gasoline to prostitution. The latter appears to be the most lucrative source of extra household income. Some 300,000 prostitutes ply the streets of Tehran, or one out of 10 of the city's female population of child-bearing age, [1] according to the most frequently cited sources (see Jihadis and whores Asia Times Online, November 21, 2006.) In addition, tens of thousands of Iranian women are working as prostitutes abroad, notoriously in the Gulf States, but in Europe and Japan as well. The US State Department recently downgraded Iran to a "Level III" country, that is, one that does nothing to suppress the trade in female flesh. Prostitution incorporates such a large proportion of Iran's marriageable females as to accelerate the country's demographic decline, which by 2030 will leave Iran with as high a proportion of pensioners as Western Europe, just as its oil reserves run out. Unlike Norway, which entrusted its oil windfalls to a national trust under professional management, Iran has allowed the political class to steal its patrimony. The Persian pocket empire never had a government or a civil society: it only had a court and a bazaar, which are incapable of managing the affairs of a modern society. There is no political party, no social movement, in fact no form of popular organization of any kind capable of handling $350 million a day of oil revenue at present prices. "Regime change" is a buzzword among Western strategists, but it is not at all clear what sort of regime might replace the court-and-bazaar combination that has characterized Persian politics for the past 2,600 years. Apart from a thin crust of Western-oriented students in the larger cities, the Iranian population remains sullenly dependent on state subsidies as well as its own cupidity. Apart from oil, Iran exports mainly fruits and nuts. Its most talented people have emigrated, leaving behind only the leeches of the bazaar who hope to grow fat on state oil money. Its demographic problems are insoluble. It has no employment to offer its last generation of young people, half of whom have no visible employment, and no way to support a rapidly aging population. I am in no position to judge the likelihood that the Twelfth Imam of Shi'ite soteriology will reappear in the near future, but it is a fair assertion that nothing else is likely to steer the Persian pocket empire out of the ditch. Western analysts start with the premise that a solution exists for every problem, and set out to find it. I do not believe there is any way to save Iran from terminal dysfunction; it is only possible to prevent Iran's problems from turning into a disaster for the region. It is no surprise that Iran's leaders remain obsessed with Shi'ite revolution. Larijani told the Islamic Coalition Party on June 19, "The jihadi forces of the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas are the pioneers of change in today's world," Iran's official press agency reported. Larijani added, "Interpreting the moves made within the Islamic World as terrorism under such conditions that the Islamic society enjoys the pride of having jihadi combatants is a grave mistake, since those groups are the soldiers of Almighty Allah." IRNA continued: Larijani reiterated, "During the course of the 33-day war [in 2006] the global arrogance invaded against an oppressed nation with all its might having assumed that they could in confrontation with the jihadi combatants fighting for Allah's sake crash them fatally." The fact that Larijani holds a doctorate in European philosophy and has authored books on the philosopher Immanuel Kant impressed political observers in Germany, that is, until he spoke at the annual Munich Conference on Security in February 2007. As Der Spiegel reported, "Larijani was cornered. In his answer he talked about an 'overreaction' to the Holocaust. In any case, he said, 'That's a historical matter,' which has 'nothing to do with us'. He was 'neither for, nor against' the idea that the Holocaust had really occurred, saying it was an 'open question'. He thus delicately danced around a straight denial of the Holocaust, which is illegal in Germany. If Larijani had voiced the well-known opinion of his own president, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, he could have been arrested." Adhmadinejad is a boor from the back streets of Tehran, while Larijani is the polished son and the son-in-law of two ayatollahs. No matter; German universities during the 1930s were crawling with Kant scholars who enthused for Adolf Hitler. Larijani's enthusiasm for the blood of martyrs as the determinant of national destiny is not a philosophical, but an existential view, and Iran is one of the few venues in the world in which existential despair is sadly justified. Note 1. Assuming that the distribution of female population in Tehran is the same as that in all of Iran. According to United Nations population data, in 2005 half of Iran's women were between 15 and 44 years of age. Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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SECULAR DON'T WANT 'JUDAISM' –– BUT SEEK 'TORAH'
Posted by Hillel Fendel, July 7, 2008. |
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A survey shows that 79% of secular Jews in Israel don't want to learn Judaism. Outreach groups say the situation they encounter is very different. The survey was commissioned by the Gesher Institute and Ynet, and was carried out by the Motagim polling institute among 500 Jewish adult respondents –– hareidi-religious, religious-Zionist, and secular. Asked if they study Judaism, 10% said they do not but would like to, while 60% said they do not and are not interested in doing so. Among the remaining 30%, slightly more than a quarter study Torah in an organized framework such as a yeshiva or university. Analysis of the results shows that among those who are secular, 79% say they have no interest in studying Judaism. Meir Shwartz, Chairman of the Lev Yehudi (Jewish Heart) outreach organization, said that this finding flies in the face of his personal experience: "We see that there is simply a great thirst for Judaism, and we can now say that most of the secular schools in the country teach Judaism –– at least one hour a week, and usually more –– with observant teachers." Yisrael Ze'ira, head of the Rosh Yehudi (Jewish Mindset) organization, said, "There is big difference between asking secular Jews if they want to learn Judaism or if they want to study Torah. The word Judaism is still associated with the negative way in which religion and religious Jews are portrayed in the media. But we see that in practice, the trend is exactly the opposite; there is a great thirst for 'Torah,' in a big way. In our Rosh Yehudi centers, we see that new people keep coming to join us and to study Torah with us –– and they generally ask, 'Where have you been hiding until now?'" "What is needed now," Ze'ira said, "is for religious people to present, in a pleasant manner, the Torah as the great and sublime thing that it is, not in the small-minded way it is sometimes portrayed; the time for action has arrived." Religion and the Media The survey also dealt with "religion and the media." When the respondents were asked how they view the media's coverage of Judaism-related topics, the answer "negatively and vacuously" was chosen more than any of the other answers. This trend was clear in all three groupings –– hareidi-religious, religious-Zionist, and secular. A total of 25% chose this answer, while 19% said the media covers Judaism as a political agenda. 18% were satisfied with the coverage, 7% said there was too much coverage, and the others did not respond. Hillel Fendel is Senior News Editor for Arutz-Sheva (www.Israel National News.com). |
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WHAT DRIVES AHMADINEJAD?
Posted by Jonathan Halevi and Ashley Perry, July 7, 2008. |
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Iranian president wants to set stage for appearance of Shiite messiah |
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Shiite Iran is striving to attain the position of regional superpower en route to becoming a significant nuclear power on the international stage. Iran openly challenges the West in its attempt to eject the Americans and British from Iraq and attain hegemony in the Persian Gulf region, supported among other, by its military program, massively built up in recent years. The Iranian leadership talks of a "New Middle East" in response to the West, which would be an Islamic Middle East in the mold of the Iranian inspired Islamic revolution. Iran's political aspirations are driven by a deep religious zeal. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeatedly pledges "the imminent and evident liquidation of Israel," as a code word for the messianic fervor he shares with his spiritual mentor, Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, one of the more radical ayatollahs, who subscribes to diplomatic and military activism to advance the global Islamic revolution spearheaded by Iran. Former President Khatami, an Iranian reformist, once referred to Yazdi as "the theoretician of violence." In 2006, Yazdi's leading disciple, Mohsen Gharavian, released a ruling or fatwa sanctioning the use of nuclear weapons against other nations. This is in distinction to Iranian diplomats in the West who repeatedly say that nuclear weapons are opposed by Islam and thus will not be sought. In language reminiscent of Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa against Salman Rushdie, Ahmadinejad's mentor also ruled that "If anyone insults the Islamic sanctity, Islam has permitted for his blood to be spilled, with no legal proceedings necessary." Addressing senior religious scholars in mid November 2005, Ahmadinejad did not attempt to hold back his true motives and intentions. Our basic goal, he noted, is to set the stage for the Mahdi, the Shiite messiah, or the "vanished Imam." He went on to state that in order to bring this about, Iran must set an Islamic example, develop a strong society and forge government policy in various fields, endeavoring to realize the goal of the end of time vision whereupon the Mahdi will appear. As mayor of Tehran, for example, Mr. Ahmadinejad appears to have in 2004 secretly instructed the city council to build a grand avenue to prepare for the Mahdi. A year later, as president, he allocated $17 million for a blue-tiled mosque closely associated with mahdaviat in Jamkaran, south of the capital in the city of Qum. He has also instigated the building of a direct Tehran-Jamkaran railroad line. Signs of messianic redemption Such is the religious fervor associated with the mosque, every Tuesday night, the predicted evening of the Mahdi's arrival, thousands of Iranians gather at the shrine of Jamkaran. They write wishes on pieces of paper and throw them in a well where the imam is supposed to have appeared. Ahmadinejad had a list of his proposed cabinet members dropped into a well adjacent to the Jamkaran Mosque, it is said, to benefit from its purported divine connection. Most worryingly, Ahmadinejad openly espouses the belief that his rule is the harbinger of the Mahdi. In a speech at the UN in 2006 in the presence of many world leaders, Ahmadinejad closed his speech with a prayer: "O mighty Lord, I pray to you to hasten the emergence of your last repository, the Promised One, that perfect and pure human being, the one that will fill this world with justice and peace." A book published In Lebanon last year focuses on Ahmadinejad's Shiite vision of the Mahdi, titled "Ahmadinejad and the next global revolution." The author, Shadi Fakiya, establishes a direct linkage between Ahmadinejad and the Mahdi. Fakiya claims that the current Iranian president fits the description of the commander of the Mahdi forces which liberated Jerusalem according to Shiite belief. Ahmadinejad is depicted as being determined and guided directly by Allah, and believing that the "army of the liberation of Jerusalem" will pass through Iraq, similar to Ayatollah Khomeini, who claimed that "the road to Jerusalem passes through Karbala" (a holy Shiite town in Iraq.) Ahmadinejad's determination to acquire nuclear weapons is also construed as being part of the signs of messianic redemption, as he and his associates view the showdown with the international community to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear technology as one of the ways to prepare the ground for the appearance of the Mahdi. 'Jews are corrupting Islam' As in Christianity, the Shiite messiah will be predated by an anti-Christ, or in Shiite belief, the dajjal. Muslim tradition predicts that in the "End Times," the Dajjal and his army will threaten to take over the entire globe, conquering much of it by military power, and seducing others with material prosperity. The Mahdi will then appear and destroy the dajjal and rule the world according to Sharia law. Although historically there are is little known of the identity of the dajjal, more and more Shiite Imams are claiming that the dajjal and his followers are Jews. These extremist Imams and their followers point to the anti-Semitic forgery "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" as proof that the Jews are running the world and corrupting Islam. Already in the 1970s Ayatollah Khomeini wrote in his Vilayat-i Faqih, in Islam and Revolution that the Jews were perverting Islam and thus deserved of divine retribution. Ahmadinejad's obsession with Israel leads many to believe that he believes Israel to be absolute evil and fits the role of the supposed dajjal. The Iranian president's other obsession, disproving the Holocaust, also fits nicely into the belief that the dajjal manages to fool the world with its lies. The present era, according to Fakiya, is the "era of revelation," whereby various signs foretell the appearance of the Mahdi: Firstly, there will be a gathering of the Jews in Palestine. Following this, the Shiite Mahdi will appear and lead the decisive campaign to annihilate the Jews. This will be followed by the establishment of an Islamic state as the first stage of creating the worldwide Imam state. An important element for this constitutes an Iraqi regime loyal to Iran. The depiction of the Khorasani in the Shiite vision of the end of time is compatible with Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenai, the present supreme ruler of Iran. The Khorasani will hand over the torch to the Mahdi when he appears, and he will become the most senior among the Muslims. The description of Shuyeb bin Salah applies to Ahmadinejad. Shuyeb, also known as al-Shabi al-Salah, is the figure who will lead the Mahdi's army, according to the Shiite tradition, i.e. the commander of the Muslim forces. Shuyeb is depicted as being suntanned, thin, wearing a short beard, hailing from Tehran, determined and warlike. It is thought by many that Ahmadinejad sees himself in this role as he appears to fit this historical description. Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan D. Halevi is a senior researcher of the Middle East and radical Islam at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He is the co-founder of the Orient Research Group Ltd. and is a former advisor to the Policy Planning Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ashley Perry is a political analyst who has worked with many organizations including the Israel Prime Minister's Office and the editor of the Middle East Strategic Information project. Contact Ashley Perry by email at perry@jcpa.org |
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SCANDAL! SHIMSHON CYTRYN SENT TO JAIL, AGAIN!
Posted by AFSI, July 7, 2008. | |
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This comes from Nadia and David Matar (nmatar@netvision.net.il), who write: Dear Friends, | |
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Once again we are witnessing a case of judicial persecution against lovers of the Land of Israel by a leftist anti-Jewish Israeli Injustice system. Let's remember that the same government and powers to be that persecute loyal and innocent Jews, has, over the past year and a half, released close to 1500 Arab terrorists! It is simply unbearable! We cannot allow Shimshon Cytryn to go to jail without making a loud geshrei and protest. The public is asked to accompany Shimshon on the day he is asked to show up to jail. That day is SUNDAY, JULY 13th,at 9:00 am at the entrance to the BEERSHEVA MAGISTRATES COURT. We realize that on that same day, at approximately the same time, friends and family of the Harel-Levinstein brothers are organizing a vigil in front of the President's house in Jerusalem, demanding their release. We are sure that our national camp has enough activists to ensure that there will be supporters in both places –– in Jerusalem and in Beersheva. In addition it is of utmost importance to have a lot of public pressure demanding Shimshon's release. Not only do we need to bombard with faxes and emails the offices of the President and the ministry of Justice, President's house
Minister of Justice Daniel Friedman
but we turn to all friends of Israel in the USA to telephone –– rather than e-mail –– the Israeli Embassy or the Israeli consulate nearest you and demand to express your outrage at the latest decision by the state prosecution and the Supreme Court in the case of Shimshon Cytryn, a U.S. citizen. The embassy's phone number is 202-364-5500. Stress, that as an American citizen, you can ask the State Department to investigate what you feel is clearly a human rights violation. Now, in addition, we are asking you to call your member of Congress and raise the issue of Shimshon Cytryn. Obviously, in that same phonecall, you can mention the other cases of persecution and injustice against lovers of Israel (the Rivka Maierchik case, the Halamish case, the Levinstein-Harel case etc...). We also ask you to call the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and inform them of Shimshon and demand an investigation. Tell the department officer you have also raised these cases with your member of Congress. The State Department's main numbers are 202-647-4000 or 1-800-877-8339. The Olmert government, with an approval rating of near zero, has refused any accountability to the Israeli people and fears only the US administration. Unless we act now, there will be many more Shimshons and Rivkas and Mordys and Elitzurs and Itziks and Dannys in jail. If you agree with this, please act quickly. What could be more important than winning the release of a Jewish youth imprisoned for loving his/ her country and people? (thank you to Pidyon Shvuim for the info in this latest paragraph)
Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI is a pro-active pro-Israel advocacy group. AFSI may be contacted by mail at 1623 Third Ave., Suite 205, New York, N.Y. 10128 (Tel: 212-828-2424; Fax: 212-828-1717); by email at afsi@rcn.com; or by accessing its website: www.afsi.org. Barry Freedman is Executive Director. |
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WHY OBAMA'S BAD FOR ISRAEL; DISPARITY IN SPIES' SENTENCES; NAMING OUR ENEMY; CEASEFIRE STRATEGY
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 7, 2008. |
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WHY EUROPE BETRAYS ISRAEL Europe learned the wrong lesson from WWII. It concluded that nationalism is bad. Actually, nationalism is neutral. Evil is bad. Europe should have learned to recognize and fight evil. Instead, it engages in moral relativism (Caroline Glick, IMRA, 6/17). There are other factors, too. CONVENIENCE FOR CIVILIAN LIFE The US keeps demanding that Israel sacrifice security measures in order to make life more convenient for P.A. civilians. The State Dept. says nothing about making life more convenient for Israeli civilians. However, Israeli restaurants had to hire security guards against terrorists and Israelis must submit to roadblocks, too (Op. Cit.). Israel is attacked almost every day. ITALY NOW PRO-AMERICAN The new government of Italy joins those of France and Germany in being pro-American. PM Berlusconi is changing the rules governing Italian troops in Afghanistan to permit them to fight aggressively against the Taliban (Caroline Glick, Ibid.). WHAT SEC. RICE DOESN'T DENOUNCE She denounces Israel's building of houses for Jews in certain parts of Jerusalem. She denounces Israeli security measures against terrorism emanating from Judea-Samaria. What she doesn't denounce is Fatah negotiating unity with Hamas. She is trying to set up a jihadist state in Judea-Samaria, just as her policy helped establish one in Gaza. Her policy towards Iran and N. Korea have been disastrous (Ibid.). WHY OBAMA BAD FOR ISRAEL (& THE U.S.) Obama refuses to understand there is a jihad against the free world or that there are enemies. Therefore, he doesn't understand the value of allies. US pressure on Israel weakens it and emboldens the jihadists to attack it. US policy in this (which Obama is likely to keep), tends to induce Muslim aggression. When the US weakens Israel, the US seems weak, and invites Islamic aggression against the US, too (Ibid.). BUSH'S SELF-CONTRADICTION Britain claims that not having an Arab state in the P.A. causes the Mideast wars. En route to Britain, Pres. Bush told a British newspaper that no, the cause of the Mideast wars (now, that is) is Iran. Iran is fueling several proxy wars or war buildups, including the P.A. war. In addition, Iran is developing nuclear weapons for war and intimidation. What does Bush propose to do about Iran? Not much. He supports some mild European sanctions (that Iran already rejected). He says he favors Europe's approach, which is to deal with Iran diplomatically and through the UNO. He more or less rules out force and even overthrowing the Iranian regime. Without US support, the Iranian people are not likely to revolt. Iran confronts the US in Iraq and elsewhere. It is getting everything its own way. Nevertheless, the US military oppose a US raid on the Iranian camps that train jihadists to fight against the US in Iraq, lest it lead to a confrontation with Iran. Although Hizbullah now dominates Lebanon, and dictated to the Lebanese Army, Pres. Bush offered military aid to the Lebanese Army. Although Bush admits that Lebanon has made a proxy out of the P.A., he supports the P.A. against Israel in various ways. Fatah has become a diplomatic cover for Hamas [since both share the same jihad], so Bush administration support for Fatah amounts to support for Hamas. Bush's rhetoric is disconnected from his policies (Caroline Glick, IMRA, 6/17). Actually, the cause of Mideast wars aside from imperialism is Islam. DISPARITY IN SPIES' SENTENCES Jonathan Pollard was not indicted for causing the US harm or for profiting from his espionage in the US. Meng, a Canadian of Chinese birth was convicted of profiting from his espionage in the US and of harming US national security, by selling fighter plane pilot training software to China. Meng could have been sentenced to 25 years. According to revised sentencing standards, Pollard's crime now would incur a maximum sentence of 10 years. Meng was fined and sentenced to two years in prison. Pollard was not fined but was sentenced to life and already has served 22 years. This discrimination is an affront to the Jewish people (IMRA, 6/19) The reduction in the sentence for Pollard's type of crime to less than half of what he already served would, itself, justify clemency by Pres. bush. BUSH'S SELF-CONTRADICTION Britain claims that not having an Arab state in the P.A. causes the Mideast wars. En route to Britain, Pres. Bush told a British newspaper that no, the cause of the Mideast wars (now, that is) is Iran. Iran is fueling several proxy wars or war buildups, including the P.A. war. In addition, Iran is developing nuclear weapons for war and intimidation. What does Bush propose to do about Iran? Not much. He supports some mild European sanctions (that Iran already rejected). He says he favors Europe's approach, which is to deal with Iran diplomatically and through the UNO. He more or less rules out force and even overthrowing the Iranian regime. Without US support, the Iranian people are not likely to revolt. Iran confronts the US in Iraq and elsewhere. It is getting everything its own way. Nevertheless, the US military oppose a US raid on the Iranian camps that train jihadists to fight against the US in Iraq, lest it lead to a confrontation with Iran. though Hizbullah now dominates Lebanon, and dictated to the Lebanese Army, Pres. Bush offered military aid to the Lebanese Army. itish newspaper that no, the cause of the Mideast wars (now, that is) is Iran. Iran is fueling several proxy wars or war buildups, including the P.A. war. In addition, Iran is developing nuclear weapons for war and intimidation. What does Bush propose to do about Iran? Not much. He supports some mild European sanctions (that Iran already rejected). He says he favors Europe's approach, which is to deal with Iran diplomatically and through the UNO. He more or less rules out force and even overthrowing the Iranian regime. Without US support, the Iranian people are not likely to revolt. Iran confronts the US in Iraq and elsewhere. It is getting everything its own way. Nevertheless, the US military oppose a US raid on the Iranian camps that train jihadists to fight against the US in Iraq, lest it lead to a confrontation with Iran. Although Hizbullah now dominates Lebanon, and dictated to the Lebanese Army, Pres. Bush offered military aid to the Lebanese Army. Although Bush admits that Lebanon has made a proxy out of the P.A., he supports the P.A. against Israel in various ways. Fatah has become a diplomatic cover for Hamas [since both share the same jihad], so Bush administration support for Fatah amounts to support for Hamas. Bush's rhetoric is disconnected from his policies (Caroline Glick, IMRA, 6/17). Actually, the cause of Mideast wars aside from imperialism is Islam. DISPARITY IN SPIES' SENTENCES Jonathan Pollard was not indicted for causing the US harm or for profiting from his espionage in the US. Meng, a Canadian of Chinese birth was convicted of profiting from his espionage in the US and of harming US national security, by selling fighter plane pilot training software to China. Meng could have been sentenced to 25 years. According to revised sentencing standards, Pollard's crime now would incur a maximum sentence of 10 years. Meng was fined and sentenced to two years in prison. Pollard was not fined but was sentenced to life and already has served 22 years. This discrimination is an affront to the Jewish people (IMRA, 6/19) The reduction in the sentence for Pollard's type of crime to less than half of what he already served would, itself, justify clemency by Pres. bush. INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TERRORISM The conference was held in India. It did not define terrorism (IMRA, /19). The West has a definition. Terrorism is deliberately and physically attacking civilians and organizing to do so, for religious and political ends. This definition is similar to the definition in international law of common enemies of mankind. Why don't people in and near Islamic regions accept that definition? Muslims don't like it, because it is accurate. They try to redefine it by motive rather than by victim. That way they exempt their motive or alleged motive. They lie about their motive, too. They call it national liberation. Actually, their motive is religious imperialism, religious genocide, or national domination. WE DON'T NAME OUR ENEMY Pres. Bush admits that he misnamed the new, totalitarian enemy of civilization as terrorism. He learned that terrorism is just the means. He and PM Blair tried to rename the enemy as radical Islamism, militant Jihadism, or Islamo-fascism. They got criticized for it, so they backed off. [Our leaders should not fear criticism by our enemies or by ignorant naifs.] Unable to identify the enemy, we failed to develop a logical strategy for defeating it. If we really recognized that the enemy is radical Islamism, then it follows logically that we have to defeat the ideology and what promotes that ideology, and we need Muslims to rally against that ideology and affirm a non-radical, non-violent version of their own faith. Our methods should not be limited to Iraq and Afghanistan and military. Besides conventional warfare, our methods should be ideological, propaganda, counter-terrorism (and economic). We also must repel "the lawful Islamists who work legitimately within the educational, religious, media, legal, and political arenas." [They operate lawfully, in order to overthrow the law, our society, and our freedom. Let us declare war and ban them!] "The second goal involves helping Muslims who oppose Islamist goals and wish to offer an alternative to Islamism's depravities by reconciling Islam with the best of modern ways. But such Muslims are weak, being but fractured individuals who have only just begun the hard work of researching, communicating, organizing, funding, and mobilizing." "To do all this more quickly and effectively, these moderates need non-Muslim encouragement and sponsorship. However unimpressive they may be at present, moderates, with Western support, alone hold the potential to modernize Islam, and thereby to terminate the threat of Islamism." The answer is not conflict management, political correctness, or appeasement, but victory (Daniel Pipes #862, 6/19). CEASEFIRE STRATEGY ANALYZED The ceasefire is so bad for Israel strategically, that one hopes the Arabs soon violate it. What recourse would Israel take? When Israel merely complained about Egypt's gross failure to stop arms smuggling, Egypt created a diplomatic crisis from which Israel backed down. Israel is leaving the Arabs proof in the ceasefire arrangements and arguments that it is paralyzed by fear of criticism or of casualties. That encourages Arab aggression. "...the military development program in the Gaza Strip is being directed by Iranian experts. This means not only a rapidly accelerated Gaza weapons industry (not prohibited by the ceasefire) but also sophisticated tactics, military construction and professionally run training programs so that the Hamas army can reach a self sustained critical mass possessing the military skills needed to carry out their war against the Jewish State considerably more effectively." It might do so in coordination with other enemy armies. Expect Israel to be pressed to make additional concessions to Abbas to compensate for his loss of status because of the Gaza ceasefire (IMRA, 6/19). WHAT DOES THE CEASEFIRE INVOLVE? Who knows? The agreement was not put into writing. Different Israeli government spokesmen offer conflicting definitions of it. One said it prohibits terrorism. Another said it permits the terrorists to arm and otherwise prepare for war, so long as they don't shoot. Their explanations to Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA were evasive (IMRA, 6/19). The major media should rebuke the government for being evasive or stop calling Israel such a great democracy. It is unclear whether the agreement binds just Hamas or also the other terrorist organizations in Gaza, or whether Hamas will made the others adhere to it (Arutz-7, 6/19). In previous ceasefires, Hamas gave missiles to other groups to fire at Israel, as if it weren't involved. That's how Arabs break their agreements. While developing the ceasefire, the Olmert regime promised that it would include the return of Hamas' Israeli prisoner and that it would not open the Gaza borders to more deliveries. The agreement did not fulfill those promises (Op. Cit.). Israeli government promises are just for public relations or to stave off critics. Agreement not written down? What ar lack of transparency! No wonder there are different interpretations and no wonder the Arabs will exploit the agreement! Bad enough that Israel and the US don't enforce or void pacts that the Arabs violate. Often, however, those pacts are written ambiguously. Israeli leaders prefer it that way. Then they can claim to have gotten what they wanted, until the public finds out that the Arabs and the US got what they wanted. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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'OBAMA WILL IMMEDIATELY BIRTH PALESTINIAN STATE'
Posted by Chetz, July 7, 2008. |
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This was written by Aaron Klein and it appeared yesterday in World Net Daily |
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JERUSALEM –– The Palestinian Authority is hoping Sen. Barack Obama wins the presidential election in November and expects Obama to immediately set out to create a Palestinian state once he takes office, a top PA official said. "We would like to see Obama elected. If he is elected, an agreement about the foundation of a Palestinian state (would be) reached," PA Planning Minister Samir Abdullah told reporters in Tokyo this weekend. Abdullah, who is the former head of the Palestinian Communist Party, said the PA expects Obama to win in November. He said once the Illinois senator takes office, "he will immediately study the Palestinian cause and will try to push it forward." "Obama promised he will not wait until the last period of his office to relaunch negotiations ... he will begin doing this since his first day in office unlike President Bush, who waited until his last period of power." Abdullah's remarks were published yesterday in the Firas Press Network, a Palestinian news website identified with PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization. Abdullah is not the only Palestinian official to recently express support for Obama. In a headline-making interview, Ahmed Yousuf, Hamas' chief political adviser in the Gaza Strip, told WND and WABC Radio in April he "hopes" Obama becomes president. "We like Mr. Obama, and we hope that he will win the elections," said Yousef. "I hope Mr. Obama and the Democrats will change the political discourse. ... I do believe [Obama] is like John Kennedy, a great man with a great principal. And he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community, but not with humiliation and arrogance," Yousef said, speaking from Gaza. Obama has repeatedly condemned Hamas as a terrorist organization that should be isolated until it renounces violence and recognizes Israel. Obama questioned over ties to Palestinian activist Obama has been assailed over his stated commitment to Israel, although he has repeatedly insisted during interviews he is a strong supporter of the Jewish state. At a recent event in a Boca Raton, Fla. synagogue, participants in a panel discussion quizzed Obama about his relationship with Columbia University Professor Rashid Khalidi, a pro-Palestinian activist and harsh critic of Israel who has been described as a friend of the senator. Obama replied: "You mentioned Rashid Khalidi, who's a professor at Columbia. I do know him, because I taught at the University of Chicago. And he is Palestinian. And I do know him, and I have had conversations. He is not one of my advisers; he's not one of my foreign policy people. His kids went to the Lab school where my kids go as well. He is a respected scholar, although he vehemently disagrees with a lot of Israel's policy." Khalidi's ties to Obama were first exposed by WND in February in a widely cited article. According to a professor at the University of Chicago who said he has known Obama for 12 years, the Democratic presidential hopeful befriended Khalidi when the two worked together at the university. The professor spoke on condition of anonymity. Khalidi lectured at the University of Chicago until 2003 while Obama taught law there from 1993 until his election to the Senate in 2004. Sources at the university told WND that Khalidi and Obama lived in nearby faculty residential zones and that the two families dined together a number of times. The sources said the Obamas even babysat the Khalidi children. Khalidi in 2000 held what was described as a successful fundraiser for Obama's failed bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, a fact not denied by Khalidi, who spoke to WND in February. As WND reported, an anti-Israel Arab group run by Khalidi's wife, Mona, received crucial funding from a Chicago nonprofit, the Woods Fund, for which Obama served as a board member. When Khalidi departed the University of Chicago in 2003, Obama delivered an in-person testimonial at a farewell ceremony reminiscing about conversations over meals prepared by Mona Khalidi. Last month, WND noted Obama termed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a "constant sore" in an interview just five days after Khalidi wrote an opinion piece in the Nation magazine in which he called the "Palestinian question" a "running sore." In his piece, "Palestine: Liberation Deferred," Khalidi suggests Israel carried out "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians; writes Western powers backed Israel's establishment due to guilt of the Holocaust; laments the Palestinian Authority's stated acceptance of a Palestinian state "only" in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern sections of Jerusalem; and argues Israel should be dissolved and instead a binational, cantonal system should be set up in which Jews and Arabs reside. During documented speeches and public events, Khalidi has called Israel an "apartheid system in creation" and a destructive "racist" state. He has multiple times implied support for Palestinian terror, calling suicide bombings a response to "Israeli aggression." He dedicated his 1986 book, "Under Siege," to "those who gave their lives ... in defense of the cause of Palestine and independence of Lebanon." Critics assailed the book as excusing Palestinian terrorism and claim the dedication is in reference to the Palestine Liberation Organization, which at that time committed scores of anti-Western attacks and was labeled by the U.S. as a terrorist group. Top Obama adviser: New York City, Miami Jews the problem Obama also came under fire last week for comments made by Merrill A. McPeak, Obama's military adviser and national campaign co-chairman, in which he implied U.S. politicians are afraid of Jewish voters in Miami and New York City and that American Jews are the "problem" impeding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Republican Jewish Coalition last week took out ads in top Florida newspapers petitioning Jews in the Sunshine State to question Obama over McPeak's remarks, which were highlighted in March by WND. McPeak was asked during a 2003 interview with the Oregonian newspaper whether the problem in solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict originated with the White House or the State Department. "So where's the problem?" the interviewer asked. McPeak replied, "New York City. Miami. We have a large vote –– vote, here in favor of Israel. And no politician wants to run against it." McPeak went on to insist that to solve the conflict, Israelis must "stop settling the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and maybe even withdraw some of the settlements that've already been put there. And nobody wants to take on that problem. It's just too tough politically." Obama adviser: Divide Jerusalem Much concern has also been expressed about Obama's top Midde East adviser, Daniel Kurtzer, who has long been seen as one of Israel's greatest foes in Washington. In April, Kurtzer stressed Jerusalem must be included in any negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, has been identified by Israeli leaders, including prime ministers, as biased against Israel and is notorious for urging extreme concessions from the Jewish state. He was appointed as a primary Obama adviser on the Middle East earlier this year. Obama's appointment of Kurtzer raised eyebrows among the pro-Israel Jewish community. "We oppose the appointment of Kurtzer because of his long, documented record of hostility to and severe pressure upon Israel," said Zionist Organization of America National Chairman Morton Klein. Kurtzer has been blasted by mainstream Jewish organizations, including the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. He has angered Israeli leaders many times for pushing Israel into what they described as extreme concessions to the Palestinians. "With Jews like Kurtzer, it is impossible to build a healthy relationship between Israel and the United States," Benjamin Nentanyahu was quoted saying in 2001 by Israel's Haaretz newspaper. Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said Kurtzer "frequently pressured Israel to make one-sided concessions to the Arabs; he constantly blamed Israel for the absence of Mideast peace, and paid little or no attention to the fact that the Palestinians were carrying out terrorist attacks and openly calling for the destruction of Israel." Morris Amitay, former executive director of the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2001: "Kurtzer ... will use his Jewishness as a protective cover for his anti-Israel views." The ZOA points out how Israel's leading daily, Yediot Ahronot, editorialized on Kurtzer's negative influence against Israel: "Possibly more than any other U.S. State Department official, Kurtzer has been instrumental in promoting the goals of the Palestinians and in raising their afflictions to the center of the U.S. policymakers' agenda," the paper stated. Kurtzer first rose to prominence in 1988 when, as a State Department adviser, he counseled the Reagan administration to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization led by Yasser Arafat. The PLO had carried out scores of anti-Western attacks, but in the late '80s Arafat claimed to have renounced violence. In 1988, Kurtzer was noted as the principal author of a major policy speech by then-Secretary of State George Shultz in which the U.S. government first recognized the "legitimate rights" of the Palestinians. Haaretz reported in 2001 that Kurtzer had a "vocal conflict" with an Israeli government official in Philadelphia in the summer of 1990 after Kurtzer "attacked the Israeli government for refusing to include the PLO in the peace process [and] said that this constituted the main obstacle to peace." Contact Chetz at Chetz18@aol.com |
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ENEMIES OF HUMANITY: ISLAM AND MUSLIMS
Posted by Nabil A. Bissada, July 7, 2008. |
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I do not know till when the enemies of humanity (Islam & Muslims) still get the power all over the world Their plan is to take USA .. their target is to take back Jerusalem..and to destroy Israel. and submit Islam all over the world I'm sure they go forward...Faster than they was thinking and dream. congratulate Israel for their independent day.. This excerpt below is the beginning of an article written by Sam Shamoun and it comes from the Answering Islam website (http://www.answering-islam.org/Shamoun/allah_best_deceiver.htm). It is called "Allah –– The Greatest Deceiver of them All." |
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The Quran describes Allah as the best deceiver there is, a liar who is not above using the same evil and wicked schemes of his opponents. For example, the Quran calls Allah a makr, in fact the best makr there is: But they (the Jews) were deceptive, and Allah was deceptive, for Allah is the best of deceivers (Wamakaroo wamakara Allahu waAllahu khayru al-makireena)! S. 3:54; cf. 8:30 Other texts that identify Allah as a makr include: Are they then secure from Allah's deception (makr a Allahi)? None deemeth himself secure from Allah's scheme (makra Allahi) save folk that perish. S. 7:99 Pickthall The word for deception/deceiver/scheme is makr. The lexical sources define the term as: Miim-Kaf-Ra = To practice deceit or guile or circumvention, practice evasion or elusion, to plot, to exercise art or craft or cunning, act with policy, practice stratagem. Lest Muslims accuse these lexicons of bias or distortion notice what Muslim scholar Dr. Mahmoud M. Ayoub says when he asks, "how the word makr (scheming or plotting), which implies deceitfulness or dishonesty, could be attributed to God." (The Quran and Its Interpreters –– The House of Imran [State University of New York Press [SUNY], Albany 1992], Volume II, p. 165;) After listing several Muslim sources he quotes a renowned Muslim expositor named ar-Razi who wrote that, "scheming (makr) is actually an act of deception aiming at causing evil. It is not possible to attribute deception to God. Thus the word is one of the muttashabihat [multivalent words of the Quran]." (Ibid., p. 166;) Unfortunately for ar-Razi, the Quran attributes deception to Allah since it identifies him as the best makr there is. Ayoub also sources one Muslim who actually boasted of Allah being the best conniver/deceiver/schemer etc., "Qurtubi observes that some scholars have considered the words 'best of schemers' to be one of God's beautiful names. Thus one would pray, 'O Best of Schemers, scheme for me!' Qurtubi also reports that the Prophet used to pray, 'O God, scheme for me, and do not scheme against me!' (Qurtubi, IV, pp. 98-99; cf. Zamakhshari, I, p. 366)." (Ibid., p. 166)And here, also, is how one of the earliest sources on the life of Muhammad interpreted Q. 8:30: Then he reminds the apostle of His favour towards him when the people plotted against him 'to kill him, or to wound him, or to drive him out; and they plotted and God plotted, and is the best of plotters.' i.e. I DECEIVED them with My firm GUILE so that I delivered you from them. (The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah, with introduction and notes by Alfred Guillaume [Oxford University Press, Karachi, Tenth impression 1995], p. 323; capital emphasis ours) Thus, the Quran unashamedly calls Muhammad's god the best liar and deceiver of them all! In fact, the Quran states that Allah actually raises wicked individuals to deceive and scheme: Even so have we placed in every city, ringleaders of its wicked ones, to scheme therein (liyamkuroo): but only against themselves shall they scheme (yamkuroona)! and they know it not. S. 6:123 Rodwell And further commands people to do evil so that he can then have a reason to destroy them! And when We would destroy a township We send commandment to its folk who live at ease, AND AFTERWARD they commit abomination therein, and so the Word (of doom) hath effect for it, and we annihilate it with complete annihilation. S. 17:16 Pickthall Recommended Reading http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/allah_deceiver.htm
Endnotes (1) It needs to be pointed out that the Muslim translator has deliberately distorted the original text of Muhammad Khalid's book. Instead of translating the Arabic words limakr Allah as "the deception of Allah" he has decided to render it as, "from Allah's punishment," in order to obscure the real meaning. It seems that the Muslim translator was rather embarrassed by Abu Bakr's statement that Allah is a deceiver whose promises of granting eternal bliss to the faithful cannot be trusted. If the reader is interested in seeing what the original text really says we suggest that they turn to page 66 of the Arabic version of Muhammad Khalid's book. Moreover, the author conveniently forgot to mention that the reason why Abu Bakr was afraid that his heart might turn away from the faith is because this close companion of Muhammad knew what the Quran says about Allah misleading and turning people away from the guidance: Then what is the matter with you that you are divided into two parties about the hypocrites? Allah has cast them back (to disbelief) because of what they have earned. Do you want to guide him whom Allah has made to go astray? And he whom Allah has made to go astray, you will never find for him any way (of guidance). S. 4:88 And We sent not a Messenger except with the language of his people, in order that he might make (the Message) clear for them. Then Allah misleads whom He wills and guides whom He wills. And He is the All-Mighty, the All-Wise. S. 14:4 Abu Bakr was therefore fearful of Allah turning his heart away and thereby condemning him to hell since he knew that his god was a deceiver who couldn't be trusted to do as he says. This is despite the fact that Muhammad had personally guaranteed his salvation! |
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TEN MONTHS AFTER GOVT. DECISION, SDEROT SCHOOLS REMAIN UNPROTECTED
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 7, 2008. |
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This was written by Mijal Grinberg and it appeared in
today's Haaretz
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Tenders for the construction of schools in Sderot with the necessary fortified areas capable of protecting against rocket attacks are still pending, as a result of a dispute between Sderot municipality and the Interior Ministry. The cabinet decided to construct schools in Sderot capable of withstanding rocket blasts 10 months ago, but not only have the projects not started, still no party has secured the tender. Originally, the matter was handled by the relevant department at the Sderot municipality, however the winner of the original tender led to an investigation against the city's mayor, Eli Moyal, for possible conflict of interest. The tender issuing process and the decision were revoked by the Interior Minister, and in a letter by ministry director Aryeh Bar-Shelach to Moyal, the entire process used by the municipality was declared improper. Bar-Shelach then passed on responsibility for the construction of the new schools to the Ministry of Housing. However, Haaretz has learned that a decision has been made that the Housing Ministry would not assume responsibility for the construction, and the matter was returned to the relevant department at the Sderot municipality. Now the municipality is being asked to issue a new tender for the project, more than a year after the Supreme Court ruled that the current protection afforded in Sderot schools is insufficient to meet the threats posed by rockets from the Gaza Strip. Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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OLMERT TEAM SACRIFICES FUTURE OF 4 JEWISH WOMEN
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 7, 2008. |
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This commentary comes from Dr. Aaron Lerner. Dr. Lerner is Director of IMRA, Independent Media Review and Analysis, an Israel-based news organization which provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict. Its website address is http://www.imra.org.il Write him at imra@netvision.net.il |
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When the Olmert Cabinet voted last week to, among other things, provide information on the fate of four missing Iranian officials in return for the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev they ostensibly gave priority to the need to free Karnit Goldwasser from her aguna (unable to remarry) status against the chances of trading this information in order to resolve the status of four other agunot. I say "ostensibly" because it is far from clear that the Olmert Cabinet even considered the fates of Nahid Farangian, Simcha Razakansari, Orit Rabizadeh, and Linda Balazadeh (Ram), the four wives of Iranian Jews arrested in the 1990s as they sought to escape from Iran across the border with Pakistan. None of these women may remarry because it is believed that their husbands are still alive and wallowing in Iranian prisons. The only bargaining chip Israel holds to help resolve their fate is the information it has on the Iranian diplomats. But the Olmert team threw that chip on the huge pile of concessions in the live terrorists for dead Israeli trade with Hezbollah. But what of Karmit Goldwasser's rights? A key argument that has been raised by supporters of the trade of Kuntar for Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev is that Goldwasser's wife, Karnit, is a live hostage since, under Jewish law, she cannot remarry until it is determined that her husband is indeed dead. Is the Rabbinate unable to make this determination in the absence of a body? A resounding "no". Chief Rabbi of the IDF, Rabbi Avichai Ronsky was in the process of making just this determination when it was put on hold so that the Olmert Cabinet could vote without knowing if Karnit could be freed from her aguna status without the bodies-terrorist swap. But the Olmert Cabinet did not want to know. So the determination was never made. Let's be clear about this. The obligation of the State to the Goldwasser family to free Carmit from her aguna status is considerably greater than Israel's obligation to satisfy the Goldwasser family's need to see physical proof that Ehud is indeed dead. While the former obligation to a woman whose aguna status is the direct result of his service in the IDF may take precedents over the rights of four other agunot, it would be obscene to argue that, assuming Karnit can be released from aguna status by rabbinical ruling, that her right to see physical proof that her husband is dead takes precedents over the rights of Nahid Farangian, Simcha Razakansari, Orit Rabizadeh, and Linda Balazadeh (Ram). Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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THE EXPERIMENTERS
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, July 6, 2008. |
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I cannot help but wonder how long the Israeli citizens will remain silent while they're being used as guinea pigs for Leftist Government experiments in appeasement. The slogan "Never Again" is no longer applicable where free Jews can choose. In the days of the Nazi death camps, Jews had no choice when Doctor Mengele picked Jews as guinea pigs on which to experiment. But, Israel was supposed to free the Jews from such torture and the collusion of the anti-Semitism taught by the Church to most of Europe with the plans of Herr Hitler. Now we find a Jewish government as both the experimenter and an ally to Doctor Death. Despite "prima facie" evidence of past broken agreements with the Muslim Arab Palestinians, PM Ehud Olmert's Kadimites plunge on, prodded by both friends and enemies, to ignore pledges to wipe out them and all Jews in Israel. Olmert will take grave chances for an elusive peace (and stay in power no matter how many must pay the ultimate price for his greed and arrogance. We all have seen mindless politicians repeatedly make stupid decisions and then watch the public suffer. But, after the mistaken decisions were made and the results killed more Jews, you would have thought the experiments would cease and not duplicate their original and proven stupidity. But, regrettably, the Israeli people (except for some) simply accept their lot as a herd of guinea pigs to be chosen for further experiments. Mengele (the angel of death) would certainly find himself in his element among the Kadimites. The Olmert Government supported by his Cabinet and backed up by the political Left Media chose to release convicted murdering Terrorists to further savage the public. I cannot count how many in the number of prior releases of killers who went on to kill again will forecast how many deaths this current release will cause. This Government is a killer assembly of experimenters who play with the lives of others, confident they will not be brought to trial for the Jews they're responsible for killing. We can no longer give PM Olmert the benefit of doubt for his judgement. They and prior Leftist governments have proven over and over that they knowingly experiment with the lives of Israelis to move ahead despite numerous failed Leftist policies of surrendering land for the sake of elusive peace. I have often recommended that the Israeli people take back their government from the long term "coup d'etat" launched by the political Left Liberals. While real Israeli Jews who believed in the G-d given Land were focused on building the country and fighting the aggression of the Muslim Arabs, the Leftists were equally busy, subverting the new nation and grabbing political control. Their objective was to capture every top to mid-level Ministry, through to the Unions (Histadrut) and all patronage (political, business and jobs) to be given out to Labor Party loyalists. The Left saw no problem in bonding with hostile Muslim Arab Palestinians as long as they voted for the Left. Then they proceed to politicize the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) at the officers' level, the Secret Services and the Police. The people once honored their law enforcement protectors but, now they fear it as if it was a fascist government. After the Leftists had control of every government institution, then came the so-called NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations). This followed the path laid down by Stalin's Communist government and Hitler's Nazi organization. The idea is to have "volunteer" organizations pop up seemingly not connected to Government policy but, in fact, echo-government or "shadow" government doctrine. Many historians will recall how the German Bund had organizations in America and Europe, penetrating other organizations. Israel is loaded with such NGOs who sell the Leftist line, often with funds coming in (under the table) from Europe and America. Listen to the propaganda of "peace now" in our time from "Peace Now", B'tselem, the New Israel Fund, and more. Probe the separate institutions of Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin with their funds coming in from Europe. Note their doctrine of appeasement, re-partition of the Jewish State of Israel and their overt hostility to any Jew who believes that Israel and her Land belong to the Jewish people. Of course, there are other NGOs who act as a direct extension of the Leftist government policy but, they call themselves newspapers when, in fact, they operate as if they were political parties. The real "Political Parties" are restricted to certain legal guidelines while Leftist newspapers and their controlling families can say whatever they please in spinning and slanting the news. They are without any doubt, Political Parties who should have been required to register as Political extensions for the Left Labor Party years ago. As for the Courts, from David Ben Gurion onward, the Left understood they needed a politically biased and corrupt legal system on their side to carry out the second partition of the State. They also needed a manipulable judicial system from Judges to States' Attorney to play a role in protecting Government manipulations when they get caught with their hands in the Treasury money –– or other crooked schemes. It surely was a Mafia of thieves, pretending that it was a democratic and legal Mafia for cover. If this were the ancient times of the Biblical Judges, no doubt, the entire gang of miscreants would have been dragged to the City Square and stoned to death. I have, no doubt, there would be many grieving fathers and brothers who would be glad to throw the first stone to avenge the death of loved ones at the hands of this government Mafia who acted as the enablers for the deaths of so many soldiers and civilians. These Government Mafiosos experimented with the lives of her citizens never expecting to be held responsible. As Terrorists who kills deserves execution so to do Government functionaries who, with planning and malice aforethought, put the people in harm's way. A Peoples' Court is long overdue to pass judgement on their tormentors. No more using Jews as guinea pigs in political experiments as to how much they can stand before society breaks apart completely and the Jewish State is destroyed –– again. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). Contact him at gwinston@gwinston.interaccess.com |
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THANK G-D WE SURVIVED THE TERROR ATTACK IN JERUSALEM LAST WEDNESDAY
Posted by Rochelle, July 6, 2008. |
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On Wednesday, July 2. 2008, an Arab started trying to kill people on a very packed busy street in Jerusalem with his work vehicle, a Caterpillar type of huge bulldozer. He just drove it onto the adjacent packed street and started trying to crush cars. One of the first cars he attacked was ours. In our car were my husband in the front passenger seat, me the driver, and 3 of our girls in the back; we were on our way to meet friends. As we drove toward the place, we were on the packed street called Sarei Yisrael, when suddenly, several workmen ran into the street gesturing vehemently that we should clear out. This was really impossible with the very packed traffic! And anyway, just behind them came a huge bulldozer at an impossible-seeming speed. In the first seconds as he bashed into a car to the left of us, it was not entirely clear whether the vehicle or driver was out of control. But then after flattening car #1, he crushed a second car next to us, and turned his attention to us, as I was already trying to reverse our car, as the only direction possible to attempt to distance ourselves from him, hoping that the drivers behind me would also back up. So there we were stuck in our car, staring into the face of this man determined to kill us. He was around 30, looked somewhat overweight, with a fixed, purposeful look on his face, but unbelievably was using his bulldozer as a deadly weapon. I still feel how bizarre this was –– a bulldozer! I have read since then, that later he was screaming Allah is great, but at the moment he was staring at us, determined to crash into us next, he was unsmiling and silent, with only what I thought was a look of determination and concentration on his face. He crashed his dozer into the front of our car 2 or 3 times after having successfully crushing the 2 near us with one blow each. Those 2 other cars I saw which he attacked before us were pancaked but amazingly the drivers were able to escape since he couldn't crush the drivers' sides quickly enough and noone else was in those cars. One driver was the woman whom he had diabolically motioned to proceed and then bashed into her car and as she dashed out of her destroyed car he tried to run her down! A second vehicle, a taxicab was flattened next. The 2 drivers both escaped from their cars virtually unscathed. The woman who was dressed unreligiously and we stayed together into the hospital –– she declared that God must exist here after all. At any event, within seconds we were attacked. We were immobilized in our car by his repeated violent crashing into us. Was he frustrated that our car didn't collapse with his first blow like the first 2 and yet it was full of people to kill? Over the next period of what was probably really only a minute or so, he bashed the front of our car repeatedly and bashed our roof with the shovel at least once, all to no avail!!!. Unlike the 2 other cars he had attacked first, our car would not crush. He then drove ONTO the roof of our car trying to crush the 5 of us in the car with the full weight of the dozer. This is truly a miracle –– our inexpensive Mazda 5 minivan still did NOT collapse. The sides of the frame were so distorted that we could barely open only 1 door, the front of the car was crushed, and the front window in smithereens but the roof only a little caved in! I was the driver and as the bulldozer rammed us, I put the car into reverse –– no other direction to go. His ramming pushed the car back against the one behind me but at least that movement absorbed some of his impact that might otherwise have further crushed the car with us in it. Since I was unable to do anything at the moments of his attacking us, I don't think now that my thoughts were really prayer as just a wordless awareness that when we can do nothing, then everything is so clearly in HaShem's hands. I felt like HaShem was surrounding us in protection. We couldn't try to get out until he stopped ramming our car. Then as we tried to open the doors, we discovered that the front passenger door was the only one that could be opened by my husband, but 1 of my kids had her window completely open so we all got out in the 2 ways quickly. We wondered whether we should have tried to escape while he was still attacking the car but he had already tried to crush another driver as she got out of her car [his first intended victim] and later we were told that he had a pistol which he used to try to kill others. It was hard to get out as fast as maybe we needed to because we were trembling so much. It took me a few minutes to be sure my legs wouldn't buckle under me if I tried to stand up. One of my kids has a bruised arm but it is a miracle that we were otherwise unscathed. Is this a recommendation for the Mazda 5? I don't know, our air bags NEVER opened :-) But they would not have helped us and the sturdiness of the frame did! Does Mazda design the minivan 5 to withstand a dozer driving into and over it? My brilliant husband had picked that car as the safest and best model for the money for us. We walked away from the attack! We feel so glad to be alive. After his rampage including our car, he continued on to other cars, pedestrians, and at least 1 full bus behind, having finally given up trying to destroy us in our car. After driving over us, he apparently killed a new mother and rammed at least 1 bus effectively and turned it onto its side. 3 people were killed before a policeman and I think a soldier were able to jump into the dozer's cab and grapple with him. I think that is when he started shooting. Another man grabbed the gun of the policeman fighting the Arab [because he couldn't take his hands off him to reach his own pistol] and shot him and killed him. For what it is worth, the perp was a 30 year old Arab, a citizen of Israel, had a well paid job with good government benefits, lived in his own house, and was married with children. His deed was praised fervently by his young widow who professed to be glad of his heroic action. The government says they MAY raze the perp's home and MAY suspend the gov. benefits the family would have been entitled to. Given the attitude of his widow, I have no problem with the government's plans. It remains to be seen whether they go through with them after the humanitarians of the world and our own bleeding hearts start protesting these reprisals as unacceptable cruelty to innocents. Besides, Saudi Arabia in particular sends checks for at least $25,000 to start to the survivor families and other benefactors send them money besides. The widow will be sitting and entertaining the numerous visitors come to congratulate her on her hero of a husband. So we've received lectures about how we are going to have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). One person told us that we had to recount our ordeal at least 100 times in the first day to avoid PTSD. Another told us to immediately get psych counselling from an expert. So far we are all too numb to do more than go through our days on auto-pilot. My kids were called by everyone in their school, kids and teachers, by now I think they have retold their experience 100 times. Most of our friends and neighbors have found out we were at the terror scene and called us too. I broke out some chocolate for the kids that I usually save for Shabbat and the kids put on a funny movie. One of the girls' friends had come over but didn't inform her mom who finally calmed down when she tracked her down to our home. What has so far been the most effective means of staving off PTSD is our neighbor Miriam's chocolate chip cookies. She brought over a freshly baked batch. We have always thought they are probably the best in the world even when one isn't trying to fend off PTSD. We know that we have to start counselling ASAP but are still too numb to initiate it yet. Thursday is the first day of the new month, and with the Jewish calendar, also the new moon, a traditional holiday especially for women, so we will all be praying especially thankfully. We went to pray at the Wall. I have already started wondering why G-d made a miracle for us so that our inexpensive car somehow withstood the terrorist's REPEATED blows while other cars were flattened at once [that would have killed all 5 of us]. We happened to have donated generously over the past year to Victims of Terror, but among the killed was a dedicated teacher of the blind and a warm wonderful early childhood teacher who had recently had a baby after years of fertility treatments. I think that our past mitzvot cannot measure up to this miracle saving our lives. HaShem clearly needs us to still do things –– mitzvot here so we are needed to live. Love,
This was distributed by Communaute-juive-France. Contact them Communaute-Juive-France@yahoogroupes.fr |
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ANCIENT TABLET IGNITES DEBATE ON MESSIAH AND RESURRECTION
Posted by HaDar, July 6, 2008. |
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This was written by Ethan Bronner and it appeared today in
The New York Times
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JERUSALEM –– A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.
If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time. The tablet, probably found near the Dead Sea in Jordan according to some scholars who have studied it, is a rare example of a stone with ink writings from that era –– in essence, a Dead Sea Scroll on stone. It is written, not engraved, across two neat columns, similar to columns in a Torah. But the stone is broken, and some of the text is faded, meaning that much of what it says is open to debate. Still, its authenticity has so far faced no challenge, so its role in helping to understand the roots of Christianity in the devastating political crisis faced by the Jews of the time seems likely to increase. Daniel Boyarin, a professor of Talmudic culture at the University of California at Berkeley, said that the stone was part of a growing body of evidence suggesting that Jesus could be best understood through a close reading of the Jewish history of his day. "Some Christians will find it shocking –– a challenge to the uniqueness of their theology –– while others will be comforted by the idea of it being a traditional part of Judaism," Mr. Boyarin said. Given the highly charged atmosphere surrounding all Jesus-era artifacts and writings, both in the general public and in the fractured and fiercely competitive scholarly community, as well as the concern over forgery and charlatanism, it will probably be some time before the tablet's contribution is fully assessed. It has been around 60 years since the Dead Sea Scrolls were uncovered, and they continue to generate enormous controversy regarding their authors and meaning. The scrolls, documents found in the Qumran caves of the West Bank, contain some of the only known surviving copies of biblical writings from before the first century A.D. In addition to quoting from key books of the Bible, the scrolls describe a variety of practices and beliefs of a Jewish sect at the time of Jesus. How representative the descriptions are and what they tell us about the era are still strongly debated. For example, a question that arises is whether the authors of the scrolls were members of a monastic sect or in fact mainstream. A conference marking 60 years since the discovery of the scrolls will begin on Sunday at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, where the stone, and the debate over whether it speaks of a resurrected messiah, as one iconoclastic scholar believes, also will be discussed. Oddly, the stone is not really a new discovery. It was found about a decade ago and bought from a Jordanian antiquities dealer by an Israeli-Swiss collector who kept it in his Zurich home. When an Israeli scholar examined it closely a few years ago and wrote a paper on it last year, interest began to rise. There is now a spate of scholarly articles on the stone, with several due to be published in the coming months. "I couldn't make much out of it when I got it," said David Jeselsohn, the owner, who is himself an expert in antiquities. "I didn't realize how significant it was until I showed it to Ada Yardeni, who specializes in Hebrew writing, a few years ago. She was overwhelmed. 'You have got a Dead Sea Scroll on stone,' she told me." Much of the text, a vision of the apocalypse transmitted by the angel Gabriel, draws on the Old Testament, especially the prophets Daniel, Zechariah and Haggai. Ms. Yardeni, who analyzed the stone along with Binyamin Elitzur, is an expert on Hebrew script, especially of the era of King Herod, who died in 4 B.C. The two of them published a long analysis of the stone more than a year ago in Cathedra, a Hebrew-language quarterly devoted to the history and archaeology of Israel, and said that, based on the shape of the script and the language, the text dated from the late first century B.C. A chemical examination by Yuval Goren, a professor of archaeology at Tel Aviv University who specializes in the verification of ancient artifacts, has been submitted to a peer-review journal. He declined to give details of his analysis until publication, but he said that he knew of no reason to doubt the stone's authenticity. It was in Cathedra that Israel Knohl, an iconoclastic professor of Bible studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, first heard of the stone, which Ms. Yardeni and Mr. Elitzur dubbed "Gabriel's Revelation," also the title of their article. Mr. Knohl posited in a book published in 2000 the idea of a suffering messiah before Jesus, using a variety of rabbinic and early apocalyptic literature as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls. But his theory did not shake the world of Christology as he had hoped, partly because he had no textual evidence from before Jesus. When he read "Gabriel's Revelation," he said, he believed he saw what he needed to solidify his thesis, and he has published his argument in the latest issue of The Journal of Religion. Mr. Knohl is part of a larger scholarly movement that focuses on the political atmosphere in Jesus' day as an important explanation of that era's messianic spirit. As he notes, after the death of Herod, Jewish rebels sought to throw off the yoke of the Rome-supported monarchy, so the rise of a major Jewish independence fighter could take on messianic overtones. In Mr. Knohl's interpretation, the specific messianic figure embodied on the stone could be a man named Simon who was slain by a commander in the Herodian army, according to the first-century historian Josephus. The writers of the stone's passages were probably Simon's followers, Mr. Knohl contends. The slaying of Simon, or any case of the suffering messiah, is seen as a necessary step toward national salvation, he says, pointing to lines 19 through 21 of the tablet –– "In three days you will know that evil will be defeated by justice" –– and other lines that speak of blood and slaughter as pathways to justice. To make his case about the importance of the stone, Mr. Knohl focuses especially on line 80, which begins clearly with the words "L'shloshet yamin," meaning "in three days." The next word of the line was deemed partially illegible by Ms. Yardeni and Mr. Elitzur, but Mr. Knohl, who is an expert on the language of the Bible and Talmud, says the word is "hayeh," or "live" in the imperative. It has an unusual spelling, but it is one in keeping with the era. Two more hard-to-read words come later, and Mr. Knohl said he believed that he had deciphered them as well, so that the line reads, "In three days you shall live, I, Gabriel, command you." To whom is the archangel speaking? The next line says "Sar hasarin," or prince of princes. Since the Book of Daniel, one of the primary sources for the Gabriel text, speaks of Gabriel and of "a prince of princes," Mr. Knohl contends that the stone's writings are about the death of a leader of the Jews who will be resurrected in three days. He says further that such a suffering messiah is very different from the traditional Jewish image of the messiah as a triumphal, powerful descendant of King David. "This should shake our basic view of Christianity," he said as he sat in his office of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem where he is a senior fellow in addition to being the Yehezkel Kaufman Professor of Biblical Studies at Hebrew University. "Resurrection after three days becomes a motif developed before Jesus, which runs contrary to nearly all scholarship. What happens in the New Testament was adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story." Ms. Yardeni said she was impressed with the reading and considered it indeed likely that the key illegible word was "hayeh," or "live." Whether that means Simon is the messiah under discussion, she is less sure. Moshe Bar-Asher, president of the Israeli Academy of Hebrew Language and emeritus professor of Hebrew and Aramaic at the Hebrew University, said he spent a long time studying the text and considered it authentic, dating from no later than the first century B.C. His 25-page paper on the stone will be published in the coming months. Regarding Mr. Knohl's thesis, Mr. Bar-Asher is also respectful but cautious. "There is one problem," he said. "In crucial places of the text there is lack of text. I understand Knohl's tendency to find there keys to the pre-Christian period, but in two to three crucial lines of text there are a lot of missing words." Moshe Idel, a professor of Jewish thought at Hebrew University, said that given the way every tiny fragment from that era yielded scores of articles and books, "Gabriel's Revelation" and Mr. Knohl's analysis deserved serious attention. "Here we have a real stone with a real text," he said. "This is truly significant." Mr. Knohl said that it was less important whether Simon was the messiah of the stone than the fact that it strongly suggested that a savior who died and rose after three days was an established concept at the time of Jesus. He notes that in the Gospels, Jesus makes numerous predictions of his suffering and New Testament scholars say such predictions must have been written in by later followers because there was no such idea present in his day. But there was, he said, and "Gabriel's Revelation" shows it. "His mission is that he has to be put to death by the Romans to
suffer so his blood will be the sign for redemption to come," Mr.
Knohl said. "This is the sign of the son of Joseph. This is the
conscious view of Jesus himself. This gives the Last Supper an
absolutely different meaning. To shed blood is not for the sins of
people but to bring redemption to Israel."
Contact HaDaR at HaDaR-Israel@verizon.net.
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THE ETHNIC CLEANSING OF ARABIC JEWS
Posted by Ashley Perry, July 6, 2008. |
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Dear Readers I want to let you know about a new venture at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. It is called the Middle East Strategic Information (MESI) project and the director is Yehuda Avner, former ambassador and advisor to five Israeli prime-ministers. I am the editor of the project (www.mesi.org.uk). The Middle East Strategic Information (MESI) project provides a unique in-depth analysis of the Middle East and its strategic issues as they relate to West and the outside world. The MESI informs beyond the headlines and presents news and evaluations that provide important relevant data to the understanding of the Middle East. The project aims at a paradigm shift in the thinking towards Israel and the Middle East, as it approaches two common misconceptions. Many people in the West believe that the terrorism they suffer from is different to the terrorist threats that Israel faces. There is a major disconnect in thinking that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is only about land and occupation, when the same ideology drives people to commit these terrible acts whether in New York, London or Tel Aviv. There is also the myth that if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict went away or was resolved, the Middle East would be an otherwise harmonious place. Many feel that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the axel for peace in the region and beyond. Also, that the Arab World and Islam would have no other issues of conflict with the West other than its perceived support of Israel. The site takes much of its information from Arabic websites to gain a greater insight into the differing events and voices in the Middle East. What makes us unique is as the MESI has access to senior politicians, diplomats, high-ranking security officials, academics, legal experts and strategists from Israel and around the Middle East. These provide MESI with an important infrastructure to disseminate a professional and credible analysis of events from the region. We also have our own experts who write exclusively for the MESI project, most of whom are familiar with Arabic and Persian which enables them to have access to news and events not available to the English-speaking world. Please visit the website www.mesi.org.uk I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Mr. Ashley Perry
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Israel is perhaps the least efficient "ethnic cleanser" in the history of mankind, calumnies to the contrary notwithstanding. In 1947 some 740,000 Palestinians lived in the British Mandate for Palestine. Today, the Arab residents of the West Bank and Gaza, together with Arab citizens of Israel, comprise a total of over five million Palestinians (altogether over nine million people worldwide refer to themselves as Palestinian.) Using a popular population growth rate equation, the Palestinian growth rate has been calculated as close to double that of Asia and Africa over a comparable period of time. Drazen Petrovic defines ethnic cleansing as "a well-defined policy of a particular group of persons to systematically eliminate another group from a given territory." By this definition, only one type of ethnic cleansing has occurred in the Arab-Israeli conflict –– that of the Jews of Asia and North Africa. Whereas before 1948 there were nearly 900,000 Jews living in Arab lands, by 2001 only 6,500 remained.
THOSE WHO claim Israel carried out ethnic cleansing of Arabs can point to no official command to that effect. Jewish ethnic cleansing from Arab lands, on the other hand, was often official state policy. Jews were formally expelled from many areas in the Arab world. The Arab League released a statement urging Arab governments to facilitate the exit of Jews from Arab countries, a resolution which was carried out through a series of punitive measures and discriminatory decrees that made it untenable for Jews to remain in their native lands. On May 16, 1948, The New York Times recorded a series of measures taken by the Arab League to marginalize and persecute the Jewish residents of Arab League member states. It reported on the "text of a law drafted by the Political Committee of the Arab League, which was intended to govern the legal status of Jewish residents of Arab League countries. It provides that, beginning on an unspecified date, all Jews except citizens of non-Arab states would be considered 'members of the Jewish minority state of Palestine.' Their bank accounts would be frozen and used to finance resistance to 'Zionist ambitions in Palestine.' Jews believed to be active Zionists would be interned and their assets confiscated."
IN 1951, the Iraqi government passed legislation that made affiliation with Zionism a felony and ordered "the expulsion of Jews who refused to sign a statement of anti-Zionism." This pushed tens of thousands of Jews to leave Iraq, while much of their property was confiscated by the state. In 1967, many Egyptian Jews were detained and tortured, and Jewish homes confiscated. In Libya that year, the government "urged the Jews to leave the country temporarily," permitting each to take one suitcase and the equivalent of $50. In 1970, the Libyan government issued new laws confiscating all the assets of Libya's Jews, issuing in their stead 15-year bonds. But when the bonds matured, no compensation was paid. Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi justified this on the grounds that "the alignment of the Jews with Israel, the Arab nations' enemy, has forfeited their right to compensation." These are just a few examples of what would became common measures throughout the Arab world –– not to mention the pogroms and attacks on Jews and their institutions that drove a major part of the Jewish exodus.
THE ECONOMIC suffering on the part of the two refugee populations was equally lopsided. According to the newly released study "The Palestinian Refugee Issue: Rhetoric vs. Reality" by former CIA and State Department Treasury official Sidney Zabludoff in the Jewish Political Studies Review, the value of assets lost by both refugee populations is strikingly uneven. Zabludoff uses data from John Measham Berncastle, who in the early 1950s, under the aegis of the newly formed United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP), undertook the task of calculating the assets of the Palestinian refugees. Zabludoff calculates that their assets were worth $3.9 billion in today's currency. The Jewish refugees, being greater in number and more urban, had almost double those assets. On top of this equation, it must be taken into account that Israel returned over 90 percent of blocked bank accounts, safe deposit boxes and other items belonging to Palestinian refugees during the 1950s. This considerably diminishes the UNCCP calculations.
THESE FACTS are conveniently forgotten or not publicized, leaving the way open for Israel-bashers like Exeter University history Prof. Ilan Pappe to omit any mention of the Middle East's greatest ethnic cleansing. However, a few recent events are clearing the world community's perception of this history. On April 1, the US Congress adopted Resolution 185, which for the first time recognizes Jewish refugees from Arab countries. It urges that the president and US officials participating in Middle East discussions ensure that any reference to Palestinian refugees "also include a similarly explicit reference to the resolution of the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab countries." Just as importantly, the first-ever hearing in the British parliament on the subject of Jewish refugees from Arab countries takes place today in the House of Lords. It will be convened by Labor MP John Mann and Lord Anderson of Swansea, a joint briefing organized by Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC) in association with the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Greater recognition of the refugee issue and the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the wider Arab world will bring clearer definition of the area's history to a greater number of people. A people cannot be said to have been "ethnically cleansed" from an area in which it has grown at double the rate of its geographic neighbors. On the other hand, a people that lost more than 150 times its number from an area over the course of a few decades can make a very strong case for having undergone ethnic cleansing. Ashley Perry is a political analyst who has worked with many organizations including the Israel Prime Minister's Office; he is the editor of the Middle East Strategic Information project. Contact him at www.mesi.org.uk This article appeared Jun 23, 2008 in Jerusalem Post
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THE FLAG OF KAVEH OR KAWA
Posted by Jaff Sassani, July 6, 2008. |
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EDITOR'S NOTE: You can read more about Jaff Sassani if you click here. |
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True or mythological, the story of the blacksmith Kaveh goes back to an era before The Medes and Sassanian Empires. Kaveh led a popular uprising against the foreign demon-like ruler Dahag (Modern Iranian: Zahhak). Using the blacksmith's leather apron on a spear as a flag, Kaveh lead the Aryan people to destroy Zahhak, the Arab tyrant who unjustly ruled over the Aryan people's lands. The founder of the Sassanian Empire was the Great Spirit and tireless son of the Aryan people, Ardashir Sassani. Once more the flag of the blacksmith Kaveh was used. Sassani used this flag as his own, as a symbol to liberate and build an independent country for the Aryan nation. We hope that someday the Aryan people will once again come together to form a united front, similar to the Europeans union. Every Aryan nation should have the freedom to form the country and Government for themselves separately. Instead of trying to destroy each other, we should try to help each other to form a free country like those in Europe so that we can live with each other in peace. Racism will cause divisions, no matter whether it is Persian racism, Kurdish racism, Afghani racism or any other Aryan racism. Considering and accounting for each others interests, will bring the Aryan people together and get us united. The many languages used in Europe have not stood in the way as they form a solid European union. We, the Aryan people, have languages very similar to one another; it should be much easier for us to get united. We have a lot of powerful enemies, like families from the Islamic Sayed, with Arabic origins and Turks. They would not like to see us united. That is why they work to inject division among us. The Sassanian Empire was an independent Aryan country that followed the Zoroastrians religion. It was not solely a Persian country. Even Ferdawsi are questionable. Those who follow the racist Persian policy are enemies of the Aryan people without any doubt. It is possible that Shitte Islamic Sayeds or Turks injected this racist belief among the Aryan people to keep them from becoming united forever. But enemies of the Aryan peoples plans are useless because the Aryan people are much more knowledgeable and smarter than they are. The Aryan people's eyes were truly opened following the Islamic revolution of Iran. Sayed Allotola Komani's, along with his disciples, ruled as a tyrant and abused many. They are no longer accepting the propaganda and they are not getting fooled in the name of Shitte any more. There is hope for a better future and happier days for the Aryan people. See:
Contact Jaff Sassani at jaff.skdc@googlemail.com |
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ISRAELI ARCHITECTS TO BE BOYCOTTED
Posted by Carlos, July 6, 2008. |
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A possible boycott of Israeli architects was announced by the International Architects Association of Turin. Apparently because some Israeli architects participated in designing buildings for the settlements in the West Bank. This action reflects a policy of Judenrein (Jews cannot live wherever they want.) Contact Carlos at cargra@san.rr.com |
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THANK YOU, HERO
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 6, 2008. |
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This was written by Uri Orbach and is from the Aish
website |
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On Wednesday we had a chance to see a hero. What is heroism? A pure moment where education, ideals, and mental preparation come together and prompt a person to knowingly risk his life without considering personal benefit. Wednesday's hero was educated in a family and in a community that does not tell its sons "the most important thing is to protect yourself" when they join the army, but rather, "the most important thing is that you protect your people." The professional ability, the resourcefulness, and the level-headedness are merely a marginal addition to the bravery and aspiration for victory. The immediate decision to get on the bulldozer, empty handed, is what distinguishes a hero from any other person. This soldier, riding his bike in the face of a rampaging bulldozer, decided that he is going to stop the terrorist. The immediate decision to get on the bulldozer, empty handed, is what distinguishes a hero from any other person, a civilian who takes responsibility from police officers who scratch their head or fire shots in the air, mostly in order to calm themselves. Yet this young man, whom all of us saw getting on the bulldozer, pulling out the security guard's gun, and shooting the terrorist was given the run around by IDF authorities up until recently, until they agreed to let him join the army. When he was a high school student, he misbehaved at some protest during the disengagement, and our army sages debated whether to recruit him, even though he did not agree to apologize for his acts in his meeting with a mental health officer. As if we have a surplus of young men like him. It is difficult to educate someone to heroism. It is easier to educate people to show helplessness, to learn legal procedures, and to focus on the rights of the terrorist and his family. Yet it is possible to educate young people in an environment that conveys to them that some things are more important than their own life. We can and should educate young people that when the moment of truth arrives we must defeat the rampaging enemy rather than step back and wait for someone else to do the job. We need to encourage and promote the schools and communities where the phrases "People of Israel" and "Land of Israel" are uttered without disparagement. Wednesday's soldier helped us realize that education to valor is not some kind of old-fashioned luxury, but rather, it's a necessity of life –– even when you're riding your bicycle, on leave from the army. Thank you, hero. Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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ISRAEL AT 60: WALKING SOFTLY ON SACRED GROUND
Posted by Jesse H. Merrell, July 6, 2008. |
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"For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto Himself above all the nations that are upon the earth." –– Deuteronomy 14:2. JERUSALEM –– You walk softly here. This is sacred ground. A humbling, reverent awareness overcomes you, knowing you are following in the hallowed footsteps of Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and Joshua, Moses and Elijah, David and Solomon, Daniel and Jonah, Peter and Paul, Jesus and John the Baptist –– and countless others. Such as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, three devout Hebrew servants of God in Babylonian captivity who were angrily cast into King Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace –– heated seven times hotter than normal –– when they politely refused to bow down and worship his huge golden image on the fateful plain of Dura more than 2,500 years ago. Yet so great was their faith in God that, although the men who threw them into the roaring inferno were killed by the scorching flames, when an astonished Nebuchadnezzar gazed into the white-hot firestorm he saw, not three men, but four, walking unhurt in the fire –– not even a hair singed! –– and the fourth man was "like the Son of God." –– Daniel 3. These loyal servants of God openly defied the goofy "political correctness" of that day, plus the "Babylonian sensitivity training," which is rabidly sweeping America today with a different first word, of course –– starting, naturally, with an "M." All these soaring giants of ancient Israel fantastically forged a phenomenal Milky Way of supreme, bright-burning stars in Israel's incomparable galaxy of greatness, where unutterable divinity repeatedly flashed through lowly humanity, marvelously illuminating the Holy Land and the whole world through Israel's dazzling cosmic constellation of peerless patriarchs and prophets. And the saintly splendor of their fathomless spirit still compassionately shines throughout this sacred earth of antiquity which the Lord gave to Abraham –– and His solemn promise to make it a great nation. It had always been a wish of mine –– ranging from a mild curiosity to a fervent desire –– to visit the Holy Land. But not until I actually went, and began pensively treading the consecrated pathways of the saints over the centuries, did the full magnitude of the matter begin to completely sink in, solemnly permeating the secret, innermost chambers of the heart –– before gently and compassionately saturating the sanctified and inviolable citadel of the soul. It is one thing to read in the Bible about the Ajalon Valley, where Joshua asked the Lord to command the sun to stand still, giving him more daylight to slay the powerful, ruthless Amorites –– descendents of Ham (father of the Canaanites), who committed a depraved act [homosexuality is strongly implied] against his naked father, Noah, and was "cursed" by Noah to slavery: "A servant of servants shall he be to his brethren." (Genesis 9: 18-27) –– and ponder the miracle vicariously, but it is quite another to actually look upon the venerable soil with your own eyes, and truly grasp the staggering, unimaginable wonder: "So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that day before it, or after it..." (Joshua 10:13-14). It is one thing for students at America's military officer-training facilities –– West Point, the Naval Academy and Air Force Academy –– to study war, and mentally review it in the tranquil, relaxed safety of their sheltered classrooms. It is quite another to actually be unexpectedly plunged into scorching combat –– where the burning smoke of battle and the whine of bullets are real, not academic –– and where the end of the day means literally life or death, not a leisurely return to the cushy confines of the barracks. Thus it was –– and still is –– to walk the glorified ground of Israel. A visitor to Israel today can suddenly feel transformed, as if magically touched by Aaron's rod, or supernaturally draped with the hallowed mantle of Elijah, finding himself cloaked with an air of serene invincibility while miraculously whirled into a stunning, riveting time warp, as if astonishingly astride a parallel universe of yesteryear, seeing live and first-hand the sanctified battleground where Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, giving him more time to slay the hostile Amorites in the valley of Ajalon –– juxtaposed with modern Israeli warriors who must ceaselessly confront a sinister host of enemies feverishly working to wipe Israel off the map entirely, using weapons whose frightening, devastating power Joshua could never have even dreamed of. Reading in the Bible about Joshua's legendary, all-conquering battles, or Jacob wrestling ferociously with the angel –– and refusing to let go until he was blessed –– may be moving, even inspiring, for Bible students. But to solemnly gaze upon the actual site of this turbulent conflict at Jabbok, one feels suddenly sucked into the thundering vortex of this violent clash of titans –– as if you could sharply smell the prolific, pungent sweat of uncompromising, war-to-the-hilt ferocity, and clearly hear the tenacious, brutal pounding of unrelenting, all-night hammer blows, and be awed by Jacob's unshakable refusal to halt "except thou bless me." Jacob's angelic foe then blessed him: "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." –– Genesis 32:28. The incident also illustrates something not often thought about or even realized in America. But in Israel, all names mean something. Jacob's father, Isaac, literally means "laughter," because Sarah laughed at the revelation, delivered by two angels on the way to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of the homosexual wickedness in those cities (Genesis 18 and 19), that she would have a son in her old age. But she did –– when she was 91! (Genesis 17:17-19). Many may recall that Jesus often walked with His disciples on the Mount of Olives –– and spent His last night before Calvary there, and just below it in the Garden of Gethsemane, where He grappled mightily with His besieged, tormented conscience, struggling whether to accept or reject the excruciating horrors of the terrifying, bloodcurdling Roman crucifixion. Not many, however, know that "Gethsemane" actually means "olive press," so named because the huge stone presses to crush the olives for their treasured oil were located there, to facilitate harvesting. In His grief-stricken hour of inconsolable anguish, praying that the impending torture of the cross might be removed, but only if God willed it, Jesus may have actually leaned against one of the giant olive trees –– and you may even touch the very one today, since some live for thousands of years –– or steadied Himself on a huge stone press to relieve His weakened, almost-fainting form. The thick drops of blood He agonizingly sweated at the prospect of imminent death at Golgotha were perhaps akin to the oil oozing from olives crushed by heavy presses –– as if Nature itself wept in silent anguish over the looming death of her beloved Creator. That ominous thought, perhaps, sharpens the focus of the climactic scene dramatically unfolding that apocalyptic night in Gethsemane, or "oil press." Jacob's name actually means "supplanter, schemer, trickster, swindler," which he earned by subtly scheming –– albeit with his mother, Rebekah, who cunningly hatched the double-crossing conspiracy –– and deceiving his nearly blind father, Isaac, pretending to be his older brother Esau, to receive his dying father's blessing of the firstborn, and thus inherit all his father's considerable wealth. (Genesis 27). He was paid back, of course, by his future father-in-law, Laban, who deceived Jacob repeatedly in marriage and wages, forcing him to work for 20 years, not seven as he originally promised, before he could marry his beloved Rachel and leave his uncle's unreasonable, constantly changing rules of employment. (Genesis 28-31). Thus, by changing Jacob's name alone, the angel blessed him: "Your name shall be called no more Jacob [supplanter], but Israel [contender with God]; for you have contended and have power with God and men, and have prevailed." –– Genesis 32:28 (Amplified Bible). Jacob (Israel) then named the battleground "Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." –– Genesis 32:30. Something to ponder, isn't it –– seeing God face to face, and then living to tell about it, and having a nation named after you? Today, Israel –– unlike Jacob wrestling with a heavenly angel in the beginning of Israel as a nation –– must wrestle with aggressive earthly foes who want to destroy this tiny nation, the only true democracy in the Middle East, and America's only stable ally in the war on terror. Israel faces implacable, bellicose enemies who want to totally wipe it off the face of the earth. Indeed, even before these venomous adversaries can execute their fiendish goal of destroying Israel, while repulsively gushing their nauseating, mad-dog Muslim rage about "driving the Zionists into the sea," these Islamic neighbors refuse to recognize that Israel even exists on their perverted map of the world –– which does not even show the nation of Israel. Indeed, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the megalomaniacal president of Iran, recently defiantly and scandalously denounced Israel as a "rotten and sticking corpse" which will "be soon swept away." Referring to Israel's 60th anniversary, this Islamic despot twisted his satanic dagger even more belligerently, disgracefully declaring it would be "futile to hold a birthday ceremony for something which is already dead." Unfortunately, this anti-Semitic, Muslim madman is the same tyrant whom the Democratic Party nominee for president, Barack Obama –– already warmly endorsed by the anti-Israel terrorist group Hamaas –– has said he is willing to meet with, and without preconditions. When this clear weakness was challenged by GOP nominee John McCain, Obama backtracked –– just as he is already backtracking on his stance before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that Jerusalem must remain the "undivided" capital of Israel –– and tried to foist off his anemic "no precondition" stance as "strong diplomacy." If that's his "strong" position, Israel had better hope it never sees his "weak" one. And despite Ahmadinejad's haughty threat that Israel is "already dead" and maliciously maligning the Jewish state as a "rotten and stinking corpse," Obama nonchalantly minimized the threat from Iran as "tiny." Tiny? I can think of a lot of words to describe Iran's grave threat to Israel, but "tiny" is definitely not one of them! Hitler was "tiny" at one time, but he publically proclaimed in advance –– as Ahmadinejad has declared with equal if not surpassing fanaticism –– his inflexible determination to destroy the Jews, a diabolical threat shamefully certified by the grim ashes of six million innocent Jews, whose mute witness outrageously and perpetually testifies to the entire world with hideous and everlasting revulsion: An irreversible and irrefutable affidavit in fire and blood, an unalterable and imperishable warning to beware when your enemy says he intends to destroy you. And Hitler didn't even have nuclear weapons –– as Ahmadinejad soon will have. Is it any wonder, then, that Israel must be constantly alert –– as America has to be in the war on terror, which we didn't start but must finish it, and far more effectively than with the half-hearted, piecemeal actions we are foolishly using now, insanely willing to pointlessly slaughter American soldiers, or suffer them to be brutally butchered or cruelly beheaded by Islamic fanatics, rather than risk possibly offending Muslims –– including Muslims in America directly linked to terrorists themselves and who are openly cheering for the terrorists to win, and America to lose, while camouflaging their diabolical glee under the devious, Treacherous Ticking-Time-Bomb Trojan Horse of Diversity, and slowly but surely weakening our will to win by brazenly demanding, and unfortunately getting, absurd and outlandish "Muslim Sensitivity Training" hogwash be shamefully taught in the highest, asinine levels of our federal and state government offices! Let's have a little American sensitivity training –– for Muslims! Especially for Muslims who want to be Americans! Israel and America must always have a special appreciation for the profoundly momentous meaning of First Corinthians 14:8: "For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" Israel, like America, must be thoroughly and continuously prepared against the Muslim madmen who audaciously seek the utter annihilation of both countries. More than 40 years ago, the president of a large U.S. corporation gave a talk I covered as a young journalist, and will never forget one crucial point he made –– but had no idea then how appropriately it would fit Israel these many years later. He said that every morning, when the Soviet Union's defense minister walked into Chairman Nikita Khrushchev's office, Khrushchev would always ask, "Is this a good day to attack the United States?" The answer, invariably, was: "Not today, Comrade. Not today." If, however, the answer were ever "Yes" –– because our defenses were weakened or lowered –– we would have been in trouble. Likewise, the Israeli government knows that it must make absolutely sure today, that when any of its pugnacious neighbors plan to attack their ancestral homeland, they will quickly realize: Not today! Young people today –– accustomed only to instantaneous satellite communications, personal computers and iPods –– cannot remember the 1950s erection across Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Iceland of the now-antiquated DEW Line, or "Distant Early Warning," to warn us of Soviet nuclear bombers or missiles whizzing over the frozen North Arctic to attack us by the shortest route. Nor can they recall the drills we older Americans had in school, crawling under our desks to simulate an atomic attack by the Soviets. With the end of the "Cold War," is so-called "peace" at hand? That's what we thought, on September 10, 2001, and probably believed it would continue. But, we would have done well to remember these ominous words from First Thessalonians 5:3: "For when they shall say, Peace and safety: then sudden destruction cometh upon them." The catastrophic conflagration of 9/11 spectacularly brought that little-known Bible verse alive –– with the Twin Towers of New York City vividly collapsing before a bewildered, traumatized, worldwide television audience into a flaming, horrifying cataclysm of blood and steel! While America has relative peace now –– aided by increased surveillance against further acts of terrorism –– suppose we didn't? Suppose, like Israel, we faced enemies –– not one, but several –– and not across continents, but right next door. Say, for example, you lived in Maryland –– and the states of Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York had sworn to destroy you, and had already fought several wars trying to do it. As a Marylander, would you feel a little nervous? You might even institute military checkpoints on the highway, instead of letting vehicles from belligerent states freely pour in? We don't have that in America, of course. But it will help us understand how another country in the world feels, in what it faces on a daily basis. Its people wake up every morning, asking, to paraphrase Khrushchev: "Is this the day we may be destroyed?" Israel (8,000 square miles) is a little smaller than Maryland (10,460), and slightly larger than New Jersey (7,787). But the enemies it has faced are far larger than Virginia (40,767 square miles), Pennsylvania (45,308) and New York (49,108). Egypt, for example (although Israel has made a tentative, shaky peace with it), occupies 386,660 square miles. Syria, which still refuses to make peace, has 71,498, and Jordan 35,468. Iraq, which lobbed three dozen Scud missiles into Israel during the 1991 Gulf War, has 167,952. Travelling between various American states, one never knows when he crosses from one to another, except for signs noting it. But if New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia had sworn to destroy Maryland, might Maryland wield barb wire and barricades along its borders, and post armed guards? Thus it is with Israel, faced with possible destruction every day and having fought five major wars (the first Palestine War, 1947-49; Suez-Sinai, 1956; Six-Day War, 1967; Yom Kippur War, 1973; and Operation "Peace for Galilee," 1982) since its rebirth in 1948 to maintain its very existence. One may be initially taken aback –– in contrast to the relative peace and serenity of our border states –– to see armored vehicles patrolling certain border areas, but not really surprised, given the harsh realities. During a recent visit, when an Israeli vehicle driving along the border with Jordan was swirling up a cloud of dust behind it, I realized it was wiping the area smooth, so the next vehicle could spot any tracks from possible terrorist infiltrators. I asked my guide if the troops ever used German Shepherd dogs for tracking. "No," answered Moshe Mor, "and do you know why?" Oh yes, I realized, as soon as he asked. That would be too painful a reminder for most Jews, who were subjected to German Shepherds for roundup and control during the Holocaust. The troops do use Bedouins, pastoral nomads who roam the desert, and may be loosely compared to American Indians, who roamed freely until the Europeans came and herded them into reservations –– those who weren't killed or slaughtered, of course. Ironically, some Indians became guides to U.S. troops hunting down other Indians. Likewise, the Arabic-speaking Bedouins –– which derives from the Arabic "badawi," or "desert dweller" –– are valued by the Israelis for their sharp tracking skills. When a Bedouin spots tracks, they are quickly followed until the invader is found, with all traffic sealed off in the area –– just as Maryland might do if events there were as just described. Israelis must maintain a strong sense of survival, just as Jews always have –– from the conniving Haman, who wanted to hang all of them in ancient Persia, to the scandalous, diabolical Hitler, a disgusting madman who sickeningly bequeathed to posterity a slimy name branded with horrific, inconceivable infamy when he tried to burn them all in modern Germany through his hideously unspeakable Holocaust. We take religious freedom for granted in America. Jews in other parts of the world have had to rely on their own wits and ingenuity to survive their planned obliteration over the centuries. As a boy growing up in the traditionally Protestant Bible Belt of Shelby, Alabama, I was extremely blessed with broad-minded, now-departed parents who taught me by precept and example the unique value of religious liberty. Daddy, for example, told me that Jews were "God's chosen people," when I was too young to have any idea what a Jew was, let alone understand the concept detailed in Deuteronomy 14:2: "For thou art a holy people...the Lord hath chosen thee...above all nations." Later, I would hear him say, "Lots of people knock the Catholics and Jews, but we don't know that they are wrong." His kindness and tolerance stuck with me long after his sudden death by a heart attack in 1962. In 1975 I began the annual "Jim Merrell Religious Liberty Memorial," offering $400 for the best essay on religious freedom at my alma mater, Shelby High School (and later $1,000 for newspapers nationwide). The first school winner happened to be a Jewish girl, who told with superbly sensitive personal feeling how her grandfather described to her the religious persecution he continually suffered in his native Hungary, but how he could sit peacefully for hours on end in a temple in America –– and nobody ever tormented him! Even though entries were submitted under pen names –– to assure absolute impartiality –– I knew this had to be "Little Marsha" Lefkovits, scion of "Old Max" (1872-1959), as he was affectionately known. My father, a lifelong friend of Mr. Lefkovits, relayed to me how Old Max made three attempts before succeeding in leaving Hungary. My mother, Emma Davis Merrell, told how Old Max tirelessly trudged over the county's dusty back roads with a huge, burdensome sack on his back for years, peddling his various goods, until he opened a store, the Columbiana Leader, later operated by his sons, Alvin and Norman. All three are dead now, but their legacy lives on –– through faith and perseverance –– just as Israel does today. It has to always be strong enough, that when an enemy asks, "Is this a good day to attack Israel?" the answer, from wiser heads, will always be: "Not today." Not today! Because Israelis must instinctively think of tomorrow, continually nurturing the passionate, unfaltering survival mantra –– that flaming, soul-searing hope fervently leaping from the lips of all freedom-loving Jews since ancient Babylonian captivity more than 2,500 years ago: "Next Year in Jerusalem!" Yes, Israel is absolutely timeless and eternal –– for Israelis and Americans, who can vicariously transcend the ages with the inhabitants of this consecrated ground, which quietly ignores man's puny clocks and trifling calendars, while eternally radiating its dynamic, imperishable essence, shining victoriously through the inscrutable mist of eternity –– that indefinable ether permeating the endless, far-flung eddies and currents of time's uninterrupted and everlasting bloodstream, illustriously gliding us back and forth between yesterday and today, with the distinctions often blurred, unable to tell which is which. You can lose yourself in the incomprehensible veil that indescribably envelops this sacred firmament, enthrallingly cloaked in the indestructible and eternal mantle of divine immortality –– yet allowing, once in a while, for those who truly believe, to amazingly slither through the elusive and inescapable fabric of time's impenetrable barrier: Ageless and Indefatigable Guardian of today and tomorrow, yesterday and forever, time without end. If you listen carefully –– amid the tongueless silence and dreamless dust of Israel's infinite, unvarnished grandeur, gleaming like the grand, gold-capped pillars of Solomon's majestic temple of old, fantastically arrayed with undiminished luster against the setting sun more than 3,000 years ago –– you can almost hear the distant, yet resounding roar of Gideon's trumpet, heralding anew the naked, deathless splendor that will always be Israel, shimmering like the sun: perpetually imparting warmth and brightness, yet never exhausted! Yes, the Israel of old still lives and thrives within the new, delightfully pulsating from the voiceless depths of its nostalgic and immortal soul, ineradicably stamped with the pristine, elegantly mystifying, immaculate DNA of God Himself –– untarnished by time, unblemished by change, beaming exultantly like some far-flung, conspicuously arresting quasar, gleaming resplendently like the noonday sun while anchored steadfastly to the unflinching edge of forever –– majestically sweeping across the mind's eye with exquisite tenderness, charismatically flooding our soul with unutterable torrents of sublime eloquence on a dazzling, wide-screen panorama that easily outshines any lackluster Cinemascope production that anemic Hollywood could feebly churn out, amazingly alternating between stunning scenes of staggering, dreamlike contradictions: On the one hand, proudly flashing the illustrious sword of Joshua, with its iron might and inflexible firmness –– then inexplicably evaporating into spectral apparitions like those conjured up by the crafty Witch of Endor on that ominous night before Saul's crucial, fatal battle with the Philistines, as soft and shapeless as drifting fog, as if we time-travelers could gloriously bestride the heavens in Elijah's breathtaking chariot of fire, fearlessly flouting every obstacle of unpredictable space, surmounting with perfect wonder every phenomenal barrier that time insolently hurls at us, gliding fantastically into the seething undertow of eternity's enigmatic, indecipherable and unfathomable whirlpool of enduring, Bible-born landmarks, abundantly sprinkled throughout Israel and firmly bracketed to the river-bottom bedrock of unbending time, steadfast as the Rock of Ages, dependably anchor like unwavering granite sentinels of Heaven' s exhaustless love, for Christians and Jews alike, spontaneously gushing forth with the effortless ease of an artesian well, incessantly flooding our souls with all the sacred and undying hopes amid the dark clouds of an uncertain today, majestically intertwined with our timeless and boundless dreams of a better tomorrow. Whether ancient or modern, whether facing the barbaric Babylonians of old, or the new Iranian madmen, whether confronting the Assyrians of yesteryear or the Syrians of today, Israelis –– and by extension Americans –– are extraordinarily bound together by our common heritage that is unassailable and impregnable, invincible and eternal, endless and indestructible. Whether walking or riding over the holy ground of Israel, one can sense –– even feel, as Jacob did while wrestling with the angel –– a somber, divine presence looking over your shoulder, as you attempt to comprehend the full measure of the intricate celestial mystery resplendently shrouding this revered terrain. It cannot be done: "How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" –– Romans 11:33. Israel still remains today, the same hallowed ground that it was nearly 4,000 years ago when God called Abraham to leave the land of Ur and go there, and promised He would mold Abraham into a great nation (Genesis 12:1-2). Israel's promises from God, whether old or new, are always fulfilled: "I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel." –– Ezekiel 37:21-22. Modern-day Israel was literally born in one day, exactly as the unimpeachable prophet Isaiah had predicted more than 2,700 years ago: "Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once?" –– Isaiah 66:8. Yes –– a nation was brought forth "in one day." Yes –– a nation was born "at once." And, yes –– that nation was Israel! How did it happen? This way: On May 14, 1948, Great Britain, following up on its 1917 Balfour Declaration favoring the "establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people," withdrew its old 1922 mandate from the League of Nations to govern Palestine, and Israel was immediately declared a sovereign state. In one day. In the same one day as was predicted 2,700 years earlier by the ancient Israeli prophet Isaiah. The modern traveler cannot see all of Israel in just one day, but you can make a good start. A good start is to first realize this significant fact: Although the modern nation of Israel is only 60 years old, the first nation of Israel is nearly 3,500 years old, but had its actual genesis some 4,000 years ago when it first sprang from the esteemed loins of the venerable patriarch Abraham, specifically chosen by God in the "land of Ur" (now southeastern Turkey), who promised he would "make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing." –– Genesis 11:28; 12:2. The tangible nation began after Abraham's descendents, then called the "children of Israel," were mightily delivered from the Egyptian Pharaoh's cruel grasp when a far more powerful hand, grimly outstretched from God's austere Angel of Death, killed every firstborn of every Egyptian household, whether man or beast, but inexplicably "passed over" the home of all the Hebrew slaves, and hurt not one of them, thus creating the memorable "Passover," a family celebration faithfully observed by Jews every year since their spectacular deliverance from 400 years of hard bondage about 3,500 years ago. The children of Israel were then miraculously led out of Egypt by God's hand-picked deliverer, Moses, who took them through a phenomenally divided Red Sea, and into the Wilderness of Sinai, where Moses received the revered Ten Commandments, written on two tablets of stone with God's own finger of fire –– a highly treasured code of honorable and decent conduct for mankind which has since become the moral bedrock for all Judeo-Christian civilizations throughout the world. An exhausted Moses died before reaching the "Promised Land" of Canaan, but his final mission was carried out by his skilled successor, Joshua, who destroyed the highly fortified enemy bastion at Jericho by merely marching around it and blowing his trumpets, and later made the sun stand still about a whole day while firmly establishing the nation of Israel by driving out the belligerent Canaanites who sought to bar them from God's guaranteed "land flowing with milk and honey." That Israeli nation continued for more than 1,500 years, until 70 A.D., when the callous, unbending, world-conquering Roman army, under General Titus Flavius Sabinus Vespasianus (who became Emperor nine years later, 79-81 A.D.), mercilessly pillaged Jerusalem and utterly destroyed the magnificent temple built by Solomon, and hapless Jews were scattered to the four corners of the earth –– until, as God had promised, Israel would once again become a great nation. And in one day –– as it did 60 years ago, on May 14, 1948. "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth forever." –– Ecclesiastes 1:4. And so does Israel. It has friends in high places. As my dear-departed mother –– ill-educated by today's specious standards preposterously churned out by our ill-named and idiotic "Department of Education," but infinitely wiser than most Harvard nitwits foolishly posturing as paragons of immaculate enlightenment –– once put it: "They think they're going to hurt Israel, but they're gonna get fooled –– because the Lord is on their side." Yes, Mama, by all accounts, He is! Israel –– the new Israel –– celebrates its 60th birthday this year, and it has much to celebrate, even in unseen ways. It is no accident, I'm sure, what the 60th chapter of the Old Testament book of the esteemed Israeli prophet Isaiah says about Israel. Isaiah –– who had accurately predicted more than 2,700 years ago the rebirth of the modern state of Israel, and in one day –– prophetically penned in the very first verse of Isaiah 60: "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." And risen it is. And shine it does. Like the unrivaled Biblical "Pearl of Great Price." Israel, however, has countless pearls of great price, scattered over the length and breadth of its sacred soil –– God's ageless, sparkling, timeless vault of antiquity –– cherished treasures in incalculable and extraordinary profusion. During its 60th anniversary, Israel is igniting a colossal torch to reveal its gleaming fortune of splendid spiritual gifts, a truly boundless abundance of divine riches, lavishly spread beneath Israel's vast, heaven-blessed celestial canopy. Yes, Israel is genuinely an unparalleled country, unashamedly exhibiting its awe-inspiring, incalculable treasure chest, brimming with both sacred and secular history of truly awe-inspiring magnitude. Yet, whether new or old, like the needle to the pole, the heart and soul of Israel, modern or ancient, draws its intrinsic strength from the blessed embryo affectionately implanted by God into his faithful servant Abraham 4,000 years ago, with the Lord's deathless and immortal promise that He would make of Abraham a great nation. Which He did. And from the nuclear core of that hallowed crucible, still radiating its perpetual glow, Israel has incessantly drawn its Samson-like strength, in unfaltering, still-widening circles –– impressively and forcefully demonstrated by the real-life events of Israel's countless patriarchs and prophets, whose faultless, unparalleled lives awesomely illustrate the gargantuan gulf between God's infinite, exhaustless love, and Satan's undying, implacable vengeance. What more can be said of such a place? Perhaps this: Because much of Israel's dry, dusty ground is harsh, ruthless and forbidding, you have a constant feeling of water, its momentous impact, its sense of history and grave importance. Jacob wrestled the angel beside a brook, God sent a raven to deliver food to the prophet Elijah beside a brook, David intensely craved water from the comforting well of Bethlehem while battling the Philistines, but threw it out when he realized his men has risked their lives for him alone to savor the comforting water, and Elijah –– when chastising the evil King Ahab and his wicked wife Jezebel for their abominable sins in a powerful, persuasive revelation of God's unrivaled might high atop Mount Carmel –– sloshed 12 barrels of water over his sacrifice before calling fire down from heaven to instantly devour it. Whether it be the "still waters" of the 23rd Psalm, the calm, emerald waters of the River Jordan, where John the Baptist baptized Jesus, the fish-fertile Sea of Galilee where Jesus' disciples cast their nets, or the pleasing charm of an Oasis to comfort a weary traveler, the welcome lure of soothing water is never far from the mind of a native or guest in Israel. Indeed, Israel, the sanctified sphere hand-picked by God for his chosen people, is like an uplifting river of rebirth and renewal, continually rejuvenating Jews and Gentiles alike –– coursing irresistibly through time like an invigorating, frosty mountain stream, fed by unfailing springs, flowing briskly from high atop Israel's sacred Mount Carmel, whose cool, sparking waters leap from rock to rock, refreshing the tired, the weary and the heavy-laden. And whether ancient or modern, Israeli or American, Jew or Christian, Buddhist or Hindu, Muslim or Palestinian, anywhere in the world, surely the hope rings as true today –– for Israel and the entire world –– as it did when uttered nearly 2,800 years ago by the dedicated prophet Amos: "But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." –– Amos 5:24. Amen.
Contact Jesse H. Merrell at jessemerrell@comcast.net |
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WHY SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN DON'T WORK: EXHIBIT A –– GERMANY
Posted by Carl in Jerusalem, July 6, 2008. |
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The story's headline is that the German government has admitted to funding a conference in June at which former Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Ardashir Larijani (pictured) called for Israel's destruction. Larijani, who is considered more 'moderate' than Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is now Ahmadinejad's chief rival for the Presidency and speaker of Iran's parliament, and was formerly its chief nuclear negotiator. Larijani was also quoted as saying: Denial of the Holocaust in the Muslim world has nothing to with anti-Semitism. And President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has never denied the Holocaust. That the German government would sponsor a conference like this is despicable, especially given the country's Nazi past. But what's even more revealing is why the country sponsored the conference. You see, Germany is trying to curry favor with Iran, with which it does some four billion euros per year of trade. That's right four billion euros. A weeklong investigation by the Post indicates that the German government has been intensifying its business and political relations with Iran in 2008. With the exception of 2007, Germany has remained Iran's No. 1 European Union trade partner over the years. Economists attributed the decline in 2007 to private-sector complications in Iran, and not to German political policy. Germany is not Russia or China. It doesn't raise its hand in the UN Security Council to veto sanctions against Iran. It isn't providing nuclear fuel or anti-aircraft systems to Iran. It is even considered (along with Italy) one of Israel's best friends on the European continent. Its leader, Angela Merkel, is particularly admired by Israelis. And yet, business is business. And despite a sincere American push for sanctions, Germany is doing four billion euros per year of business with Iran, which includes 'dual use' equipment. It's time to drop the pretense that sanctions work altogether. They don't. If it were any country other than Israel that was being threatened with annihilation, 'sanctions' would have been dropped as a response a long time ago. Israelis and Americans have to realize that –– unfortunately –– the only way to stop Iran is militarily. Contact Carl of Jerusalem at his website: http://Israelmatsav.blogspot.com |
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ARE WE READY FOR CHEMICAL WARFARE?
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, July 5, 2008. |
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This article below is by Yechiel Spira. It appeared July 3,
2008 in The Yeshiva World website.
Here again, the amateur bureaucracy of the political Left has failed the Jewish nation of Israel. The first debacle was when the military, with knowledge of the politicians, passed out virtually useless gas masks with filter cartridges that were not designed –– nor intended –– to protect the wearers against a wide range of chemical and biological materials. They were bought on-the-cheap and, no doubt, those in charge of the purchase got a commission. The Politicians of Israel are still NOT prepared to protect her civilian population. What's worse, is that this and past governments knew it. But, hey, as long as the bureaucrats can drop their fat behinds into a government chair for a big salary, perks and vacations, let the civilians take care of themselves. Besides, they know that whatever vital mistakes they make, they will protected by the Leftist Supreme Court and Attorneys General, hand-picked to protect the system and the top politicians. The Israeli Government, as it stands, equals what passes for a government under the likes Robert Mugabe, cruel military dictator of Zimbabwe (once called Rhodesia). The people of Israel do not count –– except to be taxed, so PM Ehud Olmert and his Kadima Party can walk barefoot through their nation's Treasury. They never cared for the people, the Land or the obligations G-d entrusted them with in His Covenant but they did care for power over the people. |
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Army, intelligence and other agencies are in agreement, that the next armed conflict on any front, Iran, Hizbullah, Hamas or Syria, will place Israel's home front on the front-line of the warfare. The experts are drawing conclusions from the Second Lebanon War, and they expect a new conflict will result in hundreds of rockets striking cities, but until now, there were none armed with chemical warheads. All are in agreement that today, the situation is considerably better than before the Second Lebanon War, but all also agree that the current reality is a far cry from an ideal situation, with the home front exposed and vulnerable. Many citizens do not have proper gas masks, there is a shortage of shelters, and a chemical attack could result in a painful blow. Officials are pleased to see that following recent preparedness exercises involving civilian and military agencies, the current state of preparedness is an improvement compared to pre-Second Lebanon War realities. Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai is in charge of overseeing preparedness for the next conflict, which by the way most intelligence community officials feel is a matter if "when? and not "if?. The level of preparedness nationwide dropped significantly as a result of the decision in the 1995 Second Gulf War when then defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, ordered the opening of the personal protection kits, the gas masks. The move rendered the kits unusable and since that time, many have been collected but they have not been reconditioned and redistributed. In line with a cabinet decision, the redistribution of the personal protection kits should begin in January 2009, and the process will take time. In the meantime, the citizens of Israel are at higher risk against a chemical attack. One of the results of the Second Lebanon War was the establishment of the National Emergency Authority, responsible of coordinating between various agencies dealing with the civilian population during a state of emergency or national disaster. Brigadier-General (reserves) Ze'ev Tzukrom heads the agency. He answers directly to Deputy Minister Vilnai. One of the major problems is budgetary, with the home-front requiring an estimated NIS 70 million boost a year for the next five years. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). Contact him at gwinston@gwinston.interaccess.com |
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TROUBLING QUESTIONS AND UNPLEASANT FACTS
Posted by Buddy Macy, July 5, 2008. |
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Shalom Dr. Eidelberg, Thank you for your excellent policy paper! (See below). Your writing elicits one logical question from me. You wrote: "If this Machiavellian interpretation is correct, then it is futile and even misleading for opponents of territory for peace to (1) expose the genocidal intentions of Israel's enemies; (2) reveal the dangerous strategic consequences of that policy; and (3) appeal to moral and religious values. More than 14 years of incessant criticism of Oslo illustrate this futility. What may our network of activists do, if anything, to help secure a majority of power for the opponents of the land-for-peace policy? Best wishes and shavua tov,
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If you are Jewish and have a stitch of Jewish pride, are you sick and tired of hearing how this or that president, or how this or that presidential candidate, is "good for Israel"? Has there ever been an American Secretary of State –– with the possible exception of Alexander Haig, who was promptly eased out of office –– that has been "good for Israel"? Do you know of a single American politician that emphatically opposes or campaigns against the establishment of a Palestinian state? Does Senator Joseph Lieberman? Do you realize that all this talk about how this or that American president or politician is "good for Israel" renders Israel all the more pathetic and degrades the Jewish people? Do you realize that American Zionist organizations that lobby for Israel have had no discernible, positive impact on Israel's government, that is, have not affected Israel's suicidal policy of territorial retreat, hence, have not made Israel's government more sane or more Zionist? Do you realize that Israeli politicians that plow the field of America raising money for their political parties or political ambitions have perpetuated a system of government in Israel that is demonstrably destructive of their own country? Do you realize that, in dollar value, Israel gives more aid to the United States than the United States gives to Israel? (See Part I of the attached file for documentation.) So what does the talk about this or that American politician being "good for Israel" amount to? Indeed, I wonder how many American politicians are good for America, let alone for Israel! I know the U.S gave Israel $2.28 billion last year in military aid. But the U.S. gave Egypt, a military dictatorship, almost as much, and sold tens of billions of dollars in military hardware to other Arabs states, especially Saudi Arabia, a totalitarian regime that has built hundreds of mosques in America that preach hatred of Israel. That American politicians are good for America's military-industrial complex is one thing; that they are equally good for Israel is another. Still, aren't you tired of Israeli politicians behaving like shnorrahs? Aren't you tired of how America reimburses Israel for yielding Jewish land to terrorists? Aren't you tired of how America reimburses Israel after its government expels Jewish women, children, and men from their homes, destroys their schools and synagogues, their farms and factories? Would Israeli prime ministers commit such unspeakable crimes if American "largesse" did not keep these politicians in power? Contact Buddy Macy by email at vegibud@gmail.com |
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ANATOMY OF A MASSACRE
Posted by Dave Alpern, July 5, 2008. |
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We Israelis can neither expect nor ask others to defend us when we won't properly defend ourselves. This below is "Column One: Anatomy of a Massacre" from July 3, 2008
The Jerusalem Post
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Government and police spokesmen would have us believe that the carnage in Jerusalem on Wednesday was unavoidable. Husam Taysir Dwayat, the convicted rapist, burglar and drug dealer turned jihadist who mowed down innocent people with his bulldozer on Jaffa Road, was not suspected of links to terrorist organizations. The sociopathic and violent criminal who had "returned" to Islam over the past month had raised no red flags. There was nothing to be done. No one is to blame. If the protestations of the government and the police that nothing could have prevented Dwayat from using his bulldozer to murder three people sound familiar, it is because they are. Immediately after Ala Abu Dhaim entered into Mercaz Harav yeshiva on March 6 and massacred eight students, government and police spokesmen said the same thing. There was no way to prevent the attack. No one is to blame. These statements are no more than easy excuses for incompetence. While it may be true that neither Dwayat nor Dhaim were members of a terror group, it is certainly true that both of these Jerusalemite terrorists operated in an atmosphere that engenders both radicalism and lawlessness. Their decisions to murder innocent people were products not only of their own evil natures, but of an atmosphere of permissiveness that naturally intensifies any latent desire to cause death and mayhem. If they had been operating in a different environment, it is possible they would have behaved differently. Four months ago, Dhaim was able to enter Mercaz Harav by dint of his job as a driver for the Jerusalem Arab-owned transport company HaPnina. HaPnina had a city contract to transport school children. Dhaim, who arrived at the yeshiva in a company van, aroused no suspicion when he entered the yeshiva with a large box where he hid his rifle. After Dhaim committed his massacre, the municipality immediately tried to abrogate its contract with HaPnina. HaPnina sued and the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court issued a temporary injunction requiring the city to continue using HaPnina until the judge ruled on the case. When Judge Hagit Mack-Kalmanovich finally decided in the municipality's favor on June 13, she noted that that the company had ignored a court order to provide documentation showing that its drivers had no criminal records and were qualified to transport children. If the municipality were more vigilant in overseeing its contractors, it could have discovered that HaPnina was employing criminals well before the massacre. Perhaps then Dhaim wouldn't have been able to enter the yeshiva. It is a criminal offense to praise acts of murder. When hundreds came to pay their respects for Dhaim and proclaim him a hero, the police could have arrested and interrogated all of them. Among those who arrived at the Dhaim's mourning tent was Wednesday's terrorist, Dwayat. If he had been arrested then, it is possible that police would have discovered that this convicted rapist had recently become a jihadist. It is also possible that Dwayat himself would have been intimidated. But rather than enforce the law, the police did nothing. Rather than arrest the hundreds who came to praise Dhaim, the police excused their inaction by bemoaning the fact that the due process rights of Jerusalem Arabs made it impossible to destroy the homes of Arab terrorists in the capital without proper legal authorization. That is, they justified their decision to do nothing by complaining that they can't do everything. The police's permissive behavior is nothing new. In Dhaim's and Dwayat's Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem, as in the Beduin settlements in the Negev and the Arab cities and villages in the Galilee, the police simply refuse to enforce the law. They do not patrol the streets. They do not arrest religious, educational and political leaders who solicit terrorism or incite hatred. They do not enforce building laws. They do not protect state and privately owned land from squatters. Today some 90 percent of Arab construction in Israel is carried out without permits. Whole towns in the Negev have been built on stolen state land. And the police simply do nothing. As a consequence of police inaction, thieves, smugglers, terror solicitors and other dangerous criminals are allowed to operate in the open. Fearing the wrath of human rights groups on the one hand and Arab rioters on the other, the police simply do not enforce Israeli law in the Arab sector. This police passivity manifests itself not only in times of relative calm but also in emergency situations. For instance, at both Mercaz Harav and on Jaffa Road, the police were inexcusably passive. In both attacks the terrorists were only stopped by citizens who took the initiative when the police failed to act. On Wednesday Dwayat killed two motorists and overturned a truck before a policeman and a security guard climbed into the cab of his bulldozer. And then, instead of shooting him, the policeman simply tried to restrain him. Due to the police's refusal to shoot, Dwayat killed 33-year-old Batsheva Unterman while the policeman was standing next to him in the bulldozer's cab. It was only the intervention of "M.," an unarmed IDF commando soldier on furlough, that ended the carnage. M. climbed onto the bulldozer, took the security guard's gun and shot Dwayat in the head three times. Another policeman only shot Dwayat after M. had already killed him. At Mercaz Harav, it took the police some 20 minutes to show up in force. Until then, only one police officer was at the scene. And as he heard the anguished cries of teenagers being murdered, he opted not to go in and protect them. He stood outside and did nothing. Dhaim was only stopped when yeshiva student Moshe Dadon and furloughed paratrooper Capt. David Shapira killed him. As luck or providence would have it, Shapira is M.'s brother-in-law. In failing to act against Arab Israeli lawlessness and the terror it engenders, the police are little different from the government. Like the police, the government turns a blind eye to the radicalization and lawlessness of Arab Israeli society. And when the unchallenged lawless and jihadist atmosphere leads inevitably to massacre, the government talks of how its hands are tied and makes angry, tough declarations not backed by policy. Then it quickly moves to change the subject. The government's refusal to form a coherent policy regarding the deteriorating situation in Israeli-Arab society was exposed at the Knesset on Wednesday. There, just as Dwayat was on his killing spree, the Knesset was scheduled to vote on two bills written by opposition lawmakers after the Mercaz Harav massacre. If passed, the bills will allow the government to revoke the citizenship of terrorists and their family members and prohibit the families of dead terrorists from publicly celebrating their actions. The government's Ministerial Committee on Legislation voted to oppose the bills some weeks ago. It only changed its mind in light of the massacre on Jaffa Road. As opposition leader and Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu noted on Thursday morning in an interview with Israel Radio, the government'ssupport of the bills was pure political opportunism. The sudden change in its position made clear that the government has no policies, only postures. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak reacted to Wednesday's attack by loudly proclaiming their support for destroying Dwayat's home. But as Netanyahu noted, they are policy-makers, not spokesmen. Their job is to act, not to declaim about their preferences. And yet, making loud, crowd pleasing declarations is the only policy the government has for dealing with anything. Both Barak and Olmert know that in sovereign Israel it is legally impossible to simply destroy a house without due process. Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz is still trying to work out how to legally destroy Dhaim's home four months after he attacked. If Barak and Olmert really were interested in destroying terrorists' homes, they could pass a law explicitly empowering the government to do so. While the police could end the atmosphere of lawlessness by enforcing the laws already on the books, the government can take positive steps to reverse the trends toward radicalization in Israeli Arab society. It can pass regulations barring anti-Zionist propaganda in public school curricula and sanctioning the immediate firing of public school teachers who teach students to hate Israel. It can suspend government funding of municipalities and local councils that do not enforce building codes. It can set up well-paid community police comprised of loyal citizens. The government can prosecute Arab politicians and leaders who treat with the enemy for treason. But not only is the government doing none of these things, it is taking active steps to legitimize Israeli-Arab rejection of the State of Israel. So it is that far from barring the study of the myth of the so-called Nakba, or catastrophe of Israel's birth, in Arab schools, Education Minister Yuli Tamir is encouraging Israeli Jewish schools to teach the lie to their Jewish students. Rather than take action against Arab leaders who actively work to radicalize Israeli-Arab society and solicit terrorism, the government bends over backwards to appease these leaders in the name of multicultural pluralism. The government has not sufficed with seeking to appease Arab radicals by embracing their anti-Israeli propaganda as legitimate. It is also actively working to marginalize the sectors of Israeli society that support policies aimed at reversing the trend of Arab radicalization. M., the hero of Wednesday's attack, is case in point. M., a clearly motivated, resourceful and brave soldier, is 20 years old. At his age, he should have already been in the army for nearly two years. But he was only drafted four months ago. It turns out that the IDF didn't want him. Even as IDF commanders bemoan the dwindling draft rolls as more and more young men and women evade military service, the IDF fought for two years to keep M. out of its ranks. The IDF opposed M.'s service because in 2005 he was arrested for protesting against the withdrawal from Gaza. Charges were never filed against him. But the mere fact that he was arrested for opposing one of the stupidest and most disastrous government policies the IDF has ever implemented was sufficient to make him politically suspect. Then, too, by Thursday morning, unnamed government sources were warning that "right-wing extremists" were planning to start attacking Jerusalem Arab neighborhoods. It is far easier to attack imaginary enemies than to face real ones. It is possible that both Dhaim and Dwayat couldn't have been stopped. But it is certainly true that given the environment of lawlessness and governmental flaccidity in which they operated, there were no countervailing forces in their lives that might have led these evil men to have second thoughts about murdering innocent Israelis in the name of Allah. Political bluster will not prevent the next attack. There are policies that Israel can enact today that will make the option of mass murder less attractive to its Arab citizenry. But as Barak, Olmert and their colleagues have made clear, nothing will happen under the current government. |
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BOYS PUNISHED WITH DETENTION FOR REFUSING TO PRAY TO ALLAH
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 5, 2008. |
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This is from World Net Daily
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Boys punished with detention for refusing to pray to Allah
Two seventh-grade boys were given detention and their classmates forced to miss their scheduled refreshment break when the pair refused to kneel and pray to Allah during a religious studies class.
Outraged parents called the punishment of the boys for not wanting to take part in the practical demonstration at Alsager High School near Stoke-on-Trent, UK, of how Muslims' worship Allah a breach of their human rights. "This isn't right, it's taking things too far," parent Sharon Luinen told the London Daily Mail. "I understand that they have to learn about other religions. I can live with that, but it is taking it a step too far to be punished because they wouldn't join in Muslim prayer. Making them pray to Allah, who isn't who they worship, is wrong and what got me is that they were told they were being disrespectful. "I don't want this to look as if I have a problem with the school because I am generally very happy with it." Last month, WND reported Principal Robin Lowe was reassigned after staging a mandatory lesson in Islamic religious beliefs for nearly 900 students at her Houston-area school. The controversy erupted at Friendswood Junior High when students were diverted from a scheduled physical education class and taken to a special assembly. In the 40-minute session, representatives of the Houston office of the controversial Council on American-Islamic Relations, an organization critics link to terrorist groups, presented a lesson in the religious beliefs and requirements of Islam. The CAIR representatives instructed students that Adam, Noah and Jesus are prophets; announced "there is one god, his name is Allah"; taught the five pillars of Islam; told students how to pray five times a day; and gave instruction on Islamic religious requirements for dress. The assembly had not been authorized by the district, officials confirmed. In May, officials at a Minnesota charter school, housed in the same building as a mosque, attacked a television news crew investigating whether the publicly funded institution had complied with a state order to stop accommodating Islamic prayers and religious programs. The investigation followed revelations by a substitute teacher who observed children being forced to participate in Islamic prayers. In the Alsager School incident, the religion teacher, who was not named, made the class wear Muslim headgear and watch a short film. Afterward, she took prayer mats from her cupboard and said, "we are now going out to pray to Allah," parents claimed. "I am absolutely furious my daughter was made to take part in it and I don't find it acceptable," said parent Karen Williams. "Not only was it forced upon them, my daughter was told off for not doing it right. They'd never done it before and they were supposed to do it in another language." "My child has been forced to pray to Allah in a school lesson," the grandfather of one of the students said. "It's absolutely disgusting, there's no other way of putting it. My daughter and a lot of other mothers are furious about their children being made to kneel on the floor and pray to Islam. If they didn't do it they were given detention. "I am not racist, I've been friendly with an Indian for 30 years. I've also been to a Muslim wedding where it was explained to me that alcohol would not be served and I respected that. But if Muslims were asked to go to church on Sunday and take Holy Communion there would be war." Keith Plant, Alsager's deputy headmaster, said with summer break, many of the staff was unavailable and he could not comment fully. "I think that it is a shame that so many parents have got in touch with the press before coming to me. I have spoken to the teacher and she has articulately given me her version of events, but that is all I can give you at the moment." Cheshire County Council issued a statement telling parents "inquiries are being made into the circumstances as a matter of urgency. "Educating children in the beliefs of different faith is part of the diversity curriculum on the basis that knowledge is essential to understanding. We accept that such teaching is to be conducted with some sense of sensitivity." Revelation of the incident follows this week's pronouncement by the UK's top judge, Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips, that Islamic sharia law should be used in the UK. In a speech to an East London mosque, Phillips said, "Those entering into a contractual agreement can agree that the agreement shall be governed by a law other than English law.' "Those who are in dispute are free to subject it to mediation or to agree that it shall be resolved by a chosen arbitrator. There is no reason why principles of sharia law or any other religious code should not be the basis for mediation or other forms of dispute resolution." Phillips signaled approval of sharia principles as long as punishments –– and divorce rulings –– complied with the law of the land. In February, WND reported Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, chief of the 70-million-strong worldwide Anglican Communion, advocated the establishment of Islamic law in Britain.
Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com
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NATURAL LIGHTING AND SHAPELY LEAVES
Posted by Fred Reifenberg, July 5, 2008. |
To see more of Fred Reifenberg's enhanced photos, go to http://reifyreadying.blogspot.com. Contact him at fred343@gmail.com |
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UNANSWERED QUESTIONS TO THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT CONCERNING HAMAS MEDIA
Posted by Israel Resource News Agency, July 5, 2008. |
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The following was excerpted from:
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Accountability Of The Israeli Government
Yesterday afternoon, The Bulletin contacted the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert about the Israeli government's response to the Hamas: The Bulletin forwarded a statement to the Israeli court from two weeks ago in which the government of Israel took a position that it will NOT garnish the assets of Hamas for a Hamas terror victim family and that the government of Israel states that it is the position of the government that the Hamas should NOT be dismantled. In light of the fact that the Hamas praised the attack in Jerusalem, The Bulletin asked three questions of Mr. Olmert. 1. Why will the Israeli government not dismantle the Hamas? No answer was forthcoming from Mr. Olmert's communications office to these
queries that followed yesterday's terror attack in downtown
Jerusalem."
Contact Israel Resoure News Agency at media@actcom.co.il
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A SYSTEM TO MAXIMIZE HUMAN POTENTIAL
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, July 5, 2008. |
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Jewish Israel is surrounded by hostile Muslim neighbors within a dysfunctional Middle East, many of which rob the industrial world of its wealth commanding an obscene price for their 'precious' commodity oil, many of which gather strength from that ever increasing revenue flow thus present an ever increasing threat to Israel's security thus prosperity. Consequently, Israel must find a way to maximize her most prominent asset, the mighty brain power coupled with ambition gifted to so many of her citizens. In order to accomplish this Israel needs to get a leg up on the rest of the world by engineering a superior macro-economic engine, one that will create an economic climate that indeed maximizes her human potential. A prescient Jewish homeland could indeed become a laboratory for a macro-economic system worthy of century twenty-one. Humans have vaulted into outer space, cured many diseases, built incredible material structures, yet to date cannot seem to figure out how to engineer efficient macro-economies. Most civilized modern day human tribes, known as nations, allocate differing proportions of their money supplies, which are integral economic tools, towards government and private sector spending by controlling taxation rates. Assuming there is a given quantity of money in any particular economy at a moment in time, as more flows through any private sector within that moment in time, less flows through its corresponding public sector, and vice versa. This strategy alas is highly inefficient, as productive outputs are essentially constrained by macro-economic systems based on trade-offs. The tiny state of Israel, albeit technologically advanced, remains no exception, indeed a hostage to this comparatively medieval mindset. Such redistributions of derived incomes, much of which is earned by humans through sweat and tears, restrict natural supply and demand within these economies. Is there a better way? Must consumers in any nation wishing to produce substantially be curtailed in their spending and employment opportunities by an inefficient use of thus restricted access to sufficient money supply? Must, in effect, the monetary tail wag the highly motivated yet leashed dog in this Kafkaesque macro-economic scenario? Money supply ought to facilitate macro-economic activity in much the same way as oil lubricates a motor. Money supply should not control hence restrict economic activity! Is there a way to maximize human potential, human productive output, as well as human satisfaction without artificially shackling such desirable objectives through a poorly constructed macro-economic structure? Let us note that in most nations, money supply is controlled through central banking systems. In the United States, for example, the hub of the banking system is deceptively called the Federal Reserve, which unbeknownst to most folks exists as a private corporation owned by extremely wealthy shareholders. Money ebbs and flows through the American economy, not unlike the economies of most other nations, under the auspices of their delegated institutions, utilizing a monetary tool known as interest rates. Indeed, all such money that is so generated by printing presses, through banking systems of nations worldwide, enters general economies in the form of loans that must be repaid i.e. debt money. No precise mathematical formula guides these monetary tides. The Bank of Israel provides a similar function for the nation it presumably serves. I suggest there is a better way. Current computer technologies allow for the monitoring of monies
exchanged during economic transactions thereby recording price data
within a centralized mainframe. For the sake of efficiency it is vital
to regulate over-all money supply within a nation so that it virtually
conforms to all such monitored national transactions, thus reflecting
over-all supply and demand, reversing the aforementioned tail wagging
dog metaphor. Surely this task is now complicated by the fact that we
have a global economy. Yet, the concept of money supply being so
regulated that it conforms to humanity's desire to produce as well as
to consume goods and services, hopefully someday on a planetary scale,
is a valid ideal. Those who scoff at this formidable challenge,
seemingly so difficult to implement, should contemplate the notion
"man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"
Indeed the task is doable although high hurdles will be encountered.
By monitoring the prices of all purchases over a given time period,
say at the retail level, we know just how much money was spent on
goods and services by consumers.
INSTEAD OF MAINTAINING AN INEFFICIENT SYSTEM THAT REDISTRIBUTES money supply via taxation, why not have Treasury Departments of nations infuse adequate amounts of new money, say on a monthly basis, to pay for all public sector needs, and evenly tax all purchases at the retail level so the current value of over-all money supply (infused and residual) in an economy conforms to the total amount that is needed to purchase all goods and services demanded at their current prices? The taxes collected would be removed from a national economy (in effect drained out or disintegrated), not redistributed, in order to maintain a virtually inflation free system. No other taxation of any kind would be needed in such an economy. This proposed system would necessarily be purely electronic, all transactions would be electronic, and all retail purchases would need to be monitored when each monthly taxation rate is calculated. If we allow the growth of money supply or purchasing power to virtually coincide with natural unfettered macro-economic growth, cycles of boom and bust ought to be eliminated, and the efficiency of a nation's economic motor ought to be maximized. I reiterate; global monetary exchanges complicate matters, but we have to start somewhere. A relatively small democratic nation like Israel could develop a technologically compatible macro-economic infrastructure, infusing and draining money supply based on calculated supply and demand. Since such a system would encourage production and consumption, no longer hampered by insufficient purchasing power, unemployment and underemployment would begin to evaporate, no longer wagged by a monetary tail, no longer subjected to tradeoffs between the private and public sectors. The ultimate aim of this revolutionary monetary structure, truly worthy of century twenty-one, is to maximize the macro-economic potential of globally connected nations, thus the collective potential of worldwide citizens, by creating job opportunities for every able bodied individual, reducing and ideally eliminating widespread poverty, providing ample funding for education, health care, defense, infrastructure, and so forth without being encumbered by a redistributive taxation system, indeed a relic belonging to the dark ages. World leaders must be willing to open their minds to the positive rewards achievable through substantial innovation, especially in today's atmosphere of worldwide economic uncertainty, and seriously consider these proposals as broadly outlined. The details, including a mathematical formula designed to determine taxation rates on a monthly basis, of course, can be worked out by academics. Political will, however, is ever necessary to institute such a novel concept. Israel, a nation that survives on innovation and wit, could bolster her own economy setting an example for all other nations. Might a bold Minister of Finance and his deputies at least contemplate the merits of this proposal? Lawrence Uniglicht is a career civil servant. He advocates for the State of Israel with an American perspective. He writes, "Advocating for the disrespected underdog has been my passion, no doubt Israel falls into that category." Contact him by email at larose@snip.net |
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WHAT'S IN A NAME
Posted by Barry Rubin, July 5, 2008. |
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We all know –– though the Western media often doesn't –– that radical Arab nationalists, Islamists, and terrorists lie all the time. They then slander and threaten those who point out the truth. Yet often, governments, journalists, and academics split the difference or even find the liars more credible since they are not governments, Westerners, or Jews. There is one case after another of this situation. Some make global headlines like the Dura case, where French television covered up its staged broadcast claiming that Israel killed a boy in Gaza even when a French court found it was phony, or the supposed Jenin massacre, reported on the basis of one unknown Palestinian witness and maintained by many even after the UN found it phony. And then there are the every-day frauds perpetrated. Yet it is always nice to have the proof. One category is, as explained by the blog "Harry's Place" recently, when "Islamists in the West habitually say one thing to their English-speaking audience, and another thing to their Arabic speaking audience."[1] The specific item in question is a statement made by Muhammad Sawalha, president of the British Muslim Initiative, to Al-Jazeera about a big pro-Israel celebration in London: "We, the Arab and Islamic community, gather here today to express our resentment at the celebrations by the Jewish community and the [evil Jew/Jewish evil] in Britain" Sawalha is a powerful man in British Muslim circles: founder of IslamExpo and a trustee of the Finsbury Park Mosque, formerly the center for recruiting terrorists and inveighing against the Jews. According to the "Harry's Place" article, Sawalha is a key figure in the Muslim Brotherhood and a Hamas supporter and fundraiser. But when writing in the British media, Sawalha and his cohorts try to sound moderate, and no doubt many British elite members see them in such terms. As so often happens, however, the response of Sawalha and company was neither to affirm proudly their views –– which are typical of Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood propaganda in the Arab world –– nor to back down but to fabricate and attack. It reminds me of the time that a BBC stringer in Gaza made a pro-Hamas speech which appeared on that group's site. When Israel complained, the speech was quickly taken down. The BBC then said it could not investigate the issue since there was no remaining evidence. The fact that a "screen shot" existed of the article did not move them from that stance. Or when Islamist terrorism leads to criticism the response of Muslim individuals, institutions, and regimes is to put a far lower priority on rejecting or reitnerpreting the specific texts used by the Islamist terrorists than to claim "Islamophobia" on the part of the critics. And so Al-Jazeera simply changed the wording of the interview's text to read: "Jewish lobby" instead of the "evil Jew." As an aside, note that "evil Jew" is a far more vicious statement than "evil Jews." After all, the latter implies opposition to those Jews who support Israel while the former pushes the idea that Jews are innately evil, an idea that is usually or almost always present in Hamas, Islamist, and a great deal of general Arab discourse.[2] At any rate, the British Muslim Initiative then issued a press release they put on the "Harry's Place" site but not on their own. (As so often happens with the language switcheroo, the radicals don't want their own supporters to know about their moderate pretenses or understand that they know it is all a con-game. The release basically called "Harry's Place" a bunch of, well they didn't quite say it but a prime example of the "evil Jew." It states: "Zionist Racist website lies in order to justify its hate-rhetoric While 'Harry's Place' may not be known as a bastion of truth and balanced comment –– not even in the remotest sense of these words –– its latest blunder shows it as an entirely incompetent source of information." Well, the source of information was al-Jazeera but I guess that isn't what they mean. The release continues: "It is of course possible that... the moderators of this vile blog-space –– which has made it its mission to attack Islam and Muslims in whatever underhand methods it can get away with –– deliberately skewed the word 'Lobby' to turn it into some other word and make it seem as though it means 'evil/noxious', in order to portray not only Mohammed Sawalha, but BMI and all the projects that Mr. Sawalha is linked to, as 'Jew-haters' and 'anti-Semitic.'" Now of course the Initiative knows that the article was quoting al-Jazeera but they never mention the actual text there. Note also how the criticism of a specific individual's statement turns into an "attack [on] Islam and Muslims." And the cute touch that the site is trying to "get away" with something when it is actually the Initiative that is doing so. And also, if the statement was so innocent than why did al-Jazeera change the wording without stating it had made a correction? But Anas Altikriti, a spokesman of BMI, let's the cat out of the bag –– though that might not be an apt phrase given such group's attitudes toward lovable animals –– by saying: "This particular blog-space and its moderators are nonentities and insignificant. However, its danger lies in that in the past some corners of our mainstream media have picked up on its drivel and used it as fact." Yes, that's it: what is the mainstream media started reporting on the antisemitism of Islamists instead of harping on blaming Israel for everything. Taking a line from Seinfeld's description of Newman, the spokesman calls the site, "Pure evil." As "Harry's Place" responds, in the framework of Western democratic civilization, they could have just said that al-Jazeera made a mistake and its been corrected. But no, because their side must be completely right and the other side must be "pure evil." The actual examination of evidence is not a big thing in Arab nationalist or Islamist circles. Come to think of it, not so popular in Western academic, intellectual, and media circles either any more. And, of course, that which is pure evil –– especially pure "Jewish evil" must be exterminated. Funny, you-know-who, the guy with the little moustache, used to say the same thing. I have an idea for a new word and I hope that governments, universities, international institutions, and the mass media take it up with the same enthusiasm as they have "Islamophobia." Let's call it: Judaeophobia. Oh, by the way, here's a screenshot of the al-Jazira site showing the quote: http://www.hurryupharry.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/15gqs91.jpg [1] http://www.hurryupharry.org/2008/07/02/british-muslim-initiative-we-resent-the-evil-jew-in-britain/#comments. [2] According to "Harry's Place": The original text contained the word evil. It means "evil" or "noxious" or "dreaded" or "disasterous". We've asked other Arabic speakers, and they've confirmed that, combined with the word "Jew", the sense of the phrase is "Evil Jew" or "Jewish evil". That word has been replaced with "lobby", The words don't look at all similar. So this isn't a spelling mistake. If we wait a little bit longer, I bet they'll change it to "the Zionist Lobby". Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), with Walter Laqueur (Viking-Penguin); the paperback edition of The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan); A Chronological History of Terrorism, with Judy Colp Rubin, (Sharpe); and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley). Prof. Rubin's columns can be read online. |
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WHICH CAME FIRST –– TERRORISM OR "OCCUPATION"?
Posted by Asher Eder, July 4, 2008. |
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Palestinian and Arab spokesmen commonly claim that the recent Palestinian terrorism is the result of the Israeli 'occupation' of the West Bank and Gaza, adding that the violence will cease only when the 'occupation' is ended. Despite this claim, it should be recalled that the many Palestinian and Arab rejectionist factions (such as the Hamas and the Hizbullah) repeatedly declare that even if Israel would fully withdraw from the territories they will continue their attacks, since they refute Israel's basic right to exist. More importantly, however, the basic premise of the Palestinian claim –– that the 'occupation' causes terrorism –– is historically flawed. Arab and Palestinian terrorism against Israel existed prior to the beginning of Israeli control over the West Bank and Gaza as a result of the Six Day War of June 1967, and even prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948. For example, Arab terrorism was rampant during wave of anti-Jewish riots in 1920-21 (which was characterized by the brutal murder in Jaffa of the prominent Jewish author Y. Brenner), during the 'Disturbances' of 1929 (which included the massacre of the Jewish community in Hebron), during the Arab Revolt of 1936-39, and in many other recorded incidents of wholesale anti-Jewish Arab violence throughout the pre-state period. The Palestinian terrorism campaign was stepped-up on the eve of the UN Partition Resolution of November 1947, and led to the joint Arab invasion of 1948-49 which delineated the boundaries of the newly established State of Israel. Indeed, this deplorable violence can be traced back to the beginning of the renewed Jewish settlement of the Land of Israel over a century ago. After the War of Independence, Arab terrorism expanded in scope. In 1952, when 'fedayeen' terrorist border incursions reached their height, there were about 3,000 incidents of cross-border violence, extending from the malicious destruction of property to the brutal murder of civilians. This anti-Israeli violence encompassed both frontier settlements and population centers, and was perpetrated, for the most part, against innocent civilians, most of them new immigrants. In conclusion, the oft-repeated Arab claim that the Israeli 'occupation' is somehow to blame for the Palestinian terrorism is nothing more than an empty retort, repudiated by the facts, and disproved by a century of historical reality. The following is a partial list of documented acts of Arab terrorism, all occurring prior to the beginning of the Israeli administration of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967: Major Arab Terrorist Attacks against Israelis Prior to the 1967 6-Day War
Contact Asher Eder by email at avrason@netvision.net.il |
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ISRAEL RECEIVES HIZBULLAH REPORT: RON ARAD DIED 20 YEARS AGO
Posted by Hillel Fendel, July 4, 2008. |
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Ofer Dekel, Israel's negotiator for the release of captives, has returned to Israel with a Hizbullah report stating that Arad died two years after he was captured. The Hizbullah terrorist organization, based in southern Lebanon, prepared the report on its investigation of Ron Arad's disappearance, as part of its obligations in the recently approved "humanitarian agreement" with Israel. The agreeement stipulates that Israel will release murderous terrorist Samir Kuntar and four other terrorists, as well as the remains of dozens of Lebanese infiltrators and others, and will provide information on four missing Iranian diplomats, and will provide maps of mines in southern Lebanon. In exchange, Hizbullah is to free captured IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser –– assumed by Israeli intelligence to be dead –– and provide a detailed report on Ron Arad. It is this report that Dekel received on Thursday from German mediators, and has now given to Israeli government officials for their review. Ron Arad was an IDF navigator who was shot down over Lebanon in late 1986. His pilot was dramatically rescued by Israeli forces, but Arad was captured and transferred from one terrorist group to another until his tracks were lost. Three letters from him were received in 1987. The Israeli government negotiated for his release, but talks failed in 1988. Arad was then apparently "sold" to Iran, though this is not certain. In 1989 and 1994, Israel captured two leading Lebanese terrorists involved in Arad's capture and incarceration, as a means of gaining information on Arad. This attempt ultimately proved to be a dead end, and they were released in 2004 as part of the exchange for Elchanan Tenenbaum and the bodies of three captured IDF soldiers. Various Israeli intelligence reports say Arad died sometime in the 1990's. There is no concrete proof that he is dead, however, and his wife Tami has remained an agunah –– not permitted to remarry –– since his disappearance. This week, the Israeli Cabinet approved, in principle, the exchange deal for Goldwasser and Regev. Dekel spent Wednesday and Thursday in Germany ironing out final details, and was given the Hizbullah report in which the terrorist organization states it knows for certain that Arad died shortly after he was taken to a southern Lebanon village in May 1988. Before the report was handed to Dekel, German mediator Gerhard Konrad reviewed it and ascertained that it met the standards of detail required by the agreement with Israel. Though this report marks an important milestone in the long search for Ron Arad, the saga will end only once Arad either returns home, or is ruled to be dead by the IDF Rabbinate. Hillel Fendel is Senior News Editor for Arutz-Sheva (www.Israel National News.com). |
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JIMMY CARTER, YOUR "PEOPLE" ARE TERRORISTS
Posted by Paul Lademain, July 4, 2008. |
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Because of YOU, Jimmy-dhimmi, your terrorists from Egypt and Tunisia are swarming into Israeli territories and shelling innocent civilians. YOU, Jimmy Carter, are responsible for the war in the Middle East because YOU, are responsible for this: "Gaza-based Arab terrorists attacked the Sderot with another Kassam rocket early Thursday evening, the sixth day rocket and mortar shell explosions have broken the temporary truce since it went into effect two weeks ago. The rocket exploded in an open field near the town and caused no damage or injuries. None of the terrorist organizations has taken responsibility for the latest attack. The government immediately responded by announcing a Friday closure of the Gaza crossings, which were re-opened earlier this week after two days of quiet. More than 70 trucks of humanitarian aid were shipped into Gaza on Thursday before the latest Kassam strike." Ethically speaking, these bloody terrorists whom you nurtured and aided and abetted are YOUR people. YOU are responsible for their crimes against humanity because YOU helped that corrupt and now thankfully dead Cairene, Yasser Arafat, drive the Jewish Palestinians out of THEIR lands so your nouveau faux-people could steal Israel's lands the very same way the bloody ancestors of your current financial backers stole the Arabian peninsula from the tribes of Saba in 1930. YOU created the evil monster that will bring on WW III ... Are you satisfied now? The American people saw through your fake piety and recognized that you were unfit to serve a second term. YOU are the first X-POTUS to take mega-millions from Saudis, thereby setting off a wave of corruption that infects the body politic to this day. As "prince" Bandar said: "If the reputation builds that the Saudis take care of their friends when they leave office, you'd be surprised how much better friends you have who are just coming into office." Prince Bandar ibn Sultan, (former) Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the United States. We Americans celebrate our Independence Day. May our ally, Israel, soon declare their independence from Islamic imperialism and break free from the evil dhimmis taking money from Sharia-enslaved oilers. Contact Paul Lademain by email at lademain@verizon.net |
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PLUTO PRESS, OUTLET FOR ANTI-ISRAEL ACADEMICS, SCRAPPED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Posted by Steven Plaut, July 4, 2008. |
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This was written by Lee Kaplan and appeared in www.isracampus.org.il. |
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The impact on university systems by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been greater than most people who pay their taxes to support such institutions will ever know. Since universities are places that are supposed to promote the concept of new ideas, academic freedom and freedom of speech, they are also the perfect locales for indoctrination by presenting false information that would normally be proven false by scholarly research of the facts. Such false information today, however, is given equal weight against the facts as opinions and agendas replace serious scholasticism and research in educational materials such as books and by professors with an agenda. In turn, that false information gets disseminated over and over again later by graduates who know no better (or don't want to know better) and move into future teaching positions until the false information replaces facts for the following generations to come. This system serves to not just misinform future generations in general, but to also indoctrinate students of certain faculty members in a mindset of those who wish to indoctrinate rather than just educate their pupils. A case in point is the late Edward Said, who is one of Pluto Press's published writers. Said encouraged people in the Palestinian movement to "Write your own history" and that "Facts don't matter, only emotions matter." When history becomes a fabrication to support an opinion or agenda, then true academic scholarship is lost. Sadly, this is happening in the American university and college system due to indirect payoffs to administrators and department heads of Arab oil money. European and Israeli universities tend to try and emulate what happens in America, so the same tendency follows (Unfortunately, the Israeli system doesn't get Arab oil money as a side benefit, only some professors do indirectly through the European Union). Founded in 1969 by members of the Workers World Party, another name for the international communist movement, Pluto Press's owners nevertheless by 1979 decided that capitalism was desirable for them while spreading communism to the rest of the world, so became independent. But the publishing house continued in the same radical socialist vein, publishing books by authors prominent in communist and anarchist movements and philosophy, from Karl Marx to Noam Chomsky. Of course, the communist platform from Stalin on being against Israel, Pluto Press also became a clearinghouse for anti-Israel (euphemistically dubbed anti-Zionist) academic works also attacking the United States as Israel's protector. Exclusive contracts with a major university assured that Pluto Press's books would be given the image of scholarly works, when in fact many of them were not researched or subject to peer review like serious scholarly works. This is in particular how things are done in the universities of the Arab world. Pluto Press lost its American source of distribution through the prestigious University of Michigan Press due to poor scholasticism and a pattern of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish books said to counter "Zionism" (a.k.a. Jews). StandwithUS, a Jewish and Israel advocacy group, showed U. Michigan that material that was not scholastically accurate was being disseminated by U. Michigan Press as scholastically accurate material and included downright polemical tomes against Israel that were not even subject to peer review before dissemination as with other books. This was damaging the University's academic prestige. At the heart of the matter was a book by Joe Kovel, Overcoming Zionism, that was really just a rehash of Arab propaganda to suggest that a Jewish national homeland was not desirable in the interests of universal human rights. The Arabs have learned that in order to dominate Israel under Islamic sharia law and pan-Arab rule, they must deceive the West into thinking they are egalitarians and that a Jewish state is racist, when in fact it is merely deception by the Arabs to gain western sympathies to move in for the final kill. Undermining Zionism should have been titled Undermining Israel, the real polemic behind the book, another diatribe about Zionism as racism when Israel is really a pluralistic society surrounded by exclusively racist Muslim/Arab states vowed to its destruction. A 2004 agreement had established UM Press as the exclusive American distributor of Pluto publications, which included anti-Western, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic books that were not subject to any kind of academic peer review for being scholastically sound. All of Pluto's books were anti-Israel, portraying the Jewish state as committing atrocities against the Arabs, the same ploy the Arabs use in their own press. It is telling that the University of Michigan took such action, especially since one of the largest concentrations of Palestinians who support Hamas and Hizballah lives in the vicinity of the University. Sadly, there are enough communists of Jewish heritage who will use their heritage to pose as Jewish spokespeople for such a publishing house because destroying Israel is part of the publisher's platform to indoctrinate rather than educate. Secular Jews who resent the religious ones for their beliefs also provide a source for writings to smash the "Zionist state." These authors provide a perfect cover of Jews showing the rationality of destroying the Jewish state. Pluto Press's list of available authors included only these "Jewish" or "Israeli academics who helped to serve the publisher's purpose of denigrating the Jewish state. The average person seeking information on the Middle East might read Kovel's book or similar ones put out by Pluto Press and fall for the faulty scholarship and outright lies within. Among Pluto Press's Israeli academics or writers who are distributed by the publishing house are Efraim Nimni, Daniel Dor, Michel Warschawski, John Rose, Israel Shahak Nur Masalha, Marc H. Ellis, Noam Chomsky, Jeff Halper, Uri Avnery, Ghada Karmi, and Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, among others. Never heard of most or some of them? You're not alone. Most readers of books put out by the University of Michigan trust the University's name that as scholastic works these books are factually researched and not just an opinion with an agenda behind them. But in the spirit of Edward Said, if enough emotions are tweaked with false information, facts no longer matter. That is the reason the University of Michigan finally decided to remove Pluto Press from its exclusive list of publishers. To give you some idea of just who the Israeli and Jewish academics were on Pluto Press's play list, below are some of the better known ones with some history behind their "research." Efraim Nimmi. A senior lecturer in Politics and International Relations at The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, continually describes the terrorist Palestinians and their government as an organization of "pragmatism and willingness to compromise" while he accuses the Israeli government of being guilty of "extremist intransigence." Nimmi is completely delusional and has the situation in reverse since it was Israel that helped the Palestinians create a separate government and state. Few people know that 70% of the funds for the Palestinian Authority come from Israel and not the USA or EU. As for intransigence, can anyone with even a modicum of sense after Israel has been bombarded with 4,000 rockets since deporting the Jewish population from Gaza even remotely think that Israel is guilty of intransigence? Nimmi, safely tucked away in New Zealand would not be subject to another Holocaust of Jews by the Arabs if it stopped its "intransigence" by willing to lie down and be overrun by the Arabs who do not have peace or the best interests of everyone involved in their warmongering against the Jews. Yet some laymen might read Nimmi and assume he knows what he is talking about, if those readers have no other knowledge from which to draw in reading his books. Daniel Dor. A lecturer in media studies at the University of Tel Aviv, Dor objected to the reporting by Israeli media during Operation Defensive Shield because allegedly it wasn't objective enough in presenting the Arab side. One can imagine him during the Second World War writing about how Jews describing the gas chambers were not objective enough in explaining why the Germans felt they had to gas them.. Operation Defensive Shield happened after hundreds of Israelis were murdered on buses, cafes and in public places by the Arabs, and after Israel withdrew from the West Bank fourteen times after terror attacks to try and get the peace process back on track. Dor, of course, doesn't consider that each time the Israelis withdrew from the West Bank more Israelis were killed and still no terrorists arrested by the Palestinian Authority. Israel had the right of hot pursuit per the Oslo Accords if the PA did not arrest terrorists. It finally took the Passover Massacre and killing of 31 Israelis, many of them Holocaust survivors for Defensive Shield to be used. And you know what? It was perfectly legal per the Oslo Accords that specified Israel's right to hot pursuit of terrorists if the PA refused to control them per "international law" like the Arabs like to cite. The Arabs have a controlled media and press, the Israelis do not need to show a sympathetic view of their murderers or listen to their excuses like Dor would have them do. Michel Waschawski is a former director of the Alternative Information Center which is the forerunner of the International Solidarity Movement. He openly works with the most virulent Arab groups rubber stamping their nonsense against Israel. He describes Hamas as "pragmatic" (read the Hamas Charter to see how pragmatic they are about murdering Jews). Waschewski, one of those Jewish communists, founded an Israeli communist party in the government, Matzpen. In 1987 he was arrested for "providing services for illegal (Palestinian) organizations" and sentenced in 1989 to thirty months prison, for publishing articles written by alleged PFLP members about prison conditions and interrogation techniques. He is husband to Leah Tsemel who represents terrorists and ISM activists for entry against the Israeli government. He is employed by the Alternative Information Center which is the precursor of the ISM, which is "Palestinian-led" per its own leadership and calls for the complete dismantling of Israel as a Jewish state. John Rose is a prime example of a Jewish communist whose Judaism is purely by ancestry, but who will gladly serve as a "Jew" against Jewish self-determination and Zionism. He is a leading member of the revolutionary Socialist Workers Party (communist party in the UK) who teaches sociology at Southwark College and London Metropolitan University and is best known as a speaker on Israel and Palestine and, in particular, as a critic of Israel and Zionism. As he puts it, "Israel's policies towards the Palestinians are barbaric." He is the author of numerous books and articles including Israel: The Hijack State –– America's Watchdog In The Middle East and The Myths of Zionism. Like any good communist who practices groupthink, he is against America and, by extension, Israel as America's ally. He even suggests Israel hijacked its state from the Arabs on behalf of America when history shows us the US was not overly friendly to Israel in 1948, putting an arms embargo on the Jews. Also like a good communist he is anti-Zionist, claiming Jewish self-determination is based on "myths" from the Bible. He recounts a false history of Zionism, first accusing the Jews of machinations with the British to promote imperialism to control the trade routes to India (he fails to point out the British set up many more Arab colonies in the region that became Arabs states as mortal enemies of what became the Jewish state of Israel) and implies that what the UN finally declared a Jewish state had a majority Arab population when the majority was Jewish. He completely ignores how the British screwed the Jews by giving Jordan, originally designated part of Israel, to the Hashemite family that was feuding over Saudi Arabia with the House of Saud. He mentions nothing of Arab pogroms against Jews in the Middle East many times before the establishment of Israel and blames Israel for the Sabra and Shatilla massacres in Lebanon while ignoring the Palestinian's massacre of Christian Arabs at Damour only the week before, somehow implying that Zionism is connected to the Arabs who killed other Arabs for "looking on" rather than getting involved and risking the lives of Israeli soldiers. For Rose, history is one big ellipse, using partial quotes from Zionist leaders to present them as conniving miscreants against the poor disadvantaged Arabs. His history is sloppy, but fits right in with the communist agenda against Zionism and, by extension, Jewish determination in the Holy Land. Israel Shahak. Now deceased, Shahak was a former Israeli Professor of Chemistry at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an outspoken critic of the Israeli government and of Israeli society in general. Shahak's writings on Judaism have been the source of considerable controversy since he fabricated certain events in order to smear Judaism to a radical leftist world (such as Pluto Press panders to) and showed support for the cutthroats of the PLO. Shahak theorized that ancient persecutions of Jews were not the result of anti-Semitism, but because Jews lived in closed societies (apparently he ignored they were forced to do so because they were Jews) and lived under the patronage of non-Jewish nobles who exploited a feudal class. As such, the Jews were attacked when all feudal agents were attacked. Shakah was just plain weird and crazy and received accolades for his theories from some of the greatest anti-Semites around including Edward Said and Noam Chomsky and even Alexander Cockburn who runs the neo-Nazi, proto-communist website Counterpunch. Shahak tried to claim that Zionism was an attempt to once e again create a closed Jewish communitiy to exploit non-Jews when the simple truth is Zionism was a final result of Jewish-sought self-dtermination that grew out of the Holocaust, a Holocaust that Shahak himself was affected by. Quoting Shahak: "Although the struggle against antisemitism (and of all other forms of racism) should never cease, the struggle against Jewish chauvinism and exclusivism, which must include a critique of classical Judaism, is now of equal or greater importance." Shahaks words ring false since Israel had many different recognized religions and languages by law, and Judaism is not exclusivist. Israel today is in fact another concentration camp for world Jewry, only this time the inmates are armed. They allow others to live there peacefully and with the same civil rights unlike their totalitarian Arab or Muslim neighbors who call for the Jewish state's destrcution. Shahak almost presents a mentally ill person's passion for being against the Jewish state. He fabricated a tale of an Orthodox Jew who refused to call an ambulance on Shabat for an injured gentile, an event that Shahak claimed he had seen. He later claimed an IDF rabbi said it was good for IDF soldirs to kill civilians and claimed that "there are Nazi-like tendencies in Judaism." Such fabrications and vitriol earned him a lucrative place on the PLO talk circuit while he was alive. He was also featured and praised repeatedly by the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs journal that is a front for Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Like Noam Chomsky, who praised his work, Shahak never met an enemy of the Jews he could not find the willingness to work for. Nur Masalha is described on a Palestinian website that advocates the dismantling of Israel as being born in 1957 in "occupied Palestine" (note in this instance it means all of Israel). He studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and at the University of London and is a Senior Lecturer in History at St. Mary's College (in England). In addition to publishing several books, Nur Masala is also Director of Holy Land Research Project, and Associate Editor of Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal. Masalha's books tell the tale of a bellicose colonial Israel that displaced innocent Arabs from their homes in 1948, and from then on prevented peace by provoking and murdering Palestinians. In short, he publishes the Palestinian propaganda narrative. What makes this man's books troubling is they have creeped not only into the University of Michigan's publications through Pluto Press but are being read in grades K-12 in the United States. Masalha writes of Jews attempts to transfer the Arabs from their homes as a rite of dispossession despite the ten times increase in the Arab population inside Israel since 1948. He equally ignores the forced transfer of 810,000 Mizrahi Jews from Middle East Arab countries at the same time. His books are intellectually dishonest since they do not give enough information on the attack by the five surrounding Arab states to wipe Israel off the map in 1948. One wonders if Masalha's scenario were reversed and the Jews driven into the sea in 1948, if the Arabs would be crying about their plight and offering to allow them back into the Holy Land to gain alleged property holdings of deceased relatives. Mark H. Ellis. A profile reads that "Marc H. Ellis is Director of the Center for American and Jewish Studies at Baylor University, a Baptist university in Waco, Texas. Of Jewish heritage, Ellis is honored and widely cited as an anti-Jewish and anti-Israel authority by Holocaust deniers such as the recently deported Canadian Nazi, Ernst Zundel. Though Ellis has never formally endorsed Holocaust denial himself, he has hosted Holocaust denier Norman Finkelstein on numerous occasions, such as at the 2nd Dallas Palestinian Film Festival (sponsored by United for Peace and Justice, the renamed US communist party) Ellis and Finkelstein sit together on the boards of a number of anti-Israel groups such as the Deir Yassin Remembered organization, which also includes among its members PLO spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi and the convicted Israeli spy Mordecai Vanunu who sold Israel's nuclear secrets to a British tabloid. Ellis holds a Ph.D. from Marquette University in Milwaukee. His first position after graduation was at the Maryknoll School of Theology in New York, a Jesuit institution that is not accredited as a research university but is a center of "liberation theology" (Marxist Christianity). In 1998 Ellis became a full professor at Baylor University, where today he is the lone faculty member in the American and Jewish Studies program whose website lists endorsements by a "Christian feminist theologian," but not by a single Jewish scholar. A former Jew, now communist, Ellis fits the classic example of the communist of Jewish descent supplying services to the anti-Israel crowd. He is frequently sought as a speaker at International Solidarity Movement events, hardly an independent scholar who relies on empirical research. Noam Chomsky. Probably the biggest star among anti-Semitic, pro-communist Jews who support the goals of Arab irredentists and hate the USA, Chomsky recently visited Hasan Nasrallah and praised Hizballh's actions against Israel (that include dropping missiles on teenage girls). Chomsky gladly praised Hizballah's goal (destroying Israel and addng it to the Muslim umma) right after Nasrallah was quoted as saying he wished all the world's Jews would move to Israel so he could kill them in one place. Chomsky, a tenured professor at MIT in linguistics has grown very rich off of books endorsing both dictators opposed to the United States such as Pol Pot and that show his support for terrorist groups. Jeff Halper. A Minnesotan with Israeli citizenship, Jeff Halper is a former professor of Anthropology at Ben Gurion University who started a one man NGO called the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICHAD). Halper's NGO is funded chiefly by the European Union but also receives money indirectly from Saudi Arabia. For example, Halper's writings and diatribes against Israel are frequently shown on the website of the Washington Report of Middle East Affairs that is funded by Saudi Arabia and Gulf Sheiks and he is a frequent speaker at International Solidarity Movement events. Halper works closely with the ISM and adheres to their groupthink of any falsehood being justified if it serves to harm Israel. A profile states, "Halper became an activist whose special cause is attacking Israel's house demolitions no matter why they are done whether because the Palestinian owner did not get proper building permits, or because the houses were used for military purposes such as building bombs or to camouflage arms smuggling tunnels, or because they were the homes of suicide bombers" and that he believes Israel has no right to exist. Like the other anti-Israel Israeli academics and writers published by Pluto Press, Halper fabricates commentaries about Israeli laws that do not exist to portray the pluralistic country as racist. For example, he has claimed, "by law, 'non-Jews' are forbidden to buy, rent, lease or live on 'state lands' 75% of the country," which is not true. In fact, the Palestinian Authority has a law decreeing a death sentence for selling any land to a Jew and has enforced it retroactively. Uri Avnery. Avnery is one of the most quoted anti-Israel Israelis by the ISM who has a passion against Israel that holds no bounds. Although at one time he served in the fledgling IDF, Avnery started an anti-establishment tabloid in Israel in the late 50's and 60's as an alternative press, growing more and more against Israel over the years to a point almost bearing mental illness. Avnery actually served as a human shield in the Mukata for Yasser Arafat when the PA headquarters were surrounded by the IDF in response to a suicide bomber carrying out the Passover Massacre that murdered 31 elderly Holocaust survivors who were celebrating Passover in Netanya. Arafat himself had approved and funded the attack. Avnery's passion for promoting verbally and in writing the Palestinian cause and attacks on Jews even alienated his own mother, who cut him out of her will before her death and declared him a traitor. Avnery is the sole survivor of the little-known "Canaanite movement" in Israel and is a fanatic anti-Zionist and anti-Semite whose Israel bashing pro-Hamas articles appear everywhere one can find anti-Semitism, from radical communist to neo-Nazi websites. He is a regular columnist on the neo-Stalinist pro-terror Counterpunch website. Avnery, who immigrated from Germany to Israel in 1933, was, incredibly, an admirer of Nazism. Today, he adheres to the communist groupthink that Israel should become a secular society of Arabs and Jews living together but his thinking is so distorted as to be beyond any reality, his believing that there should be an end to Judaism altogether. His diatribes against Israel lack and scholastic realism. Ghada Kharmi. Ghada Karmi is a Palestinian academic at the University of Exeter, Britain, and the author of Married to another man: Israel's dilemma in Palestine. Her writings are merely polemics without history or facts to back them up. For example, she claims that Israel has never made a peace offer to the Palestinains! She states standard Palestinian propaganda and buzz words as facts (i.e. Israel violates "international law" when it does not)and she encourages war by proxy, such as her writing in support of the British boycott of Israeli academics. And what's her intellectual solution to the conflict that she also says is the reason for al Qaeda? She says Israel must become one state called Palestine, must withdraw to the 1949 borders, give the Palestinians half of Jerusalem and then allow seven million Palestinians to move inside Israel and dominate the Jewish population. As for terrorism, she glosses over it as the desperate actions of some extremists who are fighting "colonialism." Her writings hardly reflect anything in the way of solid research or intellecual balance. Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi is an Israeli psychology professor at Tel Aviv Univeristy, an expert on cults, who claims Judaism is not a religion and cannot legitimately claim to be a nation while apparently the Arabs can do so. He says that Zionism, Jewish self-determination, is a master race ideology and makes references to Jews as Nazis. His "research" is clearly agenda driven and cult-like in its support of the Palestinian Arabs against the Jewish state that he considers part of worldwide imperialism. These are more anti-Israel Israeli academics in Pluto Press's repertoire. Such "academics," including Joe Kovel, being a part of the University of Michigan Press was giving legitimacy as scholastic works to their propaganda and indoctrination when all held one central theme without facts to back things up: Israel must be dismantled. It is actually remarkable that the Univiersity of Michigan finally relented to remove the Pluto Press titles. This was the major university that invited the likes of Juan Cole and Neve Gordon to teach there. Juan Cole, who was once the President of the Middle East Studies Association, teaches assorted conspiracy theories that America is controlled by Israel and Jews. He makes statements such as "much of the Arab world has made a peace treaty with Israel" when it is not so. For example, Saudi Arabia, the lead Arab state in the peace negotiations process with the Road Map, is still in a state of declared war with Israel since 1948. Cole's writings and teaching again reflect a polemic against Israel's existence, less on scholarship than political agenda. Saving the worst for last, we have Neve Gordon, a political science lecturer with a PhD from Notre Dame who has been brought to U Michigan to lecture students there. Gordon's writings are so openly anti-Semitic that some have been carried on neo-Nazi web sites, including one run by Ernst Zundel, the neo-Nazi Holocaust denier deported from Canada and now in prison in Germany. The University of Michigan did not relinquish Pluto Press's lineup so easily. An attempt in 2006 to have such texts removed from their publishing arm was rejected by the University. The University of Michigan at Dearborn has one of the largest Palestinian and Muslim American populations in the country and Michigan was the venue for the largest Palestinian lobbying organization ever created. In the past the University of Michigan actually serves as a venue for an early ISM national divestment conference against Israel, where the theme was to train radicals to work to destroy Israel by any means possible in America's university system. Arab-American students in attendance at that conference were heard to scream in Arabic to slaughter the Jews. Apparently Pluto Press and the number of self-hating Israel bashing Israeli academics it publishes were even too anti-Semitic for a long established Israel hating school like the University of Michigan. Finally, the University saw fit to divorce itself from so many ill-researched and polemical articles that lacked scholarly peer review and normal academic standards and could only hurt the University of Michigan's good name. Perhaps it was the chickens coming home to roost that the administration at the University of Michigan saw a pattern of the University sinking into the cesspool of the educational institutions of the totalitarian world. The fact that U Michigan administrators finally figured out Pluto Press's books were little more than anti-Israel propaganda and opinions usually not backed up with facts persuaded the university to take such praiseworthy action as demanding peer review. We can only hope more universities in America will do so, but the threat of Arab oil money playing a part behind the scenes always looms and the plethora of anti-Israel Israeli and Jewish academics who seek fame or fortune as part of the mantra of false scholarship calling for the demise of Israel can be certain to march on. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments –– both seriously and satirically –– on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. Or write him at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il |
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PALESTINIAN TRACTOR-TERRORISM: A FEW LESSONS
Posted by Yoram Ettinger, July 4, 2008. |
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Happy July 4th, Shabbat Shalom and may we heed a lesson from this week's portion of the Torah-Haftarah, as proclaimed by Judge Jephthah (Yiftach): Historical rights –– and not tenuous politics, economics and diplomacy –– are the foundation of national existence. |
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Palestinian Tractor-Terrorism: Mainstream Not Renegade 1. Hate-Education-Driven-Terrorism. The July 2, 2008 Palestinian Tractor-Terrorism constituted a precise Palestinian human-missile, guided by Palestinian hate-education, instituted in 1994 by Abu-Mazen, then Arafat's first deputy, and proliferated via Abu Mazen's current educational-religious-media infrastructures. K-12, and older, Palestinians are exposed systematically to school textbooks, sermons, editorials and news editions –– controlled by Abu Mazen –– which idolize homicide bombers, calling for the destruction of the "illegitimate, infidel" Jewish State. Hate-education (and not statements made to Western leaders and media) is the most authentic reflection of one's ideology, vision and strategy. Hate-education constitutes the manufacturing line of terrorists. Hate-education distinguishes between peaceful and violent societies. Hate-education is facilitated by foreign aid provided to Abu Mazen by the US, W. Europe and the UN. 2. Mainstream –– Not Renegade-Terrorism. The July 2, 2008 Palestinian Tractor-Terrorism is an expected derivative of a cultural-political-intellectual-educational-military environment –– in the Arab world generally and in the PA particularly –– which breeds lethal hatred toward Salman Rushdie the "apostate", a European "infidel" cartoonist, the "infidel" Christian regime in Lebanon and the "infidel" Jewish State. Mainstream Palestinian terrorists accord their families with Abu-Mazen's "Martyr Allowances." They are commemorated by PA monuments and soccer tournaments, and idolized by poems featured on Abu-Mazen-controlled TV and radio. 3. Hope-Not Despair-Driven-Palestinian Terrorism. The Palestinian Tractor-Terrorism, along with hundreds of foiled terrorist attempts and the barrage of Palestinian missiles, have taken place during the administration of the most Dovish Israeli Prime Minister. Since (Oslo) 1993, Israel provided Palestinians with an unprecedented hope, denied them by the Ottomans, British, Jordanians, Egyptians and Arab League. Israel imported PLO terrorists from oblivion in Yemen, Iraq, Sudan, Lebanon and Tunisia to the door steps of their intended Israeli victims, arming terrorists with missiles, ushering them to the White House and according them the Nobel Prize. The Palestinian response was strikingly lucid –– instituting hate education! Palestinian terrorism has been adrenalized by the hope of Israeli vacillation, retreat and fatalism. Palestinian terrorism has been energized, since the 1920s, by the existence –– and not by the size –– of the Jewish State. 4. Terrorism Rewarded. The 1993 Oslo Accord has been perceived, by Palestinian and other terrorists, as a reward to the role model of hijacking, global terrorism and inter-Arab back-stabbing (Egypt –– 1950s, Syria –– 1966, Jordan –– 1970, Lebanon –– 1975 until 1982 and Kuwait –– 1990). Since 1993, Palestinian hate-education, non-compliance, terrorism and homicide bombing has been answered by further Israeli territorial concessions, bolstered US support for a Palestinian state and more generous US, W. European and international foreign aid. Palestinians have realized that not only can they get away with murder; but, they can be rewarded for murder! 5. Eroded Deterrence Fuels Terrorism. The Palestinian Tractor-Terrorism has been triggered, also, by the slackening of Israel's posture of deterrence since 1993. Subordinating counter-terrorism to the "Peace Process," has hand-cuffed the IDF, played into the hands of terrorists, undermining the cause of durable peace. Israel's policy of retreat, co-existence with terrorism, ceasefires, subcontracting counter-terrorism to the PA (and international forces), striving for agreements with those who systematically and violently violate all agreements, and reliance on retaliation and defense has produced a protracted war of attrition, which constitutes a wet dream for terrorists and a lethal threat to Israel and to peace. The resurrection of Israel's posture of deterrence –– which constitutes a prerequisite for a successful war on terrorism –– mandates pre-emptive, preventive, comprehensive offensive at the breeding ground of terrorism, focusing on the destruction of the ideological, financial and political infrastructures, which direct, feed and brainwash homicide-bombers. It requires a realization that every square inch conceded to the Palestinians has become a platform for hate-education and terrorism, serving as fuel –– and not water –– to the fire of terrorism. 6. Anti-US Terrorism Exacerbated. The unprecedented Palestinian terrorism since Oslo 1993 –– culminating with the July 2, 2008 Tractor Terrorism –– has corresponded to the unprecedented anti-US Islamic terrorism since the 1993 first attempt on the Twin Towers. The more substantial Palestinian independence, the more intensified is Palestinian and global terrorism. Palestinian terrorism was at low ebb on the eve of Oslo, catapulting to its peak since Oslo. US support of an independent state to the role-model of terrorism and hate-education has been construed, by anti-US Islamic terrorists, as weakness and reward to terrorism. As evidenced by Abu-Mazen's education, religious and media systems, such a state would doom Jordan –– a US ally –– to oblivion, it would energize anti-US terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan (which was intensified following Israel's "Disengagement"), it would provide Iran, Russia, China and North Korea with a strategic foothold in the eastern flank of the Mediterranean, it would add another anti-US vote at the UN, it would bolster terrorism against weak Gulf regimes, further destabilizing the Mideast, and it would reward those who oppress Christians in the Bethlehem area. Ambassador Yoram Ettinger is a consultant on US-Israel relations as well as the Chairman of Special Projects at the Ariel Center for Policy Research. Formerly the Minister for Congressional Affairs to Israel's Embassy in Washington, DC, Ettinger also served as Consul General of Israel to the Southwestern US. He is a former editor of Contemporary Mideast Backgrounder, and is the author of the Jerusalem Cloakroom series of reports. Contact him at yoramtex@netvision.net.il |
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FROM ISRAEL: A CLOSER LOOK
Posted by Arlene Kushner, July 3, 2008. |
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It is being said that Husam Taysir Dwayat, the terrorist who went on a rampage yesterday, was not a political man and not religious. He was, however, in the words of one relative, a "hot head," and believed to have been involved with drugs. Apparently he either lived with, or was married to, a Jewish woman at one point (although in recent years he had a Muslim wife), and, protested a family member, "he was on good terms with many Jews with whom he used to work." Well... this is somehow supposed to be evidence that he didn't have anti-Jewish feeling. But, sorry, this can be read another way, as well: that even Arabs who seem to be friendly to Jews may harbor murderous inclinations towards them. This is not the first time an Arab with "good relations" with Jews has done such a thing. Sometimes such a person is recruited by a terrorist group. ~~~~~~~~~~ Khaled Abu Toameh did a piece in today's Jerusalem Post, in which he gives voice to some of the discontents and concerns expressed by the residents of the neighborhood, Sur Bahir, from which the attacker had come. An examination of their positions seems to me to be very much in order: Abu Toameh cites Zuhier Hamdan, a mukhtar (sort of neighborhood chief) in Sur Bahir:
"Hamdan said that while he condemned the killing of innocent civilians, he was also concerned about the 'pressure' that the Jerusalem Municipality and the Israeli authorities were exerting on residents of Sur Bahir in particular and east Jerusalem in general." Pressure? "'Many people in Sur Bahir and other Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem are angry because of the demolition of illegally built houses,' he said. "'They are also angry with the taxes imposed on them'... "He also complained that Israel's refusal to grant citizenship to thousands of Arabs in the city was another reason why many of them were angry." A great deal of talk about anger, and this seems very typical of the culture. ~~~~~~~~~~ Let us consider each complaint: Anger about demolition of "illegally built houses." Those houses are often put up in an attempt to establish facts on the ground (efforts supported by the PA) and to acquire lucrative profits for the builders. Israel has been extraordinarily lax in allowing many of the structures to remain standing and goes through a defined legal process before doing any demolitions. Attorney Justice Reid Weiner, of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, five years ago wrote a definitive monograph on this very issue in which he reported that thousands of illegal structures –– many substantial and frequently situated on land that does not even belong to the builder –– dot the Jerusalem landscape. What is more –– while one might assume from Hamdan's statement that demolitions are directed specifically at the Arab population of Jerusalem –– Weiner notes that illegal housing construction is an international problem and that demolitions take place everywhere. There is a great deal more to say on this subject, and I will come back to it. This is emblematic of a larger problem and rife with public misunderstanding. ~~~~~~~~~~ "They are also angry with the taxes imposed on them." But taxes aren't imposed on "them" –– they are imposed on all of us. Somehow they expect selective dispensation –– never mind that this would require Jewish Israelis to disproportionately cover the expenses of their social services. ~~~~~~~~~~ Perhaps most grievous is the complaint about citizenship. In 1967, when Israel acquired eastern Jerusalem, with its Arab population, that population was offered citizenship. Almost all turned it down. So they were given Jerusalem residency status instead. That status allows them to move freely about the country, vote in municipal Jerusalem elections, and receive benefits such as health care and welfare. Plus they receive protection under the law, and human and civil rights not found in neighboring Arab localities. Not bad. What is lacking is the right to vote in national elections, but they were allowed –– an ill-advised decision in the opinion of many –– to vote in the PA elections (and, it must noted, they voted Hamas). Now, as they come to the realization that they would be absorbed into the PA if Jerusalem were divided (G-d forbid), some several thousands have decided citizenship would be a good idea, because it's far better in Israel than the PA. They're not happy that at this juncture it's not automatically forthcoming. Even though their desire now for Israeli citizenship does not stem from true identification with or loyalty to the State of Israel, they believe it should be theirs for the asking. What an inflated sense of automatic entitlement! ~~~~~~~~~~ I've written many times about the welfare mentality of the Palestinians, who have received more international aid money per capita than any other people on earth and yet persist in seeing themselves as victims –– and have convinced the world of this. The mental set of Arab residents of Jerusalem is much the same, and Hamdan's litany of complaints and explanations as to why they are angry is exceedingly telling in this regard. What is missing is a tone of responsibility, or any hint of introspective sadness about what happened yesterday. Hamdan is a presumptive community leader, yet he doesn't talk about working within his community to make sure such a thing doesn't happen again. This is not the way he is thinking. Not remotely. Instead, complained Hamdan: "Each time an Arab from Jerusalem carries out an attack, some Israeli politicians start inciting against all the Arabs. The Israelis need to understand that the majority of Jerusalem Arabs are peaceful people." But there is something he needs to understand: If there are, let us say, 20,000 Arabs in this neighborhood (and I believe there are many more), and only 1/2 of 1% of them are not peaceful people, this means 100 people who represent a danger to the Jewish population. It behooves the Israeli politicians to consider actions to prevent those 100 from hurting us. No more yeshiva students gunned down, no more babies tossed from cars before their mothers are crushed. If the Jerusalem Arabs truly wish to be part of the body politic of Israel, it also behooves their community leaders to work for that very same goal. But –– with increased identification of Jerusalem Arabs with Hamas –– we are today further from that than ever. ~~~~~~~~~~ In a commentary on the attack yesterday –– "Palestinian Terrorism as a Natural Act" –– Bradley Burston wrote the following in Haaretz: "On a quiet morning in Jerusalem, a man behind the wheel of a bulldozer has taken it upon himself to kill Jews. Women and children and the elderly and the infirm. What's a decent person to think when Palestinian groups fall over one another trying to claim the bulldozer attack? And when one of the groups is the Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade? ~~~~~~~~~~ While Gerald Steinberg had this to say in his piece –– Terror's Predictable Spontaneity –– in The Jerusalem Post: "Palestinians have been raised on the armed struggle, and many are capable of acting on their own, with whatever weapons are most readily available. The steady flow of incitement in the media plays a central role in this process, including Palestinian television programming preaching the virtues of martyrdom and the glory of fighting the Zionist enemy. As a result, the isolated action may appear to be spontaneous, but the foundation and preparations are never far away." Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info |
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THE JERUSALEM TERRORIST ATTACK AND THE WAGES OF THE LEFT'S WAR ON ISRAELI SECURITY
Posted by Sultan Knish, July 3, 2008. |
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Contrary to many of the headlines you'll see, it wasn't a cop who stopped Hosam Dwayyat's rampage through Jerusalem carried out on behalf of a terrorist group named after Hizbullah terrorist leader Imad Mughniyeh. The cop was in the way. The man who stopped the Jerusalem rampage was an off duty soldier named Moshe Plesser, a product of a Hesder Yeshiva who protested the Gush Katif Disengagement and was almost kept out of the IDF and the Golani brigade for it. He did it while the police could not, for a simple reason, because the Israeli left, funded primarily by foreign donors such as George Soros and the EU, have spent a great deal of time and effort on undermining Israel's domestic security through legal channels. Backed by an activist judiciary and a Prime Minister whose own wife and daughter belong to left wing groups that are anti-military and pro-arab, they have successfully insured the prosecution of soldiers and civilians who fought back against Arab terrorism. Last week the Knesset finally approved the "Shai Dromi Bill" which protects the legal rights of people using armed force in their own defense. The bill was named after Shai Dromi, a farmer who shot at an Arab gang on his land, and was in turn incarcerated and dragged through the courts. Dromi was merely one in a long parade of Israelis, both private citizens and civilians, who defended themselves and were dragged through the machinery of the legal system by the left wing. One of the most notorious was Daniel Pinner, who was attacked by a rock throwing mob and fired into the air. He was charged and convicted of murder, despite the fact that there were radical inconsistencies in both the police claims and the eyewitness testimony, that the witnesses at the trial were his attackers and that no body was ever actually found. But none of that mattered. Foreign money from the EU and from left wing American and European billionaires has swelled the coffers of left wing groups from Peace Now to Machsom Watch, which works to undermine IDF soldiers at checkpoints, to Women in Black, Btselem and Rabbis for Human Rights. These groups have the goal of undermining Israeli security by attacking all political and security measures taken to fight terrorism. That has meant going after checkpoints and roadblocks, against anti-terrorist actions and against the civilians, soldiers and police officers on the front lines. The goal is to prevent Israel from physically protecting itself against terrorists and forcing it to the negotiating table with its terrorist assailaints. IDF soldiers already operate under painfully restricted rules of engagement. These rules have seriously crippled the ability of the IDF to fight terrorism, forced retreats, produced the Hizbullah kidnappings and caused soldiers to avoid firing even to protect civilians, because they feared being court-martialed for it. Because they know there are thousands of left wing activists that will begin poring over the incident report and looking for a way to hang them. Little wonder then that the police didn't stop him. Little wonder then that it was an off duty soldier and a security guard who had to do what the police wouldn't. And not just any off duty soldier, but a patriotic Religious Zionist soldier. Moshe Plesser is the son of Rav Hillel Plesser who runs a children's school, all his brothers serve in the army, one of whom is an officer. Moshe Plesser had to battle to even serve, because he had protested against the forced ethnic cleansing of Jews from Gush Katif. He had to battle to be in the Golani brigade. He had to work so hard because he represented everything the left wing establishment that controls too much of Israeli politics now despises, patriotism, Zionism and a belief in national self-defense. Like his brother in law, David Shapira who shot the Mercaz HaRav terrorist in the Jerusalem yeshiva attack, Moshe Plesser and those like him represent the best hope of Israel. Which is why the left is so driven in its hate against them. The wave of attacks aimed at Jerusalem are not random. They are the product of a coordinated effort to force Israel to split its capital with the terrorists. On the terrorist side, the killings are planned and executed. On the political side, the international and domestic left cries that there will be no peace until the terrorists receive Jerusalem too. What both the terrorists and the left know, is that to win they have to destroy Israeli security, and more than that, destroy the faith that Israelis and all free people have in their ability to defend themselves. Moshe Plesser's statement represents everything that makes the teeth of left wing activist grind. He began by calling the attack a "murderous attack on our holy and beloved land, part of the war in which we find ourselves." He then thanked all those who, he said, had a hand in helping him act correctly: "First of all, thanks to G-d, and secondly to the education and upbringing I received, beginning in the Morashah Talmud Torah in Jerusalem, and then the Dimona Yeshiva High School, and then the Yitzhar and Kiryat Arba Hesder yeshivot, and finally to my army training, for helping me act in the way every soldier and citizen should. I also wish to thank my brother-in-law David Shapira for serving as a personal example There it is God and Country and Civic duty. Everything that the left wing's war on Israeli institutions is working to eradicate. Had the left had its way Moshe Plesser would never have served in the IDF. Had the left had its way there would be no Hesder Yeshivas. Had the left had its way the bulldozer would have continued and gone on killing serving as another "incentive" for Israel to give up Jerusalem. But the left is far from done. There is no telling how many Moshe Plessers they have kept out of the IDF and how many no longer even bother joining. There is no telling how many terrorist attacks, including today's attack, happened because of their campaign to undermine Israel's security. There is no telling how many more terrorist attacks will happen because combined with Rice's pressure, Israel lowers checkpoints and allows more potential terrorists through into Israel to kill and kill again. What we do know is that Moshe Plesser represents the ideal of Israel's
citizen-soldier, armed with faith and the knowledge that national
self-defense is the righteous use of arms. And when the terrorist
"cried Allah Akhbar and hit the gas", Moshe Plesser ran after him,
took a gun from a bystander and killed him.
THERE CAN BE NO PEACE WITH TERRORISM The Israeli cabinet's deal with Hizbollah once again reminds us that the price of peace is surrender to terrorism and that negotiation with terrorism is nothing more than a prelude to that surrender. 16 years after Oslo the same pattern is being followed, terrorist attacks give way to negotiations which lead to concessions which in turn produce renewed terrorism. Negotiations are to terrorist groups what spinach is to Popeye. Terrorist groups are by their very nature vicious, cowardly and weak. Thugs and murderers under the flag of one ideology or another, they can only win by terrorizing a civilized society into recognizing them and dealing with them. No amount of attacks or bombings can ever give terrorists a victory. They can only win when you surrender and when you negotiate with terrorists, you surrender. It doesn't matter what the terms are, it doesn't matter what assurances you have, it doesn't matter what bright plans for the future you've concocted –– when you negotiate with terrorists you always lose. Islamic terrorist groups when they aren't putting on a show of martyrdom rely on typical eastern bandit tactics, high on the list is abduction and demands for blood money. Except the terrorist groups demand more than mere money, they demand land, they demand power, they demand lives. Terrorist kidnappings, like any other crime, are rooted in profit motive. If terrorists cannot profit from their crime, they will be forced to change their tactics. Negotiations and concessions only reward their tactics and insure many repeats of the same attack. By paying a ransom, you perpetrate kidnappings. By negotiating with terrorists, you perpetuate terrorism. This is the only truth. It is the truth that diplomats, reporters and politicians fervently deny, just as they deny that being tough on crime reduces crime. Every ransom paid is another hostage taken. Every legitimization of terrorism is another rocket launched against a civilian population. Every reference to legitimate grievances is another bullet fired into the heart of the moral consensus that that is at the heart of civilized societies. What is the face of terror? It is a signed document. It is a concession to sit down and negotiate with terrorists. And when the bombs fall and shrapnel is being rooted out of the bodies of dying men and women in hospital beds, it is a concession that you will continue negotiating and conceding to the terrorists no matter what. Because once you negotiate with terrorists, you destroy the moral consensus that rejects terrorism and you lose your power of outrage, your spine and your will. You stop being a righteous defender and you become a weakly protesting victim. Thugs have always understood that the weakness of the civilized world is its civilized nature, its willingness to sit down and talk things out. It is how Hitler rooked Chamberlain and Stalin took the West for a ride while gobbling up the East. It is why Muslim terrorists screech hate out of one side of their mouth while directing propaganda aimed at Western audiences out of their other side of their mouth. "We love death while you love life," the terrorists jeer out of one side of their mouth. "Let us negotiate," comes the plea from the other side. But they are both one mouth and mean the exact same thing. To a criminal, a willingness to "talk things over" is a sign of weakness and an act of surrender. "Let's talk things over" to a criminal means, let's discuss how much you're going to pay me this month and every month. And so negotiating with terrorists becomes nothing more than an extended session of paying out Danegeld in exchange for not being raided. Except the raids come anyway. There can be peace. But not peace with terrorism. A country that makes peace with terrorism has surrender to terrorism and will have neither peace nor security.From where does peace come? It comes from the same place that peace against all criminals comes, from a solid lock, a high gate, a loaded gun and a strong arm. Peace from terrorism can only come when terrorists know that they will gain nothing from terrorism except death and destruction to themselves, their own homes and their own lands. Not through any other means will civilized nations live in peace from the threat of terrorism, but through the ruthless use of righteous force. There can be no peace with terrorism, only over the bodies of terrorists. This is from today's Sultan Knish website
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SOLDIER WHO KILLED TERRORIST HAD TO FIGHT TO BE DRAFTED
Posted by Daisy Stern, July 3, 2008. |
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This comes from Arutz-7 (www.IsraelNationalNews.com).
Moshe Plesser is of course the soldier whose name was retractively banned from being published. |
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(IsraelNN.com) The off-duty soldier who killed the bulldozer terrorist Wednesday was an anti-expulsion activist who had to fight the IDF in order to join the army. The IDF acted to bar from the army hundreds of youth who actively opposed the Disengagement program that ended up with the expulsion of thousands of Jews from their Gaza and northern Samaria homes, which later were destroyed. The Gaza communities were given to the Palestinian Authority, which now is governed by Hamas, which has built terrorist training bases where several towns once were located. The soldier's name was published after the attack, but a gag order on publishing his name later was issued in Jerusalem Magistrate's Court Wednesday night. One court source told Independent Media Review and Analysis (IMRA), "I thought I have seen everything, but this is the most absurd thing that has ever happened." Contact Daisy Stern at daisystern1@gmail.com |
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DON'T REPLACE HAMAS WITH FATAH; HOW FAR TO CARRY ASYLUM?; ISRAEL DISMANTLING ITSELF; "TW0 ISRAELS"
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 3, 2008. |
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IRAN PROTECTS ITSELF AGAINST SANCTIONS Some European countries publicly considered additional sanctions against Iran. It's hard to impose sanctions on a country selling what one needs. Therefore, before picking up that stick, they waited for Iran's reaction to offering it a carrot. In anticipation of eventual sanctions, such as having its bank accounts frozen in Europe, Iran transferred $75 billion to Asian banks. (IMRA, 6/17). In warfare as in hunting, whether the warfare is military, diplomatic, or economic, one should move quietly and quickly. Europe acted noisily and slowly. As a result, the quarry escaped. PM OLMERT'S ASSESSMENT OF THE TRUCE He said it is working for peace (IMRA, 6/18). An invasion of Gaza that roots out Hamas and the other terrorists would make for peace. Removal of the Arabs would make peace. A truce that enables Hamas to strengthen its forces of aggression is working for a longer war. BUT DON'T REPLACE HAMAS WITH FATAH Until overthrown by Hamas, Fatah smuggled more Iranian weapons into Gaza than did Hamas. Fatah still fires rockets at Israel from Gaza. Fatah does not fight against fellow terrorists. Replacing Hamas with the unpopular Fatah means that Hamas would topple Fatah and take over, again. Since the 1956 war, the US has kept Israel from full victory over the Arabs. In 2003, when Israel defeated the P.A. terrorist networks, Israel proved that the P.A., i.e., Fatah, was running the jihad. Nevertheless, the US forced Israel to sign the Road Map that treated the P.A. as legitimate interlocutors that should be given sovereignty, land, arms, funds, and international recognition. The US doesn't want to admit that it is in a war by jihad, so it treats the war on Israel as different from the war on the US. This denial hampers a coherent war strategy. US policy is based on fantasy. Should Israel cooperate with US fantasy or expose the fantasy and irk the State Dept.? (Caroline Glick, IMRA, 6/17.) Then the US reprimands Israel for not, in its opinion, following the Road Map. EXPERIMENT IN ANTI-TERRORISM The IDF made a deal with a couple of Arab villages in Judea-Samaria. Israel removed roadblocks there, on the elders' promise that, with the help of 20 P.A. police whom Israel let into the villages, they restrain the youth who have been committing numerous terrorist acts (IMRA, 6/17). WHAT ARE "BOTH SIDES?" A friend recommended The Week magazine, because it presents "both sides" of issues. The May 23 edition took up the "Controversy of the Week": "Israel at 60: Has the promise been fulfilled?" That "promise" was not defined. Hard to evaluate success without criteria. There was no discussion of whether Israel really is a Jewish state. One reply saw some success in Israel's many accomplishments, including its ingathering of Jews. Some commentators thought Israel's celebration overdone, because the country still is under siege and antisemitism still besets it. One defended Israel's right to exist, as if there is any serious question about it, as contrasted with bigoted propaganda. Just because much of the world, especially W. Europe, is vicious about this, doesn't mean Israel's existence is a legitimate controversy. Then there were the Arabs complaining in American newspapers that Israel did not fulfill its promise, because, they falsely claim, it oppresses Palestinian Arabs. One said Israel should take responsibility for the Arab refugees by ceding sovereign and administered territory to the Arabs. Israel is not responsible for a refugee problem created by the Arabs during their failed attempt at genocide against the Jews? I don't think the Arabs were punished enough for that. Likewise, too few Axis criminals after WWII or the Communists after the fall of the USSR were brought to justice. There isn't not enough deterrence to evildoing. Thoughtful discussion was crowded out by Arab propaganda and no space was given to a Jewish nationalist view. "Both sides" represented? That would be like the US holding a WWII forum on where its forces should open another front against Germany, and having Germany's views well represented. Aggressor Nazi Germany did not have a legitimate view. Neither do contemporary Islamic fascists, seeking to overturn civilization. The magazine is reminiscent of radio debates featuring an Arab, an Israeli, and a moderator. The Israeli and the moderator share the Arab's view, but less violently. They debate how much to surrender to the Arabs. No Jewish national view or strong Zionist view is heard to suggest that the Jews don't owe anything to the Arabs, but the reverse is true. HOW FAR TO CARRY ASYLUM? Britain released an high-ranking al-Qaeda cleric that Jordan wanted extradited to serve a 15-year prison sentence determined by trial in absentia. The court granted him asylum, because it couldn't be sure of his safety in Jordan nor that his conviction wasn't obtained by torture. But now Britain is endangered by him. OBAMA'S CHIEF MIDEAST ADVISOR That advisor was identified as Daniel Kurtzer. As former US Ambassador to Israel, Kurtzer spied on Israel and tried to micromanage Israel's administration of the Territories. Kurtzer criticized every house Jews built there. Earlier he was known as one of "Baker's Jews" in the State Dept., Baker being Sec. of State, hostile to Israel, and using "Baker's Jews" to press for Israeli concessions to the Arabs. Those concessions led to more strife and terrorists putting Israel on the defensive instead of Israel more fully backing up the US against terrorism. Don't expect an Obama presidency to support Israel against terrorism any more than did the Bush or Clinton administrations. If the Israel lobby were only half as powerful and knowledgeable as reputed by rational people, it would expose politicians' advisors to the public. Why do politicians pick such people? Either they subscribe to the advisors' views or they don't know what their views and records are, just that they have attained high positions. Many scoundrels obtain high positions, elected or appointed. IS THE PROBLEM ISLAMISTS OR ISLAM? The West tries to make a distinction between Islamists, who constitute only a portion of Muslims and whom it considers terrorists, and other Muslims. Islam began with the concept of jihad. Muslims committed terrorism before Islamist ideology arose. Thus Muslim terrorists attacked Zionists as early as the 1920s. When Israel declared independence, Arab states invaded. Egypt had Palestinian Terrorists in Gaza attack Israel, leading to the 1956 war. In 1967, Jordan initiated war by bombarding civilian Jerusalem. ISRAEL DISMANTLING ITSELF The Arabs don't have to tear Israel apart. PM Olmert, incompetent in everything else except financial abuse of office, is rending it for the Arabs and State Dept.. This is besides the earlier promise of annual gift of scarce water to Jordan. He and Sharon got the Jews out of Gaza and many Israelis to flee subsequent bombardment from Gaza. He's offering the Golan (and possibly more) to Syria. He's offering Judea-Samaria and who knows how much of Jerusalem to Palestinian Arabs. Now he's offering Israel's early warning station to Lebanon, now controlled by Hizbullah and Iran. Will Egypt put in a claim for Eilat? "TWO ISRAELS" Nicholas D. Kristoff divides Israeli Jews into two kinds: (1) Colonial oppressors; and (2) Opponents of colonialism. As if colonists, Jews speed by on new highways sometimes reserved for Israeli vehicles, while P.A. vehicles wait at checkpoints. The checkpoints have undermined P.A. moderates such as Abbas and reduce the hope for peace. In three years, P.A. Arabs increased their approval of terrorism from 45% to 67%. They are turning to Hamas, which cannot bring them sovereignty. He says the toughest security system is in Hebron, a big Arab city containing a tiny Jewish "settlement of 800, protected by a massive system of guard posts, checkpoints, and road closures. That settlement is "illegal in the eyes of much of the word, costs too much money, and harms Israel diplomatically. The increased security suffocates, impoverishes, and antagonizes the Arabs. Settlers justify the security measures as made imperative by Arab terrorism, which it's up to the Arabs to end. More than 1,800 Arab stores were closed, some welded shut, and several thousand Arabs driven from their houses. Israel severely oppresses Arabs in the city center, "notes B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights group. Israel expropriated the city center from its Arab residents..." Because she lived near settlers, an Arab woman's ambulance could not get appropriate permission in time and her baby died in childbirth, "she said." This year, four Arab women gave birth at checkpoints because Israeli soldiers wouldn't let them through; this was documented. Because of the security fence, an Arab farmer couldn't reach his fields. Settlers do reach his fields. They also club Arab women. Almost a third of settlements were stolen from private Arab owners. What's the good side of Israel? Israeli courts repeatedly rule in favor of the Arabs. Israeli scholars found that the facts of their country's founding are myths. Israeli journalists are fairer towards the Arabs than Arab journalists (NY Times, Sunday Opinion, 6/22, p.12). HEBRON JEWRY REPLIES The spokesman for Hebron's Jews, David Wilder, issued a rejoinder to Mr. Kristoff's broadside against Jews in Judea-Samaria.[To read it, click here.] Basically, Kristoff was one-sided. He visited Hebron, but didn't interview Mr. Wilder to be taken around and really get the Hebron Jews' side. He just telephoned Wilder, and omitted all his points but one. Everything else was taken from a far leftist reading list, from leftists and Arabs, and from B'Tzelem, an ostensible human rights organization comprised of Arabs and Far Left Jews who ignore Jews' rights and just bash Israel. His article was written in the form of assertions, accusations, and conclusions, without evidence he verified what he was told. He repeats false Arab propaganda and appears ignorant about the issues. It is important to check what B'Tzelem claims. Its claim that 1,800 stores were closed is contested by high IDF sources, who say the number is closer to 900. The stores were open until ten years ago, when PM Netanyahu turned most of Hebron over to the P.A., which then used the stores and hills to fire upon the Jews. [The stores were right next to where the Jews lived.] Now the Arabs have a modern and model shopping center in their part of town. The Arabs have access to 98% of Hebron, but the Jews have access to only 3%. Who restricts whom? The article gives the impression of constant clashes. Actually, Hebron is the safest city in Judea-Samaria. "There are no militias, no armed gangs and no hooligans. There is a traditional tribal social structure, no refugee camps inside the city and the town's large and powerful families do not permit lawlessness. The market is a source of pride among Hebron residents. It is clean and organized. Trade between merchants is documented on computers and municipality officials say there is no more modern and efficient market in the entire PA.. Nor is there a market like it in Jordan or even in Tel Aviv." It is not true that thousands of Arabs were expelled from the city. None were. Many have left because of the continued war (started by the Arabs). The story of the dying at birth is false. One wonders whether Kristoff checked that story. Arabs there never had particular difficulty getting through checkpoints. Kristoff notes [in typical Times parlance] that the Jewish presence in Hebron is illegal, "in most of the world's eyes." "Damn their eyes," as the British would say, the world's eyes were blind to the murder of six million Jews, before. The world appears to be letting Iran develop nuclear weapons, whose first targets would be in Israel. Is Kristoff going to cite particular international law or prejudice? Jews have lived in Hebron for thousands of years, until expelled by an Arab massacre. International law would not call the current Jewish presence illegal. In 1997, Arafat signed an accord recognizing the legitimacy of the Jews' presence there. Attributing the whole Israeli cost of national defense in Hebron to protecting the Jewish community there is sophistry. It is important to keep that city from becoming a terrorist base like the other P.A. cities. That helps protect all Israelis, some of whom in other areas were attacked by terrorists traveling from Hebron. I asked Wilder what Kristoff might have meant by clubbing of Arabs and stealing their land. He said there was a filmed incident, but it isn't clear who committed the attack. Police questioned a couple of men, but released them. Wilder said that the Arabs claim that all Israeli Jews live on stolen land. MY ADDITIONAL COMMENTS Most Arab land claims are fraudulent and attempts to steal land, but they may have hit on some legal errors by settlers. If the Times were interested in theft of land, it would report the massive squatting by Bedouin in Israel, the Arabs' theft of land in the Territories, including from other Arabs, their attempts to encroach on Jews' fields, their illegal building, and their rustling and theft of equipment. The chief difference between the Times and the Hebron Jewish community is that the former deals in propaganda, and the latter, in facts, reason, and specifics. For years, the Arabs constantly threw stones and firebombs at Hebron Jews and shot at them. This is in addition to attacking Israeli vehicles on the roads. Israeli security forces continue to apprehend terrorists. The Arab abuses of Israeli goodwill and their terrorist attacks show that it is the Arabs who oppress the Jews. B'Tselem excuses terrorism –– the attempt to murder innocent people –– as provoked by Arab discontent. But all the Arabs had to do was keep the peace to which they agreed and negotiate a final settlement. The Arabs instead keep violating their peace agreements, and then complain that they don't like the consequences of what is their aggression. Unjustified! Over time, polls vary. Suppose, as Kristoff writes, more P.A. Arabs approve of terrorism now. Kistoff assumes that is in response to treatment by Israelis. But Muslims don't live as much by cause-and-effect. They respond more to notions of shame and of religion. Perhaps more approve of terrorism because the P.A. has had more years to indoctrinate them in it. The Times does not examine P.A. textbooks, mosque sermons, and media programs, although other groups have and found them inciting to murder. That's a great story. Why doesn't the paper cover it? Because if it did, it would have to stop expressing such sympathy for the Arabs and blame for the Jews. B'Tselem cites the store-closing as evidence of ill-will by Israel. Why doesn't it admit that the closings were motivated by Arab terrorism from those stores? Why doesn't it admit that the storekeepers do not want to go back to the old shopping center, when they prefer the modern one? The P.A. forces owners of stores that are not closed to stay there, just to be able to check or harass the Jews. Troops at checkpoints hurry ambulances through. But the ambulances must be checked, because terrorists have used them to ferry terrorists and arms. Sometimes Arabs see a checkpoint and turn back, but if innocent, that is their problem. Mostly, Arabs make up these stories as slander. Incidentally, Israelis have to stop at some checkpoints, too. I don't know about the particular Arab farmer mentioned. In general, Israel tried to align the fence with property lines, so residences would not be cut off from farms. Israel allowed for enough gates in the security fence for people to cross as needed. Despite that, the fence has been exaggerated in propaganda as a great hardship on the Arabs, without crediting it for giving the Jews security from those same, murdering Arabs. Actually, the fence is a great hardship for the Jews, cutting them off from safe roads. It appears intended to put some Jewish communities on the Arab side of the physical divide, so those communities would have to be abandoned. You see, Kristoff wrote the article as if the government of Israel plots against the Arabs. But the government is anti-Zionist, itself. It plots to give territory to the Arabs and to undermine Jewish claims to land and to the Land. The courts are part of this effort. So are the "scholars," by which he means the "new historians." Of the four original "new historians," two were Communists. They all quote out of context misleadingly and ignore contrary evidence. They have been exposed, but not by the Times, which misses the most interesting and useful stories about Israel. Rather than praise the courts and leftist historians for this, the Times should be reporting about judicial subversion of Zionism and the mental sickness in Israel whereas the Left and especially the Far Left has been sucked into antisemitism. If those leftists merely were being humane, they'd get their facts straight and not slander their own people. They would care about Jews' rights, too. They don' t. If the Times cared about human rights, it would note that the government has a special code of law calling for harassment of the Jews in the Territories and especially applies that to Hebron. The Times is keeping it a secret that Israel favors the Arabs over the Jews. Think of the Temple Mount, that the government lets the Arabs wreck Jewish artifacts in, and bars Jews from praying on. Describing Abbas as moderate is part of the Times' big lie technique. It keeps repeating that lie, though Abbas doesn't combat terrorism but helps it and threatened to indulge in it more if negotiations don't bring what he wants, and what he wants would doom Israel to being flooded by hostile Arabs. Abbas is used as a means of extorting concessions from Israel. For years, Israel has been risking its people's lives making concessions to Abbas and Arafat to "strengthen" their rule. Their rule is dictatorial and geared towards war on Israel. But checkpoints are said to weaken Abbas' rule. Anything the Arabs don't like, Israel is told to end, to strengthen Abbas. Nevertheless, he grows ever weaker. His weakness is due to his own incompetence. The Times should cease its antisemitic tactic of blaming every Arab problem on the Jews. The Arabs make their own problems. Abbas' main problem is corruption and incompetence. The hope for peace that Kristoff suggests the checkpoints deflate is a false hope that the newspaper engenders in order to get Israel to cede defensible borders. Kristoff calls the special roads for Israelis colonialism, as if he doesn't know that Arab attacks on cars made separate roads one of the answers. The real colonialists are the Arabs, who are trying to resurrect their Islamic empire, once the world's largest. Most Arab countries are on land the Muslims conquered. I don't quite agree with Wilder that Kristoff is ignorant of the issues. Wilder is too kind. Considering that the NY Times traditionally is anti-Zionist and pursues advocacy journalism, I find that it deliberately seeks biased sources, in order to mold public opinion. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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TURNING PLOWSHARES INTO SWORDS
Posted by Naomi Ragen, July 3, 2008. |
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To live in Jerusalem is to face the fact that here, in the holiest city in the world, there are vast numbers of inhabitants who are the kind of human beings willing, able, and committed to performing acts of sickening bloodshed, breaking every rule that human beings have created for themselves or learned or been taught. Worse, they involve G-d in their offenses, desecrating His name and His city in their maniacal search for the ultimate act of barbarism to promote their religion/politics/personal agenda. Take Mr. Duwait. A convicted rapist and felon who sat in jail for two years, a resident of the East Jerusalem Arab village Sur Baher, a relative of the terrorist who killed young yeshiva students in Mercaz Harav, he climbed unto a huge tractor and with astonishing barbarism plowed down a major Jerusalem thoroughfare, sowing unimaginable destruction. As journalist Tom Gross put it: Terrorists purposely target civilians, and this terrorist was no different. He chose his victims carefully, starting his attack by motioning with his hand for a woman motorist to drive before him. Then he rammed her car with the bulldozer's shovel. He then used the bulldozer to plow into two public buses carrying passengers, including many women and children which he could clearly see through the buses' large glass windows. One of the buses was completely overturned, the other crashed. He then crushed a number of cars with their drivers still in them, and targeted several pedestrians chasing them down and running them over. A half-dozen cars were flattened and others were overturned by his Caterpillar vehicle as panic spread throughout the center of Israel's capital. Traffic was halted, and hundreds of people fled through the streets as medics treated the wounded. One car was dragged several meters by the bulldozer. A baby was pulled out by a passerby before the vehicle was crushed, with the child's mother still inside. She died. By the time his rampage was over, three Israeli civilians were dead and over 66 were wounded. Broken glass and blood were left down a stretch of one of Israel's busiest streets. All the time the terrorist screamed "Allah Akhbar" (God is great in Arabic) as he did so. The terrorist was shot dead by a security guard working for a nearby bank as he approached Jerusalem's main working class food market, Mahane Yehuda." {And by a young soldier, the brother-in-law of the soldier who took out the Mercaz Harav terrorist. Imagine the woman with such a husband, and such a brother!) Bathsheva Unterman, the 33 year-old kindergarten teacher who unstrapped her baby and handed her to a passerby through the car window before being crushed, had been through many treatments and waited many years for her daughter to be born. Her baby was unharmed. Not so the baby in the overturned bus, who remains in critical condition. Duwait's family has not expressed sorrow for the victims. But what they do want to know is why it was necessary to have killed Duwait. That way, I suppose they'd be waiting for another Israel soldier to be kidnapped and murdered to set their darling free. What is the moral of this story? As Rabbi David Booth said: "It was a case of someone turning a plowshare into a sword." The killing here yesterday was no random act. It was deliberate and personal. It was –– and is –– family against family. On one side, there are their families, who raise their sons to be mass murderers and child killers, instilling in them a hate-filled culture and a religion with no respect for human life, encouraging them to kill and be killed. And then there is our family, who raise our sons to risk their lives to save the lives of others, instilling in them a culture and religion filled with the true love of G-d and mankind and life. Our family will triumph over their family. Our sons over their sons. And when they sit in their tents of mourning, keening over their dead, perhaps they might reflect on how it is they have raised sons who must be hunted down and killed like mad dogs. Perhaps, if that happens, they will need to mourn no more. EDITOR'S NOTE: Steven Plaut adds another fact, an appalling one: Will the terrorist's family be expelled from Israel? Will their house in East Jerusalem be destroyed or turned over to Jewish "settlers" as a place to live? Naomi Ragen is an American-born novelist and journalist who lives in Jerusalem. She can be contacted at www.naomiragen.com, where you can subscribe to her newsletter. |
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SEPARATE BUT EQUAL TERRORISTS
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 3, 2008. |
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This comes from the Joshua Pundit website
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There was a huge fanfare today as Nelson Mandela and the rest of South Africa's African National Congress Party(ANC)were taken of the official terrorism watch list in a bill authored by Congressman Howard Berman and signed into law today by President Bush. Given Mandela and the ANC's close associations with the Soviets, Yasir Arafat and the PLO, maybe keeping them on the list wasn't such a bad idea. I certainly have no problem with him not being allowed here...and I'd probably ban much of the rest of the ANC outright. Mandela's consistently voiced his support for regimes like Libya, Iran and Cuba, and Mandela personally traveled to Libya and presented Moamar Gaddafi with South Africa's highest military medal. The ANC was always a pro-terrorist organization, and was sponsored by the Soviets to destabilize Southern Africa and turn the strategic region into Soviet clinet states. The leaders –– Mandela, his wife Winnie and Bishop Tutu have always been outspokenly anti-Semitic and anti-Israel, which causes me a grim chuckle as I reflect on who authored the bill taking the ANC off the terorism watch list. It's no accident that the first UN 'human rights' Council conference in Durban, SA in 2001 turned into an orgy of Jew hating so vile even the US and EU reps walked out. In 1961, Mandela was the founder of Umkhonto we Siswe ("Spear of the People"), ANC's terrorist arm, and never during all the time he was in prison did he condemn that organization's acts of indiscriminate terrorism against civilians. Mandela and the ANC learned from Yasir Arafat how to 'discipline' collaborators' and make sure people toed the party line an dfinanced the ANC whether they wanted to or not. These included 'necklacing' (putting a gasoline soaked tire on the victim and setting it on fire), burning whole families in their homes in Soweto, assasinating political opponents, operating what amounted to a protection racket among black South African businessmen and torturing dissidents at ANC gulags over the border in Angola, something even Mandela has admitted occurred, although he's never apologized or regretted it. Mandela was also responsible for signing off on the Church Street bombing in Pretoria 1983,which killed 19 and wounded more than 200, mostly families in a busy shopping street at rush hour. The commander of that operation was Abu Bakr Ismail, a PLO terrorist. Robert Mugabe has the same ties and pedigree as Mugabe and the ANC,which is one reason I believe South African president Theo Mbeki has been so reluctant to challenge Mugabe...there's quite a bit of stuff from the bad old days that the ANC would rather didn't come to light, and Mugabe knows where a lot of those bodies are buried –– literally. FTR, (not that it matters) I'm not some disgruntled white South African expatriate, and I have no personal connection or axe to grind with South Africa. But let's just say I have a thing against cowards who use terrorism against innocent people as a political weapon. The truth's the truth, and as far as I'm concerned Mandela and his ANC ilk shouldn't be welcomed here, or in any other civilized locale. They can stay in their own country.
Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com
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WHO GOES THERE? FRIEND OR FOE?
Posted by Barry Rubin, July 2, 2008. |
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Here's the most important thing I can tell you about the Middle East. For more than a half-century, the region's politics revolved around Arab nationalism. Individual states sought to have influence, leadership, or just to survive. The Arab-Israeli conflict was an important issue in this framework, though not the sole or even the most significant one. Now, as Celine Dion sings, "Those days are gone." Today, the centerpiece is a struggle between two blocs, one well-organized, the other weak and facing internal conflict. The former is the Tehran-led alliance of the HISH (Hamas-Iran-Syria-Hizballah); the latter is just about everyone else, call it the coalition of the unwilling. And as in the words of the song, these regimes say, "Hard to be sure, sometimes I feel so insecure." But they don't follow through on the chorus by proclaiming, "All by myself, don't wanna be, All by myself, Anymore." After all, while Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates don't want to be dominated by Iran or ruled by radical Islamists, they find it rather hard to work together or with their best potential allies. The region now faces many overlapping problems: HISH's ambitions, Iranian nuclear drive, Iraq, Lebanon, radical Islamism, terrorism, and the struggle for power in each country. Oh yes, and there's the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, largely reduced from the Arab-Israeli conflict. And while that last one makes the top forty, it really doesn't make the final four, in objective if not always in perceptual terms. Politics makes for strange bedfellows and you don't have to be friends to have a common need to work together. During World War Two, Stalin's Soviet Union became the vital ally of the democracies. Yet you also need someone on whom you can depend, at least to follow their own interests. During World War One, German leaders referred to their alliance with Austria-Hungary as being shackled to a corpse. At times, contemporary Arab leaders –– especially the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) –– seem to want to imitate French King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette or Czar Nicholas and Alexandra in bringing revolutions on themselves. Still, their behavior is understandable. They want to use the radical appeal of Arab nationalism, Islamism, anti-Americanism, and xenophobia to divert attention from their own failings while mobilizing support for themselves as the true defenders against all those big and little satans out there. At the same time, they are happy to appease their foes if possible. A particularly blatant example is Kuwait's foreign minister who denounced those who want to wage a false jihad at home. He explained that instead of murdering innocent Muslims, young people should kill Israelis instead. Much of the regimes' "anti-terrorist" rhetoric is merely really aimed at shifting the targets away from themselves. On one hand, the Saudis host a global interfaith dialogue conference; float a peace initiative toward Israel, fight domestic terrorism, and battle Syria and Hizballah in Lebanon. On the other hand, they aid terrorists and spread extremist forms of Islam. Egypt is horrified by radical Islamism but refuses to go all-out against Hamas. The official media demonize the West and Israel, while the official Islamic religious apparatus endorses terrorism against Israel and in Iraq. The question of this era, then, is how does one make the parallelism of interests among those facing the HISH and radical Islamism something that can be implemented in practice? There are powerful factors pushing Arab regimes and a portion of the populations toward indirect cooperation. Kuwaitis remember what Saddam Hussein did to them; Saudis fear Shia power; Iraqis are angry about foreign support for terrorism against them; Lebanese Christians, Druze, and Shia Muslims don't want to have Hizballah telling them what to do. Yet on the Arab side there are also huge limitations to cooperation. * Their adversaries are unrelenting. They will not make peace, moderate, or live up to any compromise deal they sign. These include not only the HISH but other Islamist elements which may be both revolutionary and anti-Iran, notably Muslim Brotherhoods and al-Qaeda. In short, while the rulers have the advantage of guns and resources, the radical opposition has the asset of the regimes' incompetence, corruption, and a public opinion open to their arguments. To shake this combination will take many decades, at best. But what about the West and Israel? They can also sell out the Arab side due to a strong temptation to deal with the radicals and not with the moderate –– or perhaps I should say the less radical –– forces. By apologizing, conceding, refusing to defend themselves, or by negotiating, exaggerating the potential for moderation, and dropping sanctions, they can strengthen the extremists and undercut the regimes. When that happens, the regimes know they might better cut their own deal. So while there are arguable reasons to bargain with Hamas, Hizballah, Iran, or Syria, such a strategy splits the anti-HISH alliance and starts a race toward appeasement. In the Dion song, "Love so distant and obscure, Remains the cure." But this is politics. The best one can hope for is the wisdom to build on coinciding interests and courage to stand up to unrelenting enemies. Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), with Walter Laqueur (Viking-Penguin); the paperback edition of The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan); A Chronological History of Terrorism, with Judy Colp Rubin, (Sharpe); and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley). |
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SCOTLAND: MUSLIMS OFFENDED BY PICTURE OF PUPPY ON POLICE POSTCARD
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 2, 2008. |
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This is from Jihad Watch
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Scotland: Muslims offended by picture of puppy on police postcard
Offensive? And the department apologized. "Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat," from the Daily Mail, July 1: A postcard featuring a cute puppy sitting in a policeman's hat advertising a Scottish police force's new telephone number has sparked outrage from Muslims. Vaccinations aside: "Abu Dharr reported: The Messenger of 'Allah (may peace be upon him) said: When any one of you stands for prayer and there is a thing before him equal to the back of the saddle that covers him and in case there is not before him (a thing) equal to the back of the saddle, his prayer would be cut off by (passing of an) ass, woman, and black Dog. I said: O Abu Dharr, what feature is there in a black dog which distinguish it from the red dog and the yellow dog? He said: O, son of my brother, I asked the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) as you are asking me, and he said: The black dog is a devil." –– Sahih Muslim 4.1032 A spokesman for Tayside Police said: 'Trainee police dog Rebel has proved extremely popular with children and adults since being introduced to the public, aged six weeks old, as Tayside Police's newest canine recruit. Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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"RABBI BELLYACHE" CLAIMS TO SPEAK FOR JEWS
Posted by Steven Plaut, July 2, 2008. |
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This article was published today in the Jewish Press
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Quick, how does the Gemara Call Pepto Bismol for Bellyaches in Aramaic? 'Rabbi' Haim Dov Beliak is a far-leftist anti-Israel activist of the Norman Finkelstein variety, who is probably best known for having led a campaign of vicious Lashon Hara and smears against a prominent Los Angeles philanthropist, attacking him in ad hominem ways, because Beliak did not like the fact that the philanthropist was financing some housing in Jerusalem on what Beliak thinks is the wrong side of the 1967 Green Line. Beliak, widely known by his nickname "Bellyache," holds a Reform movement ordination and used to be the congregational clergyperson at a synagogue in Whittier, California (once home of Richard Nixon). Beliak has a letter in Haaretz today[*] in which he pretends to speak on behalf of American Jewry, reprinted in Hebrew below. He claims that American Jews are convinced that their own security is threatened by the fact that Israel has so far refused to create a Palestinian state, capitulate to Arab demands, and return to its "Green Line." He also insists that American Jews think that pro-Israel Christians threaten Jewry when they support Israel. He concludes that American Jews need to be pro-Palestinian. Bellyache really represents the most self-hating and extremist one hundredth of one percent of American Jews. Beliak runs a tiny group, really just a web site, which may have one or two members besides himself, called "Jews on First," devoted to promoting the political agenda of the Far Left and also to demonizing conservative Christians. The group probably does more than any other nominally Jewish group in North America, other than Neturei Karta, to create Christian anti-Semitism. Among other "Jewish" causes that it promotes is the prohibition of public school choice and vouchers, and the prohibition of any discussion of "intelligent design." The banner causes for this "group" include "Sex Education is a Mitzvah", and of course promoting gay marriage and abortion. Beliak is a rabbi in the same sense that Ward Churchill is an Indian. Beliak's sidekick in the group is one Jane Hunter. She is an anti-Israel activist and a groupie of Israel's convicted traitor and nuclear spy Mordecai Vanunu. She collaborates with people like Noam Chomsky and with the Swedish neo-nazi calling himself Israel Shamir in generating anti-Israel propaganda. She has worked hard to spread the claim that Islamic terrorists are actually backed by the Israeli Mossad. She claims Israel runs cocaine smuggling networks, operates mass murder networks in Central America, and she has attacked proposed funding freezes aginst the Hamas and Islamic Jihad, while endorsing fringe conspiracy theories of the Far Left. Jews on First is the newest, but not the only, project of Beliak, a favorite speaker of American Muslims Standing up for Freedom and Security, sponsored by the pro-terror Muslim Public Affairs Council. Beliak also runs or ran www.stopmoskowitz.org, a smear group that attacks the family of Irving Mockowitz, who has been a developer of Jerusalem neighborhoods. Beliak is a foul basher of Israel, who has campaigned for divestment from Israel (see this). He opposes the US campaign against Islamofascist terror as a "war machine" and wants to defend the al-Qaeda detainees in Gitmo. He is a close associate of pro-terror anti-Semite Ramsey Clark. He is part of the anti-Israel "Progressive Jewish Alliance", so anti-Israel that even Tikkun's Mikey Lerner will not join it. He is the LA rep for the loony, drug-touting "Shalom Center" of "Rabbi Woodstock," Arthur Waskow. He also is nominally associated with the "Rabbis for Human Rights", the group in Israel that fabricates the stories about settlers chopping down Arab trees. Want to tell Temple Beth Shalom of Whittier what you think of their clergyperson? They are at Fax: 562-941-8745 Beliak's letter can be found in Haaretz in Hebrew.[*] [*] www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/LiArtPE.jhtml?contrassID=
Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments –– both seriously and satirically –– on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. Or write him at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il |
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PRISONER REHABILITATED; FIFTY MILLION DIE
Posted by Barry Rubin, July 2, 2008. |
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Each day we're told that radical Islamists, terrorists, and assorted extremists are going to moderate, so why not negotiate with them, appease them, defuse their grievances, have dialogue, and then everything will be okay. But, those who are doubtful, argue, shouldn't we have learned from history that militant ideologies are not prone to compromise and ruthless dictators don't change their stripes. You cannot appease them, they don't go away; displays of weakness make them more aggressive. Oh, no! Not the Nazi analogy again! And yet what can you say when confronted with this New York Times headline of December 21, 1924: "Hitler Tamed By Prison; Released on Parole, He Is Expected to Return to Austria." [This is not a satire. See for yourself at:
The correspondent explains that Hitler, once a demigod for the extreme right, was released on parole from the Landsberg fortress where he had been sent for trying to overthrow the democratic German government in what has come to be known as the Beerhouse Putsch. Prison, the article continues, seems to have moderated him. The authorities were convinced that he presented no further danger to the existing society. In fact, it was expected that he would abandon public life and return to his native land, Austria. Well, that problem was certainly solved easily. And also the Times learned its lesson, hasn't it? As the newspaper explained in a June 30 editorial: "Few countries can afford the luxury of limiting their diplomacy to friendly countries and peace-loving parties. National security often requires negotiating with dangerous enemies." Right. And believing their protestations of moderation, making concessions to them, ending sanctions, blaming ourselves for problems, and never using force is the actual content of such negotiations. Then the leaders of Hamas, Hizballah, Syria, Iran, the Muslim Brotherhoods, al-Qaida, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Sudan, etc., will no doubt be tamed, abandon public life, and go back to their homes. Henry Kissinger once told the joke –– or at least is credited for doing so –– that it is very easy to have the lion lay down with the lamb, as long as you put in a new lamb every day. Kissinger no doubt little expected at the time that this would become the democratic world's favored strategy. No surprise that the main villain for the politically correct West is Israel, the lamb that refuses the honor. Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and co-author of "Yasir Arafat: A Political Biography" and "Hating America: A History" (Oxford University Press). His latest book is The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). Prof. Rubin's columns can now be read online at http://gloria.idc.ac.il/columns/column.html. Contact him at profbarryrubin@yahoo.com |
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FROM ISRAEL: TERROR
Posted by Arlene Kushner, July 2, 2008. |
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An Arab resident of eastern Jerusalem, in possession of an Israeli residency card, murdered at least three people and injured some 66 today when he went on a terrorist rampage utilizing a bulldozer at the junction of Jaffe Road and Sarei Yisrael Street, not far from the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem. The man is reported to have had a criminal record. Husam Taysir Dwayat, a 30 year old husband and father, who lived in the Sur Bahir neighborhood of southeastern Jerusalem, was driving the bulldozer because he was working on construction near the entrance to Jerusalem for the light rail being established for the city. He drove the heavy machine away from the construction site and headed for a main intersection, where he began his insane attack –– turning over buses and squashing cars and leaving a swath of destruction in his path. According to reports, in one instance a woman tossed her baby out the window of her car before it was crushed with her inside. ~~~~~~~~~~ Moshe Plesser, 18, a soldier on furlough from the elite Egoz unit of the Golani Brigades, witnessed the rampage as he was riding his bike down Jaffa Road. Throwing his bike down, he took off after the bulldozer on foot, shouting for a gun as he ran. Plesser, aided by a civilian, climbed the bulldozer and was handed his assistant's weapon. Dwayat cried "Allah Ahkar! (God is great! –– what Muslim terrorists cry before killing Jews) and Plesser shot him in the head three times. Immediately following this, Eli Mizrahi, a police officer from the elite Yassam anti-terror unit, climbed aboard and finished the terrorist for good. Plesser –– who is the brother-in-law of David Shapira, the IDF officer who killed the Mercaz Rav Yeshiva terrorist in March –– said, "I think I did what is expected from every soldier and citizen...I thank God who gave me and my brother-in-law the strength to do what we did." He credited his nationalist religious education and special army training with giving him the ability to do what he did. ~~~~~~~~~~ There are reports of at least three terror groups taking credit: Al Aksa Brigades (Fatah), the Galilee Freedom Battalion, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. But police are saying that there was no advance warning of an attack and are speculating that this man may actually have acted alone. That seems to me a premature judgment. I am SO cynical that I wonder if it's not easier –– more politically correct –– to say this than to finger a group that is associated with the PA as responsible. ~~~~~~~~~~ It is of more than a little concern that this is the second instance in a row of a terror attack inside Jerusalem perpetrated by someone with residency rights in Jerusalem. There is talk now about limiting the mobility of such residents within the city and taking punitive measures against the family that remains. The home of the Mercaz Rav attacker was not demolished, but it is very likely that this man's home will be. ~~~~~~~~~~ I regret that the transmission of this report was delayed first by a computer glitch and then by a power outage! Tomorrow is another day and further information will undoubtedly follow before long. Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info |
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ISRAELI MEDIC ON DESERT TOUR IN MOROCCO SAVES LIFE OF ARAB GIRL
Posted by Bryna Berchuck, July 2, 2008. |
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This article was written by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich and it appeared
in the Jerusalem Post
Here it is again –– while a Jew endangers himself to save an Arab, an Arab endangers hims to slaughter Jews. Why do we bother with these good Jew stories? Doesn't everyone know by now that the two groups have different values that are anchored in their separate religions? The Jews are programmed to help humanity, the Arabs –– well, look at who they admire: anyone who massacres Jews, Christians, Buddists, and when they can't find anyone else, fellow Muslims. Why does the world keep pretending the Palestinian Arabs just need a state and they'll settle down and give up their evil ways. Balderdash! Anytime the Arab man-in-street gets a chance to choose between nasty leaders and supernasty leaders, they always go for the supernasty. And if the supernasty starts to even think of behaving human, there's a new bloodthirsty group waiting in the wings to take over. |
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Against the advice of the security guard, Israeli tour guide and United Hatzalah medic Rachamim Amos left the bus traveling through Morocco's Sahara Desert to aid a turban-wrapped figure who emerged from the desert begging in Arabic for help. Amos, who was leading the tour last month and always takes his medic's kit with him, jumped off the bus. Fluent in Arabic, he understood someone had been hurt. Despite fear that he was about to meet robbers or even terrorists, he followed the man hundreds of meters into the desert. He found a pair of jeeps, one upright and the second crumpled off the side of a nearly indiscernible path. Huddled in the minimal shade provided by the mangled jeep were three young children. One of the children's legs was at an awkward angle, and her clothing was soaked with blood. The Israeli medic quickly diagnosed an open fracture at the femur complicated by a rupture of the femoral artery. He staunched the bleeding, stabilized the fracture and, with the young girl not yet out of danger, advised the frantic father on how to maintain pressure on the artery and avoid moving the leg for the four-hour ride to the nearest hospital. The next day, Amos decided to check up on the young girl at the hospital and was greeted immediately by shouts: "Here is the Jewish doctor!" The tearful father hugged him and kissed him on both cheeks. The doctors confirmed that without his timely intervention, the girl would have certainly died. The medic was given the title "The Jewish Dr. Angel from Israel" –– even though he tried to explain he wasn't really a doctor. |
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GUSH KATIF PRAYERBOOKS FOUND STREWN ABOUT
Posted by Hillel Fendel, July 2, 2008. |
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Expelled residents of Gush Katif were finally able to access the contents of the synagogues –– and almost cried at what they saw. Nearly three years after their luxurious synagogues were destroyed and the contents thereof summarily packed in boxes and sent to storage, some residents of Gush Katif were finally able to gain access to the prayerbooks and other items –– and their faces fell. "When we arrived, we were horrified to see the Desecration of G-d's Name that was there," said Aviel Tucker of the former town of Netzer Hazani. "Sacred books were strewn about on the floor and in undignified piles, with bird droppings all over them. It was tremendously sad for us to see pieces of our beautiful synagogue –– parts of the Holy Ark, benches, memorial plaques –– strewn about with abandon, or worse." "We felt that we were sharing the same fate," Aviel said. "Not only have we, the residents, been humiliated and expelled in disgrace, but also the sacred books and G-d's Name." The story behind the synagogues' contents is a sad one, Tucker said. "We asked the Sela Disengagement Administration and representatives of the Department of Religious Affairs countless times over the past year to allow us to get to the storehouses –– but it turned out that the problem was that Sela hadn't paid the owners of the storehouses, and so the owners didn't let us get in!" Over 40 families of Netzer Hazani are currently living in the temporary pre-fab home site in Kibbutz Ein Tzurim, north of Ashkelon, waiting to move in to their new permanent homes in Yesodot, between Yad Binyamin and Latrun. However, work on the infrastructure has not even begun, nor has a final agreement on the new town even been signed. "Each family has been asked to pay $1,500 per dunam (quarter-acre)," Tucker told Arutz-7, "so that we can get the land that we were promised. Many families don't have this kind of money, of course, so we are trying to raise the money on a community level –– about $2 million worth." Asked if it wouldn't have been easier for each family to just take the original compensation money offered by the government and go off on his own, Tucker answered, "The one thing we cannot do –– and most of those who were expelled from Gush Katif agree –– is to allow them to destroy our communities. They took our houses, and our synagogues, and our dignity –– but they cannot take away our ideals, nor our sense of community. People have no jobs or homes, and no certain future, but the one thing they do have is their friends and neighbors who are all sticking together." His mother Anita, one of the earliest Gush Katif pioneers –– she and her husband Stuart settled in the sands that later became Netzer Hazani in 1973 –– agrees. "The youngsters who are now getting married refuse to leave. Though there is no room for more caravan-houses on our site, they are renting small houses in Ein Tzurim, or nearby, just so they can be close to their parents and their community. Though the government would love it to happen, no one is willing to let the communities of Gush Katif disappear." For more information on the plight and plans of the expelled Jews of Gush Katif, see http://www.katifund.org/English/. A ceremony in honor of a new Israeli stamp in honor of Gush Katif will be held in Nitzan, the largest concentration of former Gush Katif families, on Wednesday afternoon. Hillel Fendel is Senior News Editor for Arutz-Sheva (www.Israel National News.com). |
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TERRORIST BULLDOZER RAMPAGES IN JERUSALEM, MURDERS THREE
Posted by Hillel Fendel, July 2, 2008. |
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An Arab terrorist from eastern Jerusalem sped with a bulldozer down Jerusalem's busiest street just before noon Wednesday, ramming buses and crushing cars. At least three people were murdered in the unprecedented attack.
Two policemen caught up with the tractor and climbed inside, after a policewoman shot the driver but did not kill him. They first struggled with the terrorist-driver, and the driver stopped –– but then abruptly started up again, until he was shot and killed, putting an end to the murderous spree. Some 45 injuries have been reported, including at least three dead and two in moderate or serious condition. Two bodies were extricated from the wrecked cars, and one woman died of her wounds on the way to the hospital. Most of the bus passengers are reported to have suffered only light injuries, though at least one –– an infant –– is in serious condition. An eyewitness said that he saw the bulldozer ram the bus several times, and then continue on in his attempt to run down passersby and cars. "Some cars were able to get away, but at least one was not, and he rammed his shovel right into the windshield," the man said. The terrorist is a 30-year-old father of two from the Arab neighborhood of Tzur Baher in eastern Jerusalem –– the same neighborhood in which the perpetrator of the Merkaz HaRav slaughter lived. As of 2 PM, a baby in light condition was in Shaarei Tzedek Hospital –– but its parents have not yet been located. The parents of another baby were found somewhat earlier. Magen David Adom sources confirm that the incident, which began at the intersection of Jaffa and Sarei Yisrael Streets, was a terror attack. The Arab tractor driver crushed or damaged at least six cars and two buses. One Toyota car, for instance, is totally crushed; the woman driver was killed. An emergency situation was declared in the capital. Construction work on the new light-railway is taking place in the area, and Arab workers, including tractor drivers, are a familiar sight on the scene. The overturned bus lay on its side on the sidewalk outside the old Shaarei Tzedek building, which are the current offices and studios of the Israel Broadcasting Authority. Several reporters were eyewitnesses to the attack.
The security services are investigating whether the terrorist was acting alone and without backing from a known terrorist organization, as was apparently the case this past March, when an eastern Jerusalem terrorist murdered seven students in Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav. [EDITOR'S NOTE: There's a video on Liveleak of the driver being taken out by security forces
Also on Liveleak, there's footage of the the terrorist being shot
Hillel Fendel is Senior News Editor for Arutz-Sheva (www.Israel National News.com).
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PM SPOKESMAN REGEV TO IMRA: "NOT STRENGTHENING " HAMAS DOESN'T REFER TO WEAPONS INDUSTRY ETC.
Posted by Aaron Lerner, July 2, 2008. |
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IMRA interviewed Mark Regev, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Foreign Press Adviser, in English, on 2 July 2009: IMRA: I have a question relating to the speech that Prime Minister Olmert made at the Negev Conference yesterday. He described the agreement as follows: "We agreed to a calm on the basis of very clear parameters of what is permitted.That there is not in it strengthening" of Hamas. I am trying to figure this out. Is the Prime Minister saying that he doesn't consider it to be a "strengthening" of Hamas for them to build rockets, put together explosive devices, build bunkers, dig tunnels. Or does he think that these things are prohibited by the agreement? Which is it? Regev: The understandings reached with Egypt are clear. There is to be an end of the arms smuggling to Gaza that allows Hamas build up a formidable military machine there. IMRA: But. Again. With the tons of explosives and raw material that they already have there that they can use to build rockets with. They can use it to construct explosive devices. They can build bunkers. They can dig tunnels. These activities all this with the material already at hand. Does the Prime Minister not consider these activities to be activities that "strengthen" Hamas? Regev: The important question is what do the understandings with Egypt include. OK? And I already answered that question. IMRA: That they can't bring more in. Regev: That's what the agreement with Egypt is about. IMRA: What I am trying to understand is that since he stood up before this group at the Negev Conference and said "that there is not in it strengthening". Is he saying that if... Regev: I think that to be fair, what he is saying is up to now the major source for "strengthening" was the import of weapons and explosive from the outside –– for example from Hezbollah and Syria and Iran. And when you cut that off you have succeeded in dramatically reducing their ability to become stronger. IMRA: So the domestic arms industry in Gaza is considered to be of no significance? Regev: That you can say. IMRA: Well, Prime Minister Olmert says "that there is not in it strengthening". Regev: Once again. I think that any objective analysis would agree that the major driving force behind the growth of the Hamas military machine in Gaza was the smuggling into Gaza. IMRA: I am still trying to understand. Regev: You understand. You just want to argue. IMRA: No. We have local construction of rockets whose range has been improving and payload increasing over time. These are not devices that were smuggled in. They are using explosives that were smuggled in but they have warehouses full of explosives so you can stop that today but that is not the issue. Went the Prime Minister said "that there is not in it strengthening" is he saying that anything that they use today to build with is not a "strengthening"? Is that what you are saying? Regev: I will start again. The major factor behind the strengthening has been the smuggling. IMRA: Tthere was no qualification in his statement. He didn't say "no major strengthening" –– he said "no strengthening". Regev: If you have accurately and effectively dealt with the smuggling you have substantially dealt with the strengthening. IMRA: So building bunkers and digging tunnels is not part of "strengthening"? Regev: I would say that these are things obviously that we watch very carefully. Because if we do have to go into Gaza with the military we have to obviously be very aware of what military preparations they have made. IMRA: Is that "strengthening" –– these activities? Building bunkers, tunnels, planting mines? Is that "strengthening" or it doesn't count? Regev: In the form of the agreement that was reached with the Egyptians it is importation which is the key. IMRA: I understand. But Prime Minister Olmert was not giving a lecture about Egypt and about what was the agreement. He was talking about there not being any "strengthening". Regev: Any objective person would agree that if you prevent the importation into Gaza of missiles, rockets, ammunition, explosive, etc., then you are substantively preventing them from becoming stronger. And that is a policy gain worth pursuing. IMRA: OK. (Laugh). Fair enough. Thank you very much. Regev: A pleasure. Always a pleasure. Good bye. Dr. Aaron Lerner is Director of IMRA, Independent Media Review and Analysis, an Israel-based news organization which provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict. Its website address is http://www.imra.org.il Write him at imra@netvision.net.il |
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CAUGHT: BBC'S SHOCKING FIRST RESPONSE TO TERROR ATTACK
Posted by Honest Reporting, July 2, 2008. |
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At the time of writing, more details are emerging on today's (Tuesday July 2) terror attack on Jerusalem's busy Jaffa Street thoroughfare. A Palestinian resident of Jerusalem went on the rampage in a bulldozer, attacking two buses, a number of cars and innocent passers-by, killing at least three people and wounding dozens more before being shot by an Israeli policeman. While BBC Online currently covers the story "Bulldozer rampage hits Jerusalem," this was not the original headline. Offering a glimpse into the BBC's warped journalism, the initial headline read "Israel bulldozer driver shot dead". While, this time, we were able to catch the BBC before it amended its headline, this example offers further evidence of the BBC's mindset –– the initial instinct to portray Israel as an aggressor and a Palestinian as a victim even if that Palestinian was actively involved in a terrorist attack against innocent civilians. This pattern was also repeated on the BBC's television coverage (screenshot below from BBC World).
That this terror attack took place opposite Jerusalem Capital Studios, the local headquarters for many international media outlets, including BBC, Sky News and CNN, ensured that footage and coverage were available almost immediately. The BBC's very own correspondent Tim Franks even witnessed much of the incident from his office window. The BBC can have no excuse for not having the basic facts of the story in front of them from the very beginning. Our Special One Year Analysis of the BBC demonstrated how its headline selection for stories focused on combat and terrorist attacks was inconsistent and favored the Palestinian side. Stories about Palestinian attacks never directly named the aggressors. Instead, headlines such as "Rocket injures dozens in Israel" were used. Indeed, even the latest BBC headline "Bulldozer rampage hits Jerusalem", is also fundamentally flawed, failing to attribute the attack to the Palestinian individual who carried it out. Instead it refers to an inanimate machine as the instigator. Of course, the bulldozer did not carry out its actions of its own free will. It was not the city of Jerusalem, the subject of the headline, that was murdered, but at least three innocent Israelis. For accurate coverage and the latest developments from Jerusalem on this breaking story, see English-language Israeli sources such as The Jerusalem Post, Ha'aretz and YNet News. You can also read the thoughts of HonestReporting's Backspin blog editor who happened to be in downtown Jerusalem at the time of the terror atttack. You can send your comments to the BBC Complaints website –– Honest Reporting monitors the media for inaccuracy and unfairness
in how they report the news about Israel. Ther website address is
http://www.honestreporting.com. Contact them by email at action@honestreporting.com
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ISRAEL OUTSOURCES SOFTWARE TO P.A.!; WHAT'S THE ROLE OF SECRET POLICE IN A DEMOCRACY?; THE GAZA CEASEFIRE
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 2, 2008. |
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BUSH SEES NEW PERSPECTIVE ON MIDEAST Pres. Bush remarked that he used to be told, solve the Palestinian issue, and you solve the problem of the Mideast. Now they tell him, solve the Iranian issue, and you solve the problem of the Mideast. Talking with Iran's leaders, however, does not work. The world had better impose sufficient (crippling) sanctions on Iran, or its neighbors will find their own security with nuclear weapons. That kind of security breeds insecurity (IMRA, 6/15). Again, Bush makes more sense than his critics. I interpret his remarks as indicating that the Palestinian issue used to be an artificial problem for the Mideast, but Iran's development of nuclear weapons is a serious menace. By artificial, I mean that if the Muslim states didn't intervene, Israel could solve the problem itself, and there would be no danger of war. It's because the other Muslim states, especially the Arab ones, support jihad against Israel, and because they like to divert their people from domestic problems, that they focus on the Palestinian issue. ISRAEL OUTSOURCING SOFTWARE TO P.A. TECHNICIANS Many technicians quit Israeli companies to work for big companies (IMRA, 6/15). I think it a mistake to enhance the capabilities of an enemy people. SUPPOSED GOOD DEMOGRAPHICS FOR ISRAEL The trend in Israel continues to be a rising Jewish birth rate and a falling Arab one. Now, the pleased demographer reports that the Jewish population of Israel is 75% of the total (Arutz-7, 6/15). Last time I heard, it was 80%. I am not pleased about the reduction to 75%. Israelis can't figure out that it would be to their advantage to find ways to get Muslim Arabs out of the country and the Territories. ISRAEL-HIZBULLAH PRISONER DEAL The deal empties Israel's terrorist cemetery and includes an Israeli promise not to use one again. That means Israel pledges not to retain terrorists' bodies, again. End of Israeli bargaining chips. This is Israel's most humiliating deal (Caroline Glick, IMRA, 6/30). My sources did not reprint the deal nor summarize all its provisions. Only gradually does the list emerge. It sounds ever worse. It is all about politics and nothing about national security. WHAT'S THE ROLE OF SECRET POLICE IN A DEMOCRACY? Before he, himself was assassinated, the son of the assassinated Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of Kach, said he quit the organization when he could no longer keep track of all the secret service agents who had infiltrated it. Barry Chamish identifies some. Those people keep committing violence and other embarrassments to the Right, but claim to be of the Right. They are not much prosecuted, or else they incite naifs who are prosecuted (Chamish, 6/16). By contrast, real right-wingers are prosecuted readily, even without evidence. It is one thing for a secret police to infiltrate a violent or criminal organization to detect crime. For a democracy, that can be in self-defense. It is another thing for a secret police to infiltrate a non-violent, non-criminal organization in order to provoke violence or other acts to bring the political opposition into disrepute. That is a police state crime. Israel does the latter. Wouldn't one think that with all the interest in civil liberties in the US, Israel's police state tactics would arouse notoriety? Instead, everybody else intones what a vibrant democracy Israel is. If Israel were a right-wing police state, I imagine the civil liberties organizations would object. A left wing one they don't mind, just keep Israel's concessions to the Arabs coming. MONITORING RETRAINED P.A. SECURITY FORCES A US official involved in monitoring the performance of retrained P.A. security forces said that the reduction in Israeli checkpoints did not enhance Arab mobility. "The same official noted that the Palestinian Authority security forces have taken action to counter terrorist activities, and carried out a major operation in Jenin, where they tried to arrest suspects who had been on Israel's wanted list." The just "tried" to arrest wanted terrorists, but didn't. The official gave the excuse that P.A. ordinances don't permit effective action (IMRA, 6/17). Then what good are they? His excuse, if plausible, would indicate that there is no point to retraining P.A. police, since the law inhibits them. If inhibited, they should not be considered a replacement for Israeli counter-terrorism. Does such an official, and does the Haaretz journalist who reported his statements, know what he is saying? Do readers realize the contradiction in what they are reading? IMRA implies that the poor judgment of that US official, who suggests that the P.A. police failure is genuine counter-terrorism, is poor about checkpoints, too. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VS. ISRAEL This year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) already has issued 13 reports against Israel's retaliation against Gaza attacks on Israeli civilians. The reports are based on false statements about international law, distorted interpretations of legal terminology, and ignoring or minimizing of Hamas' diversion of incoming supplies to itself and of attacking the entry points for those supplies HRW, with Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and Gisha, both of which recently had to admit false factual claims, wrote an open letter about Gaza to Pres. Bush. The letter calls Israel's restrictions on supplies to Gaza a collective punishment of Gaza civilians in violation of international law. Collective punishment is a legal term applying to criminal punishment, which Israel did not impose. In warfare, economic blockades are legal, as Article 23 of the Geneva Conventions states. Israel has no obligation to let goods into Gaza that it thinks would aid Hamas. Hamas does usurp the goods. Actually, Israel surpasses its obligations by letting shipments go through, even though its exit points come under Hamas attack. The letter calls Israel's methods ineffective. The writers, however, don't have military expertise and they don't name their sources. The letter refers to "armed groups," instead of naming Hamas. (Why doesn't it come out against Hamas?) The letter argues that Hamas' terrorism does not justify Israel's collective military response, which is illegal. Israel tries to bomb terrorists and their facilities. That is not collective punishment and is not illegal. Self-defense is legal. The letter claims that Israel "occupies" Gaza because it controls some of Gaza's border. Then, since Egypt controls a Gaza border, does that make Egypt an occupier of Gaza? Blocking a border is not a definition of "occupies." The Hague and Geneva Conventions define occupation as a hostile army's exercise of governmental functions. Israel doesn't do that in Gaza. Another argument that Israel occupies Gaza asserts that Israel controls Gaza taxation and population registry. Not true. Gaza decides upon both. By international agreement, Israel collects some of the excise taxes for the P.A.. If Israel did occupy Gaza, it would be obliged to invade Gaza to restore order. Would HRW want that? (I don't consider Israel ever to have occupied Gaza or Judea-Samaria, because those are not sovereign.) Still another false argument for occupation is that Gaza depends upon Israel for fuel and electricity. No sources for the claim are cited. Dependency does not mean occupation. Israel is not obliged to supply fuel and electricity. Yet again, the letter accuses Israel of occupation because its military forces frequently raid Gaza. Raids do not, under international law, constitute occupation (IMRA, 6/127 from NGO Monitor). Does Hamas' daily bombardment of Israel mean it occupies Israel? Does Pres. Bush know the fallacies and bias of the letter sent him? COMMENTS ON THE GAZA CEASEFIRE Egypt and Hamas announced a ceasefire to start on 6/19, but Israel said it hadn't yet agreed. The IDF warns that Hamas would use the ceasefire to strengthen itself to better fight against any major Israeli offensive. It also would be able to gather more rockets with which to bombard the towns supposedly getting a respite during the ceasefire. The Chief of Staff notes, however, that Hamas does not consider itself responsible for curbing other terrorist groups. [Hamas doesn't allow any opposition, so it could curb other groups. Claiming they are independent is a typical Islamist pretense not to be violating an agreement.] Asked to comment about the IDF warning, an Israeli official said he doesn't care about Hamas, he's a Zionist, he cares about the towns getting the respite. [If he cares about them, then he would worry that they would get hit much harder, after the ceasefire.] A ceasefire negotiator said he doesn't know whether Hamas would smuggle more weapons in, he didn't negotiate with Hamas, he negotiated with Egypt (Arutz-7, 6/18). [This is a typical, no-nothing Israeli reply. Indirect negotiation leaves Israel with less recourse over violations.] Vice-PM Ramon called the ceasefire a victory for radical Islam. [I agree.] A Jewish nationalist there chided him for advising Israel, inasmuch as he was an early advocate of withdrawal. [Ramon was, but apparently he has some patriotism and is coming to his senses. When he makes sense, don't chide him.] The IDF said that the ceasefire does not restrict Hamas from deploying troops side-by-side with Israel, planting mines, digging tunnels, or erecting fortified bunkers. The arrangement is worded vaguely enough for Hamas to exploit but would encumber Israeli recourse to ceasefire failure. [The civilized side usually negotiates poorly with totalitarian aggressors, if it even has the will to protect its own interests rather than merely make good publicity.] Some politicians thought the deal particularly immoral for not including the release of the Israeli soldier Hamas kidnapped. Dr. Aaron Lerner: Because Israel gave in to Hamas, the truce boosts Hamas politically and in negotiating with Fatah. [Hizbullah correctly claimed the same about the Lebanon truce.] If the ceasefire holds for six months, Israel must extend it to Judea-Samaria. That legitimizes Hamas' role there. The deal would preclude Israeli monitoring of the Gaza border with Egypt and let Hamas monitor it. [That guarantees arms smuggling.] (IMRA, 6/18). Caution: Israel didn't agree to the truce yet. The actual truce may obviate some of these observations. In any case, Hamas would be able to build up its forces in Judea-Samaria, take over, and bombard more cities of Israel. In charge of both parts of the P.A., Hamas' demand would be strengthened for a corridor through Israel to link it, although such a corridor would bisect Israel. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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CHARITY USED 'TERROR' GROUP TO DISTRIBUTE AID IN GAZA
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, July 2, 2008. |
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NOTE:THIS STORY WAS ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE AUSTRALIAN, THE
ONLY NATIONAL DAILY IN AUSTRALIA charity used 'terror' group to distribute aid in Gaza |
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A SYDNEY charity has admitted channelling aid into the Palestinian territories through an Islamic organisation banned by Australia and the US for its alleged links to terrorism. Muslim Aid Australia has used Interpal –– an organisation proscribed by former foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer and declared a "specially designated global terrorist" organisation by US President George W. Bush in 2003 –– to distribute medical aid in Gaza. Interpal is a British-based humanitarian group also known as the Palestinian Relief and Development Fund. It has been cleared of terror links by the British Charity Commission but failed three years ago to have itsproscribed listing revoked in Australia, when lawyers for the group unsuccessfully petitioned Mr Downer. When informed of MAA's relationship with Interpal, the Department of Foreign Affairs indicated it might refer the case for investigation. The Australian Federal Police last night refused to confirm or deny whether inquiries were already under way. It is a criminal offence under the Charter of the United Nations Act for Australian individuals or organisations to deal with groups identified by DFAT's Consolidated List, which names banned groups and people. Breaching the act can result in a maximum 10-year prison sentence and fines of more than $275,000 for individuals and more than $1.1million for organisations, DFAT says. Interpal was accused by the US Treasury Department in 2003 of using its global humanitarian missions as a "cover" for generating money on behalf of the Palestinian terror group Hamas. It has previously denied links to Hamas. A spokesperson for Interpal failed to return calls from The Australian or respond to a list of emailed questions. MAA executive director Iman Partoredjo issued a statement admitting to using Interpal to deliver medical aid to the Palestinian territories earlier this year to negotiate the Israeli Defence Force's "protracted border closures" of Gaza. "Tight control over trans-shipping of aid by the IDF saw our medical aid items delivered and distributed by those able to be 'on the ground', such as UN agencies and local NGOs, eg United National Relief and Work Agency ... Interpal, Families Relief, etc," the statement reads. MAA is a non-profit company and registered charity based in Haldon Street, Lakemba, in Sydney's west. It has five principal directors: Indonesian-born Mr Partoredjo, Iraqi-born Mohammed Taha Alsalami, Indian-born Riyaad Ahmed, Australian-born Anjum Rafiqi, and Hassan Vakili, born in Iran. Dr Alsalami, a former member of John Howard's Muslim Community Reference Group, last night told The Australian he was not aware that Interpal was a proscribed organisation or that MAA had used Interpal to distribute aid. "I am just amazed. How can any Australian-registered organisation deal with anyone you know who is not popular or banned by Australia?" he said. Dr Alsalami said he was not aware of MAA's "day-to-day" operations but defended MAA, saying the body would not have been aware that Interpal was banned in Australia. "If I am aware I would object to that, of course," he said. In its most recent newsletter, MAA said it had delivered almost $800,000 in "direct aid" to 42,000 people in Gaza for food and other necessities. In a fundraising advertisement for the Emergency Appeal Gaza Crises that appeared on MAA's website as recently as last night, Interpal's logo is displayed below the emblems of MAA and Muslim Aid (UK). An internal news memo on Muslim Aid UK's website discusses the connection between Interpal and MAA. "Working in partnership with Interpal, Muslim Aid and Muslim Aid Australia is asking you to make a difference to the lives of those isolated from the world by the conflict," the web page says. "We urgently need help in raising pound stg. 5million for Palestine –– for food, fuel and medical supplies." Interpal describes itself as a "non-political, non-profits-making British charity that works with international funding and partners and partners on the ground to provide relief and development aid to Palestinians". It was twice investigated and cleared by the British Charity Commission –– in 1996 and 2003 –– of any links to terrorism. Yet in Australia, organisations and individuals named on DFAT's Consolidated List are considered to be associated with terrorism under UN Security Council Resolution 1373. While Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith could not be contacted for comment, a DFAT spokeswoman said Australia was obliged under the UN Resolution to "prevent terrorist financing and freeze terrorist assets". It is also a criminal offence to "directly or indirectly make assets available to a proscribed person or entity", she said. Mr Downer added Interpal to DFAT's Consolidated List on November 21, 2003, three months after the US Bush administration proscribed the British-based body after deeming it a "part of a web of charities" raising funds and co-ordinating fundraisers on behalf of Hamas. The US Treasury Department revealed on August 22, 2003, that Interpal "has been a principal charity utilised to hide the flow of money to Hamas". "Interpal is the fundraising co-ordinator of Hamas." According to the US Treasury Department's Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list, dated last month, Interpal is known by13 other names, including al-Sanduq Al-Filistini Lil-Ighatha and the Welfare and Development Fund of Palestine. Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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POLICE INACTION AND GOVERNMENT PERFIDY LEAD TO MORE DEAD
Posted by Lee Caplan, July 2, 2008. |
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Eyewitness: Woman Died Because Cops Didn't Shoot (IsraelNN.com) An eyewitness to the murderous rampage by an Arab terrorist driver Wednesday said that police behaved in an inexplicable fashion during the event. Dr. Yitzchak Noi, a veteran broadcaster for Voice of Israel government radio, said that several minutes passed from the driver's first deadly attacks against a bus and another attack that killed a woman, and that "all that time not one shot was heard," despite the fact that "throughout that time there were policemen on the spot, moving about." When asked why the policemen didn't shoot, Noi said: "I think the instructions for opening fire have been made so stringent that people are afraid to shoot." He added that there was no need to mount the tractor, and that the driver could have been shot from the side. MK Eldad: Attack is Result of Immoral Deals (IsraelNN.com) MK Aryeh Eldad (NU/NRP) said Wednesday that the "the murderous terror attack is a direct result of the surrender to terrorism, the policy of restraint and immoral deals with the terrorist organizations." Eldad added: "The wounded and the relatives of those killed know that the people who are to blame for their disaster are the members of the Israeli government, who have ceased fighting terror." Yesha Rabbis: Crazy Peace Talk Drives Arabs to Kill (IsraelNN.com) The Council of Yesha Rabbis said Wednesday that "the delusional talk about peace and the lack of response to attempts to hurt Jews drive the Arab enemy to raise his head and kill Jews." "The Arabs in Gaza and their brethren in east Jerusalem, who have the blood of many Jews on their hands, should face the same punishment." Contact Lee Caplan at leescaplan@yahoo.com |
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MOSHE PLESSER –– THE HERO WHO SHOT THE TERRORIST
Posted by Avodah, July 2, 2008. |
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"Driver Shot by Relative of Merkaz HaRav Hero"
(IsraelNN.com) Private Moshe Plesser, 18, whose brother-in-law killed the terrorist at Merkaz HaRav four months ago, was one of the two men who shot and killed the tractor driver behind the terror attack in Jerusalem Wednesday. Plesser, an off-duty soldier who just completed basic training in the Givati-Egoz unit, is the brother-in-law of David Shapira, a paratrooper who killed the Merkaz HaRav murderer. Plesser can be seen in a BBC TV video shooting the killer-driver at close range with a handgun. He then clambers out and stands on the back of the tractor as a Yassam policeman shoots the driver again. Terror Attack Hero was Anti-Disengagement Activist
(IsraelNN.com) Moshe Plesser, the soldier who shot and killed the tractor terrorist in Jerusalem Wednesday, was among the youths who protested the Disengagement and faced criminal charges for his actions. "Plesser was beaten unconscious by policemen [during the
Disengagement], was arrested and even had to fight to enlist in a
combat unit," Yesha Civil Rights Organization Chairman Orit Struck
told Israel National News. "Today he saved the lives of many and these
days, when there is talk of pardoning the anti-Disengagement
activists, this should be taken into account," she added.
Contact Avodah at Avodah15@aol.com
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PLESSER RE TERRORIST'S KILLER: "HE YELLED 'ALLAHU AKBAR,' I FIRED"
Posted by Avodah, July 2, 2008. |
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This was a news item from today's Arutz-7
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(IsraelNN.com) Moshe Plesser, who shot the terrorist tractor driver in Jerusalem Wednesday, said that the terrorist shouted out the Muslim cry "Allahu Akbar" before Plesser took a handgun from an armed citizen named Oron Ben Shimon and shot him. Plesser said: "I drew Oron's weapon and shot three bullets at the terrorist. After I made sure he was dead I raised the gun so that passersby would not be hurt. I want to thank the Holy One, Blessed Be He who assisted me and the we I was raised and grew up, from the Talmud Torah in Jerusalem through the Dimona and Kiryat Arba yeshivas to my army service in the Golani Brigade and Egoz." Contact Avodah at Avodah15@aol.com |
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JOY IN TERRORIST'S NEIGHBORHOOD
Posted by Avodah, July 2, 2008. |
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This is an Arutz-Sheva news item
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(IsraelNN.com) Dozens of Arabs from Tzur Baher began shouting joyfully when news came of the terror attack by one of their neighbors Wednesday, HNN reported. The terrorist's family members gathered in his house. One of the women of the family ululated with joy from a balcony, according to Nfc. Contact Avodah at Avodah15@aol.com |
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MY JERUSALEM BUS LINE –– TERRORIST ATTACK
Posted by Judy Lash Balint, July 2, 2008. |
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My fellow bus riders and I generally spend our time at the bus stop grumbling about the #13 bus that's the only line that serves our neighborhood going to the center of town. The schedule is erratic; drivers are sometimes surly and the Egged bus company keeps on sending us the old-style purple and white buses that were pulled off most lines years ago. Today all we can do is stare in shock at the images of our #13 purple and white bus lying on its side on Jaffa Road after an Arab from eastern Jerusalem bulldozed the bus and dozens of cars and pedestrians in a deadly terror attack that claimed the lives of three Israelis. Assaf Nadav, the driver of the #13 bus, and all the passengers reportedly managed to escape with varying degrees of injuries –– no one was killed. Later this afternoon when the downtown roads are reopened, we'll be back waiting at the bus stop to go to do our pre-Shabbat shopping at Machane Yehudah, the market a few blocks away from where the bulldozer careened to a halt when the terrorist was overpowered. The crowded market may well have been his target. In an "only in Jerusalem" scenario, the soldier who jumped on the bulldozer and killed today's terrorist was the brother-in-law of the guy who managed to eliminate the Mercaz Harav shooter last February. This is the second Jerusalem terror attack in six months to be perpetrated by an Israeli ID-carrying Arab. Today's 30 year-old terrorist is apparently from Sur Baher (the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva carnage was carried out by the son of a well-to-do family from the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood). Both areas are Arab villages within Jerusalem's municipal boundaries, on the Israeli side of the security barrier. Residents of both villages work in Jerusalem's hotels, restaurants, hospitals, building sites and in every city department. Would today's terrorist have been deterred if we would have destroyed the family home of the Mercaz Harav murderer and taken away all their financial and social benefits? Is there any kind of effective deterrent against those educated to pure hatred who live in our midst? Difficult questions that my fellow passengers will no doubt be debating as we ride the #13 bus in the coming days.
Judy Lash Balint is an award-winner investigative journalist and
author of "Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times" (Gefen). It is available
for purchase from www.israelbooks.com. Contact her at judy.balint@gmail.com
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3 KILLED, 44 INJURED IN TERROR ATTACK: TERRORIST PLOWS BULLDOZER INTO VEHICLES
Posted by Simon McIlwaine, July 2, 2008. |
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This was written by Etgar Lefkovits and it appeared today in the
Jerusalem Post
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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak voiced support for demolishing the homes of Arab terrorists on Wednesday after a resident of east Jerusalem rammed a bulldozer into cars, buses and pedestrians on one of Jerusalem's busiest streets, killing three people and wounding at least 45 others –– including a six-month-old baby girl –– before being shot dead by security personnel. The three fatalities were identified as Jerusalem residents Jan Relevy, 68, Elizabeth Goren Friedman, 54, and Batsheva Unterman, 33 –– the mother of the six-month-old baby. Goren Friedman and Unterman were buried late Wednesday night in the capital, and the details of Relevy's funeral were yet to be made public. The attack began at noon when Husam Taysir Dwayat, a 30-year-old resident of the southeast neighborhood of Sur Bahir, drove out of a nearby light rail construction site and plowed his Caterpillar vehicle into anything and anyone, first on Rehov Sarei Yisrael and then on Jaffa Road, overturning a No. 13 Egged bus, flattening half a dozen cars and leaving destruction and carnage in his wake. "People started screaming, 'He is running us over, he is running us over!'" said traffic policewoman Elinor Nahum, 22, who was the first to shoot and wound Dwayat after nearly being crushed herself. "He tried to run over anything that moved," said Sami Grossman, a paramedic with the Zaka rescue and recovery organization, who quickly ditched his motorcycle when the terrorist aimed his bulldozer at him and any other vehicles nearby. "I saw the bulldozer smash the car with its shovel. He smashed the guy sitting in the driver's seat," said Yaakov Ashkenazi, an 18-year-old yeshiva student. Dwayat, who managed to drive about 500 meters in his nearly 10-minute rampage, next took aim at the city bus, repeatedly picking it up in the air like a toy until it overturned on the curb. All this time, security officers had been shooting at the bulldozer, but most of the bullets were stopped by the driver's cab. An off-duty police officer climbed atop the vehicle and wrestled with the wounded terrorist, managing to shoot him. Then an off-duty soldier who had been riding his bike home joined the policeman and Dwayat, and repeatedly shot the east Jerusalem man. The soldier, who cannot be identified due to a court order, said the attacker was shouting, "Allahu Akbar." As hundreds of people fled in panic, an elite police commando team on motorcycles sped toward the tractor, and one of the officers jumped on the tractor and shot the assailant dead. "I saw the cars and buses strewn on the street, and realized that this was a terror attack," said police officer Eli Mizrahi, 28. "He started to drive like crazy and held the steering wheel, pressing against it, and started to race down the street," Mizrahi told reporters at the scene. "I loaded my weapon and shot to kill." Three Palestinian terrorist groups took responsibility for the attack: Fatah's Aksa Martyrs Brigades; the Galilee Freedom Battalion, which is suspected of being affiliated with Lebanon's Hizbullah; and the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah condemned the attack. In contrast, the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip praised Dwayat. "We consider it as a natural reaction to the daily aggression and crimes committed against our people in the West Bank and all over the occupied lands," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told The Associated Press. Israel Police Insp.-Gen. David Cohen praised the security officials for their quick responses and said the attacker appeared to have acted alone. The assailant, a father of two with a criminal record, was employed as a bulldozer operator by an east-Jerusalem based construction company that is carrying out infrastructure work for the city's long-delayed light rail project, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said. It was not immediately clear how Dwayat obtained his permit to operate a bulldozer in light of his criminal record. He received a two-year sentence in 2001 for raping a Jewish woman with whom he was romantically involved. Sometime after he was released form prison, he married an Arab woman. Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski, whose daughter was riding in a nearby bus but was not hurt, said that a major disaster had been averted since the driver did not get to the city's nearby Mahaneh Yehuda open-air market. "To our regret, the attackers do not stop coming up with new ways to strike at the heart of the Jewish people here in Jerusalem," Lupolianski said as he visited the wounded at Shaare Zedek Medical Center. "We need to send a strong message to our enemies," Lupolianski said, "The home of this terrorist should not remain standing, and I hope the prime minister will make the appropriate decision with regard to that. To my disappointment, we didn't do it the last time." Lupolianski was presumably referring to the last attack in Jerusalem at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva. The home of the terrorist who killed eight students at the yeshiva was not destroyed. "We are seeing, as a result of the security barrier, that it's harder and harder for terrorists to bring explosives into the country," Lupolianski said. "So as a result, they're finding new and creative ways, as we saw today, to execute attacks against civilians." Olmert instructed Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann Wednesday to look into the legal issues involved in destroying Dwayat's home. At the same time, the prime minister directed Welfare and Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog to stop any National Insurance Institute payments to the family of the terrorist. While keen on taking measures aimed at deterring similar acts in the future, Israel made it clear that the incident would not impact the current negotiations with the Palestinians. "Israel will continue in its efforts to achieve peace with its pragmatic Palestinian neighbors, in spite of the efforts of extremists to torpedo the process", Foreign Ministry spokesman Aryeh Mekel said. He said that action by the international community was essential, and that Israel expected to hear a "clear and unequivocal condemnation" of the attack, along with clear action to isolate extremist elements. US President George W. Bush called Olmert soon after the attack to express his condolences, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also condemned the attack. Israel sent a letter to the UN Security Council calling for a condemnation of the attack. In the past, Israel routinely destroyed the homes of terrorists, but stopped after an Israeli report concluded that the demolitions were largely ineffective. More than one-third of Jerusalem's 750,000 residents are Arabs. In contrast to Palestinians from the West Bank, Arab Jerusalemites have Israeli ID cards that allow them freedom of movement throughout Israel and the West Bank. Jerusalem police chief Cmdr. Aharon Franco conceded Wednesday that police had "no small difficulty" in dealing with the security threat posed by Arab resident of the city. Vice Premier Haim Ramon said Wednesday that the capital's Arab neighborhoods should be outside the West Bank security barrier. The bulldozer attack left Jaffa Road –– already ripped up by construction work –– looking like a battlefield with the overturned bus with its windows blown out and flattened cars, their hoods ripped up like a sardine can and stained with blood, the bloodied and dazed victims sitting or lying on the ground, and the plastic body bags lining the ground. "The bulldozer picked up the vehicles like a toy," eyewitness Yosef Spielman said. "It was like a nightmare." "He drove on top of a car with a family in it and crushed everyone inside, he said. "He was just hitting everyone in his way." The cars at the scene were twisted and mangled, some stained with blood that had dried quickly in the sun. Sidewalks in the area of the attack were strewn with broken glass and cars parts that were torn off the vehicles upon impact with the bulldozer. A spokesman for the fire brigade said a woman was found dead in her car, with her baby on the road, wounded but believed to be alive, several meters away. Rescue teams estimated she threw her baby out the window in a desperate attempt to save the baby's life, as she realized she was about to be crushed. Hundreds of rescue workers, security forces, journalists and curious bystanders crowded the area in the aftermath of the attack, which left Jerusalem's residents feeling bitter and fearful. The only way to deter terrorists in eastern Jerusalem is to demolish their house, said Yossi, a Jerusalem resident who has lived here his whole life. "Every terrorist from eastern Jerusalem, you need to raze their home," he said. An 18-year-old at the scene said he would soon be recruited to the army, and the attack demoralizing. "The response to this should be severe. We have a weak leadership and I don't think [Israeli Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert will do anything unusual."]
Simon McIlwaine is with Anglican Friends of Israel
(www.anglicanfriendsofisrael.com). Contact him at Simon.McIlwaine@ormerods.co.uk
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SEWING SUITS –– FOR THE KOHANIM
Posted by Avodah, July 1, 2008. |
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This comes from the Dreaming of Moshiach website:
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About a year ago a Jew from Ukraine came to the Machon HaMikdash (the Temple Institution) and gave an undisclosed donation for the specific use of reconstructing the Kohanim's garments for the third Bet HaMikdash. For the first time in 2,000 years, a new factory has been established in Yerushalayim for sewing the special garments of the Kohen by Machon HaMikdash. In all corners of the world began the search for the perfect textile for this project. The clothing of the Priestly garments must be made from white linen thread interwoven into 6-ply linen thread. These unique threads could only be custom made and after searching for it all over the world, including Italy, Ireland, Belgium, United States and more, a texile factory was finally found in India. After much persuasion to have the factory prepare this special threads, a deal was cut. After a few months of anticipation for the threads, the ship finally arrived in Israel with the special threads. The threads were processed in Gadera in order to prepare it for the weaving. The next step was to take the woven threads to a special factory in Tel Aviv and have it inserted into the weaving machine. After many weeks of trials and tribulations, it was finally successful and now the material is ready to be sewn. Special sewing machines were ordered as well as cutting tables, irons, measuring mannequins, and more. The Halacha requires that each Priestly garments must be properly sized on the Kohen and since not everyone is the same size and height, each set of the Priestly garment must be custom made. 120 sets of the Kohanim's garments will be made, including the robe, turban, sash, and pants. "Kohanim that will order a set of the Priestly garment according to
their size will receive their Priestly wardrobe by Succot, b'h. Each
Kohen that will receive the complete Priestly wardrobe set, should
know that it's Halachically Kosher and can be worn when the third Bet
HaMikdash will be built," says the president of Machon HaMikdash.
Contact Avodah at Avodah15@aol.com
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FROM ISRAEL: LOOKING BACK
Posted by Arlene Kushner, July 1, 2008. |
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I was away from my computer for a solid two weeks, and returned to issues that required immediate attention. But there are other matters of importance that have occurred recently which also require mention –– and attention –– here. Of considerable significance is this: On June 15, when Condoleezza Rice came here for a brief visit, she was informed by IDF officials in no uncertain terms of the failure of the US initiative to bolster PA security forces. This plan is under the direct supervision of Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton, the US Security Coordinator to Israel and the PA. As part of Dayton's plan, PA forces ostensibly received training by US defense contractors in Jordan to prepare them (I wrote previously about the weakness of that training) and were then deployed in Nablus and Jenin. The IDF is saying that these forces are not fighting terrorism, and that terrorism has increased since they've been deployed. Terror suspects that are arrested are released within days or even hours, as there is no effective judicial system in place. In addition, weapons the US was providing to the PA force were finding their way to Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists in Jenin and Nablus. So, not only is Dayton's plan not successful, it is actually strengthening terrorists. Some very hard questions must be asked. Not only should Rice and those functioning at her behest not be permitted to carry on without accountability here, the point must be made that the PA is not a partner for peace if it cannot function in this respect. Please, if you are an American citizen, contact your Congresspersons and Senator about this, as well as the White House: fax 202-456-2461; comment line 202-456-1111; comments@whitehouse.gov. The link for the full article detailing this information:
~~~~~~~~~~ Then there is the matter of positions being taken by Defense Minister Ehud Barak. MK Silvan Shalom (Likud) had been garnering support in the Knesset for a vote to dissolve the Knesset, which would have led to setting of early elections. That vote was to have occurred last week and it was anticipated that it would pass –– and the Olmert government would finally be coming to an end –– because Barak had said Labor was on board for this vote. A good deal was made about his obligation to listen to the people on this, etc. etc. At the last minute, as a compromise gesture, Olmert agreed to call for a Kadima primary in September. It was said in some quarters that Barak actually initiated this compromise, because Olmert would have fired him immediately if he had voted to dissolve the Knesset –– and after all, his holding his position is of critical importance. Implicit in this was an understanding that Olmert would step down when the new leader of the party was in place, and based on this, Barak withdrew his commitment for Labor to support the vote to dissolve the Knesset. Consequently, that vote was never taken, as it was clear it would fail. However, Olmert subsequently made it clear that he had no intention of resigning as prime minister after a primary was held. In fact, he was thinking of running in the primary. But Barak is sailing along, with business as usual. Is it necessary to say more about this man? ~~~~~~~~~~ In response to Barak's refusal to withdraw from the governing coalition, MK Danny Yatom (Labor) has resigned from the Knesset. Said Yatom: "The leadership in Israel has made political survival its only goal. Moral and ethical codes that were once fundamental have been eroded. ~~~~~~~~~~ Lest you think there's nothing positive to report, allow me to share two happenings that are constructive: MKs Zevulun Orlev (NU-NRP) and Estherina Tartman (Yisrael Beiteinu) have co-sponsored a bill that is based on Basic Law of Israel and states, in essence, that anyone who has illegally visited an enemy state cannot have his or her name placed on a party list for election to the Knesset for seven years. It passed 52-24. This was inspired by the galling spectacle of Azmi Bishara (currently under suspicion for treason), who made several trips to Syria while sitting in the Knesset and it is long overdue. Said Tartman, "This law will return some of our trampled honor as a nation and will give us a good reason to stand upright...From now on, Israeli citizens can be calm –– enemies will no longer sit in the legislature." While Orlev said, "From today onward, Arab MKs will have to decide –– the Syrian parliament or the Israeli parliament. The law will put the brakes on the infiltration of Trojan horses into the Knesset. We must demand of the Arab leadership unconditional loyalty to the state of Israel." I say Bravo! Needless to say, the Arab MKs are screaming and intend to challenge this. The fact that this angers them, when they might simply acceed, eager to show loyalty to Israel, tells the story. ~~~~~~~~~~ Another promising bill passed its first reading in the Knesset on Monday, 65-18. This is the Golan referendum bill that would require a national referendum before the Golan could be turned over to Syria. It further provides protection for other land surrenders –– such as eastern Jerusalem, as it requires any concession of land under direct jurisdiction and administration of the State of Israel to pass both cabinet and Knesset approval, as well as a national referendum. So, in the face of considerable insanity, we see that there are people who are motivated and sane and decent, and acting for the betterment of our nation. There is hope. Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info |
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INTELLIGENCE GAMING
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, July 1, 2008. |
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All intelligence agencies play games of "What If?". Often they are prodded by their political echelon to go in certain directions. Sometimes it's merely a 'game' with conclusions put into an official document or book and shelved. Sometimes the 'Games' are more than intense, particularly if a nation has been targeted for subversion and overthrow of a particular regime that has not been as cooperative as is wished. Sometimes a nation has powerful institutions that have their own agendas, although on the surface they look like a legitimate part of an elected government. Such wheels-within-wheels may turn counter to the wishes of the people but, of course, that is not for public viewing. Sometimes those covert plans can be seen –– much the same as an invisible 'black hole' in the cosmos. Although a 'black hole' is invisible, the gravitational pull of the 'black hole' is discovered by all the visible matter that is sucked into its center. For example, I, among others, have been watching the U.S. State Department in terms of things they do when it involves the Arab and Muslim oil nations in relation to the Jewish State of Israel. The State Department was once an invisible 'black hole' with respect to its policy toward Israel. What was out in the open was a seeming official hostility toward Israel, particularly in 1947 as the U.N. was debating the second partition of the Jewish homeland in Palestine which birthed the independent State of Israel. (The first partition was in 1922 when the British cut off 80% of their British Mandate for Palestine intended for the Jewish homeland and gave it to the Saudi Abullah to become King over "Trans-Jordan".) The State Department used its considerable influence, in lockstep with the Muslim and Arab oil nations and the multi-national oil companies to block the 'yes' vote in the U.N. Fortunately, they did not succeed so they merely redoubled their efforts. After that the State Department entered a 'black hole' in its numerous operations against Israel. Since the American people and the American Congress approved of this plucky little State defending herself against Arab Muslim invasions, the State Department could not be seen as openly hostile. Thus they went into Black Ops (hidden operations) in coordination with Saudi Arabia particularly, even to the point of promoting the funding of Yassir Arafat although he was officially declared a Terrorist leader. At first, their objective was to appease the Arab/Muslim world by forcing Israel to divest herself of defensible territory like the Sinai Desert, later the Oslo Accords turning 7 cities and surrounding areas over to control by Yassir Arafat's PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), now called the PA (Palestinian Authority) –– followed by the Gush Katif/Gaza surrender and destruction of 21 thriving and profitable Jewish communities plus 4 in Northern Samaria. The misleading perception was to be "reaching for peace" but, the end product would be the extinction of the shrinking Jewish State in order to pacify the Islamists. However, the State Department and various oil connected Presidents needed the cooperation of Jewish leaders, both in Israel and America, to subvert their own security. It was not difficult to recruit Jewish leaders, anxious for recognition and honor, plus the promise that they would be included in the "Big Game" that the U.S. was planning for the Mid East region. Regrettably, such Israeli leaders as Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and others always thought they were 'in the know' when, in fact, they were only told less than half the story. They became 'useful idiots'. The frequently repeated statement describing Left Liberals apologetic support of the Soviets as "useful idiots" was attributed to Vladimir Lenin. Regrettably, Israel has more than her share of Left Liberal apologetic "Useful Idiots". What the Israelis didn't know and will never believe is that they were scheduled by the State Department for termination as a nation in deference to the more important oil-bearing Muslim and Arab countries. Appropo of State Department and Presidential Administrations' disinformation on the subject, please note the following: It is the morning of July 1, 2008 with oil prices continuing to rise exponentially as they have for months. Suddenly, in the morning news (radio and TV), the propagandists poured out a misleading story that the continued rise in your gas prices at the pump was because of "tension between Israel and Iran". That statement had bald-faced disinformation written all over it. For several years the oil producers and the oil processors have colluded to raise the price first of crude, then of gasoline and jet fuel to astronomical prices with massive profits. This raises the cost of living for everyone and everything that is manufactured, grown and/or shipped. The poor suffer the most. It's hard to blame that on Israel but, the oil bandits needed some kind of relief valve because the people of all nations are getting really furious at this 'highway' robbery by the oil barons. Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been threatening to "wipe Israel off the map" with his atomic bombs. While I am certain that the U.S. State Department couldn't care less they do care about an Iran which could use its nuclear weapons (real or threatened) to control Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Oil States –– thus affecting U.S. interests. Using Israel to deflect the growing rage of the world's people is an old reliable stand-by ploy. Hitler's Goebbels used hate for the Jews to explain Germany's inflation and the unaffordable cost of food, using worthless Deutschmarks. Perhaps you have noticed that here in America –– because of energy manipulation –– gasoline is $4.37 per gallon; milk is $4 per gallon; bread runs from $4-5 per loaf. In other countries where rice is a staple, it is almost unaffordable and food riots are breaking out. Hosni Mubarak of Egypt had to send soldiers to the bakeries to help in turning out more bread for the angry masses. So who shall our government blame? Not Saudi Arabia, not BP (British Petroleum); Shell, Exxon, Mobil, Chevron (among the other multi-nationals) –– not the planners of what George Herbert Walker Bush called the "New World Orderists". No, let us blame a minuscule nation of Jews who just happen to make the Muslim Arabs enraged because the Jews simply won't lose wars against the Muslims. There is no point in describing the Olmert government as having been bought at auction to the highest bidder. Selling out one's nation needs a special mind-set because it goes well beyond ordinary treason. The "Gamers" at State, the Oval Office, the Pentagon, the 16 Intelligence and Secret Services as well as the miscellaneous think tanks like Rand Corp. seem to have over-played their hand. They have pushed the delicate balance of world economies over the edge toward Global Depression. True, some make usurious fortunes while transferring the wealth of other nations into the hands of a few. These are the power brokers who protect themselves by pointing the fingers of blame at others. The Arabist State Department and the CIA are experts in such maneuvers. Sadly, there isn't a jail large enough to hold all these modern-day pirates. Between State, some in Congress, the President's confederates and relatives, the Courts would have to re-open Alcatraz. In addition, now that the Secretary of State's Condoleezza Rice has failed in all of her Middle East planning and scheming despite Israel's caving in to her demands –– now she is preparing to blame Israel. The current Bush-Rice doctrine is to avoid confronting Iran and will soon be setting up a consular office in Tehran. Rice has been blaming Israel for every response to terrorist attacks even by Mahmoud Abbas' Al Aksa Brigades. Rice, as a former board member of the Chevron Oil Company seems to have continued as an unofficial panderer to Arab Muslim oil sheiks and their ongoing, unremitting continual rage against the Jewish State of Israel. All we have to do is wait for the floodgates to be fully opened for the disinformation to pour through, explaining why crude oil is $140+ per barrel; gas is $4.30 a gallon (rising quickly to $5); bread is $5; milk is $4 per gallon and businesses are closing all over the world. Normally, besides looking for a fall guy like Israel, there is always the handy solution of a war. Clearly, Ahmadinejad's tyrannical rule in Iran must be taken down or it will forever hold the Sword of Damocles over the entire Middle East and the world. It will also serve as an excuse for recession and world depression. So, look for a flood of contrived happenings which may be the 'sting' or 'hustle' of the century. The question remains as to whether Arnold Toynbee's prediction that the Jewish State will trek into extinction or the Israeli people may have to rise up and throw the rascals out. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). Contact him at gwinston@gwinston.interaccess.com |
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MEKOROT: WE ARE GIVING PA MORE WATER THAN REQUIRED
Posted by Daisy Stern, July 1, 2008. |
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Unbelievable... or should I say, BELIEVABLE, knowing Israelis: robbing Jews of their most precious commodity, water, to literally shower the Arabs with it... and letting them steal even more huge amounts; who will do something about it???? |
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(IsraelNN.com) Israel's water company, Mekorot, denied on Tuesday allegations made by Arab rights group B'Tselem that Israel is creating a severe water shortage in Judea and Samaria through a discriminatory policy. Mekorot added that despite water cutbacks and severe shortage in Israel, the water supply to Judea and Samaria had even increased. The company said it provided 500 million cubic meters per year, or 30 percent more than required under the Oslo agreement. The company also accused Arab water thieves of stealing up to 50 percent of the supply in Bethlehem, Hevron and other areas. Contact Daisy Stern at daisystern1@gmail.com |
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WHAT WOULD THE SAGES SAY ABOUT THE PRISONER AGREEMENT?
Posted by Avodah, July 1, 2008. |
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This was written by Matthew Wagner and it appeared today in the
Jerusalem Post
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Cabinet members could have tapped into a rich Jewish tradition when they sat down Sunday to deliberate whether or not to swap Palestinian terrorists for captive IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. Throughout nearly 2,000 years of exile the Jewish people's high regard for life has been repeatedly exploited by ransom-seekers. As a result, the Jews have developed an extensive rabbinic literature dealing with the redeeming of hostages. Over the centuries, prominent (and not so prominent) Jews have been kidnapped, imprisoned and ransomed by criminals armed with the knowledge that Jewish sensibilities would not permit a Jewish hostage to remain in captivity. There were times in history when kidnappings were so common that extreme measures had to be taken. An example was the case of Rabbi Meir of Rotenberg (1215-1293). Rabbi Meir, a major rabbinic figure, was taken hostage by a German vassal named Rudolph who demanded an exorbitant ransom. The imprisoned rabbi, in an act astounding in its selflessness, issued a ruling from his cell ordering his students and followers not to pay. True normative Jewish law obligated the Jewish community to free a major rabbinic figure like Rabbi Meir at any cost. But the rabbi knew that if the ransom were paid this time, there would be no end to extortion attempts against the Jewish community. Rabbi Meir died in captivity seven years after he was kidnapped. He was buried on the prison grounds. Unfortunate stories like these offer modern rabbis precedents that can aid them in deciding present-day challenges. However, Rabbi Meir's plight is only partially instructive for the decision makers of Israel in the 21st century. We might be able to learn from Rabbi Meir how to avoid the exploitation of the Jews' emotional attachment to life. But there are some things that we cannot learn from Rabbi Meir's story. We cannot learn from Rabbi Meir or any other Jewish source that it is permissible to endanger Jewish lives to retrieve the body of a Jew. Only for the sake of saving a life is a Jew obligated to go to extreme lengths. Assuming Regev and Goldwasser are dead, there would be no Jewish legal precedent for freeing terrorists in exchange for their bodies. Nevertheless, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ordered Shas's ministers to vote in favor of the deal. Yosef, who served at the time as Chief Sephardi Rabbi, ruled during the 1976 Entebbe hostage crisis that Jewish law permitted the release of Palestinian terrorists, including those guilty of murder, to secure the release of the kidnapped Israelis and Jews. A successful IDF commando operation ended up preempting the hostage swap. David Yosef, the Shas mentor's son, said that his father also supported the May 1985 Jibril deal in which Israel released 1,150 Palestinian terrorists, including Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, in exchange for three Israeli POWs. Critics of the deal said it sparked the first Intifada, which began two years later, and encouraged Palestinians to perpetrate additional kidnappings. But Yosef argued that the immediate danger to the Jewish hostages overruled the potential danger of future terrorist attacks. But never before has Yosef condoned freeing terrorists for bodies. Perhaps Yosef's decision was based on the fact that the Jewish people of Israel are living a radically different political reality from their forefathers, who lived in exile. With the creation of a state, the Jews of Israel were faced with a whole new set of considerations unknown to an exiled people. Not since the defeat of Bar Kochba and his Jewish warriors at the hands of the Romans in the beginning of the second century CE has the People of the Book been forced to cope with issues that are pertinent to a sovereign people with its own military forces and geopolitical considerations. For instance, how does implementation of a hostage exchange or refraining from implementing one, even if all we get in exchange are bodies, affect soldiers' morale? Perhaps soldiers will be less likely to endanger themselves if not everything possible is done to redeem them from captivity? But Rabbi Shlomo Goren, who served as chief IDF rabbi for two decades, ruled that it was permissible to desecrate Shabbat not just to save live soldiers, but also to retrieve a dead soldier's body. In a conversation with Rabbi Ya'acov Ariel after the Yom Kippur War, Goren said that it was even permissible to endanger lives to retrieve soldiers' bodies. That's because our enemies use soldiers' bodies as bargaining chips to free terrorists. There might be other differences between the state of Israel and Diaspora life. Perhaps the state has a special responsibility to its citizens which is more encompassing than a loosely organized, rootless community in the Diaspora? Rabbi Shaul Israeli, who headed the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, thought so. He ruled that the relationship between the state and IDF soldiers was like the relationship between a husband and wife. In Jewish law the husband can pay any sum of money to free his wife. No one can restrict him, even if a danger exists that enemies will exploit this. Contact Avodah at Avodah15@aol.com |
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PA ARABS: MIA DEAL SHOWS 'ISRAEL ONLY UNDERSTANDS STRENGTH'
Posted by Lee Caplan, July 1, 2008. |
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This was written by Gil Ronen and appeared today in Arutz-Sheva (www.IsraelNationalNews.com). |
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Following the deal with Hizbullah, the Arabs of Judea and Samaria ("Palestinians") feel more strongly than ever that "Israel only understands strength," according to a Saudi newspaper. The paper, Al Sharq Al-Awsat, reported that this attitude has been strengthened by Israel's reported flexibility toward Hamas's demands to free prisoners who were involved in hurting Israelis as part of the deal to free abducted soldier Gilad Shalit. The paper says that the prisoners' relatives have "begun to lose hope" that the Fatah-PA will be able to secure their release through negotiations with Israel. Deal 'invites violence' The PA-Fatah's "Minister for Prisoners" Ashraf Al-Ajrami said that Israel's willingness to free the prisoners in swaps after it refused to do so as part of the "peace process" embarrasses the PA, broadcasts "negative messages" and invites violence. The proper way to release prisoners is through diplomacy, he said. Hamas leader Mahmoud A-Zahar said Monday that the release of Samir Kuntar is "a positive precedent" for Hamas which will use it in talks with Israel and demand the release of prisoners "that Israel considers to be murderers." 39% of Arabs: Israel is weaker A survey of six Arab Middle Eastern countries found that 39% of the Arabs think that Israel has become weaker, and that it is only a matter of time until it is defeated. The survey was conducted by Dr. Shibli Talahmi of Princeton University for the Saban Center in the Brookings Institute, and surveyed "urban and educated" people in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. 99% of the Shiite Muslims who were surveyed agreed with the statement about Israel's weakness. Annapolis backfired The survey found that 50% of the Arabs do not believe Israel will ratify a peace treaty based on the June 4 1967 borders. 55% expect long tern violence in the region if the current "peace process" collapses. 86% see the "Israeli-Palestinian" conflict as the major problem in the region. A full 100% of the people surveyed in Jordan said this was so, as did 99% of those surveyed in Lebanon. The survey showed that the Annapolis conference and the Bush administration's attempts to weaken Hamas failed and that Arab support for the terror group has increased over the last year. Contact Lee Caplan at leescaplan@yahoo.com |
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RICE EATS CROW OR IS A VULTURE?; ISRAEL GIVES A LITTLE, GETS ASKED FOR MORE; US TRAINING OF TERRORISTS
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, July 1, 2008. |
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GIVE A LITTLE, GET ASKED FOR MORE Because the government of Israel gave in on demands that it not build in settlements in Judea-Samaria, or at least build new ones, the world then took that for granted and moved on to demand that Israel stop building in annexed land in Jerusalem (IMRA, 6/16). In other words, appeasement of hostile powers, such as the State Dept., leads to demands for more appeasement. It does not appease! It does not pay to try to appease. Israel should declare the Road Map void and act in its own behalf. MEDIA-STATE DEPT. ONE-TWO PUNCH Pres. Bush's recent speech to the Knesset referred to the promised land and celebrated Israel's reacquisition of ancient Jerusalem. Bush was followed by Sec. Rice's criticism of Israel's plan to build houses in a part of Jerusalem. She contradicted him. What Israel builds in Jerusalem is neither her business nor Abbas' (NY Sun, 6/16, Ed.). Abbas complained that this proposed building undermines negotiations and Rice echoed him by finding that the plan has a "negative effect." (She does seem to have become an echo of the Arabs. She also said that the plan violates the Road Map, because eastern Jerusalem is a "settlement" and most of the world does not recognize Israel's legality in having annexed it. She even called the settlements illegal. She has been going on and on about her objections to the plan and with her demands for more checkpoints to be taken down and for Israel to let certain additional, Arabs pass from Gaza through Israel, to study abroad. The NY Times had a much shorter and dryer statement, without details, from Israel, that those additional Arabs are security risks. Rice said that the US vetted those Arabs. (Israel often has better intelligence.) Sec. Rice mentioned in passing that the P.A. violates the Road Map, too. The Times did not say in what respects, nor what the US is doing about it, nor why the US hardly complains about Arab non-compliance (6/16, Ed.). Sure Abbas complains that anything Israel does makes negotiations harder. That is one of his ways of trying to get Israel to meet his demands. He merely claims it hampers the (non-existent) peace process, and Rice endorses his claim. What about the many ways by which Abbas contradicts the supposed peace process? He praises terrorists. His schools, media, and mosques preach Jew-hate. He threatens war if negotiations don't give him all he wants. What he says he wants, to flood Israel with Arabs, would destroy Israel. His organization's covenant states its goal as conquering Israel from any land Israel vacates. The US is doing everything for those P.A. Arab enemies of both the US and Israel, and nothing for Israel. The US gets away with this because the US is powerful, Israeli leadership is unpatriotic, the media does not inform but seeks to get people to conform, and US Jewry is... I call this the media-State Dept. one-two punch. Government gets worse when the media fails as a watchdog. The Times elicited almost no Israeli response to Rice. Par for the Times. It does not define the legal issues, but repeats constantly that the "international community" does not recognize Israel's legality over eastern Jerusalem. "International community" is neither a statute nor an ethical body. Citing it in these days of international lobbying and antisemitism is bandwagon propaganda. What are the legal issues? First, international law allows a country to annex territory from which it is attacked (as Israel was twice), to safeguard itself from further attack. Hamas and Abbas (if the Times and Israel's leaders would take the trouble to read and quote what he tells his people) have shown that the Arabs intend to attack, again). Second, the legal status of Judea-Samaria and Gaza is as unallocated territories of the Palestine Mandate, a Mandate that the UNO ratified. The Mandate recognizes Israel's superior claim to the area. Therefore, Israel had every legal right to annex land to Jerusalem. The "international community" is out of line in telling the Jewish state it has no right to the Old City, which includes Judaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount, and long was the capital of the ancient Jewish state. The foreign powers want the Old City to go to the bigoted Arab aggressors. What is the legal leg that the State Dept. has to stand on? Not much. In 1947, the General Assembly passed a resolution proposing a Jewish and an Arab state in what was left of the Mandate after Jordan's independence. The General Assembly has no binding authority. Nor was the plan adopted. The Arabs rejected it and went to war to undo it completely, that is, to exterminate the Jews in Israel. Thus that plan was not binding and was nullified. Since there is no legal basis for the State Department's stand, one has to assume that Rice's position derives from the traditional State Dept. anti-Zionism, appeasement of the Arabs, and perhaps she adheres to old-fashioned Christian dogma of its faith having replaced Judaism, so the Jews should be defeated and not allowed to return to normal sovereign status. The rest of the world has one law for itself, the international law cited, although it is trying to get away from it, and a different law for the Jews. ISRAEL LETS ENEMY GROW STRONGER "Pres. Shimon Peres today, Monday, 6/26/08, toured the communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip. He began his visit with a security and intelligence briefing by senior security service and police commanders. They stated that the IDF is acting unceasingly to destroy missile-launching cells in action and noted that dozens of terrorists from Hamas and other groups have been killed in recent weeks. They also gave the President a harsh report on the strengthening of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, including the great stores of weapons and ammunition and its complete takeover of hospitals, schools and mosques, as well as its attempts to develop missile systems and weapons for use against Israel." The communities asked for tens of millions of dollars more to reinforce their structures against the missiles (IMRA, 6/16). Destroying some missile launching cells and killing dozens of terrorists does not matter much, when it amounts to a respite for Hamas, enabling it to recruit thousands of terrorists and builds thousands of missiles or the equivalent. Israel is letting the enemy grow stronger. Hamas is positioning itself to kill hundreds or thousands of Israelis. Spending scarce funds on strengthening some targets, while Hamas enables itself to strike targets further away, does no good, either. DOES AHMADINEJAD REALLY MEAN TO DESTROY ISRAEL? Some people try to assert that the Pres. of Iran just is venting steam, he doesn't really mean to destroy Israel. However, he isn't the only Iranian leader to vow the destruction of Israel, and the way he does it is convincing. He called Israel a bacterial infection. He quotes Imam Khomeini demanding that Israel be destroyed. Supreme Leader Khamenei called Israel a cancer to be cut out. Those are the kinds of terms that the Nazis used to dehumanize Jews, in the eyes of gentiles, prior to exterminating them. The slogan, "Israel must be wiped off the Earth," is displayed on missiles. Get the point? Former Pres. Rafsanjani (often mislabeled a moderate) spoke approvingly of firing one nuclear weapon at Israel, sufficient to destroy it, while he felt that the Muslim world could survive whatever Israel threw at it. Rafsanjani's chilling cost-benefit analysis ignores the horror (IMRA, 6/16). ISRAEL UNDERMINES OWN DIPLOMACY Israel demands that European countries help isolate Syria diplomatically, but itself negotiates indirectly with Syria (IMRA, 6/16). RICE EATS CROW OR IS A VULTURE? Meeting with the new President of Lebanon, Sec. Rice praised the deal that Hizbullah and the former government made, that determined the new President. She called it a compromise that serves Lebanon and therefore the US. She went on to suggest that the "time has come" for the UNO Secretary-General "to lend his good offices" to resolve the controversy of "Shebaa farms." That's the strategic border area of the Golan, on which Israel has early warning devices. When the UNO certified that Israel had withdrawn its forces from all of Lebanon, Hizbullah claimed that the Shebaa farms area belongs to Lebanon. That claim is Hizbullah's pretext for continuing "resistance" to Israeli "occupation" of Lebanon. The State Dept. thinks that her suggestion strengthens the position of the new President. A UNO official pointed out that it really strengthens Hizbullah, giving some legitimacy to its claim. Now it can say that its war with Israel supposedly over that area, a war that cost it a drubbing [though the diplomatic ending endangers Israeli national security] was defensive and did reap something (Benny Avni, NY Sun, 6/17, p.7). The deal gives Hizbullah veto power over the government of Lebanon. That means that Lebanon cannot do anything foreseeable to rid itself of Hizbullah. That does not serve Lebanon. The deal was dictated by Hizbullah intimidation, after Hizbullah trounced opposing militias and showed itself unstoppable domestically. Lebanon did enjoy an immediate benefit of no civil war. But Hizbullah gained without losing anything, it just didn't take over all government posts, at the moment. But it still is building up for another war with Israel. Therefore, Rice doesn't know what helps whom, but she keeps getting arms to Abbas to strengthen him, although his arms fall into Hamas' hands. Some "compromise" deal! "Compromise" means to her that the aggressors gain half their demands while their victims gain nothing strategically. The aggressors get into position to demand the rest, which the State Dept. would suggest the victims "compromise," again. With that notion of compromise, beware, oh Israel, when Rice suggests you "compromise" with the Palestinian or Syrian Arabs! Hizbullah's demand for part of Israel is not controversial, it is a fraud that the UNO is the last agency to take up fairly, it being so anti-Israel. Why has the "time" now come to resolve it? Just because some conspiring Arabs demand something, why give them the time of day? All she does is hand strategic gains to enemies of both the US and Israel, Israel being the immediate loser. What did Rice and predecessor Powell accomplished for the US in their 7 ½ years? What "good offices" of Sec. Ban? He started as a reformer and was neutral towards Israel. He gave up on reform and denounces Israel for necessary defense. They all behave that way. Do the math on UNO membership! ISRAELI ARAB THREATENS RIOTS In 2005, an Israeli opened fire on some Arabs. After he was disarmed and subdued by police, an Arab mob grabbed him away from the police, and beat him to death. At first, Israeli officials did nothing about it. Now they talk of pressing charges, if not for murder, at least for assault. An Israeli Arab official, himself a rabble rouser, warned that if indictments follow, the Arabs will riot. An Arab MK argued that if not felled, the shooter would have endangered more Arabs (Arutz-7, 6/26). The MK is lying, for the shooter was disarmed and subdued. No excuse for stomping him to death. Palestinian Arabs readily form lynch mobs. Shame on Israel for allowing it to happen and unpunished. The immediate solution is to arrest rioting Arabs, using whatever force is necessary. What good is a Jewish state that lets antisemites run riot? The long –– range solution is Arab emigration. U.S. TRAINING OF TERRORISTS A Hamas military instructor was, himself, trained by the US (IMRA, 6/16). That's only half the story. I asked IMRA under what auspices that Hamas instructor got trained by the US. Answer: the man received the training as a member, at the time, of the P.A. police from Gaza. Now that Hamas seized Gaza, the man is part of Hamas' fighting forces. Thus US training backfires against US policy. [The next day, Arutz-7 stated that the man had been in Abbas' police before Hamas seized Gaza. He uses a US training manual! The US trained hundreds of members of Abbas supposedly elite Presidential Guard, supposed to be able to prevent a coup. It didn't. Did the US reassess its program?] The US should not be surprised. It should know that Hamas has infiltrated Fatah and the P.A. police. When one faction loses, as Fatah did in Gaza, or does not seem sufficiently militant in a society becoming increasingly Islamist, its members join the noisiest and seemingly most effective Islamist group. That partly explains how weapons supplied by the West end up in Hamas' hands. An even bigger story omitted from the major media is the misconception that Fatah should be supported against Hamas because Israel can make peace with Fatah. Fatah wants Israel destroyed, too. It goes about it somewhat differently, but not without attempted terrorism. If Israel magically could liquidate every Hamas sympathizer in Abbas' areas, and then evacuated, one would find as much terrorism directed against Israel from there as from Gaza. It's only the presence of Israeli troops and their checkpoints that intercept terrorist attempts. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com |
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