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ISRAEL THE BEAUTIFUL: COLORED ROCKS ALONG THE SHORELINE
Posted by Yehoshua Halevi, January 31, 2010. |
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This is one of Yehoshua Halevi's Golden Light Images. HOW I GOT THE SHOT: This week's photo falls into the category of "when life gives you lemons." Walking along the shore of the Red Sea in Eilat, I looked skyward and frowned at the thick clouds enveloping the region and scuttling chances for an eventful afternoon shoot. I paused to sit on a cement wall at water's edge and removed a persimmon from my camera bag, peeled away the skin with a pocket knife, and considered my options. Then I looked down at my feet. I think the most successful artists are those who learn to see what's closest to them, and who are not in constant search of life's grandeur. I often tell my students good photographs can be found anywhere, and frequently within an arm's length of where they are standing at that moment. I hadn't thought about these thousands of colored rocks and I had no idea they existed until I chanced to spot them. Glistening and clean in the tidal action, these rocks are a visual symphony, and it wasn't hard to find a grouping that included a pleasing range of colors, sizes, and shapes. And here's how I made the lemonade, with assistance from the clouds: Bright colors look richer on overcast days, when there is little direct sunlight to bleach their hues. Appropriately, I pulled my close-up (macro) lens from my bag, snapped it onto my D-300 and held it above this small sampling of beach, careful to keep the camera parallel to the ground to preserve edge to edge sharpness. Remaining open to something new led me to the gate of good fortune.
Contact Yehoshua Halevi by email at smile@goldenlightimages.com
and visit his website:
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IRAN WILL UNLEASH THEIR PROXIES, HEZB'ALLAH & HAMAS ON ISRAEL
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 31, 2010. |
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General (ret.) Jim Jones, President Barack Hussein Obama's National Security Advisor, announces through CNN that, because of Israeli and international pressure on Iran over its nuclear program, Iran will unleash Hezb'Allah and Hamas to attack Israel. I was struck by Jones suddenly becoming a vocal part of Obama's Public Relations/Propaganda organization. Why would Obama's team want to stir the pot in the Middle East at a time when his popularity poll numbers have fallen to a low of 48% disapproval rating while his own Democrats are backing away from his policies? Could it be the old and useful formula of inciting a war between Israel and proxies of Iran, namely Hezb'Allah and Hamas — on orders of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Iranian Ayatollahs? Why would these radical Islamists want to do Obama a favor just before America's mid-term elections, allowing Obama to "act Presidential and Commander-in-Chief" in a crisis? Rahm Emanuel as creative advisor to the President is well-known for his homily: "Never waste a crisis". One needn't wait for a crisis when you can start your own. But, why would Mahmoud Ahmadinejad want to do Obama a favor by having Hebz'Allah and Hamas attack Israel — as stated by Jim Jones. Or, said another way, what did Obama do for Iran? Well....Obama does have a friendly outreach policy to Iran and Syria where he has chosen useless dialogue as opposed to actual pressure to force Iran to stand down Ahmadinejad's Nuclear Operation. Obama engages in talk — talk of putting severe sanctions on Iran that seems to never take effect. Many strategists see this extended time lag as a policy of allowing Iran to go Nuclear and then saying there's nothing he can do about it other than accept the facts. That's a big favor given that a Nuclear-capable Iran could rule the Middle East with Nuclear Weapons that all nations knew they would use. That would start a Nuclear Arms Race as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States who would start fielding their own Nuclear Weapons as a defense against Iran's domination. Regrettably, their efforts at defense will come too late due to Obama's assistance to Iran who complete its Nuclear Capability soon and have several operational nuclear bombs. Israel — like America, England, France would never use such a weapon — except in a dire emergency — whereas Iran has already threatened Israel repeatedly with total annihilation. IF Ahmadinejad agrees to start an open-ended war against Israel through his proxies, Hezb'Allah and Hamas — which would save Obama's Presidency — would that be considered treason? A nuclear-armed Iran would certainly be a significant threat to some 300,000 to 500,000 American troops stationed in the whole Middle East and South East Asia plus Europe and even Russia. Iran has demonstrated successful tests of large missiles that can reach as far as Europe and all of the Middle Eastern nations. Is keeping Obama's Presidency that important, given the danger a Nuclear-armed Iran would pose, given their religiously-driven beliefs that if Iran is destroyed in a retaliatory strike, all of her Muslims would be ushered into Allah's Paradise as Shaheeds (martyrs for Islam)? On reflection, it seems that the selection of General Jones to be the announcer of this coming event would make a lot of sense to Obama and his advisors, Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, James Baker III, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Brent Scowcroft.... The statement by Jones that Israel's pressure on Iran to stop their Nuclear Development would mean it's all Israel's fault. Jones' hostility toward the Jewish Nation/State of Israel is no secret in Washington nor to Israel. Pre-arranging the blame is a clear, though a vicious betrayal of an ally. This level of betrayal would have to go well beyond closed doors in the White House but also includes the U.S. State Department and the CIA among the 16 other American Intel Agencies. I know that one is reminded of the Iranian prison release of the 52 Americans held hostage in a suspicious time frame after the election between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. (1) Also, one must think of the arranged Gulf of Tonkin event which accelerated the Vietnam War up to a higher level. Politics and the history of Europe's Kings and Popes staging events and war for what they considered their "right-to-rule". Adolph Hitler used his claimed rights of the Sudetenland Germans to launch his planned offensive to conquer all of Europe (before he conquered the rest of the world) for his 1000 Year Third Reich. Getting Iran to start WW3 by using their proxies of Hezb'Allah in Lebanon/Syria and Hamas in Gaza, Judea and Samaria — as a favor to a President who has chosen to allow Islam to flourish with Nuclear Weapons may not b e as far-fetched as it sounds. I wonder how Charles Krauthammer, John Bolton, Bill Kristol, Ruell Marc Gerecht, Douglas Feith, Alan Dershowitz, the Robert and Frederick Kagan family, the Norman and John Podhoretz family and other fair and free thinkers would think about Gen. Jones announcement to the Media? (2) Would they conclude that there were possibly other motives — such as sending invading foreign troops as "Peace-Keepers" into Israel, Judea and Samaria, the Jordan Valley, the Golan Heights and Jerusalem to force another Muslim Arab Palestinian state into existence? Then they could claim it as a "Presidential Victory" for Obama, therefore, making him worthy of a second-term in office. Another piece of the puzzle would be Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu election pledge — not unlike former PM Ariel (Arik) Sharon breaking his commitment to his constituents NOT to give up Gaza, Judea and Samaria, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the Jordan Valley but, shortly into his term as PM, he did evacuate 10,000 Jewish men, women and children from Gush Katif/Gaza and Northern Samaria. Bibi knows full well that driving 300,000 to 500,000 Jews from Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley and the Golan Heights as Sharon and OLmert did in Gaza would lead to outright Civil War between Jews. But, if he were to complete the betrayal according to Obama, he would have to go along with such a plan for Iran to unleash Hezb'Allah and Hamas so the nations, led by Obama, could mount an outright invasion of Israel, calling it a peace plan. Moreover, that would entail thousands of missiles striking Israel's cities and additional losses of soldiers in battle — further pressing Israel to accept the losses demanded by Obama and the nations. I think we could all agree that politicians, kings, religious orders, etc. believe their hold on power is vital and will do anything to gain and keep power, no matter how terrible the cost to all others. For Ahmadinejad to do a "favor" for an American President who, in practice, abandoned both the pressure of sanctions and an actual military attack on Iran's nuclear facilities explains Obama's policies of treating Terrorist Nations and Terrorists caught having attacked America as a "minor" issue. The two most recent attacks by Dr. Nidal Malik Hasan who massacred 13 soldiers at Fort Hood and the undie-bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab who almost massacred 278 Americans on Northwest flight #253 (plus countless others who might have been hit on the ground in Detroit.) (3 & 4) So, let us hear from the pundits as to why Obama, through Jim Jones, is soliciting a war against Israel, using Iran to unleash Hezb'Allah and Hamas to attack — thus raising the political profile of a failing President before Mid-Term elections in November 2010 — leading to Presidential elections in 2012. Will the Left-Leaning pro-Obama Media dare to raise the issue and pose questions to Obama, General Jones, Rahm Emanuel....? Will the Israeli Left-Leaning Media dare to question Netanyahu and Barak on the same issue? And — where is Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in all this swirl of existential threats to Israel's very existence? Why does he seem to have fallen off the radar of the Media? I do not trust such leaders, no matter how smoothly they talk, smile — and lie. Footnotes 1. "IRAN HOSTAGE CRISIS" Wikipedia
2. "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: Why we can no longer remain on the sidelines in the struggle for regime change in Iran — The U.S. should act to strengthen the opposition and to deepen rifts among the rulers" by Richard N. Haas NEWSWEEK Feb. 1, 2010 3. "PHOTOS OF THE NORTHWEST AIRLINES FLIGHT 253 BOMB: Accused
Bomber Abdulmutallab's Underwear, Explosive Packet and Detonator" by
Richard Esposito & Brian Ross, ABC News
4. "PASSENGER LIGHTS EXPLOSIVES ON AIRPLANE: 2 hurt, 1 detained in
"Attempted Act of Terrorism" on Amsterdam-Detroit Flt; Man Claims Al
Qaeda Tie" CBS/AP
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ARAB/ANARCHIST MOB ATTACKS AT FENCE; ISRAEL ASSASSINATED ASSASSIN?
NEW ISRAEL FUND FINANCES MOST ANTI-ZIONIST ORGANIZATIONS IN ISRAEL?
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 31, 2010. |
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ARAB/ANARCHIST MOB ATTACKS AT FENCE 
The NY Times updated the story of the weekly attacks at the Israeli security fence at Bilin (1/29, A4). Abbas considers those protests "a model of legitimate resistance." The mobs attempt to damage the fence and attack the usually mild mannered guards with rocks and fists. Therefore, Abbas is condoning a certain level of violence. The pro-Arab Israeli "civil rights" organizations complained that the usual guards' reaction is too harsh, because they use rubber-bullets that sometimes injure members of the mob. The article cites Arab witnesses [without stating whether their testimony was confirmed, which it usually is not, usually is propaganda coached by terrorist organizations]. Members of the mob complained that this time, the IDF reacted more forcefully to being attacked. They said that, after all, they were not armed. Some on the Left may not consider rocks and firebombs as being armed, but stoning is a traditional method of execution in the Mideast. The NY Times describes the confrontations as violent, but is cagey about who initiated them. It also referred to members of the International Solidarity Movement as a "pro-Palestinian group." It is a pro-terrorist group and has actively interfered with Israeli security measures. The Army reacted forcefully, apparently having realized that its previous tactic of mostly just pushing back failed to deter larger mobs from re-forming the next week. [How wise was failing to arrest the mobs, before?] Some Arabs were arrested. Foreigners who over-stayed their Israeli visas deported. [Why only those who over-stay?] A ringleader claimed to have funding from the Spanish government. The IDF reports that about a hundred troops were wounded in the clashes in the past two years. [Wounded to what extent and by what? Are scratches counted? If really wounded, then the mob exerted significant force.] HAMAS ACCUSES ISRAEL OF HAVING POISONED ITS OFFICIAL 
A founder of Hamas and a leading terrorist commander, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, was murdered in Dubai, Friday. Conflicting reports were issued about the manner of death. The only definite claim was by Dubai police, that professional hit men possessing European passports followed al-Mabhouh to Dubai, struck soon after his arrival, and escaped immediately. Nevertheless, Hamas accuses Israel of the assassination and vows revenge (Robert F. Worth & NY Times, 1/30, A8). 1/31 update: Hamas now accuses Israel of having poisoned the man ( www.imra.org.il). This case is typical. An Arab is assassinated. While the case still is a mystery, the Arabs blame Israel and vow revenge. Arab culture tends to blame foreigners and enemies for all its problems. It does not require evidence and may disregard it. Rivals accuse other factions, such as the terrorist-sponsoring Abbas regime, of being agents of Zionism. Why? That is the worst insult the rivals can imagine. Hamas is in a self-declared war on the Jewish state, using illegal means. Sometimes the Mossad does assassinate terrorist leaders. That is to be expected. Some of us Westerners find odd the notion that such a strike warrants retaliation, when the strike is retaliation, perhaps in retaliation for al-Mabhouh having organized the kidnapping of an Israeli for ransom. Some cultures, tribal ones especially, emphasize retaliation. Feuds can endure. I find unfair the wreaking of vengeance upon someone who committed no offense but belongs to an ethnic group that may have. Taking out resentment or upholding "honor" by punishing the innocent, resembles racism. Indeed, many Muslim Arabs interpret their scripture as exhorting them to kill Jews in all eras and in all places for a conflict with a few Jews in a small locale hundreds of years ago. Does that make sense? Well, the Muslim concept, augmented by Nazi racial theory, is that all Jews possess the same traits, and these are evil. The Arab conflict with Israel therefore is racist. Another factor is the Muslim doctrine that any area freed from Islam, as are Israel and Spain, must be restored to Islam. The Arab domination of the Holy Land lasted only a couple of hundred years. Turks took it over for another 400 years or so, until Britain dissolved the Turkish Empire and let the Arabs have most of the Mideast but restored a tiny portion of the Empire to the Jewish people. The modern Zionist liberation of part of the Jewish homeland was described by one reader as, "The Jews stole the Holy Land." Apparently, he does not know what is meant by the Holy Land. It encompasses the ancient Land of Israel, made holy by what was described in the Hebrew Testament before Islam existed. That area is five times the size of Israel. Almost four-fifths of it has become the Palestinian Arab state called the Kingdom of Israel. Some of the rest is officially disputed. Whatever privately owned land Zionists acquired, was by purchase or, by default, when the Arabs domestically and from abroad tried to wipe the Jews out, lost, and fled. And now they wax indignant? U.S. WILL NOT TRY 9/11 TERRORISTS IN NEW YORK CITY 
Mayor Bloomberg against trying terrorists in NYC (A.P./Hanny Ray Abrams) The U.S. has dropped its plan to try 9/11 terrorists in New York City, near the hole they made in it [and which still is there]. What caused them to reconsider? Mayor Bloomberg originally thought the plan was a fine idea. He came to realize that the City does not have the hundreds of millions of dollars for providing security each year for lengthy trial(s). Police Chief Kelly advised leading citizens that to ensure security, he would have to turn lower Manhattan into a fortress and intrude on civilian lives. People didn't want their lives disrupted, their city finances further burdened, and their ailing real estate industry restricted. Politicians, civic leaders, and business leaders all protested to the federal government (Scott Shane & Benjamin Weiser, NY Times, 1/30, A1). For a year, people gave President Obama the benefit of the doubt, assuming he was inexperienced. Now it appears more a matter of his pursuing ideological notions without pertinent thought. He was trying to treat war crimes as civilian offenses. He should have realized that this would turn New York City into a war zone. I guess he doesn't read the Wall Street Journal, which pointed out the problems. Did he merely back off from opposition, or will he analyze the broader problem of civilian trials for terrorists? (For more on this, click here) NEW U.S. EFFORT TO PREVENT IMPORTED TERRORISM The U.S. is hiring and training teams of specialists whose mission it is to pursue and combine isolated clues about imminent terrorist plots against parts of the U.S.. Previously, no one had responsibility for detecting particular plots against U.S. soil. "Any increase would be a sharp reversal of fortune for the counter-terrorism center, which just days before the Dec. 25 airliner bomb plot, was preparing to cut, its workforce of up to 20%, including analysts and terrorist watch list personnel." Now that the government realized it needs to combine its separate lists to prevent suspected terrorists from flying into the U.S., it lacks the staff to input the data (Eric Schmitt, NY Times, 1/30, A3). Having designed computer systems to combine files automatically, I suppose the government needs the staff to evaluate the filed data, surely not to key it all into another file. Since the news brief is not clear, I am not sure what is meant. If you read this article in combination with my prior article, you would see that the government is making a series of blunders that assist terrorism. More broadly, rising expenses are rendering Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security untenable, while the government takes on more and more expensive responsibility that put the country and the economy under a crushing debt. I do not think that terrorists could damage the country any more than does Congress and the President. A dysfunctional government put in charge of the economy can not, Obama's ideology to the contrary, solve society's problems. Americans wanted change, but they did not ask change to what. NEW ISRAEL FUND FINANCES MOST ANTI-ZIONIST ORGANIZATIONS IN ISRAEL? This weekend's Maariv exposes the New Israel fund for financing anti-Israel propaganda groups in Israel. The expose is based on a study by Im Tirtzu, a Zionist student group. The study found that the New Isreal Fund finances most of the Israeli anti-Zionist organizations. The group also discovered that the UN Goldstone report took 92% of its anti-Israel material from organizations funded by the New Israel Fund. The New Israel Fund chairlady is Naomi Hazan, former Member of Knesset for the semi-Marxist Meretz Party. Israel has no law against foreign anti-Israel and antisemitic organizations financing treasonous organizations (Prof. Steven Plaut, 1/29). Some Israeli officials are proposing such laws. In his State of the Union message, President Obama proposed a law barring foreign corporations from contributing to American political campaigns. (There may already be such a law; he may have misstated what the Supreme Court ruled.) The significance of Goldstone's taking most of its material from biased organizations is that it did not make an independent study. The Goldstone Report is in a poro position to spurn IDF investigations as not independent. The news brief is not clear whether the New Israel Fund sends some subsidy to most of the anti-Zionist organizations in Isarel or most of the subsidy. After all, European governments spend millions of dollars a year on those organizations.
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 and visit his website:
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BARAK ORDERS IDF REDEPLOYMENT FROM NORTH TO PLACATE SYRIA
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 31, 2010. |
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This ties into Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak's subversion of the Jewish Nation/State of Israel — to abandon the Golan Heights to Syria. Previously, Barak tried to drive civilians and IDF soldiers off their homes and strategic positions on the Golan Heights. Israel has had a solid peace with Syria since the Golan was liberated in 1967 and defended in 1973 — just because Israel sits on the Golan and Mt. Hermon, looking down into Damascus, Syria. From these Heights Israel can see directly IF Syria starts up one tank, Israel can see and prepare to defend herself. And the Golan Heights sits astride 1/3rd of Israel's fresh water resources which flow into Israel's only fresh water lake, the Kinneret. Now Barak orders IDF removal so Syria can freely invade the Golan. This is an evil man who should be tried for treason and face a capital sentence ordered by the Court. There seems little doubt what Ehud Barak couldn't achieve by scare tactics, he now rushes to accomplish by leaving the Golan unprotected so Syria can just march in and take it. Prime Minister Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu should relieve him of his appointed post immediately — unless he is also a co-conspirator willing to let Israeli civilians be shot or captured by the Syrians and Hezb'Allah, the Syrians proxies. Then clearly, both would be considered traitors — if judged by their actions in a fair Court of Israeli citizens. This below was written by Ezra HaLevi for Arutz-7 (www.IsraelNationalNews.com). |
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Following his decision to halt the refurbishing of the country's gas masks, Defense Minister Ehud Barak is now redeploying the IDF away from the north, deeming war with Syria "unlikely." Barak ordered the redeployment from the Golan Heights following months of training exercises and a steady stream of rumors among Israelis that war with Syria would break out in the course of the summer months. Ma'ariv newspaper quoted Israeli defense officials claiming that, with the IDF's decision to redeploy, Syria has also lowered its readiness for war. The officials refused to outline what steps Syria had taken, saying they were classified. Defense Minister Barak halted the refurbishing of the country's gas masks last week for fear that Syria would see the step as a sign of war-preparation. IDF standing army troops and reservists who are scheduled to engage in exercises and war games in the north will now be redirected to Israel's south. Regularly stationed IDF forces will remain along the northern border at a full state of readiness. Though IDF intelligence acknowledges that Syria continues to develop and improve its military capabilities, particularly long-range missiles and anti-aircraft weapons, leaks to Israel's state-run media are conveying the message that war with Syria is now "unlikely." Hezb'Allah Rearmed and Ready Barak warned on Monday that the Hezb'Allah terrorist group is rearming out of reach of UN peacekeepers, and now has more rockets than at the beginning of the Second Lebanon War. He also said that tensions between Israel and Syria were fading. Barak made the comments speaking before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday. As the architect of the unilateral Israeli retreat from the security zone in Lebanon seven years ago, Barak has been blamed by security experts for bringing about the Second Lebanon War. Harsh Criticism From Opposition Opposition members criticized Barak for lowering his guard on the Syrian border and said Israel must not be fooled by the superficial calm. "To note that the Hezb'Allah has rearmed and at the same time claim that Syria is no longer a threat is like the man who jumps from a 21 floor building and at the 16th floor says 'So far so good'," said MK Effie Eitam (National Union-NRP), a Golan Heights resident. 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@gwinstonglobal.org |
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"ISLAM4UK" BANNED IN BRITAIN
Posted by Susana K-M, January 31, 2010. |
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Thiis was written by Daniel Atzori. |
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Islam4UK, the radical Islamist group that intended to march through Wootton Bassett, will be outlawed in the United Kingdom under counter-terrorism legislation; being a member of it, or of Al Muhajiroun of which Islam4UK is a splinter group, will be a criminal offence punishable by up to ten years in prison. Wootton Bassett, a small town in the South of England, is where British soldiers who sacrificed their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan are honored after being repatriated. The silent ceremony of the coffins parading through the streets of Wootton Basset has become familiar throughout the United Kingdom, as a symbol of patriotism. There, people pay their last tribute to relatives, friends and fellow citizens slaughtered while defending freedom and fighting global terrorism. Radical Islamists of Islam4UK are extremely conscious of the importance of symbols. Islam4UK, which advocates the enforcement of shari'a (Islamic law) in the United Kingdom, had planned a protest march in the town of Wootton Basset, and revealed its intention to carry empty coffins through the streets of the town, while affirming that "occupying and merciless" British soldiers are responsible of "horrifically" murdering innocent people, committing "genocide" and carrying out a "crusade". Anjem Choudary, the spokesman of Islam4UK, described British soldiers as "brutal murderers" and "cowards," and said he considers "vile" the parades which take place in Wootton Basset. Anjem Choudary, a British citizen of Pakistani origins who benefited from the British education system, became a solicitor and eventually the former chairman of the Society of Muslim Lawyers. As reported by "The Sun," the British welfare system has also been very generous with the extremist cleric. While the value of Choudary's house has been estimated in 320,000 £ ($510.000), he still receives £15,600 ($25,000) a year in housing benefits, £5,200 ($8,300) in income support, £ 3,120 ($5,000) in benefits for his children and £1,820 ($3,000) in council tax allowance. Asked about this, Choudary answered that his benefits belong to Allah. Such a bounty from the British taxpayers allows Choudary to be engaged full-time in his jihad against the UK and the West. Indeed Choudary, who famously described the 9/11 terrorists as "magnificent martyrs," was closely associated with Omar Bakri Muhammad, who is thought to be involved with Al Qaeda and to the (still legal) Islamist British party Hizb ut-Tahrir. In 2006, Choudary organized a demonstration outside London's Cathedral of Westminster, the mother church of the Catholic community in England and Wales. There he mocked the Holy Trinity, incited Muslims to execute Pope Benedict XVI and warned that Muslims will conquer Rome. He also organized a demonstration in London after the Danish cartoon controversy, in which people dressed as suicide bombers held banners that said: "Behead Those Who Insult Islam." In a 2005 interview with the BBC program, Hardtalk, ( after the 7/7 terrorist attack in London, in which 56 people died), Choudary condemned the killing of innocent people, but argued that non-Muslims cannot be considered innocent, as they are guilty of not embracing Islam; therefore, killing them all is legitimate. Islam4UK has been accused of being linked to suicide killers in Israel and the UK. It openly urges Muslims to rebel against the state and promote an Islamic revolution that would lead to the establishment of an Islamic caliphate which would rule the world. Its website declares that: "In light of the Islamic resurgence taking place around the world, particularly in the United Kingdom, one can definitively come to the conclusion that the dawn of a new era is close and that the prophecies of the Final Messenger Muhammad in relation to the domination of Islam worldwide are indeed true; consequently, we at Islam4UK felt it necessary to divulge to the British public what precise changes will occur when Britain transforms into this glorious dominion, not only as psychological preparation but also as a means of enticement to encourage and hasten its implementation." The program of Islam4UK is clear. Its platform was to transform the United Kingdom in an Islamist "glorious dominion": mocking and destroying the symbols of British identity would have been a crucial step towards this goal. Wootton Basset represented an ideal target — an authentic and genuine emblem of patriotic pride. Thus, the "psychological preparation" to the new era in which Islam would dominate the world included the eradication of the symbol of this small, but symbolically powerful, English town. At the very beginning of Western civilization, the tragedy Antigone by Sophocles maintained that the respect for the dead was a natural right, an essential feature of human culture. The insult of Islam4UK to the service personnel who gave their lives in Afghanistan would have been immoral and blasphemous, directly aimed at insulting the fallen soldiers and their families. Further, the march organized by the Islamic extremist group would have been an outrage against Her Majesty Armed Forces, the country and the crown — an act which derided the patriotic, moral and religious feelings of the United Kingdom. However, the initiative of Islam4UK provoked a healthy reaction from the British public. A society that has always been described as apathetic and indulgent towards the mounting tide of radical and violent Islam reacted with bitter resentment and moral clarity. Prime Minister Gordon Brown described the planned protest march as "abhorrent and offensive." Then UK Home Secretary Alan Johnson announced the decision of the government to ban the radical Islamist group. Given the rising anger of the British people against the plans of Islam4UK, the government was forced to take this decision. After the ban, Anjem Choudary, the leader of Islam4UK, declared the decision of the British government "a failure for the concepts of democracy and freedom." On the January 12, the day of the ban, Choudary was a guest on the BBC program Newsnight, renewing his message of hatred. Oddly, he complained about the lack of democracy and free speech in the country, while talking on state television in front of millions of people. He was playing the role of a poor victim of Western aggression, according to the old strategy of radical Islam, and striking a chord in the hearts of many on the Left. But in the UK, millions of people are starting to understand what is at stake. Contact Susana K-M by email at suanema@gmail.com |
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IS HE A CHARLATAN OR JUST A KNAVE?
Posted by Paul Lademain, January 31, 2010. |
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News report states: "President Peres attempted to ease King Abdullah's concerns by assuring him that the current Israeli government is committed to dividing the Land of Israel and allowing for the creation of a PA state." |
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Either Peres is a charlatan who knows international law but is determined to subsume it under his peculiar lies or else he is demented. Were he to speak truthfully, he would speak in the past tense inasmuch as the Land of Israel has already been divided — and wrongfully so — when the Land of Israel was severed in order to create the artificial state of Jordan. Abdullah is wary and bluffing angrily, because he knows he is but a tenant on Israel's land ... but Abdullah also knows how easy it is to bully and bluff weak and morally infirm old men. And the leader of Israel's weak old men is the fulsomely voluble Polish immigrant, Shimon Peres. We all know that Peres has no power to disestablish international law and overturn the rights and advantages conferred long ago upon Israel (then called "Palestine — the Homeland of the Jews".) Nor may he, or anyone else, alter the Jewish Homeland's boundaries. Boundaries that are far more extensive than some Jewish politicians and Israeli leaders understand. Regardless, these far-flung boundaries still exist as a matter of international law and encompass the lands coveted by the Arab invaders squatting on Israel's land. But alas, neither the truth nor the law are apt to deter the increasingly wrong-headed antics of the strange man serving as Israel's token president — antics that make him the dearly beloved of Israel's would-be conquerors. Perhaps he is sinking into the senility that undid Sharon? Or perhaps Peres speaks as he does out of an angry old man's determination to bring company with him when he sinks into his grave. But it is more likely that poor old Peres is the sort of masochist who would rather be spat upon and beaten than ever be ignored. But still, we must ask this question: How can decent Israelis allow this man to continue to stir mud into Israel's clean waters? Don't you value your faith? Your country? Your values and your worth as human beings? Don't you value your destiny? If you do, then you must immediately send this old man to bed before he leads poor Abdullah further astray. Well, let's get something straight: Even if israel were to be destroyed (heaven forbid) and all Israelis killed in a nuclear attack (heaven forbid) the world will nonetheless continue to suffer under the lash of fascism such as what Islam truly is. So please DO tell your resident seditionists that their aim of destroying Israel is a fruitless exercise because sacrificing Israel will not spare the world from the scourge of Islam. Islam is the antithesis of freedom; it has always been and ever shall be. Islam dresses itself up in an ever-changing cloak of brash double-speak and cynical goobledy-gook. Islam was and remains designed to deceive for the sake of its elite. Deal with it with all your might. If love-starved Peres hopes to purchase affection by bestowing his own worldly goods upon Israel's Hashemite detractors then so let it be. (Just so long as this gesture does not imperil others.) But please understand that he still has this regrettably ingrained preference for bartering away not his own shirt but rather the coat on his brother's back. We therefore submit that Peres does not serve anyone — not even his own selfish self — by inviting Abdullah to imagine that the Hashemites can take the lands of Israel. They cannot ... and certainly NOT for the sake of planting Abdullah's arabs on Israeli soil. Viva Israel from the SC4Z — Secular Christians for Zionism Contact Paul Lademain by email at lademain@verizon.net |
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YAHOO WIPES ARIEL ISRAEL OFF THE MAP; SUBSTITUTES JENIN
Posted by Boris Celser, January 30, 2010. |
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This is from Mere Rhetoric
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Yahoo Wipes "Ariel, Israel" Off The Map, Replaces It With "Jenin, Palestinian Occupied Territories" 
Kudos to whatever seething, obsessive anti-Israel organization managed to sneak this in under the radar. Drip drip drip delegitimization of the Jewish State is after all the strategy du jour. But seriously? This is what we're doing now? Apparently someone has convinced Yahoo to go into their News Weather data, erase "Ariel, Israel" as a valid location, and replace it with "Jenin, Palestinian Occupied Territories." The 20,000 residents from Ariel, where the relevant weather station is built, apparently don't deserve their own weather. Yahoo has decreed that it belongs to the residents of Jenin, which is 25 miles north and 850 feet lower. It's absurd that this kind of petty crap even has to be addressed, but inasmuch as it's part and parcel of a broad-based replacement geography campaign it's unfortunately not trivial. Someone should ask Yahoo if there's a list somewhere: which Israeli cities are Israelis allowed to keep, which do the Palestinians deign to let them share, which are entirely Palestinian, and which are simply unworthy of existing? Because given how they've gone out of their way to divide up Weather Channel data — more on that in a sec — apparently Israel's capital, the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, and the city of Ariel are all in play. As near as I can tell it was Reut Cohen who first reported that something was up. I've put the screencaps I reference at the end of this post for readability purposes: Last night he called me to tell me that Ariel, Israel, which is an Israeli town near Jordan's west border, had been renamed... Rather than seeing the weather for Ariel [on Yahoo's weather widget], he saw "Jenin, Palestinian Occupied Territories" listed in its stead... It is unclear why the change was made, but it is clear that those who deny the right of Israel to exist consistently refer to all of Israel — not just Ariel, Israel — as occupied territories... It's this sort of blatant political revisionism of renaming Israeli cities that we are up against... When it comes to historic revisionism, the so-called myth of tolerance and acceptance of Middle Eastern Jewry is a perfect example of history re-written to suit the agenda of Arab Nationalists and/or Islamic Totalitarian organizations. Here's where things get weird. Yahoo's weather widget just takes data from Yahoo's Weather site, which in turn gets its information from The Weather Channel. If you use The Weather Channel's weather.com to check what's going on in "Ariel, Israel" you get data from the weather station that — not coincidentally — is in Ariel. The Weather Channel doesn't have any data for "Jenin, Palestinian Occupied Territories," which makes sense since Jenin doesn't have a weather station. [1] The results are exactly the opposite on Yahoo Weather. There's nothing available for "Ariel, Israel." So if you're one of the 20,000 Israelis who live there, sorry. But there is a location named "Jenin, Occupied Palestinian Territories," which is what they're calling the data that is actually coming from Ariel.[2] Again: "Ariel, Israel" has been delisted as a real place and replaced by "Jenin, Palestinian Occupied Territories." That would be bad enough. But it's particularly absurd when the "Jenin" data is coming from a station that's in a city Yahoo refuses to provide the weather for. They're just intercepting the data and retagging the "name" field, so the Palestinians can feel included or justified or something. Now Yahoo could have just doubled the weather.com data, leaving an "Ariel" entry and copying everything over to a second "Jenin" entry. That would still have been a deliberate political move. Presumably weather-seeking Jenin residents don't want to look up the name of the closest Israeli city because it's too Jewish and icky, but Yahoo doesn't have to indulge them. Still, it would have been closer to justifiable. The rest of the world seems eager to gratify Palestinian fantasies about things that don't actually exist — "Palestine," a Palestinian civic sphere, and so on — so why not Yahoo? But that's not what they did. What they did is erase the entry for the Israeli city where the weather station is and replace it with the name of a Palestinian city where the weather station isn't. That's why if you click on "Extended Forecast" on Yahoo's Jenin listing it takes you to the weather.com Ariel page. Yahoo went out of their way to do this, just like they went out of their way to list the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo as a West Bank city in the "Palestinian Occupied Territories." [3] So we've got an Israeli city that no longer exists and an Israeli city that's been ceded to the Palestinians. But there's a third category of deliberate geographical tinkering. Yahoo has made the political decision to pretend that Jerusalem is both an Israeli city and a Palestinian city. The data is drawn from the same place — The Weather Channel's page for Jerusalem, Israel — but Palestinian fantasies must be attended to. [4] It's cute that Yahoo has degrees of craven anti-Israel replacement geography. So seriously — is there a list? Boris Celser is a Canadian. Contact him at celser@telusplanet.net |
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KEEPING ZIONISM'S PROMISE
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 30, 2010. |
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As you read the following, you may conclude that the Nations have stood up to be counted — for G-d's destruction. They failed the 'litmus test' by again pursuing and persecuting the Jews. Payment and retribution are long past due. So, how will G-d exact payment? For years I have prayed for earthquakes, super-storms, disease, famine, crop killing freezes or drought, collapse of the economies for all those nations pursuing Israel and the Jewish people. If you think I am enraged, wait until the nations feel the whip of G-d. It has been happening for several years and ramping up. The "nations" are getting more ugly by the day. Recall how Pharaoh felt compelled to chase the Jews who he had finally let go. He and his Egyptian soldiers chased them to the Sea of Reeds. G-d opened the Sea for the Jews to cross. Then he closed it over the Egyptian soldiers chasing them, killing them all! Now recall how the German Nazis and European nations who collaborated with them to murder more than 6 million Jews. Only remnants of Jews escaped the Death Camps and the graveyards of Europe but, the hatred was so intensely vicious that they, like Pharaoh had to follow the Jews to their ancient homeland across the waters to finish what they, Hitler and Amin al Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Islam did not complete. Now I pray every day for the nations to pay their overdue debt to the Jews and the G-d Who sent us. Whether the Seas open or the earth levels their lands — whatever G-d selects, it's OK with me. The world will be better off without anti-Semitic killers and the land they stand on. This below was written by Caroline Glick and appeared in the Jerusalem Post. Contact her by email at caroline@carolineglick.com |
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Netanyahu used his speech at the notorious death camp to nudge what he referred to as "the enlightened nations of the world" to recognize that "murderous evil" has to be stopped. "Never again!" So declared Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as he spoke at Auschwitz-Birkenau on Wednesday, the 65th anniversary of its liberation. Netanyahu used his speech at the notorious death camp to nudge what he referred to as "the enlightened nations of the world" to recognize that "murderous evil" has to be stopped as early as possible to prevent it from achieving its aims. Unfortunately, the events of the past week show clearly that evil is on the march, and "the enlightened nations of the world" are on a coffee break from enlightenment. As Netanyahu addressed the world from the site of the most prolific genocide factory in human history, at the place where over a million Jews were gassed, starved, beaten, raped, frozen, shot and hanged and then burned in ovens, Iran's leaders were declaring loudly that they intend to finish what the Nazis started. They will destroy the Jewish people. Iran's dictator supremo Ali Khamenei used a photo-op with Mauritania's President Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz — who cut his own country's diplomatic ties with Israel last January — to renew his pledge to commit yet another Holocaust. As he put it, "Surely, the day will come when the nations of the region will witness the destruction of the Zionist regime... When the destruction happens will depend on how the Islamic nations approach the issue." And as he spoke, the ability of "the enlightened nations of the world" to deny that the Iranian regime is building a nuclear arsenal was finally and utterly wiped away. On Monday, Germany's Der Speigel reported that evidence gleaned from document intercepts and from the testimony of two senior Iranian defectors who were involved in the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Iran's nuclear program is not a peaceful one. The Iranians are designing and building nuclear warheads for their Shihab-3 ballistic missiles. According to a summary of the findings now circulating through the halls of power, Teheran will have the wherewithal to build nuclear warheads by 2012. So the Der Spiegel report showed that Iran is developing the capacity to carry out a second Holocaust in under a hundred years. And yet, in the face of their sure knowledge that evil is on the march, as they did 70 years ago, the "enlightened nations" of Europe are siding with evil against its would-be victims. On a popular level, as Sunday's release of the Jewish Agency's annual report on global anti-Semitism documented, there were more anti-Semitic attacks in Europe in 2009 than there had been in any single year since the Holocaust. The report stated that the attacks were carried out by Jew-haters on both the Left and the Right. Europe's anti-Semites wasted no time in proving the report was accurate. On Monday, Polish Catholic Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek said that Jews have "expropriated" the Holocaust as "a propaganda weapon." Jews, he claimed, "enjoy good press because they have powerful financial means behind them, enormous power and the unconditional backing of the United States, and this favors a certain arrogance that I find unbearable." Then we have the political alliance of leftist anti-Semites with Muslim anti-Semites. Together they not only attack Jews, they provide political cover for expanding those attacks by rejecting Israel's right to exist and justifying violent attacks against Jews outside Israel as the logical outcome of their politically correct anger at Israel for refusing to destroy itself. Case in point is Ilmar Reepalu, the mayor of Malmo, Sweden. Malmo is one of the most dangerous places for Jews in Europe. The city's small Jewish population is fleeing. The situation in Malmo was graphically demonstrated last March when Israel's tennis stars Amir Haddad and Andy Ram faced off against Swedish rivals at a Davis Cup tie in Malmo and Swedish authorities closed their game to the public. Malmo's Muslim residents and their post-Christian partners on the Left threatened to attack them. Malmo's authorities didn't think it was their responsibility to protect their Israeli guests. So Haddad and Ram were forced to play in an empty stadium. Interviewed in a local paper this week about the rise of anti-Semitic attacks in his city, Reepalu blamed Israel. In his view, the violence against Jews in Malmo by the far Left and Muslims, "spilled over from Gaza." By his lights the Jewish national liberation movement is just as bad as the Jewish annihilation movement. As he put it, "We accept neither Zionism nor anti-Semitism. They are extremes that place themselves above other groups they think are less important." Reepalu then blamed Malmo's Jews for their victimization by his fellow leftists and his Muslim comrades. As far as he is concerned, the Jews brought the violence on themselves last March when they responded to Haddad and Ram's treatment by holding a demonstration supporting Israel. In his view, Malmo's Jews need to separate themselves away from Israel, not support it. Since the Holocaust, old-style, right-wing anti-Semites in Europe have had a hard time getting political traction for their desire to see Jews suffer. But by conflating Jews with Israel, their colleagues on the Left have made sticking it to the Jews, our state and our supporters the easiest way to score political points. So it was that in her first speech as the EU's new foreign policy chief, Britain's Catherine Ashton went out of her way to condemn Israel for building in Jerusalem, closing its border with Hamas-controlled Gaza and defending itself from Palestinian terrorists in Judea and Samaria. As for Israel's friends, they are hounded, driven out of Europe and where possible placed on trial. Dutch MP Geert Wilders, the head of the Netherland's Freedom Party, is one of Israel's greatest supporters in Europe. Today Wilders is on trial for publicly criticizing what he views as the endemic anti-Semitism of the Koran. Against the backdrop of the persistence of right-wing Jew hatred, and the politically ascendant Red-Green alliance of anti-Semites, it makes sense that Europe will not raise a finger to prevent another Holocaust. And so, not surprisingly, in the wake of the Der Spiegel report, the EU's foreign ministers got together and decided not to support any new sanctions against Iran — unless they are passed by the UN Security Council. Since Europe's foreign ministers all know full well the Security Council will not pass sanctions against Iran because China has announced that it will veto any sanctions against Iran, this week the EU's foreign ministers got together and essentially said they're okay with another Holocaust. With Europe out, and with "enlightened" Asian, African and South American countries never really in the game, the only "enlightened" country that might be expected to stop murderous evil before it can carry out its aims is the United States. But unfortunately, like the Europeans, the Americans don't feel like being responsible. President Barack Obama, his administration and many of his fellow Democrats would rather take on Israel. This week 54 Democratic members of Congress wrote Obama a letter asking him to apply pressure on Israel to remove its restrictions on the import of goods — including dual use goods like construction materials — to Hamas-controlled Gaza. Never mind that under US law it is legally problematic to provide any aid, (including the $300 million Obama has pledged) to Gaza in light of the fact that it is controlled by a terrorist organization. For its part, the administration apparently believes that there is no reason to seek the overthrow of Hamas simply because the US is required by US law and binding UN Security Council resolutions to do so. The US Treasury Department has reportedly just removed all but one Hamas official from its list of known terrorists and so paved the way for Hamas to receive funding from Europe. As for Israel, during his trip here this week, Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell came up with a revolutionary new idea. In the face of Palestinian intransigence, Mitchell introduced the earthshaking concept of pressuring Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians. This week Mitchell asked Israel to stop all of its counterterror operations in Judea and Samaria, and allow Palestinian forces to operate not only in the Palestinian areas, but in predominantly Israeli areas as well. Specifically, Mitchell asked Israel to allow Palestinian forces to deploy in what the arguably defunct Oslo agreements refer to as Area C, where the Palestinian Authority has no security authority whatsoever. When it comes to Iran, the Obama administration behaves as though the jury is still out on whether the mullahs are even seeking nuclear weapons. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last Thursday that Iran might face some tough statements from the world if it continues to refuse to be appeased by the Obama White House, although she couldn't say whether any actual steps would be taken to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, which she wouldn't acknowledge the mullahs are developing. And in his State of the Union address on Wednesday, Obama himself made clear that the US will do nothing to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. As far as Obama is concerned, the nuclear arsenal in most urgent need of evisceration is the US's nuclear arsenal. All of this just goes to show that at the end of the day, now when the chips are down, there is only one "enlightened" nation in the world that may actually do something to prevent the advance of murderous evil. And Israel unfortunately is of two minds on the issue. On the one hand, we have Netanyahu, who is clearly focused on preventing another Holocaust of Jewry. But on the other hand, we have Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who on Tuesday claimed that the absence of peace with the Palestinians — not Iran — is the greatest threat that Israel faces today. As he put it, "The lack of defined boundaries within Israel, and not an Iranian bomb, is the greatest threat to our future." Barak's outrageous pronouncement is a succinct encapsulation of the great aspiration of the Israeli Left. If he could only be right, then Israel would be able to singlehandedly solve all the problems of the region and be immediately adored by the likes of the EU and the Obama administration just by making itself smaller. So with the scourge of moral and strategic blindness rampant not only in Europe and America, but within his own government, Netanyahu rapidly approaches his moment of truth. In what will undoubtedly be the most fateful decision of his life, he will have to decide whether Iran will become a nuclear power, or whether Israel, standing alone, will prevent it from becoming a nuclear power. Was his declaration of "Never Again," at Auschwitz just the bloviating of yet another "enlightened" leader who lacks the courage of his convictions? Or was it a solemn vow that Zionism's promise will be kept?
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@gwinstonglobal.org |
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WHY AREN'T THESE MUSLIM MAD DOGS ACTIONS BEING REPORTED?
Posted by CPocerl, January 30, 2010. |
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This is from Bare Naked Islam
"MUSLIM SAVAGES go wilding in the streets of London, brutally attacking non-Muslims with hammers." The original article has additional pictures. |
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Clearly these hammer carrying MUSLIM gangs of thugs were looking for and maliciously prepared to wage street jihad — with their usual cowardly MO of greatly outnumbering any chosen victims. 
What started out as a family celebration of New Year's Eve in the Angel and Crown pub on Roman Road, Bethnal Green ended with four family members being attacked by a gang of muslim thugs. Two brothers, Thomas and David Barry, had their bodies pummelled and their faces smashed when they were set upon by a gang of up to 30 "youths" armed with hammers. The brothers had gone outside the pub to go to the aid of Thomas's son and his 16 yr. old girlfriend who the muslim gang had already attacked. David and Thomas Barry were left smashed, bloody and laying unconscious in the road. Police from the muslim 'enriched' Tower Hamlets "... said the suspects are all aged 16-18 and are Muslim. I suppose we should at least be thankful that the police didn't trot out the usual statement of this attack being a "one off". Clearly evidence grows daily as to the contrary. But for the miracle of breakthrough maxillofacial surgery, David and his brother Thomas would have been disfigured for life. As it is David has suffered permanent nerve damage with no feelings in the right side of his face as well as impaired hand/eye coordination which is likely to have a deleterious affect on his resuming his career as a communications engineer.
Channel 4 is currently preparing a documentary on the Barry brothers' surgery. What do you think are the chances Channel 4 will highlight escalating muslim gang violence as being responsible for the Barry's horrific injuries? Both brothers were hit with hammers by a gang of up to 30 youths during the attack near the Angel and Crown pub in Roman Road, Bethnal Green, knocking them both unconscious and leaving them needing expert surgery to rebuild their faces. 
The injuries of younger brother David, 41, were so severe that half of his face was caved in with a broken cheekbone, broken jaw in six places, broken palate and broken teeth.Experts at the hospital in Whitechapel, led by consultant surgeon Simon Holmes, worked for four-and-a-half hours to rebuild the right side of his face, fixing titanium plates to his bone with 25 nuts and bolts.
A member of the mob David said: "The roof of my mouth was split in half so the right side of my face had dropped and my eyes weren't level. Half of my teeth were in the normal place and the other half were about an inch lower. "They went in through the inside of my mouth and popped my eye out of its socket so they could fit the plates in my cheek; it's amazing what they can do. But David, a communications engineer who lives in Ilford, said the repercussions of the attack will stay with him for life and doctors do not yet know the extent of the permanent damage done. "I've got no feeling in the right side of my face," he explained. "The nerves were so badly damaged that I'm never going to get it back and I'll have to live with it forever. "My eyes are still slightly out of alignment and because of that my hand-eye coordination has gone out the window. "I don't know how that'd going to affect my ability to do my job yet; I work with very fine wires so hand-eye coordination is very important." Brother Thomas, 45, a French polisher who lives in Arbery Road, Bow with his wife Bridget and son Christopher, was hit once in the face and three times over the head with a hammer during the attack.
Contact CPocerl at Cpocerl@aol.com
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SOLDIER REFUSES TO UPROOT JEWS FROM THE LAND OF ISRAEL
Posted by Yaacov Levi, January 30, 2010. |
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This is a translation of an article appearing in Maariv about a soldier, Aryeh Arbus, who called for refusal of order to uproot Jews from the Land of Israel and does not regret it. It was written by Roi Sharon and was originally in
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The Soldier who called for Refusal: I would do it again. "The banner was a provocation in order to send a message. We need to remove people who change the Army's mission" Private Arbus, who waved the banner at the Western Wall, does not regret his actions. After Private Aryeh Arbus, who waved a banner against evacuating settlements during an army swearing-in ceremony at the Western Wall, was released from prison, he arrived for a conversation with the commander of the Kfir Brigade, Colonel Oran Avman. At the end of the two hour long conversation, Arbus pointed at the commander's head. "Do you know why that is there, and the ranks are placed on your shoulders?" he asked, "because it is important that the head should be above the rank. If your rank is above your head, you are a robot." Avman informed Arbus that he is dismissed from the brigade, and that he will recommend his dismissal from the IDF. The outward appearance of Arbus can be deceiving. He has the classic ultra-orthodox black yarmulke, the beard of a young kollel student, tzitzit hanging out of his clothing, and an extremely modest build. But the instant he opens his mouth, it because clear that he is not a robot in reserve duty. During basic training, he was a candidate to be selected as an outstanding soldier for his base. In his unit, he achieved the prestigious position of signal operator for the platoon commander, and in the professional opinion that his commander sent after the banner waving, it is written that he is a leading professional soldier. He is fluent, focused, and adopts clear statements. "There are senior officers in the army with a problem in their outlook, therefore a soldier like me confuses them", Arbus said to his family. "An outstanding soldier who challenges them with thinking out of the boundaries represents for them a problem. Soldiers with values are good soldiers, but they have values. The mixture between excellence and waving the banner drove the brigade commander crazy." "Waving the banner was a provocation", he admits in conversations with his friends. "Waving the banner was meant to send a message. It hurts me that I would need to make a provocation instead of sending a message in a direct way, but they have pushed us to a corner, and it is better that a person commits a minor transgression and not commit a severe transgression. From that perspective, I am not sorry. I am sorry that we would not to break the laws of military discipline in order to say something which is so logical, human, and Jewish." He left the Chassidic Yeshiva to help the Samarian Hills After he was dismissed from Kfir Brigade, Arbus was summoned to an incompatibility committee, made up of senior officers in the manpower system of the IDF. "They asked me there hypothetical questions", he said to his friends. "'What would you do tomorrow if they would say to you were assigned to distribute snacks to forces which are evacuating Jews?' I said to them that it would be hard for me to answer hypothetical questions and that I would need to think. They got mad at me. I said to them that a Jewish soldier is a thinking soldier. They said to me 'No, a Jewish soldier is a soldier that carries out orders', and they informed me that they would recommend releasing me from the army." It is the norm in the IDF that they judge a soldier after he committed a crime. But the very fact that they ask a soldier in the IDF if he would refuse an order, that is a precedent which says that the army has changed its role from defending Jews to something else. Perhaps now they will ask all IDF soldiers this question? We need to remove the people that change the role of the army, not those that preserve its role. "There are a range of orders that fit the army. They cannot take soldiers to disperse a student demonstration or Flotilla 13 to gather illegal workers, because that is not their role. I know from the fact that the government decides for the army, but the army has a role which has boundaries, and evacuation of Jews is outside of this boundary. Any act of the army against citizens is that of a third world country. Against Israeli Arabs, the Border Patrol acts, against Jewish citizens they don't know to do that?" Private Aryeh Arbus, #6105973, grew up in an ultra-orthodox household in Jerusalem, tenth generation of a Gur Chassidic family. His mother is a psychologist, and his father is a businessman. Eleven siblings, all still in the ultra-orthodox world. A bit before age 18, he left the Chassidic Yeshiva, and began to hand out in the Samarian hills. "The Army doesn't suit you" Today, he lives in Giv'at Skali in Elon Moreh, married to Ruhama, and father to the three month old Reishit. He has foregone the woolen yarmulke of the hilltop youth. "I have never been too excited about external symbols, this yarmulke or another," he said to his friends. "Exactly the opposite. When I was a boy with a suit and hat, I went around in sandals. People were confused. I love showing people conflicting things, that they will think you are "gross" or you are "evil", and after two minutes, they will think something else altogether." Like many of his hilltop friends, Arbus felt frustrated by the IDF's implementation of the Disengagement Plan. He said to the soldier at the Draft Office "I want to enlist, but I will not take a part in political assignments". A year ago, he thought about his military service again. "Because the values situation of the army, I was uncertain about enlisting", he said to his associates. "I decided to enlist for two reasons. The first and decisive one was due to the declaration of Chief of Staff Ashkenazi who announced upon assuming his office that the army would not take part in political assignments. The second reason was Operation 'Cast Lead'. At that time, I had a rising of spirit, a desire to protect the lives of soldiers. I arrived at the conclusion that the army doesn't belong to generals, but to the nation." His family recommended not enlisting. His friends joined them. "The Army doesn't suit you", they tried to convince him. Today, they say to him "see, we were right", but Arbus doesn't have regrets. "I still think that they are wrong. I don't go with the herd. They are mad that I enlisted, but I decided to be a simple Jew, what is good — we assist, and what is bad we distance ourselves. The problem is that there are people that are pulling the army to the wrong place, to a place of disagreement." Damage to Mutual Responsibility After the committee's recommendation, Arbus sent a letter to the commander of the Absorption and Classification Base, Colonel Gadi Agmon, in which he objected to the recommendation to release him from the army. "It pains me that we have been forced, my friends and I, to act in a few instances in this manner, which is in conflict with army principles and harms IDF discipline", he wrote. "This action came from a feeling of being pushed toa corner and from a lack of choice, and a fear from an order which would obligate me to expel my wife and daughter and friends and family from their homes. Is there not a place for everyone, my hurting friends and I, a place in the nation's army whose job is the security of the nation of Israel in its land?" Arbus wrote further: "Is it possible that the IDF will act as it did with me in the incompatibility commission and require soldiers to answer how they would act in a hypothetical situation, like an order that has yet to be given and stands on the thin line between conscious and his obligations as a soldier? If so, why doesn't the IDF go out with a questionnaire of all soldiers, or at least the soldiers which come from frameworks which don't outright reject refusal of orders which are against their religion and faith, and disqualify ahead of time from their obligation to defend Israel and its land?" For the conclusion of his objection letter, he wrote that "a process such as that of my release from the IDF, will harm the integration and the mutual responsibility between the different parts of the nation of Israel, who meet in the IDF and see it as the nation's army, which gives every Jew the opportunity to protect and defend and to help continue the existence of the nation of Israel in the Land of Israel. "Even Leftists have joined our protest" Arbus was sent to serve in the adjutancy department of the Bik'ah Brigade, and on Wednesday, the deputy brigade commander informed him that the final decision had been made to release him from army service. On Sunday he will go to the induction center, where he will return his equipment and be released. This week, Arbus reconstructed, in conversations with his friends, the decision to wave the banner at the Western Wall, the decision which sent him for 20 days incarceration in Prison Six, and his removal from army service. "Preceding it were developments and small protests within the company, which were silenced by the officers", he said to them. "The idea for the banner was born in a brainstorm discussion with friends in the company, and we came to the conclusion that this is the right thing to do. We tried, but there was no other choice. It pains me, but I do not regret it. If I could pass on the message in a way that would follow army laws, I would be happy, but there was no possibility." "We had a feeling that this disciplinary crime was dwarfed by the human crime being committed here. If it was possible to turn back the clock, I would do it again just the same. I am confident that in the long run, I brought a great benefit to the IDF, and everyone will understand that. Not in waving the banner, but in the message. I didn't know that in the IDF document it is written that the role of the army is to evict Jews. If this were the task of the army, then we would politely part ways." "I want to remain in the army in order to defend the nation of Israel and its land. If they would not bring me to the situation of a political assignment, then I don't have a problem. I, after all, did not refuse any order, but in the moment that the army takes my assigned battalion on an evacuation assignment, that is called bringing me to an impossible situation. It pains me." The protest act, he says to his associates, won the support from all sides of the political map. "Even Leftists joined our protest, because from their perspective this is an individual within the army, and also other people expressed their support with reservations. I don't have a problem that they condemned it from the Right. That is great. That is how the Arab Israelis work. One breaks to the right, and then afterwards the rest line up behind. I am ahead of everyone else. If they want that I will have the role of the extremist, I will be in the role of the extremist. We need to challenge the public." Making Honor Arbus paved the way for placard scenes in Kfir Brigade, but according to him, it is time to update the protest methods. The banners have been exhausted, he believes. "Another banner won't do anything. The Brigade Commander asked me during the interview after jail which other ideas I had in my head. I responded 'I compartmentalize you.'" Arbus remembers his army service from the moment of the protest at the Western Wall as a positive experience. "They honor me every place in the army", he tells his friends, "in jail they called me 'armed', they would let me go first in to the cafeteria. They made me a hero. Even on other bases where I was it was the same. You do not know how wide the consensus is in the army on this matter. Unlike Achiya Ovadya, from the same platoon, who was dismissed from the brigade and from the Hesder track, but remained in the army, Arbus understood already from the beginning of the week that he was on the way out. "They made me a non-commissioned adjutancy officer in the Bik'ah Brigade, and I have no problem with that. Even an adjutant contributes to the defense of the nation of Israel. I am not prepared to see them punish a soldier because he informs them that he will not act against his conscious. But to punish a soldier twice on the same crime, that is already illegal." "I have no idea why they kicked me out of the army, and other soldiers with much more serious disciplinary problems went back to their units after their incarceration. I feel hurt. My enlistment to the army, in spite of my background, helped bring unify the rifts between the different sectors in the nation of Israel and the IDF. And today when they throw me out, I can't look my family in the eyes after I said 'they want us to help, to defend, to protect we need to enlist together with everyone else'. And see today they kick me like a dog." Contact Yaacov Levi by email at jlevi_us@yahoo.com |
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IS SHARIA BANKING SAFE FOR CANADA?
Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, January 30, 2010. |
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This was forwarded by Rachel Ehrenfelld. It was written by Dan Verbin. |
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With the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation releasing a report this week that may pave the way for widespread availability of Islamic financial instruments in Canada — including Sharia-compliant mortgages — an expert on Islamic banking is cautioning that Canadians should examine the implications of implementing the report's recommendations. Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, a New York-based author who specializes in financial issues related to terrorism, told Shalom Life that Sharia-compliant mortgages often contain a myriad of hidden fees, inherent in the Islamic banking system. Since the Koran prohibits interest, Sharia-based banks create derivatives, which include fees that most borrowers are not told about upfront. Some of the fees go for zakat (the Third Pillar of Islam, between 2.5 per cent for individuals to 20 per cent "tax" for foreign business). Others have an imbedded "purification" process for "unislamic" cash flows. Both are sent to major depositories in the Middle East and Malaysia and then distributed to Islamic charities for the welfare of Muslims and the promotion of Islam. "Where is the money being sent and how is it the money used?" Ehrenfeld asked. For instance, Ehrenfeld explained that the Islamic version of the bond — called sukuk — has qualifications embedded in it to purify the portion of the fund that does not meet Islamic standards. In other words, the wealth created by the corporations that a Sharia-compliant fund may invest in inevitably contains some form of interest, which is against Islamic law. A corresponding per cent of the bond is therefore donated to charity. Clients are not told of the specific purifications — or the names of the charitable organizations on the receiving end the allotment — since the financial instruments are sent to central auditing houses to be purified. The 88-page report, compiled by law firm Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP, concluded that Sharia financing would be compatible with Canadian banking regulations and accounting standards if implemented. It noted that Islamic banking measures are offered worldwide, though they generally account for only a small percentage of financial traffic in Muslim countries. Ehrenfeld questioned whether the introduction of Sharia-compliant banking into Canada and Western countries — according to the Mail Online, assets held by Britain's $18 billion Islamic banking system tower over Muslim states such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt — is not a backdoor method to gradually legitimize the introduction of wider Sharia law into liberal democracies. "You agree to this, why don't you agree to the rest? Sharia controls all aspects of life," she said. "Why should anybody in the West have to abide by Islamic rules?" She stressed that the most troubling aspect of Sharia banking is how little is actually known about what goes on internally and questioned why a system with so many pertinent questions left unanswered should be allowed to operate in Western countries. "Sharia banking is a made up thing. It's not written in the Koran. It has been developed by the Muslim Brotherhood," she said. "People know very little about it and the so-called Sharia-experts are making up the rules along the way. This is not safe. This is not transparent and people should not allow it." Ehrenfeld sees a real possibility that Sharia banking is an attempt by Islamists to "penetrate the Western financial system" with the aim of "destabilizing the West." "The Ummah is what the Muslim Brotherhood wants," she said. "What better way to do it then penetrate and corrupt the economy?" One thing is clear — there are too many questions. Unfortunately, the implications of Sharia banking's introduction into Canadian society is not something that is on the media's radar these days. Ehrenfeld thinks she knows why. "Because (the media) is P.C., as are most Western governments." But, "There are many issues that are not 'kosher' in Islamic banking." Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com |
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SURVIVOR OF 1929 HEBRON MASSACRE DIES
Posted by Hebron Jewish Community, January 30, 2010. |
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Yosef Lazarovsky died last Thursday on the thirteenth of Shvat (28.1.10). Yosef Lazarovsky was a survivor of the 1929 riots in Hebron. His father Bezalel father ran a board house for Yeshiva students. Yosef's father, Bezalel, his sister Devorah and his uncle Yisrael Lazarovsky, a yeshiva student were murdered before his eyes. His maternal grandfather, Aharon Leib Gottlevsky, a resident of Herzliya, who came to Hebron to stay with his family that Shabbat, was also murdered. They were all murdered at the Slonim home, where they fled to find refuge from the rioters. Yosef was about five years old. Following the murder of his father and uncle, his grandfather held him and read along with him "Shema Israel", before he too was murdered. Sitting beside him was a yeshiva student who was murdered, collapsed and fell on him. Yosef was covered with blood, beaten in the head and lost consciousness. The yeshiva boy's blood covered him; the rioters left him for dead. That is how he was saved. His sister Deborah died a few days later. She was buried in a plot dedicated to the victims of the 1929 Tarpat riots on the Mount of Olives in a grave together with five year old Aharon Slonim who also was injured in the riots. One of Yosef's younger sisters also survived. She died several years ago. The story of Yosef's mother's survival is amazing. She was beaten when rioters held knives to her, next to her younger sister. She was brought together with the wounded to Jerusalem, and believed to be dead. She was transferred to the Mission hospital on Nevi'im Street, and placed in a room with the dead. Her sister, a nurse at Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem, went to the morgue and realized that she still had a pulse; but the Arab doctor in charge refused to allowed her to approach. She went to Machaneh Yehuda market and hired four Arab porters; they secretly removed her and brought her to Hadassah hospital. She remained there for a year and a half until she recovered In his younger years, Yosef served in the Palyam (the Palmach's naval detachment), and then served for many years in the security services. In recent years, Yosef led a struggle to be recognized as an orphan victim of enemy hostilities, but was not successful. This past summer Yosef Lazarovsky visited Hebron. He told the story of the massacre in detail, with total clarity and control. He was invited to speak at the State memorial service marking the eightieth anniversary of the riots and massacre held in Hebron. His speech stirred the hundreds in attendance. [http://goo.gl/RWh7] May his memory be blessed. You can contribute directly in Israel to The Jewish Community of Hebron, POB105, Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100, email: hebron@hebron.org.il or phone: 972-52-431-7055. In USA, write to The Hebron Fund, 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230, email: hebronfund@aol.com or phone: 718 677 6886. |
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COURT RULES LEFTIST PROTEST LEGAL; ISRAEL OFFERS TO FREE FATAH
PRISONERS; OBAMA: ARABS AND ISRAEL BLOCK PEACE
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 30, 2010. |
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ISRAELI COURT RULES LEFTIST PROTEST LEGAL: UPDATE Previously we reported that police dispersed a leftist demonstration in the Shimon HaTzaddik neighborhood of Jerusalem as illegal, because it did not have a police permit. The Jerusalem Magistrate court ruled the demonstration legal. Explanation: if demonstrators do not hold speeches or lectures, they do not need a police permit. They may carry signs and loudspeakers. The leftist demonstration against Jews who moved into that neighborhood was by placards, not speeches. The court upheld the arrest of 18 of the demonstrators for standing in traffic on the wrong side of a police barricade. Land of Israel activists now plan to counter-demonstrate without a
police permit
ISRAEL OFFERS TO FREE HUNDREDS OF FATAH PRISONERS Speaking for Israel, PM Netanyahu offered to free hundreds of Fatah prisoners for goodwill, if negotiations start. Negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) would be mediated by the U.S. (www.imra.org.il, 1/29). Considering that Fatah is Abbas' militia and that Abbas encourages terrorism, isn't it the Arabs who need to demonstrate goodwill? They never have. Israel often has. Israel's many goodwill gestures fail to earn goodwill. How can they, when the Muslim Arabs consider terrorism as a just means of combat against Israel and war against the Jewish state a religious duty? The P.A. considers itself entitled to have convicted Fatah prisoners released, despite having signed peace agreements accepting their imprisonment or extradition for violence committed after the signing. Suggested goodwill gesture by Abbas: arrest wanted terrorists, and the IDF would not have to seek them out, itself. The U.S. has exerted one-sided pressure against Israel, including threats to impose sanctions against it. Would an independent, patriotic, and prudent Israeli government have the U.S. play the role of mediator? OBAMA ACCUSES ARABS AND ISRAEL OF BLOCKING PEACE President Obama told a Tampa audience that "extremists" in both the Israeli coalition and in the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) hold their leaders back from making peace. He identified the Arab extremists as belonging to Hamas, but not the Israeli "extremists." He said that Abbas wants peace (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/, 1/29). There is no indication that Abbas wants peace. He has demanded Israeli concessions that would render Israel indefensible, yet said that if not all his demands are met, he would launch a war on Israel. Nor has he repudiated Fatah ideology of wanting to conquer Israel. Indeed, his schools teach that Israel belongs to his people. So what peace is being blocked by Israel? Obama is confusing peace with peace agreement. Israel has signed peace agreements with the P.A., and got wars but not peace. (For more on Obama, try my category, "U.S..") 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 and visit his website:
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COLLAPSE OF THE PA AUTHORITY?
Posted by Susana K-M, January 30, 2010. |
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This was written by William Katz, and it is archived on his website:
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COLLAPSE OF THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY? — Khaled Abu Toameh is a remarkable Palestinian journalist who calls 'em as he sees 'em. He is one of the stars of our Hudson New York website, as well as a correspondent for the Jerusalem Post. Here he gets behind what could turn out to be a major foreign story of 2010, the possible collapse of the Palestinian Authority — the so-called "peace partner" for Israel — and its replacement by Hamas. A special thanks to one of Urgent Agenda's best sources, international observer Susana Kohan, for alerting us to this: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has surrounded himself with many of the corrupt officials who used to work for his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, and that's why Hamas will one day take control of the West Bank, Fahmi Shabaneh, who was appointed by Abbas four years ago to root out corruption in the Palestinian Authority, said on Thursday. And that would be a disaster for the Middle East and American efforts there. In an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post, Shabaneh, who until recently was in charge of the Anti-Corruption Department in the PA's General Intelligence Service (GIS), warned that what happened in the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007, when Hamas managed to overthrow the Fatah-controlled regime, is likely to recur in the West Bank. I wonder if our own State Department is aware of this. From the way the department acts, I wouldn't think so. Shabaneh said that many Palestinians in the West Bank have lost hope that the PA would one day be reformed. "The Palestinian Authority is very corrupt and needs to be overhauled," he said. Incredible. That's our money, earned by American workers. Did we ever ask where it went? "In his pre-election platform, President Abbas promised to end financial corruption and implement major reforms, but he hasn't done much since then," he said. "Unfortunately, Abbas has surrounded himself with many of the thieves and officials who were involved in theft of public funds and who became icons of financial corruption." Again, some of it from America. Was he serious about Hamas taking over the ? "Yes, no question about that," he said. "It will happen one day if the state of corruption and anarchy continue in the West Bank. Finally... These corrupt officials know no limits. They even used to forge Arafat's signature to obtain money by fraud," he said. COMMENT: Please remember this the next time someone mouths the words "peace process." Contact Susana K-M by email at suanema@gmail.com |
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STUDY: TALIBAN A BUNCH OF CLOSETED HOMOSEXUALS / PEDOPHILES
Posted by CPocerl, January 29, 2010. |
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This comes from The Jawa Report
Study: Taliban a Bunch of Closeted Homosexuals Who Also Are Pedophiles Fox News: An unclassified study from a military research unit in southern Afghanistan details how homosexual behavior is unusually common among men in the large ethnic group known as Pashtuns — though they seem to be in complete denial about it. |
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For the three of you who don't already know, Taliban fighters are overwhelmingly Pashtun. Also, the report is so disgusting-funny (is there a word for something that is repugnant but makes you laugh hysterically?) that I've been sitting here trying to come up with some snarky commentary — but, really, what more could I add? I mean, anally contracted gonorrhea? You can't make that sh*t up! The study, obtained by Fox News, found that Pashtun men commonly have sex with other men, admire other men physically, have sexual relationships with boys and shun women both socially and sexually — yet they completely reject the label of "homosexual." The research was conducted as part of a longstanding effort to better understand Afghan culture and improve Western interaction with the local people. ... In one instance, a group of local male interpreters had contracted gonorrhea anally but refused to believe they could have contracted it sexually — "because they were not homosexuals." Apparently, according to the report, Pashtun men interpret the Islamic prohibition on homosexuality to mean they cannot "love" another man — but that doesn't mean they can't use men for "sexual gratification." ... The U.S. army medic also told members of the research unit that she and her colleagues had to explain to a local man how to get his wife pregnant. The report said: "When it was explained to him what was necessary, he reacted with disgust and asked, 'How could one feel desire to be with a woman, who God has made unclean, when one could be with a man, who is clean? Surely this must be wrong.' The report also detailed a disturbing practice in which older "men of status" keep young boys on hand for sexual relationships. One of the country's favorite sayings, the report said, is "women are for children, boys are for pleasure." Nothing says "not gay" louder than anally contracted gonorrhea. Also, NAMBLA, like Code Pink, now supporting the Taliban as freedom fighters. Oh yeah, hey Taliban. Tom Cruise called. He wants his closet back. Andy Dick also wants to know why you never cuddle anymore after exchanging anal gonorrhea? Yup, no commentary from me. None whatsoever.
Contact CPocerl at Cpocerl@aol.com
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HARVARD STUDY CONFIRMS AL QAEDA AGENTS INFILTRATED McMASTER UNIVERSITY
Posted by Cpocerl, January 29, 2010. |
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This appeared in the Last Crusade
Al Qaeda Receiving Nuke Training In Canada |
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A new study from Harvard University's Kennedy School confirms that leading al Qaeda agents flocked to McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario in their search for nuclear and strategic biological weapons. The study entitled "Al Qaeda's Weapons of Mass Destruction Threat: Hype or Reality" was penned by Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, a former CIA official and Director of Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence at the U.S. Department of Energy." NUCLEAR ATTACK IN THE WORKS 
The document affirms that Adnan el-Shukrijumah, the anointed facilitator for future attacks on American soul, attended McMaster in 2001 along with other al-Qaeda operators, including Abderraouf Ben-Habib Jdey and Zacharias Moussaoui. Mr. Shukrijumah and Mr. Jdey remain at large with $5 million bounties on their heads. Mr. Moussaoui is serving a life sentence without parole at the Federal Supermax Prison in Florence, Colorado for plotting "to murder thousands of innocent people in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania." McMaster University officials have denied that the agents were in campus and disputed allegations that Mr. Shukrijumah and his associates managed to gain access to the university's nuclear reactor in order to pilfer material. Since 2006, Dr. Paul L. Williams, a noted American journalist, has been sounding the alarm about the situation at the Canadian university. In response, McMaster has filed a $2 million defamation lawsuit against Dr. Williams. The trial is set to take place in April. The Harvard report further affirms that the nuclear threat from al Qaeda is very real and that the terror organization has devoted its assets and attention to mounting an attack on American soil with an improvised nuclear devise (IND). If al Qaeda intended to mount such an operation with "dirty nukes" or radiological dispersal devices, the Harvard report says, such an attack would have occurred shortly after 9/11.
Contact CPocerl at Cpocerl@aol.com
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CALIFORNIA PAID FOR 3 LIVER TRANSPLANTS FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS
Posted by CPocerl, January 29, 2010. |
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Immigration debate hits home for liver transplant patients The state funded the procedures for two young illegal migrants. But when they hit 21, coverage passed to L.A. County, which doesn't have the resources to implant the new organs they both needed again. This was written by Anna Gorman
(Anna.gorman@latimes.com)
and it appeared in the Los Angeles Times
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Ana Puente was an infant with a liver disorder when her aunt brought her illegally to the U.S. to seek medical care. She underwent two liver transplants at UCLA Medical Center as a child in 1989 and a third in 1998, each paid for by the state. But when Puente turned 21 last June, she aged out of her state-funded health insurance and was unable to continue treatment at UCLA. This year, her liver began failing again and she was hospitalized at County-USC Medical Center. In her Medi-Cal application, a USC doctor wrote, "Her current clinical course is irreversible, progressive and will lead to death without another liver transplant." The application was denied. The county gave her medication but does not have the resources to perform transplants. Late last month Puente learned of another, little-known option for patients with certain healthcare needs. If she notified U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that she was in the country illegally, state health officials might grant her full Medi-Cal coverage. Puente did so, her benefits were restored and she is now awaiting a fourth transplant at UCLA. Puente's case highlights two controversial issues: Should illegal immigrants receive liver transplants in the U.S. and should taxpayers pick up the cost? The average cost of a liver transplant and first-year follow-up is nearly $490,000, and anti-rejection medications can run more than $30,000 annually, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees transplantation nationwide. Donor livers are also in scarce supply. In California, nearly 3,700 people are on a waiting list for livers, according to the network. Last year, 767 liver transplants were performed in the state. More than 90% of the organs were given to U.S. citizens. Donor livers are generally allocated through a geographically based distribution system on the basis of how sick the patients are and how long they have been on the transplant waiting list. Immigration status does not play a role in allocating organs. But some say that it should and that illegal immigrants should return to their home countries for care rather than receive organs and costly transplants ahead of legal residents and U.S. citizens. "All transplants are about rationing," said Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA, which favors stricter controls on immigration. "I just don't think the public ought to be funding any kind of benefits for people who are breaking the law." Larry Gonzalez, a U.S. citizen who has hepatitis C, has known for a decade that he needs a new liver but was just placed on the transplant waiting list last week. "Why do we have to get in line behind immigrants, foreigners, when we have enough people here to fill the hospitals?" asked Gonzalez, 54, who lives in Ventura. "It just seems obvious to me that we shouldn't be taking a back seat." But Dr. Michael Shapiro, vice chairman of the ethics committee for the organ network, said illegal immigrants have just as much right to organ transplants as U.S. citizens. He said it is likely that more illegal immigrants donate organs than receive them. "People are people, and when you make an incision in an organ donor, you don't find little American flags planted on their organs," Shapiro said. Holes in the safety net Illegal immigrant children with certain severe, chronic illnesses are eligible for funding under a state program called California Children's Services. But the coverage ends when they turn 21. After that, they can receive free or low-cost treatment through county services for the medically indigent and, in some cases, emergency Medi-Cal. But in Los Angeles County, doctors said neither program covers liver transplants. State health officials said California law is designed so there is no gap in coverage, so children move seamlessly from state-funded treatment to county care. But that doesn't always happen. When they become adults, patients like Puente often have to switch doctors and hospitals and may lose access to necessary care. "Certainly it's not the ideal," said Stan Rosenstein, chief deputy director of healthcare programs at the California Department of Health Care Services. "We are strong believers in continuity of care, so it is concerning when you have a break in coverage." That break can be life-threatening for people like Puente. "It doesn't matter if I'm undocumented," she said. "They should take care of me at UCLA for the rest of my life because I've been there since I was a baby." Puente, who lives in Van Nuys, was transferred from County-USC back to UCLA this month after getting approved for Medi-Cal. If illegal immigrants inform the state in writing that U.S. immigration services "is aware of their presence and does not plan to deport them," they could be eligible for full-scope Medi-Cal, said Norman Williams, spokesman for the state health department. Medical condition is one factor that would make immigrants eligible for coverage. The immigrants send a form to Citizenship and Immigration Services, but the agency said it does not respond to patients or make any promises about their immigration status. Looking to the future Dr. Sue V. McDiarmid, medical director of UCLA's pediatric liver transplant program, said that she regrets not being able to continue treatment for every patient but that it would not be "financially responsible" to waive all fees. She said the university does follow up with its patients once they are under county care. "It is just not our philosophy to dump patients," McDiarmid said. "When things go wrong, it truly is a heartbreaker." But she said liver transplantation is more than a surgical procedure; doctors have to consider whether the patient will have access to healthcare and medication in the long run. "If we felt at any time that we were transplanting a liver into a person that the hope of any long-term outcome was very poor, we shouldn't be doing the transplant," she said. McDiarmid said, however, that doctors do not ask about a patient's immigration status. The larger problem, she said, is that the state healthcare system cuts off illegal immigrants who were covered as children. "We took care of those undocumented children because we thought, and the state thought, that it was the right thing to do," she said. "Why would we as a society then turn our backs on them?" Puente is not the only young transplant patient who has shown up for county care recently. Dr. Andrew Stolz, who directs the liver consultation service at County-USC as well as the county's outpatient Roybal Liver Clinic, said the facility is treating about 10 liver transplant patients who aged out of California Children's Services and no longer have insurance. Though he does not know how many of these patients are immigrants, Stolz said those who are here legally could apply for full-scope Medi-Cal to cover a liver transplant. Repeat transplants, which are not uncommon, can be necessary if the patients' bodies reject the livers at the time of the transplant or while they are on medication, or if the transplant livers develop hepatitis C, Stolz said. Jose Lopez said he came to the U.S. with his mother illegally as a child. Soon after, he contracted hepatitis A and received his first liver transplant. Eight years later, he got cirrhosis and received another transplant. Both were performed at UCLA and paid for by the state. As his 21st birthday approached, his mother, Maria Elena Lopez, searched for clinics that might agree to treat her son. She applied for Medi-Cal for him but has not received a response. Her son turned 21 on Aug. 7. He said the UCLA doctors gave him extra medications to hold him over. About a month later, his mother found the Roybal clinic, which provided Lopez with medication and monitored his care. Though his drugs never lapsed, his liver is still in rejection. "I'm just mad," he said from the Los Angeles apartment he shares with his parents. "You can't just leave a person to die. That's pretty much what they're telling me: 'You're illegally here. We're just gonna let you die.' " He said he doesn't blame UCLA for not wanting to treat him free, but added, "I was hoping for some miracle." Lopez just learned about the relief Puente received and said he may follow the same route. He hopes to return to UCLA for treatment. A question of ethics Medical ethicists said doctors and hospitals have a duty to continue treatment for their transplant patients unless they can find them comparable care elsewhere. "The worst ethical violation a physician can commit is abandonment," Arthur Caplan, chairman of the department of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, wrote in an e-mail. "Physicians and institutions do have a duty to these patients once they transplanted them. ... Insurance running out is no excuse for abandoning them." Caplan said UCLA doctors were under no obligation to perform liver transplants on the illegal immigrant children knowing that their insurance would run out at 21 and that their livers would probably need to be replaced. Wesley Ford, director of children's medical services for Los Angeles County, said his office works with patients before their 21st birthdays to make sure they are covered. But that is more difficult for illegal immigrants. "It's not that we want to deny care to these kids," he said. "It's required by state law that we discontinue care at age 21." Los Angeles County picks up where the state left off, providing costly medications, performing lab work and conducting biopsies — regardless of immigration status. But the key for patients who lose their insurance at 21, Stolz said, is to go immediately to the county before any lapse in medicine occurs and before their livers fail. "We would hate for patients to lose a liver because they can't get medication," Stolz said. "A lot of people just are not aware that there is this safety net." Contact CPocerl at Cpocerl@aol.com |
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RIGHTS & DEMOCRACY: COMMITTED TO ACCOUNTABILITY AND OVERSIGHT
Posted by Israel Academia Monitor, January 29, 2010. |
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This is from the National Post
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In recent days, Rights & Democracy — a non-partisan organization created by Canada's Parliament in 1988 to encourage and support the universal values of human rights and the promotion of democratic institutions and practices around the world — has been the subject of several media reports. As members of the board of this organization, we would like to correct some of these reports and provide some insight into our recent challenges. As has been widely reported in the press, certain members of the board have received a letter, claiming to have been unanimously signed by all members of the Rights & Democracy staff, calling for these members' resignation. This claim of unanimity is suspect because we have also been contacted by concerned staff members who have never seen or signed such a letter. Unfortunately, this appears to be a case of some managers inappropriately pressuring staff under their authority. The central issue is the fiduciary role of the Rights & Democracy board to ensure accountability for spending taxpayers' money here in Canada or overseas. Sadly, controversy is not new to this organization. In 2007, long before most of the current board members were involved with the group, the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Foreign Affairs concluded that Rights & Democracy needed greater transparency, stricter internal financial controls and greater accountability. Even as far back as 1998, the board acted to terminate Rights & Democracy's program in the Middle East because it was generating precisely the kinds of problems we are experiencing today. Accountability and oversight have been the focus of our recent board meetings. The board has been trying to fulfill its mandate of ensuring that project and grant monies are being sent overseas in a transparent manner which satisfies internal financial control standards. Spending decisions need to be fully accountable and satisfy the Canadian public's sense of fairness and reasonableness. The board took especially seriously a number of unauthorized staff decisions to spend taxpayers' money for purposes that most taxpayers and most political leaders would find appalling. Some of the sums were large, and some were small. The amounts involved are less important than the poor judgment and lack of accountability demonstrated in approving certain grants. For example, in February 2009, three questionable organizations were provided grants through discretionary funds which have had little to no board oversight. These organizations are Al Haq, headquartered in the West Bank, Al Mazan, headquartered in Gaza and BT'selem, headquartered in Israel. They were each granted $10,000. Al Haq's general director, Shawan Jabarin, has been denied exit visas by Israel and Jordan because of his ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The PFLP is a listed terrorist organization in Canada. In 2007, the Supreme Court of Israel rejected Mr. Jabarin's petition to have his travel ban lifted because "he is an activist in a terrorist organization." It should come as no surprise that the board reacted with shock when it found Mr. Jabarin's own signature on the paperwork accepting this grant from Rights & Democracy. Furthermore, two of the three named organizations are active in the lawfare movement, which is a strategy of abusing law to achieve military objectives — in this case, to punish Israel for anti-terror operations. Al Haq has even pursued a strategy of lawfare in Canada, where it has backed the use of the courts to harass Canadian companies based in Quebec which have business operations in Israel. As a result, the board voted to repudiate these grants and temporarily freeze the discretionary funds under the president's control which were used to provide them. What has not been reported is that the president, the late Rémy Beauregard, who was a voting member of the board, actually voted with the majority of the board, in agreement with this decision. The freeze decision is meant to allow the staff time to complete a redesign of decision-making processes to help the organization avoid such situations in the future. While it has been reported otherwise, we also want to make it clear that the board actually approved the project to assist victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with some adjustments to the staging of the project. Finally, it is sad and misleading for critics of the board's commitment to accountability to use the name of the late Mr. Beauregard for their benefit. There is much work to be done at Rights & Democracy on behalf of its many stakeholders, including, most importantly, the taxpayers of Canada. We will continue to work to govern Rights & Democracy according to the highest standards so that Canadians need not be embarrassed by, but rather can be consistently proud of the work of the organization. * IAM editor's note: Al Haq, an organization Dapha Golan particiapted their conference: Symposium on HSRC Report:
BT'selem is an organization associated with Co-chairs: David Kretzmer, Professor of Law, Faculty of Law and School of Public Policy, Hebrew University, and Gila Svirsky, Co-founder of Coalition of Women for a Just Peace Contact the Israel Academia Monitor by email at e-mail@israel-academia-monitor.com |
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PARSHA BISHLACH, TU B'SHVAT
Posted by Rabbi Tzvi Tauby, January 29, 2010. |
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Tu B'Shevat, the 15th of Shevat on the Jewish calendar — celebrated this year on Shabbat, January 30, 2010 — is the day that marks the beginning of a "New Year for Trees." This is the season in which the earliest-blooming trees in the Land of Israel emerge from their winter sleep and begin a new fruit-bearing cycle. Legally, the "New Year for Trees" relates to the various tithes that are separated from produce grown in the Holy Land. These tithes differ from year to year in the seven-year Shemittah cycle; the point at which a budding fruit is considered to belong to the next year of the cycle is the 15th of Shevat. We mark the day of Tu B'Shevat by eating fruit, particularly from the kinds that are singled out by the Torah in its praise of the bounty of the Holy Land: grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. In Honor of Tu B'Shvat I'm including a nice story about nature, with a powerful lesson. 
From the writings of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson. It was the summer of 1896, and father and myself then 16 years of age, were strolling in the fields of Balivka, a hamlet in White Russia. The grain was near to ripening, and the wheat and grass swayed gently in the breeze. |
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THE DANGER WE FACE
Posted by Susana K-M, January 29, 2010. |
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This is by William Katz and it is archived on his website:
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THE DANGER WE FACE — Anne Bayefsky, one of the best reporters around today — the UN recently tried to lift her credentials because some delegates griped that she wasn't following the party line — expands on the foreign-policy disgrace in last night's presidential address. From NRO: President Obama's message in the State of the Union address confirmed that he is tone-deaf to the grievous threats that exist to American national security and incapable of changing course before those dangers become a terrible reality. Ouch. Big ouch. Anne is right. This president follows the standard leftist line that we are all to blame. That's why he went around the world apologizing for us early in his term. President Obama announced that in April he will hold another hand-shaking, hot-air-generating "nuclear security summit" — to control American and Russian arms. As for dealing with Iran, he could not manage to muster a single concrete move, just an empty "they too will face growing consequences." From whom? From the UN, where China has a veto? The president doesn't say. This is an administration that has turned its back on inconvenient victims from Tehran to Tibet to Israel. An administration that has climbed on board the U.N. Human Rights Council, despite its being a tool of Islamic states for defeating rights. And yet the president disingenuously lectured: "America must always stand on the side of freedom and human dignity." We have asked regularly at Urgent Agenda whether Obama wants to be Kennedy or Carter. I'm afraid we got our answer last night. Welcome to the peanut farm. Jumbos available at slight extra cost. --------------------------- BULLETIN — Osama bin Laden has joined the global warming movement. is this a bid for respectability? From the AP: CAIRO (AP) — Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has called in a new audiotape for the world to boycott American goods and the U.S. dollar, blaming the United States and other industrialized countries for global warming. COMMENT: We should always be mindful of the fact that bin Laden and his associates are not stupid. They are tuned in to the world. They are up on things. Before 9-11, bin Laden rarely mentioned the Arab-Israel conflict. His attention was elsewhere. But after 9-11, apparently realizing he could reap propaganda benefits among Western leftists, he started championing the Palestinians, leading to the absurd notion, spread in the West, that ending terrorism depends on solving the Israel-Palestine issue. You may be sure that bin Laden's newest message will find a sympathetic ear among Western leftists and their trendy friends. "Well, the man does bad things, but if only we stopped polluting..." You can finish the sentence. It won't be long before ending terrorism will depend, in weak minds, on cap and trade. Hey, maybe bin Laden will win the next Nobel Peace Prize. What a multicultural coup!
-------------------------------------- UNBELIEVABLE — Charles Krauthammer examines the growing evidence that, with Eric Holder's Justice Department in charge, the Christmas-day bomber was entirely mishandled. From The Washington Post: After 50 minutes of questioning him, the Obama administration chose, reflexively and mindlessly, to give the chatty terrorist the right to remain silent. Which he immediately did, undoubtedly denying us crucial information about al-Qaeda in Yemen, which had trained, armed and dispatched him. Look, maybe they just didn't have the phone numbers handy. They're new in town. It's only a year. The culprit should have been interrogated by the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group. But, uh, there was a bit of a problem: Perhaps you hadn't heard the term. Well, in the very first week of his presidency, Obama abolished by executive order the Bush-Cheney interrogation procedures and pledged to study a substitute mechanism. In August, the administration announced the establishment of the HIG, housed in the FBI but overseen by the National Security Council... These things are so difficult, especially with the health-care bill. The fact is that Eric Holder and his crowd want us to return to the pre 9-11 view of terror, that it's merely a law-enforcement problem, something for the cops. It's the view from the left. We are tempting fate with Eric Holder as AG. The president does not seem to understand. Or maybe he understands all too well...and doesn't really care. ------------- HOLD THAT HOLDER — As my friend, Silvio Canto Jr., puts it, "Dismiss Attorney General Holder and call it 'the war on terror' again!" Can you believe how badly this one attorney general of the United States has messed things up? This is the man who decided to drop a slam-dunk case against the new Black Panthers for voter intimidation at the polls in 2008, and never explained the outrage. This is the man who brought decidedly leftist lawyers into the Justice Department, many of whom came from the same firm that made a cult out of defending Gitmo detainees. This is the man who decided to try the mastermind of 9-11 in a civilian courtroom in New York City, giving this individual the greatest media platform in the world and putting New Yorkers at risk. This is the man whose foot soldiers read the Christmas-day airline bomber his Miranda rights — even though the bomber isn't an American citizen — after only 50 minutes of interrogation, prompting the terrorist to clam up. Eric Holder. What a guy. Prime candidate for early retirement and a gold watch. Now, one of Holder's worst decisions seems to be crumbling. We reported early word last night. Confirmation has since come, but The New York Times, flying the leftist flag to the last, is grudging about it: WASHINGTON — Facing mounting pressure from New York politicians concerned about costs and security, the Obama administration on Thursday began considering moving the trial of the chief organizer of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks out of Manhattan, administration officials said. Considering? My friend, that corpse is cold. The trial won't be held in New York. If Obama hesitates over the change, Congress will refuse to appropriate the funds. President Obama said through a spokesman that he still believed a civilian criminal trial for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who has admitted planning the attacks, and four accomplices could be conducted "successfully and securely in the United States." He did not mention New York specifically. Yeah. "Calculated." But what, precisely, went into the calculation? The dispute over a trial location, touched off when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York complained of costs and disruption, threatened to reopen the divisive question of how those accused of plotting the murder of more than 3,000 Americans should be brought to justice. Huh? The dispute was touched off by Bloomberg? Do guys on The Times read their own paper? This dispute has been ongoing since the decision was first announced months ago? Bloomberg came to the party, this week, a bit late, after a public outcry. Well, at least the job is getting done, despite Eric Holder. We'll keep an eye on it. Contact Susana K-M by email at suanema@gmail.com |
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HUMAN RIGHTS COALITION AGAINST RADICAL ISLAM; OBAMA FIGHTS
TERRORISM?; SWEDEN NOW THE SITE OF HATE CRIMES
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 29, 2010. |
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HUMAN RIGHTS COALITION AGAINST RADICAL ISLAM PART 1: ISLAM VS. FEMINISM The Human Rights Coalition Against Radical Islam (HRCARI) is a new, New York-based NGO whose rally I reported last year. It comprises activists and organizations from various ethnic groups oppressed by Radical Islam. These include Muslims, Copts, Chinese, Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, Africans, and feminists. Gays and Buddhists are welcome to be represented, too. Member organizations have speakers eager to speak at temples and other venues. The group was addressed by feminist leader, Phyllis Chesler. She related her experience exposing Radical Islam as the epitome of an apartheid movement, with Israel being the canary in a mine of gas. This was at a conference in Barnard. As they say, "All hell broke loose" against her. Ms. Chesler finds the established feminist movement in a sad state. She observes that the only feminist groups still genuinely so are Muslim Arab ones. The others have been inhibited by multi-cultural relativism and the Third World prejudices of the late Prof. Edward Said. They are more worried about being called racists, than opposing Radical Muslim oppression of women. Western feminists try to evade the problem of Islamic honor killings as mere domestic violence. In the context of Muslims seeing it as religious betrayal, however, and with its beheadings and other violence by brothers and other relatives, it is the kind of women's rights violation that should engage feminists. Chesler emphasizes that issue to help and recruit Arab women (Minutes of meeting, 1/28; infor@hrcari.org. Note that the Coalition does not take any position on any religion, only on persecution in the name of religion). You can see that the epithet, "racist," is a club abused by oppressors, including racists, to cow criticism of them. People need to develop the moral courage not to be inhibited nor ashamed, but counter-charge abusers of human rights with defaming their criticism and distorting it as a slur against the abusers. Problem is, the established feminist groups, like the Left in general, have gotten used to categorizing certain ethnic groups as sacred cows (the Muslim Arabs) and others as black sheep or scapegoats. They are too ossified or lazy to study current issues and learn who are the contemporary villains and victims. They no longer are issue-driven but label-driven. They have been misled by false-labeling. PART 2. RADICAL ISLAMIC APARTHEID IN SUDAN The Human Rights Coalition Against Radical Islam, at a meeting described in Part 1, also heard from African leader Simon Deng. He discussed the slaughter of several million southern Sudanese Christians, outside of Darfur. Mr. Deng found that in this struggle, too, attempts are made to mute the issue. The issue of Darfur, significant as it is, distracts attention from the other genocide. He sees this distraction as a way of easing Western consciences. Rarely are Muslim Arabs mentioned as the enemy of the rights and lives of Christians [and animists] there. Although Deng was one of the victims, his objection to the genocide is distorted so as to depict him as a radical. Africa, Deng says, is becoming a Muslim Arab continent. The next few decades will be critical in taking over that continent, Deng believes. The terrorism against southern Africans, like that against Israel, is the outcome of an apartheid prejudice. Deng points out that Islamists think of their victims — Sudanese, Hindus, Copts, Jews, and Sikhs, among others — as the body of a snake. They consider the head of the snake as the United States. What is the U.S. doing about this global assault on peoples and civilizations, which is to culminate with the overthrow of the U.S.? The President of the U.S. resorts to a polite label for it. That is a bad omen for any struggle to defeat it. The Pajamas Media blog by Phyllis Chesler details the oppression of Coptic Christians, Hindus, and Sikhs (Minutes of Coalition meeting, 1/28). PART 3. RADICAL ISLAM IN THE U.S. Representing Americans for Peace and Tolerance, Charles Jacobs has gotten Islamist penetration into U.S. society more into public awareness. He does so by exposing the Islamists "enablers." "Enablers" are American political, religious, academic, and media leaders who are blind to the menace of Radical Islam, rationalize excuses for it, and condemn as prejudiced whoever warns against it. Americans respond well to such exposes. Americans do not like to be duped, lied to, and misinformed. Radical Muslim leaders conceal their intent and pose as moderates, even as they abuse American hospitality and assail its liberties. Working through the Human Rights Coalition Against Radical Islam, Mr. Jacobs intends to target the New York Times, which he considers a prime "enabler" (Coalition Minutes, 1/28). What a dereliction of duty that the very leaders pledged to be our watchdogs protect the burglars! Radical Muslims put it as criticism of their agenda, or defense against its demands for special privileges by way of imposing their values upon the public, is a denial of their liberty. But criticism and self-defense do not deny freedom. They exercise freedom. STATE OF THE UNION President Obama did not say much about national security. I recall his assertion that U.S. troops are coming home from Iraq, and that N. Korea and Iran are isolated (1/27). He implies that the U.S. accomplished something with N. Korea and Iran. Truth is, those rogue states continue keeping or developing nuclear weaponry. Iran is making more alliances and is gaining control over Lebanon and Fatah. Pres. Obama's "engagement" has been spurned. Perhaps the U.S. is getting isolated. This President has let us sink into a grave crisis. Is Iraq sufficiently secure for U.S. troops to return this summer? Since they mostly are not in combat any more, is a return so important? Will they return, or will they be transferred to some other trouble spot, such as Yemen? No explanation was given for U.S. arming of the Lebanese Army, under the sway of Hizbullah and therefore Iran. Neither was an explanation given for U.S. arming of the Palestinian Authority, a force for war if ever there were one. The failures of the policy to establish another Palestinian Arab state were omitted, although that policy once was declared a priority. Other serious foreign policy problems were ignored. The foreign policy elements should be viewed in the context of the State of the Union speech as a whole. It was more a political speech, with excuses and vilification, than an assessment. It threw statistics and assertions at the audience faster than humans can absorb them and, if necessary, debunk them. It dissembled mightily, while pretending concern for common Americans and for the economy. Concern indicated by a medical insurance bill that admittedly was constructed by logrolling for special interests and Senatorial blackmail? The bill would reduce the deficit, when the costs are certain, the deficit reduction depends on taxes that could be levied anyway and the savings depend on future Congresses reducing further doctors' allowances despite further reduction causing doctors to retire? He urges the use of common sense. What sense does it make to expand medical coverage and claim to be cutting costs? Some of Obama's criticism of the GOP was appropriate, but the GOP increasingly has made constructive suggestions. Despite Obama's pledge for non-partisanship, Republicans were kept out of much the insurance bill-drafting process, conducted in secret and voted upon without sufficient study. The speech ignored reality, attributing popular discontent with Obama's program to his not explaining it sufficiently. What is there to explain about the insurance bill, which changed daily, as Senators extorted or repressed its provisions? Obama made much of his rule against employing lobbyists, a rule that to which he has made exceptions. But his economic officials are part of the financial ruling class that acted as internal lobbies for their industry. As pundits analyze the speech, favorable ones will ignore such flaws, and unfavorable ones will discover more such flaws. The speech ended with a "God bless America!" More apt would have been, "Heaven help America!" OBAMA FIGHTS TERRORISM? 
The major media still fails to cover a critical story on U.S. policy toward terrorism. The story was discovered by a minor Israeli source and kept alive by Internet reporters. The story is that the U.S. Treasury Dept., headed by Timothy Geithner, has removed all but one of thousands of Hamas Terrorists from its list of terrorists. The list goes to banks in the U.S. and other countries, for screening out terrorists from those eligible to receive transfers of funds. As a result, the EU and others can continue sending money to Hamas men in Gaza, a portion of which would finance terrorism. Opponents of terrorism had been planning lawsuits to block such
transfers, but the Treasury Dept. whitewashing of terrorists removes
the basis for such suits (Winston Mideast Analysis & Commentary,
1/28, citing
SWEDEN NOW THE SITE OF HATE CRIMES 
Sweden (Mattias Lundin, Scanpix, File) Southern Sweden hosts about 3,000 Jews, increasingly in flight, as hate-driven attacks on them rise. Last year's reported attacks were 79, double the prior year's (according to Skånska Dagbladet). Jews also suffer threats and harassment, and their cemeteries and synagogues repeatedly are defaced; one was fire-bombed. A mosque was attacked, too, perpetrator unknown. Why? Here are some explanations, not mutually exclusive. (1) Neo-Nazis are responsible; (2) Politicians and local society share responsibility, because they ignore the problem; (3) The Far Left takes out its dislike of Israeli policy on Swedish Jews, who do not participate in Israeli policy; and (4) A growing Muslim Arab immigration in Malmo, in southern Sweden. A Jewish community representative doubted that the neo-Nazis
account for much of the problem, due to its nature
There is an ethical inconsistency in Western society that condemns people for committing crimes of hatred, except, mostly, when by Muslims against Jews. By refusing to face this problem, which can upset delusions of societal tolerance, the problem deepens, as criminal elements feel released from societal restraint. Violence against people because of their ethnicity is uncivilized. All sectors and levels of society should condemn it, whether the target be synagogue or mosque. If the leaders of any religion do not condemn it, what civilized values have they? Why do liberals stay silent, when the Far Left blames Jews everywhere for what it claims not to like about the government of Israel? Do liberals want to be associated with a bigoted Far Left that makes scapegoats of innocent people? Do liberals feel no responsibility for the political climate that condones domestic violence, generated by Far Left denunciations of Israel? What of the excuse that the Arabs in Sweden dislike Israeli policies? Antisemites always have excuses. The excuse is a pretext for bigotry. First comes the prejudice, then comes an excuse, as if prejudice were rational. Ask an emotionally disturbed person why he does such and such, and he will give an apparently logical reason. Do you believe it? The Arab-Israel conflict is itself religious, based on the pre-existing Muslim Arab prejudice against non-believers. The prejudice has been augmented over the centuries by Christian notions of blood libel, Nazi notions of racial inheritance of character traits, and inflammatory conspiracy theories by Radical Islam. Radical Islam is making great strides in its goal of replacing Western civilization. Much of the West, including Sweden, may not appreciate the value of Western civilization and especially its Christian heritage. Imagine how much worse it would fare under the heavy hand of Radical Islam! The handwriting is on the wall for Sweden and the whole West. Act now or die late? It must be difficult for Sweden and the West to confront the new menace. Arising from a homogeneous or increasingly integrated society, Western civilization developed liberal notions of tolerance. Its immigration policies are based on those notions (and a wish for cheap immigrant labor). The West supposes that other societies share these values. Some do not. The liberal ideology is not flexible enough to differentiate, after having made anti-discrimination a key component of its way of life. Thus in the name of tolerance, Sweden hosts the intolerant.
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 and visit his website:
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FROM ISRAEL: "WHERE IS IT GOING?"
Posted by Arlene Kushner, January 29, 2010. |
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I don't know that anyone but Khaled Abu Toameh could have quite pulled off this interview, which was an exclusive front page story in the Jerusalem Post today: Fahmi Shabaneh was appointed four years ago as head of the Anti-Corruption Department of the PA's General Intelligence Service and served until very recently. Now he tells Abu Toameh that Hamas is very likely to take over the West Bank one day, as it did Gaza, because of the enormous corruption of the Palestinian Authority. "Had it not been for the presence of the Israeli authorities in the West Bank, Hamas would have done what they did in the Gaza Strip," Shabaneh said. "It's hard to find people in the West Bank who support the Palestinian Authority. People are fed up with the financial corruption and mismanagement of the Palestinian Authority." Shabaneh explained that Abbas has surrounded himself with the same corrupt officials who once worked for Yasser Arafat, Abbas's predecessor. Many in the West Bank have given up hope that reform of the PA will ever come. Shabeneh gave several examples of what he alleges to be the corruption of the PA and Fatah (which is the major party of the PA). Perhaps most startling was his charge that when the US gave a donation of $3.2 to Fatah ahead of the 2006 Palestinian Authority legislative election (which was ultimately won by Hamas) so that the party could improve its image, Fatah personnel stole much of it. See the entire story here:
~~~~~~~~~~ As is often the case in the winter before Shabbat, time is short. We will return to other matters shortly. But here I want to request that all US citizens contact their Congresspersons and Senators about this report. Give the URL and a very brief synopsis. Then explain that this exceedingly corrupt regime is the one that the Obama administration wants Israel to negotiate with. Point out that, first, the PA does not represent the Palestinians living in the West Bank — Mahmoud Abbas has no legitimate constituency. And then, that if the IDF pulls out, as the Obama administration wishes, the PA is exceedingly likely to collapse. This will not only be bad for Israel and for peace in the Middle East, it will have negative repercussions for the US, which will look very foolish for having promoted this. For your Congresspersons:
For your Senators:
~~~~~~~~~~ Additionally, please share this information very broadly, so that it can be understood what a dangerous and foolish idea Obama is promoting. People are more likely to sit up and take notice because it is a Palestinian who was involved with the PA who is sounding the warning. Use this information to write letters to editors, as well, and place it on blogs. ~~~~~~~~~~ Information I am receiving is that Obama would rather act like he knows what he's doing, in defiance of the evidence staring him in the face, and be a one-term president, than modify his perspective and regain electoral popularity. (We will leave questions of his motivation, about which several readers have written to me, aside.) See, for example, Anne Bayefsky, who has written in "Dangerous Weakness" in National Review Online: "President Obama's message in the State of the Union address confirmed that he is tone-deaf to the grievous threats that exist to American national security and incapable of changing course before those dangers become a terrible reality." http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q= MjhiNTA0MzQ3MjgzNzJmNTM4YTc0YjhjNzlkYzI5MWI= Thus, there is no reason to believe he can be convinced of the foolishness of his program for promoting "a two-state solution." The hope lies with Congress and grassroots reaction. ~~~~~~~~~~ 
Tomorrow is Tu B'Shvat. I had a rare occasion yesterday to ride through some back roads in the hills of Jerusalem. The almond trees, the earliest, are in bloom, and everything is delightfully green because of recent rains. A blessing.
Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il
and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info
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A DOZEN SERIOUS PROBLEMS WITH YOUR LETTER TO PRES. OBAMA ABOUT GAZA
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 28, 2010. | |
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From: david_meirlevi@hotmail.com
Most Honorable Mr. Honda and Ms. Speier, I noticed your names on the letter below, sent from Congress to President Obama. I was surprized to see your names, because I know that you must know that: 1.) Hamas has declared war on Israel, and its deeds have matched its words, with more than 10,000 rocket attacks, sniper fire, RPG attacks, kidnappings, suicide bomber attacks, and an endless relentless diatribe of genocide and annihilation. 2.) Hamas has fired upon Palestinian and Israeli personnel at crossing points even as Israel attempts to transfer food and medicines and other humanitarian aid to the beleaguered Arabs of the Gaza Strip through those same crossing points. 3.) Hamas has confiscated international aid money and food and supplies, and has utilized them for the expansion of its military and terrorist capacities, even at the expense of its own people. 4.) Hamas has fired barrages of qassam rockets and longer range katyusha rockets and mortars on nearby Israeli towns, killing and wounding residents, even as Israel makes peace offers and continues to supply the population of Gaza with food and water and elecricity. 5.) Israel closed the borders with the Gaza Strip only AFTER Hamas began its attacks. Absent those attacks, the Gaza Strip could have open borders with Israel, open access to international waters, and a functioning airport. 6.) Israel's 2005-06 military operation against Gaza was prompted by Hamas' interminable attacks, more than 10,000 qassams, and its stockpiling of more powerful weapons for future attacks. How many rockets in to San Diego from Tijuana would our government permit? Israel permitted 10,000! 7.) Israel has not only supplied the Arabs of the Gaza Strip with medical supplies, but has admitted scores of injured and ill Arabs, including some who are known terrorists, to be treated at Isaeli hospitals, even as Hamas continues its terror war against Israeli civilians. 8.) Israel supplies 70% of Gaza's electricity needs, even though Hamas has targetted the electrical power plant in Ashqelon, the power plant that supplies the electricity to the Gaza Strip, with dozens of qassam rocket attacks. 9.) Egypt is building a huge solid steel wall across the entire length of its border with the Gaza Strip in order to hermetically seal that border, with no humanitarian aid of any sort offered from Egypt to the beleaguered Gazan Arabs. So Israel is treating the Gaza Arabs far better than Egypt is, and Hamas is not bombarding Egypt. 10.) The Arabs of the Gaza Strip are beleaguered only because Hamas beleaguers them, and beleaguers Israel as well. Absent Hamas' incessant genocidal rhetoric and terrorist attacks, life in the Gaza Strip would be very much as it was under Israel's sovereignty from 1967-1994....almost full employment, tourism, freedom of movement, and an expanding economy. 11.) Human Rights Watch (HRW: no friend of Israel) has verified that Hamas has violated numerous international laws by targetting Israeli civilians with its rocket attacks and suicide bomber attacks and sniper attacks and road-side bomb attacks, and by using its own people as human shields. Hamas oppresses its own, exploits is own, violates its own, and then blames the humanitarian mess on Israel. Moreover, Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad and numerous other Arab terrorist groups are in violation of the 1950 United Nations Conference on Genocide, in which incitement to genocide is deemed a violation of international law. All too many of us are strangely silent as Hamas violates international law, and at the same time launches endless accusations of such violations against Israel. 12.) Almost every one of the demands listed in the letter, if implemented, would facilitate Hamas' terrorist activities, expansion of its terrorist arsenal, infiltration of suicide bombers in to Israel, and oppression of its own people. See my comments beneath each of those demands. Hamas is a virulent genocidal terrorist force...a force of evil. It is allied with Hezbollah and Iran and el-Qaeda. It's end game is far more than the destruction if Israel. It has openly and unabashedly joined forces with the Muslim terrorist jihadist leaders who seek, as the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khoumeini put it back in February of 1979, to "finish the job that Muhammed started....(and)...make Islam supreme in the world". Israel's enemies are our own country's enemies. Your signature on that letter is complicity with our enemies. I most sincerely urge you to publicly rescind your signature. David Meir-Levi PS. I've added a few comments, in bold italics, inside of the letter, to assist you in understanding my assertion in #12 above. | |
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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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AMONA MOUNTED COP APOLOGIZES
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 28, 2010. |
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This is from Yeshiva World
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The sentencing hearing of the mounted cop found guilty of assault and running over protestors during the expulsion of Amona residents took place on Tuesday in the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court. Investigators from the Justice Ministry police investigations unit lamented the actions of the officer, stating the documented evidence against him brings us back "to the dark days". "The mounted officer did not just trample one citizen, but the rule of law as well" the ministry agent added. The attorney for the accused asked that a formal conviction be avoided as to prevent harming his future in the police force. The Justice Ministry investigator stated that a "mounted policeman who runs someone over while riding a 600kg horse has no place in the police department". While the policeman did apologize for his actions to the court, he did not bother to turn around and apologize to the civilian involved in the case, Yehuda Etzion, who was seated in the courtroom. Rachel Struck, a Chevron resident and head of the Yesha human rights organizations, expressed her hope that the sentencing will be serve enough to act as a deterrent against such actions in the future. 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. He writes, "In the history of the world, no tyranny has ever voluntarily relinquished power or been replaced by peaceful means." |
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THE MYTH OF JEWISH COLONIALISM
Posted by Lyn Julius, January 28, 2010. |
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In much discourse about the Middle East, there is a widespread myth that Jews are interlopers from Europe and the US — white westerners who came to 'colonise' and 'steal land' from the 'native' Palestinian people to whom it rightfully belongs. This myth, drawing on Marxist terminology, gained increasing legitimacy after 1967 when Israel annexed East Jerusalem and 'conquered' the West Bank. The notion of 'occupation' and the use of the word 'settlers' reinforce the concept of Israeli 'colonisation' of 'Arab' land. Aside from assuming that the Palestinians must be the true natives because they look authentically 'brown', the colonialism myth supports another myth: Jews are not a people, deserving of the right to self-determination, but a religion. Thus anti-Zionists habitually talk about of US citizens of the Jewish faith, Germans of the Jewish faith and even Arabs of the Jewish faith. At the time of the French Revolution, Clermont-Tonnerre said of the emancipation of Jews: "We must refuse everything to the Jews as a nation and accord everything to Jews as individuals." The Jewish community would somehow disappear, leaving only French citizens of Jewish religion or ancestry. Lately, the notion that Jews are not one people but a motley collection of converts has been given a boost by Tel Aviv Professor Shlomo Sand, whose bestselling book, The Invention of the Jewish People, is now out in English. Sand's theories build on the work of Arthur Koestler, who popularised the idea that Ashkenazi Jews are descended from the Turkic tribe, the Khazars. Both men undermine the legitimacy of Israel by inferring that Jews have no link to Palestine. Genetic studies, however, discredit Koestler's theory: they find that Jews from East and West have more in common with each other, and are genetically closer to non-Jews of Middle eastern origin — the Kurds in particular — than they are to the non-Jewish populations they lived amongst. Last June President Obama articulated another myth: Israel was created as a penance for the Holocaust in Europe. This myth obscures the truth that every Arab state is equally a creation of western colonialism. It also ignores the fact that the institutions of a Jewish state-in-waiting were established decades before Ben Gurion read out Israel's declaration of independence. We often hear or read about Israel being populated by pork-munching non-Jewish Russians and settlers from Brooklyn. But these groups are marginal. We almost never hear that 40 percent of Israel's Jews trace their ancestry from Muslim and Arab lands. The vast majority of these Jews merely moved from one corner of the 'Arab' world to that Middle Eastern coastal sliver known as Israel. Until their expulsion 50 years ago, Jews had been settled in Iraq, for example, since the Babylonians exiled Jews from Jerusalem almost 3,000 years ago. In the early 20th century, Baghdad was the most Jewish city in the world, after Salonica and Jerusalem. The Jews can be said to have as legitimate a claim on Baghdad as Palestinians on Jerusalem. The Arabs are relative newcomers to the region; the 'Arab' world is a misnomer. By the time the Arabs had conquered land largely inhabited by Jews and Christians in the 7th century, the Jews had been settled there for 1,000 years. People in the West tend to apply a common misconception to all Jews, borrowing the Christian notion that Jews have been punished to wander from land to land with no country to call their own. But not only have Jews always lived in Palestine, there was continuity of Jewish settlement in the Middle East and North Africa for 2,000 years. If only native inhabitants are titled to political rights, the Jews are as indigenous as any people living in the Middle East can be. That Jewish presence came to an end in the last 50 years. The Arab League determined to wreak revenge on defenceless Jewish citizens in Arab lands if the partition of Palestine went ahead. On the day when five Arab armies invaded the new Jewish state, the Arab League secretary, Azzam Pasha announced :"This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades". The Arab governments actually declared two wars in 1948. The military war against the fledgling Jewish state of Israel they lost, but they declared a second war, against a million Jewish citizens. This war they won easily, through a policy of intimidation, repression, persecution and sporadic outbreaks of violence. The result is that only 4,500 Jews are left in Arab countries. Jews 'stealing Arab land' is an offensive inversion of reality. Jews in 10 Arab countries were stripped of their rights and in most cases dispossessed of their property. The World Organisation of Jews from Arab Countries estimates that Jews in Arab countries lost many more billions of assets than the Palestinians, and four times as much land as the size of Israel itself. Seen in these terms, Arab antisemitism created Israel no less than the Holocaust. The Arabs owe the Jews big-time. It's time the world stopped viewing the conflict through a distorted, Eurocentric lens. Eliyahu m'Tsiyon commented: There is a lot wrong with the "Zionist colonialism" thesis. First of all, if the Jews were returning, as they believed, then it should not be called "colonialism." Next, what about the status of the Palestinian Arab Muslims [actually, not defining themselves as "Palestinian Arabs" before the League of Nations decision to recognize the Jewish National Home in 1922]? Under the Ottoman Empire, which was a Sunni Muslim state, the Palestinian Arab Muslims enjoyed a status superior to all dhimmis. Further, members of the leading Arab families in the country [not called "palestine" by them before 1920, to be sure] held high posts in the Empire, ruling over Jews in lands from Iraq to Romania. These included Ashkenazim, especially in Romania. For instance, Aaron Aaronsohn, one of the outstanding Jews of the so-called First Aliyah, was born in Romania as an Ottoman subject. Now, since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes the right to move from one part of one's country to another [Article 13b??], then why did not his family have that right?? Indeed, the Ottoman Empire brought Muslims from Bosnia and other lost territories in Europe to the Land of Israel ["Palestine"] at about the same time that Aaronsohn's family came. Why shouldn't the Aaronsohns have had the same right to move to and dwell in the Land of Israel as the Slavic Bosnian Muslims?? This argument is fashionable and it has won many adherents who are charmed to find a secular-progressive reason for hating Jews, instead of the old religious Christkiller claim. In this vein, do you know about Nick Hornby's movie, The Education [or some such title], which employs many old Judeophobic themes?? It seems that he has taken some old themes and dressed them up for the 21st century, while other Judeophobic themes are left intact ["they killed our Lord," etc]. Lyn Julius is a journalist and co-founder of Harif (www.harif.org), a UK association of Jews from the Middle East and N. Africa. |
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ISRAEL'S INTERNAL THREAT
Posted by Steve Kramer, January 28, 2010. |
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"A democracy is tested on its attitudes towards its minorities and we all know that if you are not wealthy, fair-skinned and educated, your chances of succeeding in life are reduced." This statement could have been made by almost any pundit in a Western democracy. In this case, the pundit is Ms. Orit Zuaretz, a member of the Kadima political party in Israel. Zuaretz made her comment in the wake of a telling report from the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), the group of the world's most economically developed nations. Israel expects to be inducted into the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in the near future, but a few impediments stand in its way. From www.haaretz.com: "Israel will be the poorest of the 30 nations comprising the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, assuming it joins this year, says the OECD's report on Israel — and it has several suggestions, some revolutionary, for how to amend that situation. The report states that 19.9% of Israel's population is categorized as "poor," which is more than in Mexico (18.4%), Turkey (17.5%) or the U.S. (17.1%). The average poverty level for the OECD is just 10.9%, the paper states. Israel also has the highest rate of inequality, explains the OECD. Israel's average is also impacted negatively by the high proportion of poverty among the ultra-Orthodox haredim (60%) and Arabs (50%). Both sectors are characterized by a low proportion of working adults, relatively low salaries when they do work, and high birth rates, which lead to the statistic that a third of Israeli children are categorized as poor, compared with an average of 12% for the OECD. The report also states that 25% of Israel's workers receive low pay, which is about the same proportion as in the other OECD member nations. But among haredim and Arabs, a majority of adults receive low pay." There is no doubt that the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" in Israel is huge, second only to the United States by many accounts. This is particularly disturbing when one considers the socialist background of Israel's 1948 leaders, when the country was supported by the Soviet Union as well as America. Significantly more than 50% of Israeli families earns less than the "average" family of the same size. Consequently, the middle class has been reduced dramatically, similar to the American experience. But there are other, demographic reasons which threaten Israel's economy and well-being in the next generation. While about 20% of Israelis live below the poverty line, the two main groups comprising about three-quarters of the impoverished are somewhat self-selected. (In Israel, the poverty line is defined by this formula: when family income is less than half of the income of an average Israeli family of the same size.) The haredi segment of the population is about 10% while the Arab segment is about 20%. A large proportion of haredi men are not part of the work force and depend on government stipends given to yeshiva students and "scholars" as well as family welfare payments. Similarly, a large proportion of Arab women are not in the work force due to societal norms, while not all the men can find legitimate jobs. The remainder of Israel's poor are new immigrants, the elderly, single mothers, and multi-generation welfare families. How will Israel deal with this problem? Part of the solution depends on the ability of the government to withstand pressure from the haredi and Arab segments, both of which agitate for higher welfare payments for children, especially in larger families. (Haredi families average eight children, Arab families average four children and Beduin families average seven children.) In the past, child allowances increased after the third child and again after the sixth child, but this policy was ended several years ago when the current prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu, was finance minister. But since Israel's coalition governments almost always include religious parties, whose constituents have large families, there is constant pressure to increase child allowances. On the brighter side: for haredi men, serving in the Israel Defense Forces has become more popular in the last few years. Special combat units of ultra-Orthodox men, in which special kosher food is served and there are no female instructors or officers, are attracting more recruits, as are "intelligence" units. The stigma against serving in the IDF is diminishing. Recently, a reserve unit for haredi veterans was established, enabling these soldiers to serve for several weeks each year, as typical Israeli veterans do. The problem with non-working Arab women is even more difficult, due to the wide-spread lack of female employment among Muslim Arabs. Arab wives who work outside of the home challenge women's traditional role in the household and Arab society as a whole. (There is a very small Christian Arab population in Israel, with birthrate, level of education, and workforce participation similar to Jewish Israelis.) However, civilian National Service, in place of military service which is only available to Beduin Arabs, is becoming more acceptable among the young Arab population. In addition, more young Arab men and women are attending college. Both of these developments lead to more integration into Israeli society and fewer children. While there is a large "black economy" in haredi (and Arab) sectors, there is a growing recognition for the need to work in conventional, tax-paying vocations. In America, the ultra-Orthodox men combine learning with holding down jobs. Among the haredim in Israel, there is a growing realization that their population explosion cannot be supported by the government for much longer. When children mature and want to start their own families, the price of even an entry level apartment is out of reach, while family life is suffering due to the pressure of inadequate housing. There isn't enough room in the existing haredi neighborhoods for more people, so new communities need to be built, since the rigid haredi lifestyle conflicts with the habits of nearly all other Israelis. Despite that, the haredim have taken over sections of many Israeli cities. The National Planning Council has authorized construction of a new haredi city in the Negev Desert, not far from Arad and Beersheba, as well as one in the Galilee, next to Nazareth. These planned cities include room for service industries which can employ the local women. While both the projected communities have met with criticism from environmental organizations and local leaders in the nearby cities, these segregated enclaves will probably be built, as have many in the past. In my vicinity, the new community of El Ad was built in 1996 and is already halfway to its projected size of 65,000 residents. These communities are highly subsidized, but there seems to be no other solution for the burgeoning haredi population. Similar initiatives may have to be put forward for the Arab population. Simultaneous with the construction of new towns is the increased investment in mass transportation, whose lack of sufficient infrastructure is a drag on worker productivity. The need is to connect the periphery (north and south) to Israel's economic hub in the center of the country, which will increase the available work force and strengthen the Galilee and Israel's southern region. Increasing the Jewish population of both regions is one of Israel's top priorities, while integrating more Israeli Arabs into the workforce is also expected to improve Israel's economy and internal security. Joining the OECD is a big deal for Israel, which will benefit from a closer association with the world's leading economies. For a country that gained independence only 62 years ago, it will be a great accomplishment. But it won't signal the end of Israel's economic problems. That will only come if main-stream Israelis are educated to be less discriminatory, if the haredim capitalize on the exceptional mental capacity of their Torah-educated youth, if the Arab Israelis want to fully cooperate in the building of a strong, viable State of Israel, and finally, if Israel produces political leadership with the vision and ability to make sweeping changes in Israeli society. Steve Kramer lives in Alfe Menashe. He has written a weekly opinion column for the Jewish Times of southern New Jersey (www.jewishtimes-sj.com) for the last ten years. He writes, "They're about history, politics, touring, or whatever excites me." |
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IDF TRAINS FOREIGN TROOPS; U.S. SUGGESTS MORE ISRAELI CONCESSIONS; IRAN WILL HAVE BOMB THIS YEAR
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 28, 2010. |
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IDF TRAINS FOREIGN TROOPS The IDF trains foreign troops in Israel and abroad. There is a certain amount of joint training, too. Foreign countries choose the program, because Israel has had frequent wars and more experience with terrorism. The results are: (1) Israeli troops must keep on their toes, they gain familiarity with different topography, and they learn from their students; (2) Israeli and foreign troops bond, in a kind of personal diplomacy. Foreign troops gain an understanding of the problems Israel faces; (3) Any profit the IDF gets is plowed back into armored vests or other means of saving the lives of its troops (www.imra.org.il, 1/26). U.S. SUGGESTS MORE ISRAELI CONCESSIONS 
In order to entice the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) to negotiate with Israel, the U.S. suggests more Israeli concessions: (1) Israel allow P.A. troops to operate in areas of Judea-Samaria presently under full Israeli control; (2) Pull back from some parts of the zone under P.A. civil but not military control; (3) Release more Arab prisoners; (4) Ease the partial blockade of Gaza; and (5) Israel would agree regularly to turn over to the P.A. excise taxes it collects for the P.A.. [Sometimes Israel withholds or delays the turnover, in response to terrorism or other problems from the P.A..] P.A. head Abbas said those concessions would be in addition to the ones he demanded before (www.imra.org.il, 1/26). IRAN WILL HAVE BOMB THIS YEAR 
Western intelligence agencies are examining a report, confirmed by Iranian defector, that Iran has a previously unknown branch of its nuclear program reporting to Iran's defense ministry. Iran already tested nuclear bomb detonators. Iran is expected to have a nuclear weapon by year's end. The first model may be too big to use, but newer models will be small enough. Because China is heavily invested in Iranian oil fields, China is expected to veto tough sanctions on Iran (www.imra.org.il, 1/26). Sanctions would have to be immediately crippling. Not likely if even possible. This new estimate of Iran's schedule further shortens the wait. Western estimates of Iran's capability often have been under-estimates. ISRAEL PARDONS GAZA EXPULSION RESISTERS The Knesset passed a law on 1/25) pardoning the 400 Israelis who had been convicted of resisting their expulsion from Gaza. Israel's Supreme Court, which had upheld the expulsion, nevertheless had found 'that the evacuation of settlements do harm human rights, including the right to property, freedom of occupation and proper respect for the evacuees.' The only dissenter among 11 judges, Judge Edmund Levy, lambasted the law and ruled that it should be canceled." The expulsion was of questionable legality (Hebron Jewish Community, 1/26). What I can assume was of questionable legality was the brutality that a special police force was ordered to exercise against resisters. ISRAEL-HAMAS PRISONER TRADE COLLAPSES On 1/25, Der Spiegel revealed that the prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas, that Germany was brokering, collapsed. The deal was supposed to have been agreed to, by the negotiators. PM Netanyahu had not followed the details of negotiations. He was shocked upon learning of the extent of concessions that his negotiator had offered. The Prime Minister ruled out some of them and gave new instructions to his team, to make a "final offer." Hamas accuses the German intermediaries of being pro-Israel and suggesting too many concessions to Israel (www.imra.org.il, 1/26). Shouldn't Netanyahu have required his negotiator to keep him posted? As for the Germans, they probably suggested compromises in the hope of getting a deal concluded. How can negotiations satisfy both sides, when the Arab side has an ideology that considers itself religious superior and therefore entitled to humble the other side?
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 and visit his website:
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THIS IS A SITE WHICH SHOWS WHAT LUNATICS THERE ARE OUT THERE
Posted by Patrick Dempsey, January 28, 2010. |
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See the Nuts I deal with
Below is my response. |
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There is always a concern, when we use figures in statistical analysis that in order to establish a truth and integrity that must not be in danger of ignoring the very humanity we seek to remember. Events have a habit of becoming impersonal, due to the lack of a compassionate concern for the People, the subject of which we have established has been lost to us. This is so true within The Holocaust, where 6,000,000 Jewish souls are forgotten in the thrust to recall that too many lives have been lost to us for ever. The terms of the Holocaust only allows for the remembrance of barely 60% of the Jewish names of this catastrophe, while the remainder seem to fade further from memory. When there is an underlying neglect of the integrity of those terms of the Holocaust, which seeks to reflect the catastrophe for 6,000,000 Jewish People, the concern is problematic for the integrity of all history. I am forever responding to those who wish to address an agenda that disguises truth and honesty, behind a contentious line in critical and statistical analysis. I can safely contend that, and I use the tragedy of Babi Yar here to point to this aspect of indifference to human concern, only to state the case for the need for integrity in the detail of the analysis. Clearly, history has acknowledged that 33,771 Jews of Kiev were murdered in the ravine at the Yar. Integral to that awareness has been the acknowledgement of the very Einsatz who perpetrated the crime, as recorded in a series of their Operational Situation Reports. In the specific case of Babi Yar there are OSR reports:- (101) Sonderkommando 4a in collaboration with Einsatzgruppe HQ and two Kommandos of police regiment South, executed 33,771 Jews in Kiev on September 29 and 30, 1941. and (106) In cooperation with the HQ of EGC and two Kommandos of the police regiment South, Sonderkommando 4a executed 33,771 Jews on September 29 and 30. that confirm the exact detail of the atrocity. But there is more! There is witness evidence that has emerged alongside the evidence of some of the perpetrators. All of this adds to the very detail we now add to our positive research. There is an element of conjecture which also adds to the defining detail we seek to add to the posterity of a forthright examination of a particular tragedy. Paul Blobel, who returned to the scene of his crime with Sonderkommando 10005, in order to obliterate the fact of the crime, disgorged the remains of his 'aktionen' from a pit that was 60 yards long, by 8 feet deep and 20 feet wide. A mathematical formula can substantiate that some 33,771 Persons could be accomodated in such a pit. So we have details, testimony and scientific examination that all equates to the evidence of the crime. We then measure the detail of the overall atrocity by such a study that allows for as few errors as is humanly possible. Applying that for the rest of Europe, and we have demographical changes in population census to establish preexisting Jewish communites, we can further elaborate the evidence we seek out. When we subtract from what we know, what remains after the Nazi period allows us a figure that is recorded as the Jewish loss. Almost immediately after the end of the conflict with Germany, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee considered the decline in the World Jewish Population to have been in the region of one third of the figure established in a 1939 survey. From the 16,600,000 figure of the 1939 period to the 11,000,000 tally established after 1945, there was a drop of some 5,600,000 Jewish lives, and this can be seen as the causal effect of the slaughter during The Holocaust. That said, there is an estimation that suggests that barely 3,642,000 Jews remained of the Jewish census conducted before the War. Within this is an estimate that suggests there were some 9,740,000 Jews living in Europe, representing 6,098,000 murdered Jews. However, this figure does contend with those statistics produced by Eichmann for the Wannsee Conference, and Heydrich placed before the table of history an analysis which suggests that there were 11,000,000 Jews targetted for destruction. So widely speaking, we can never be more exact than the speculative assessment we have made and accept that 6,000,000 Jews were indeed murdered. That this statistic is but a metaphor for a more tragic calamity, the loss of too many human lives, compels all of humanity to seek a resolve with that lack of comprehension. But I press on toward my own understanding and answer the below questions, which it appears, do not seek a truthful resolve? 1) The German war machine, allegedly responsible for killing 6 million Jews on the low side, was functioning for 5 years.
2) 5 years = 1825 days
3) 1825 days = 43800 hours
4) 43800 hours = 2628000 minutes
5) 6,000,000 Jews divided by 2628000 minutes = 2.28310502 Jews a Minute.
6) See what the problem is?
7) That's 2 Jews a minute, one Jew every 30 seconds, from the start of Hitlers war machine until the mass surrenders when it broke down. This number is for 6 million.
8) That's the low side. Make it 12 million and suddenly Hitler somehow has to kill almost 5 Jews a minute.
9) We can't just assume that this mass of SS rounded up every single Jew and started shooting.
10) Not enough troops for too many Jews.
11) Add to that the fact that the Jews didn't go willingly.
12) So how many people were actually involved in the operation of destroying the Jews?
13) assumption that a 5 man detachment can keep pace and be everywhere at once.
14) These squads only lasted a year before being disbanded.
15) Hitler thought they were "ineffective and inefficient". Something new had to be done. Hitler decided to build death camps.
16) Not all Jews were sent to death camps.
17) There were eight death camps in total.
18) first and longest operating one (Auschwitz II)
19) didn't have gassing facilities until June of 1943.
20) The date of the official closure of the extermination machine isn't clear
21) Auschwitz was open two years.
22) the "plaque number" (the low estimate) of two million, that's a million people a year.
23) Number time again: 365 days = 8760 hours: 8760 hours = 525600 minutes: 1,000,000 dead / 525600 hours = 1.90258752 killed a minute.
24) 30 seconds to kill one person.
25) We know it took four hours from start to finish to operate a crematorium.
Testimony and Fading Memory in the Holocaust 1) There was a crematorium situated within Auschwitz I, with a Gas chamber using x3 ovens for the 'handling' of 320 bodies daily, and operated between January 1942 and April 1943. The total capacity for murder, and concealment of the evidence, was in the region of 150,000 People who could be 'handled'. All traces are therefore, clearly eradicated. 2) Within Bunker 1, at the installation Birkenau, there were x2 gas chambers with a daily capacity for 800 persons. This installation operated throughout 1942. The total capacity for murder, and concealment of the evidence, was in the region of 290,000 People who could be 'handled'. A Mass grave at this installation was also in operation. 3) Within Bunker 2, Birkenau, there were x4 gas chambers with a daily capacity for 1,200 persons. This installation operated throughout 1942 and parts of 1944. The burning pits were also situated within this complex. The total capacity for murder, and the concealment of the evidence, was in the region of 500,000 People who could be 'handled'. 4) Within Krema 2, Birkenau, there were x5 ovens with a daily capacity for 1,400 persons. This installation operated from the beginning of 1943 till the end of 1944. The total capacity for murder, and the concealment of the evidence, was in the region of 800,000 People who could be 'handled'. 5) Within Krema 3, Birkenau, there were x5 ovens with a daily capacity for 1,400 persons. This installation operated for some 16 months between June 1943 and November 1944. The total capacity for murder, and the concealment of the evidence, was in the region of 700,000 People who could be 'handled'. 6) Within Krema 4, Birkenau, there were x2 ovens with a daily capacity for 770 persons. This installation operated between Spring 1943 and 7th. October 1944. Having been destroyed by a Jewish revolt it remained decommissioned. The total capacity for murder, and the concealment of the evidence, was in the region of 423,000 People who could be 'handled'. 7) Within Krema 5, Birkenau, there were x2 ovens with a daily capacity for 770 persons. This operation installation operated between Spring 1943 and the end of 1944. The total capacity for murder, and the concealment of the evidence, was in the region of 490,000 People who could be 'resettled' and 'handled', a very ' Final Solution.'
26) Lets take that and work by percents: Auschwitz II — 131,400 dead Belzec — 42% of Auschwitz — 55,188 dead
THE HOLOCAUST ACCOUNT, that is always represented by Auschwitz/Birkenau, draws our attention away from the overall assault upon the Jewish People. That analysis must clearly come to terms with what happened to the 6,000,000 Jews of the Holocaust. Drawn together with historical accuracy, with that Nazi penchant for detail and pragmatism we have an understanding of missing communities which all leaves us with a criminal catastrophe always weighted in statistics. Like Simon Wiesenthal, I do not wish to reflect upon the terms of the atrocity in statistical terms alone. We are dealing with the destruction of a People, a Jewish People who are presented here: Auschwitz/Birkenau 1,200,000 Jews murdered (possibly as many as 2,500,000 on my own analysis?) Belzec 680,000 Jews murdered (possibly as many as 1,250,000 on my own analysis?)
Majdanek 360,000 Jews murdered (though I suggest possibly 200,000?) Sobibor 300,000 Jews murdered (agrees with my own analysis?) Treblinka 900,000 Jews murdered (possibly as many as 1,200,000 on my own analysis) "Always to Remember, Never to Forget."
Patrick Dempsey writes on the Holocaust. Contact him at pd1010@hotmail.com |
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AGUDATH ISRAEL LEADER JOINS EFFORT TO FREE SHOLOM RUBASHKIN
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 28, 2010. | |
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No doubt, Eric Holder, President Obama's Attorney General, is well embedded in the anti-Jewish crusade to intimidate all Jews. As previously conducted against AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) intended to silence the legal Jewish lobby in Congress. Persecuting Sholom Rubashkin further adds to pressuring American Jews to remain silent while Obama and his Czars force Israel to accept a Muslim Arab Palestinian Two-State Solution. Rubashkin is merely another arrow in Obama and Holder's quiver.
Sholom Rubashkin was convicted after a jury trial before Judge Linda Reade in federal court in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, of bank fraud relating to Agriprocessors' loan from First Bank Business Capital of St. Louis, and for failure to pay livestock providers in a timely manner. The bank never filed a complaint and the loan was being paid until U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted a raid on Agriprocessors' premises in May 2008, driving Agriprocessors into bankruptcy. The company was sold and the Rubashkin family is in debt. Charges that Agriprocessors employed illegal aliens have been dropped. Note some prominent but not complete facts listed below: 1. In May 2008, the U.S. government raided the largest Kosher meat processing factory in America, Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa. Agriprocessors had brought excellent food to all Jews who kept Kosher. They also brought very profitable jobs to Postville. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested and charged the workers with being illegal aliens. NOTE THAT CHARGES THAT AGRIPROCESSORS EMPLOYED ILLEGAL ALIENS HAVE BEEN DROPPED. But, the ICE raid and destruction of Agriprocessors bankrupt the company and the Rubashkins. While they had been paying off their bank loan and their livestock providers in a timely fashion, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ruined a successful business and then charged Sholom Rubashkin with failing to pay the First Bank Business Capital of St. Louis WHICH NEVER FILED A COMPLAINT. In simple words, two main charges, "Illegal Aliens" and "Default of bank loan" have been invalidated. So why was Rubashkin convicted and of what?
Now the Federal Prosecutors (under Attorney General Eric Holder) demand that he be incarcerated before his sentencing — even though the District Judge eventually agreed that the pre-trial detention was "inappropriate". Now Mr. Rubashkin has been held in Linn County Correctional Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa since November 12, 2009, pending his sentencing. AND: Moreover, his friends and his religious community have offered to pay for a 24-hour private armed security guard that will, in effect, imprison him in his home until his sentencing. A total of approximately 8 million dollars in the equity of 43 homes has been offered as security for his appearance. And to demonstrate the intensity of their conviction that he will not flee, rabbis have offered Torah scrolls — that may not be assigned except for the most extreme and exigent needs — as security for his presence. This below is from The Yeshiva World
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Washington, D.C. — Agudath Israel of America executive vice president Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel joined a group of prominent rabbis gathered for a news conference at the National Press Club here today to express dismay and concern over the premature imprisonment of Sholom Rubashkin, and to urge the U.S. Department of Justice to closely scrutinize the demands by federal prosecutors in Iowa that Rubashkin be imprisoned before he is sentenced. The group — which involved rabbis from some of the nation's largest and most well known Jewish organizations — also walked to the Department of Justice to deliver the following letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder requesting a meeting with him"
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@gwinstonglobal.org |
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DOCUMENT REVEALS SCOPE OF EU TRADE WITH IRAN
Posted by Sandra Levy, January 28, 2010. |
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This speaks for itself. All of the talk of sanctions against Iran is just that — "talk".
This is from Ynet News, Israel:
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While European countries talk of imposing harsher economic sanctions on Iran, Foreign Ministry document obtained by Ynet shows trade ties very much intact, with Germany, Italy and France in the lead Europe boasts of its efforts to foil the Iranian nuclear program, but in reality has been trading with the Islamic Republic in the amount of some €65 billion (roughly $91 billion) in the past three years. The leading countries in trade with Iran include Spain, France, Italy, Holland and Belgium, a document obtained by Ynet that has been circulating in the Foreign Ministry and based on European Union numbers showed. Calls for harsher sanctions against Iran in hopes of stopping its nuclear armament continue to increase. Among other things, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the matter with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during his visit to Germany last week. France has also adamantly demanded that Iran put an end to its nuclear program, and has threatened harsher sanctions if it fails to do so. However, the document circulating in the Foreign Ministry shows that these very same countries continue to maintain extensive trade ties with Tehran estimated at billions of euros per year. This means that even if European governments do seek sanctions against Iran, they are likely to be faced with opposition from the hundreds of thousands of employees of companies that trade with Iran whose livelihood may suffer. According to the data presented in the document, between January and July of 2009, trade between the 27 European Union countries and Iran amounted to some €10 billion (about $14 billion). While this is a decline compared to the same period in 2008, when trade amounted to €14.5 billion (around $20 billion), it is still a significant amount, which could make it difficult for these countries to impose economic sanctions on Tehran. The drop in trade in 2009 compared to 2008 was mainly a result of the global economic crisis, but was also affected by European Union countries' policies aimed at cutting back on trade with Iran amid the diplomatic dispute. In 2007, trade between the European countries and Iran amounted to some €24 billion (around $33.7 billion) and in 2008 reached nearly €26 billion ($36.5 billion), almost a 7% increase. European export to Iran amounted to some €11 billion ($15.4 billion) in 2007, and around €11.5 billion ($16.7 billion) in 2008. Import stood at some €14 billion ($19.6 billion) in 2007 and some €14.5 billion ($20.3 billion) in 2008. In the first half of 2009, European import from Iran stood at some €4 billion ($5.6 billion), and export amounted to around €6 billion ($8.4 billion). Germany, Italy leading in trade with Iran The scope of trade with Iran by country, from the largest to the smallest, shows that in the first half of 2009 Germany was at the top of the chart with over €2 billion ($2.8 billion) in trade with Iran. Italy came in second with similar numbers, and France following with €1.46 billion ($2 billion) in trade with Iran. Next came Holland, with €1.3 billion ($1.8 billion), followed by Spain, with €1.2 billion ($1.7 billion). However, the decline in trade between the EU and Iran in 2009 should be noted. The overall numbers of import and export last year showed a 31% drop in the first half of the year. The country with the steepest decline in trade with Iran was Greece, with a 67% drop. Next was Portugal, with a 65% decline in trade with the Islamic Republic, and Finland with a 60% drop. With regards to import from Iran, a 48.5% general drop was recorded in the first half of 2009. The leading country to cut back on import from Iran was Portugal, with a 70% decline in import, and was followed by Romania with a 58% drop, and France with a 57% drop. The decline of exports from the European Union during the first half of 2009 was less dramatic. No country, in the wake of the economic crisis, was able to allow itself to cut back on exports. The data in the hands of the Israeli Foreign Ministry shows a decline of around 8.2% in exports to Iran in the time period of January to July, 2009. A number of countries even increased trade with Iran, including the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary and Poland. The data shows that many European nations, despite extolling additional sanctions on Iran, do business worth billions of euro a year with the country. This will no doubt hinder their ability to impose sanctions without doing harm to their own markets. Many of these states are still in the grips of an economic crisis, which will render the move all the more difficult, and it appears the EU as a whole will have trouble supporting additional economic sanctions on Iran. Contacft Sandra Levy by email at shula2933@gmail.com |
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TIM GEITHNER FUNDS HAMAS: US TREASURY OPENS AVENUE FOR FUNDING HAMAS
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 27, 2010. |
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If there was any suspicion that Obama has directed his regime to take an Islamist track, this should have removed all doubt. Financing Terrorists is what we expect of Iran, Syria, the Russians, England and those others who wish to appease Muslim Arab oil Terrorist nations. Deliberately funding Terror is clearly a criminal act, no matter how slick the transfer. Those who do this should be arrested, tried and jailed — regardless of status or rank. Who would have thought an American President and his accomplices would have become allies of Terrorists like Hamas — among others. Below is "Tim Geithner Funds Hamas: US Treasury Opens Avenue for
Funding Hamas" from Maggie's Notebook
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If you have any doubt of this administration's Muslim sympathies, you can lose that right now. The U.S. Treasury has allowed the terrorist organization, Hamas, to begin receiving funds from around the world, by removing all names of Hamas terrorists from the International terror list, except one, Musa Abu Marzouk. This was an unnecessary action, as an international lawsuit to stop this was a considered possibility. The original report came from Arutz Sheva, an Israeli online news site. So far, blogs are hot on the story, but a search of Google News reveals no main stream media, anywhere, reporting. Thanks to Infidels are Cool for the heads up. You might remember that Barack Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, printed Marzouk's Palestinian manifesto in his Sunday church bulletin on July 10, 2007. Marzouk was arrested at JFK airport in July 1995, and eventually evicted from the country. He is an American-educated Ph.D. with many aliases, among them: Moussa Abu Marzouk, Musa Abu Marzuq, and Musa Abu Marzook. He is believed to be operating out of Damascus, but was born in Gaza. Marzouk's terrorist connections are so obvious even Tim Geithner could not remove his name. How many American taxpayer dollars are streaming to Hamas bank accounts? Here's the Israeli media's report. I hope you will read it all: (IsraelNN.com) The United States Treasury has taken all but one member of Hamas off the international list of terrorists, thus enabling funds from the European Union to enter Hamas-controlled Gaza. 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@gwinstonglobal.org |
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YOU MAY NOT BE PRO-ISRAEL IF; ISRAEL'S HAITI HOSPITAL PRAISED; WHY ISRAEL HUMILIATED TURKEY
Posted by Steven Shamrak, January 27, 2010. |
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You May not be pro-Israel IF...
You may not be "Pro-Israel" if you support the establishment of a "Palestinian State ". You may not be "Pro-Israel" if you think that there is any "Final Status" for Jerusalem other than as the Eternal and United Capitol of the State of Israel and the Jewish People. You may not be "Pro-Israel" if the words "Final Status" does not sound in your ears just too close to "Final Solution". You may not be "Pro-Israel" if you fail to advocate the immediate relocation of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Te Aviv. You may not be "Pro-Israel" if you think that East Jerusalem is anything but a myth created to wrench Jerusalem away from Israel. You may not be "Pro-Israel" if you think a return to Israel's 1967 borders would place Israel in a better strategic and defensible position than where it stands now. You may not be "Pro-Israel" if you still think the piece of paper Israel received in exchange for the Sinai's oil reserves, tourism revenue and strategic depth... in a post-Mubarak Egypt were worth it. You may not be "Pro-Israel" if you think the U.N is fair to Israel. You may not be "Pro-Israel" if you think the mainstream media portrays news from Israel accurately. You may not be "Pro-Israel" if you fail to question the decades old U.S. State Departments Arabist policies. You may not be "Pro-Israel" if you think Holocaust denier Mahmoud Abbas ever sincerely wanted true peace. You may not be "Pro-Israel" if you think Israel should be held to a higher moral standard than other nations. You may not be "Pro-Israel" if you believe that negotiations are the answer. Action Alert: Support Passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution by US House of Representatives — The world kept silent during and after the genocide of almost 1.5 million Armenians by Turks, who are still denying it, during 1915-1917. This atrocity was facilitated by international indifference and silence and paved the way for the Holocaust! Kingdom of Israel Existed in the 10th century BCE. A recently found and deciphered inscription dating from the 10th century BCE showed that it was a Hebrew inscription, making it the earliest known Hebrew writing. Food for Thought. by Steven Shamrak If a country has no self-respect why would others respect it? President Carter allowed the humiliation of the United States by Iran, during the hostage crisis, to go unpunished. Eight years after 9/11, Al Quaeda is thriving and Osama bin Laden is still alive. The major sponsor of international Islamic terrorism, Saudi Arabia, is an official 'best friend' of the United States! Similar statements can be made about Israel and its 60 years of so-called independence. It is time to regain our self-respect! Abbas: There is no Difference between Hamas and Fatah. Palestinian Authority PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said in a speech a week ago that being in power is the only difference between his Fatah Party and the rival Hamas terrorist faction. "The Palestinian Authority is the legitimate authority and that is the difference." In a particularly hard-line speech, he boasted that the Arab leaders in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Fatah) "have not offered any concessions from May 1988 until today." Israel's Haiti Hospital Praised: Israeli Field Hospital a Model for Crisis Care (NBC News), Israel's Makeshift ICU Saving Lives in Haiti (FOX News), Israel's Disproportionate Response (American Thinker), "No One Except the Israeli Hospital Has Taken Any of Our Patients" (CNN), Israeli IDF Hospital: The "Rolls Royce" of Medicine in Haiti (CBS News), Israelis Save Trapped Earthquake Victim (BBC News), Miracle birth of baby Israel in Haiti (The Australian). (What have the oil rich Arab countries done to help Haiti and during other international disasters? Sponsoring international terrorism is the only thing they are good at!) Who is Real Self-hating Extremist? The State Attorney's Office has instructed police to launch an investigation against journalist Natan Zahavi after he had announced a cash prize to anyone who would smash the face of settler or Haredi person who he said calls soldiers "Nazis" during his radio program. (The desire of the Jewish left to destroy their and Israel's Jewishness is treason of the highest degree — Self-Hate must end!) Congressman Challenges Obama Eligibility. A new media initiative by a group of citizen-journalists reports Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., has written to President Obama asking him to prove his eligibility to hold the office of president. This is probably the first time in 233 years of American history that a sitting member of the House of Representatives has officially challenged the legitimacy of a sitting president. (Is it really so difficult for the president of the United States to find and produce his original birth certificate and stop blocking access to information about his birth?) Arab Illegal Settlements Must Go First. Israeli soldiers have demolished 30 buildings in the small Palestinian village of Khirbit Tana, east of the Judea (northern West Bank) city of Nablus. In February of 2009, the Israeli High Court did not recognize the farmer's ownership of the lands and ruled that all structures in Khirbit Tana should be demolished. Quote of the Week: "...too many uninformed individuals who like to view themselves as open minded — 'progressives'. They seem to somehow claim superiority on compassion, on peace, on open-mindedness and on appreciation of other cultures... They restrict themselves to self-criticism and make politically-correct excuses for Islamism. Regrettably, they show their indisputable acceptance of 'others' at the expense of the public's responsibility to learn the truth about Islam's detrimental tenets." — Dr. Wafa Sultan is a Syrian-born certified psychiatrist — It sounds like she wrote about self-hating Jews, doesn't it? Muslims Oppose Accepting Israel as a Jewish State. According to a creditable private poll of Saudi citizens taken in November 2009, only 9% of urban Saudis said they would accept Israel "as a Jewish state," even "under the right conditions." Meanwhile only 26% of Egyptians said they could accept Israel as a Jewish state, this in spite of the fact that the poll was taken thirty years after the implementation of a formal Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement. (Muslims love creating monotheistic Islamic states but are intolerant toward the Jewish one and demand freedom of religion in the Christian countries.) Keep European anti-Semitic Trash out of Israel. Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Storr met last week with the head of PA chief Mahmoud Abbas' staff, Rafik al-Husseini, and PA Jerusalem Affairs minister Ahmed al-Rawidi, at the Augusta Victoria Hospital on the Mount of Olives. It was the first time a foreign dignitary had met a PA government official in Jerusalem since the closure of the Orient House in 2001. What is Next — Another Round of Useless Sanctions? Iran has rejected a Western proposal that other countries prepare its enriched uranium for use in nuclear power plants. Western countries had said that they would impose further sanctions on Iran if it rejected the plan. But members of the United Nations security council — the US, Britain, France, China and Russia — as well as Germany could not agree on levying a fourth round of sanctions No Apologies Expected. The Kuwaiti foreign minister Mohammad El Sabah has been quoted as saying, ''the government of Israel is not normal, and the person at its head is an imbecile and a nut case.'' What is Vatican Hiding? Following Pope Benedict the 16th visit to the Great Synagogue in Rome, Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom called on the Vatican to open its archives from the Holocaust era in order to reduce the tension between Judaism and Christianity. (If the Vatican is so proud of the actions of Pope Pius XII during Holocaust, why 60 years later are the archives still closed and so the world is unable to 'appreciate' his 'saintly deeds'?) No Apologies are Offered. The Foreign Minister of Kuwait, Muhammad a-Sabah, on Sunday called Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu a "stupid and crazy ruler". (Israel must stop apologising to arrogant enemies, including Turkey. They never do!) Why Israel Humiliated Turkey. A diplomatic spat is threatening to worsen Israel's strained relations with Turkey, traditionally one of its most important allies in the region. The rift exposes growing Israeli frustration with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who in a bid to increase Turkey' s regional standing has increasingly spoken out against Israel. This latest crisis included a showdown at Israel' s Foreign Ministry: Breaking with diplomatic protocol, Israeli officials failed to include the customary Turkish flag on the table between them and the Turkish ambassador, whom they seated on a low couch. "The message was, 'We've had enough,'" says Ephraim Inbar, an expert on Turkey-Israel relations at Israel' s Bar-Ilan University. "Erdogan has taken things too far. It might have not been the best treatment for an ambassador, but it came from the gut. The signal is that we're not going to take it anymore." 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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ISRAEL THE BEAUTIFUL: ALMOND BLOSSOMS AFTER THE STORM
Posted by Yehoshua Halevi, January 27, 2010. |
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This is one of Yehoshua Halevi's Golden Light Images. HOW I GOT THE SHOT: The heavens finally opened up over Israel during the past week, bringing an end to a long spell of weather so mild that fruit trees began showing blossoms on the first of January. Because I live in the mountains, some 900 meters above sea level, winter storms don't pass over us, they pass through us. The tail end of one storm left the region shrouded in thick fog, and I had a vision of creating a sort of minimalist photograph with snow white blossoms set against a sea of white smoke. By the time I found an opportunity to shoot, the fog had lifted, but left behind remnants of the fallen moisture clinging to the blossoms. As the calendar turns to the month of Shevat, so must the almond trees bloom in Israel. Choosing one randomly not far from my home, I set up my tripod and camera mounted with a macro lens for close-range shooting. Finding an appropriate subject takes a few moments of scanning the tree until my eye catches a candidate, which must also survive further scrutiny for blemishes, torn petals, or, most importantly, distracting backgrounds. It's a delicate process maneuvering the camera close to the subject and several times I gently knocked an adjacent branch, emitting shock waves that scattered the beads of rain and ruined my subject. In the end, I did succeed with several images, including this one, which I chose because I like the way the background mimics the mottled look of the flowers holding drops of rain. With a macro lens, the subject is often mere inches from the front of the lens and the result is very shallow depth of field, perfect for throwing everything out of focus, except for the main subject. As the full moon rises in the sky this weekend, we mark Tu B'shevat (Jan. 30-31), the new year for trees in Israel. May we continue to merit the blessing of rain and seasonal renewal.
Contact Yehoshua Halevi by email at smile@goldenlightimages.com
and visit his website:
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EGYPT'S INTERNET CRACKDOWN
Posted by Cyber Dissidents Organization, January 27, 2010. |
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This is by David Keyes of the Daily Beast
David Keyes is director of Cyberdissidents.org, which promotes the free expression of online political dissidents. He can be reached at david@cyberdissidents.org |
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The crackdown on bloggers in Egypt is as ferocious as anything in Iran, and yet the United States has ignored it. David Keyes on the West's shameful silence. On January 15, over two dozen Egyptian bloggers and activists were arrested en route to a show of solidarity following the deaths of six Coptic Christians in the southern province of Qena. Among those detained were some of Egypt's most famous Internet activists such as Wael Abbas and Ahmad Badawy. The bloggers' cell phones and IDs were taken by Egyptian police. Though they were released a day later, this crackdown sent shockwaves through the dissident community in Egypt. Wael Abbas was even rearrested and sentenced to six months in prison on the spurious charge of damaging an internet cable. The Egyptian government's ruthless repression of Internet activists shows no signs of easing. On the contrary, one of Egypt's leading young bloggers attested on condition of anonymity that the regime's crackdowns h ave only gotten more sophisticated with every passing month. Though technology has dramatically increased dissidents' capacity to organize and protest, Princeton historian Bernard Lewis told me that it also gives modern Middle Eastern dictators the ability to "surveil, control and repress undreamt of by Haroun al Rashid, Suliman the Magnificent, al-Hajjaj" and other autocrats of yore. In the case of Egypt, Edmund Burke's dictum that all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing is far from sufficient. Evil triumphs in Cairo because supposedly good men in the West openly and unapologetically fund and arm it. America has supplied Egypt with approximately 50 billion dollars of aid (primarily military) since Husni Mubarak came to power three decades ago. Stability was supposedly bought at the price of liberty-a fool's bargain. Instead, Egypt remains impoverished, illiterate, autocratic, corrupt and repressive, not exactly the conditions for lasting stability or peace. In the summer of 2006, I sat with an Egyptian friend in a Cairo cafe and began to talk politics. He silenced me immediately. "Il hitan liha withan" he said in Arabic. "The walls have ears." I vividly recall the vast numbers of security forces on the streets of Cairo brandishing guns outfitted with bayonets. How revealing, I thought. The Egyptian regime is afraid, first and foremost, of their own people. This is why they do not trust them to write, think or blog freely. It is also why they need antiquated knives on their ends of their guns. Bayonets will not intimidate any foreign army, but they just might work against bloggers and students. Last December, 24 year old blogger Kareem Amer's final appeal was rejected and he now enters his fourth year in prison for the unthinkable crimes of criticizing Egypt's dictator and "insulting" the predominant religion. A steady parade of Western diplomats have come through Cairo in the past four years and it is fair to ask how many times Kareem's name has come up. If ever there was a man whose struggle symbolized the values of America-it is him. He is a staunch advocate of Jeffersonian separation of religion and state and is a living exemplar of Patrick Henry's dictum: give me liberty or give me death. In his last blog post before his arrest, Amer, who hopes one day to open a human rights law firm, wrote "I shall not recant, not even by an inch, from any word I have written." I asked one of Egypt's leading female bloggers who requested that I not publish her name if the recent crackdowns increased fear in the blogging community. "No!" she responded defiantly. "The opposite always happens. When someone deprives you of something, you want it more. Kareem Amer is serving four years in jail because of blogging but this actually increased the number of bloggers not decreased it! The more activists jailed, the more new activists appear." The primary explanation for the West's appeasement of Egyptian autocracy is faulty priorities. Liberty is playing second fiddle to stability and thus neither has been achieved. Rather, the seeds of misery, terror, extremism and poverty are being sown in Egypt with open acquiescence from the West. The release of heroic dissidents like Kareem Amer will be the one true sign that progress is in motion. American aid should be directly conditioned on Egypt's respect for freedom of expression. Anything less constitutes appeasement of tyranny and will come back to haunt us. Contact Cyberdissidents by email at newsletter@cyberdissidents.org |
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NEW "TURBANED" MAN ARRESTED
Posted by Susana K-M, January 27, 2010. |
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This was written by Bill Katz and it is archived on his website:
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JUST DEVELOPING — News is first coming in about this, but we may have just dodged another terrorist bullet. From CNN: A man was arrested Monday after police found an arsenal of high-powered weapons and a map of a U.S. military base in his New Jersey hotel, authorities said. You know, the kind of stuff everyone has. Lloyd R. Woodson, 43, was arrested and faces multiple weapons charges after an investigation into his suspicious behavior at a store in Branchburg, New Jersey, said local prosecutor Wayne J. Forrest. The clerk is a hero, and may have prevented another Fort Hood. When officers arrived, Woodson ran into the woods. He was subdued after wrestling with officers, the statement said. During the struggle, officers noticed that Woodson was wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying an assault rifle in his coat. And here is the intrigue: Officers searched Woodson's hotel room and found another assault rifle, a grenade launcher, a police scanner, another bulletproof vest, a map of a U.S. military base, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a Middle Eastern-style headdress, the statement said. A Middle Eastern-style headdress? Why, of course, isn't that what we all wear? Now, why would a man with that arsenal also have a Middle Eastern-style headdress? I want to know all about this man. And yes, I want to know his religious background. I hope the press stays on this story. The usual suspects will probably dismiss the Mideast fashion as a coincidence. After all, who are we to question? I want a lot of answers. Contact Susana K-M by email at suanema@gmail.com |
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FROM ISRAEL: THE HATE THAT DOESN'T DIE
Posted by Arlene Kushner, January 27, 2010. |
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Jew-hatred, that is. Otherwise known as anti-Semitism. Today it also wears the garb of anti-Zionism. But make no mistake, it is the same hatred. Don't believe those who say, "I have nothing against Jews, individually, my quarrel is with the State of Israel." To deny Jews the right to self-determination as a people, and to put that State forever on the defensive, is a form of Jew-hatred. We will not examine here the theories as to why anti-Semitism may wax and wane, but never goes away. There are many, and I have my own ideas. The issue is important now, first, because today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day (or the day for commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz), so designated, some five years ago, by the UN. In Israel, the Holocaust (the Shoah) is commemorated in April. And then, because it is important to note that anti-Semitism — often, but not always, in its garb of anti-Zionism — is increasing. For a while after the Holocaust it was politically incorrect to say you hated Jews. For some time now, it has become acceptable again in various venues. ~~~~~~~~~~ What has not been adequately addressed, even amongst many concerned with anti-Semitism more broadly, is that the Muslim/Arab states are probably the greatest purveyors of anti-Semitism today. (There was a time when I would have been more definitive about this, but with the way Europe is going — see below — I am less certain.) When I speak about what is and what is not politically correct, I note that in many circles it is not PC to address the virulent anti-Semitism that is endemic in the Palestinian Authority. This Jew-hatred should come as no surprise. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Muhammed Amin al-Husseini, was a Nazi collaborator who hoped that German extermination of the Jews would rid Palestine of its Jewish population. Even earlier, in 1929, he had instigated a pogrom against the Jews of Hevron by spreading false rumors about destruction planned by Jews of Al Aksa Mosque (an inciteful charge that is still leveled at us from time to time). When the Arabs went on their murderous rampage, they shouted "Izbah Al-Yahud!" — slaughter the Jews! And then proceeded to do so. ~~~~~~~~~~ Yasser Arafat was of the al-Husseini family. It is said that the Mufti was his uncle; what is certain is that he was Arafat's mentor. Yasser Arafat was schooled in Jew-hatred and passed it along to his people, not the least of whom was Mahmoud Abbas, a co-founder with Arafat of Fatah. Abbas did his doctorate, in Russia, on Holocaust denial. Here I share with my readers something that has stayed with me for years. Suha was not Arafat's first wife (Islam permitting more than one wife). The one he married first was left behind in Algeria when he came here with Oslo. She was bitter at her abandonment and happy to give an interview to someone from the Washington Post. She explained how she was his support in the difficult years and worked to cheer him. When he was very down, she would send a boy to say to Yasser, "Give me a gun, please, so I can go kill Jews." And then, she reported, Yasser would cheer up, and pat the boy on the head, and say,"Ah, this is our future." Kill Jews, you understand: Not, fight for our state. Kill Jews. ~~~~~~~~~~ According to a report just released by the Jewish Agency's Coordinating Forum for Countering Anti-Semitism, there has been a dramatic increase in anti-Semitic incidents around the world. This was especially true in West European countries, which had the highest number of violent anti-Semitic incidents recorded since World War II. The greatest increase was in France, with Britain second. More anti-Semitic acts were recorded in the first three months of 2009 than were recorded during all of 2008. This is felt to be because of Cast Lead, our operation in Gaza. Here is where anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment merge. We are denied the right of self-defense accorded all other nations. And here is where the manipulations and pronouncements of Palestinian Arabs serve to discredit and libel us. ~~~~~~~~~~ Not only were there more incidents in 2009, their severity increased, so we also saw such things as the horror of Mumbai, and the killing of a guard at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. Additionally, we are seeing the return of blood libels of the sort that were common in the Middle Ages. Back then, it was the charge that Jews killed Christian children to use their blood for making matzo before Pesach. Now the charge — and this came first from the leading Swedish paper Aftonbladet at the end of last summer — that the IDF kills Palestinian Arabs youth to harvest their organs. More recently, the Turkish have run a TV series that libels the IDF, with dramatically acted scenes of our soldiers killing old people and kidnapping babies. (Hopefully, I will return to the issue of our relationship with Turkey.) ~~~~~~~~~~ Anti-Semitism even touched our humanitarian actions in Haiti. As we all know, the public response to this life-saving operation was incredibly positive, with even media outlets that are routinely biased against Israel, such as CNN, singing our praises. But there were, inevitably, hate-filled blogs, lunatics who cannot be dealt with. Some charged that we did this for self-serving reasons only, to mitigate world opinion with regard to our crimes in Gaza. As one commentator observed, ours is the only nation in the world that must seek to justify a good deed. And, yes, there were those who said we were harvesting Haitian organs. ~~~~~~~~~~ Our right to self-defense in Gaza: We are about to release a response to the Goldstone Report, and I will be returning to this. ~~~~~~~~~~ On a brighter note, we have this: Even as there is increased anti-Semitism in Western Europe, in Central Europe, in the very areas where there was complicity with the Holocaust 70 years ago, there is a new support for Israel today. And so, our leaders have gone to Central European states at this time, to "return its embrace." Said one senior Israeli diplomat, "We are trying to hug those who hug us." While all of the visits are timed to coincide with Holocaust memorial events, they are not simply ceremonial but` are also incorporating meetings with major governmental leaders. There are five Central European nations that have offered Israel considerable diplomatic support in the EU. Now, three of them are being provided with much appreciated, high-profile visits by our leaders: Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is in Hungary; Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon is in Slovakia; and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is in Poland. The other two nations that have been supportive are the Czech Republic and Romania. ~~~~~~~~~~ Today, in Poland, Netanyahu visited Auschwitz, and delivered a talk. He began in English, and then switched to Hebrew, except for the opening words of the Kaddish prayer (the praise of G-d recited by mourners), which are Aramaic. From that talk: "We will always remember what the Nazi Amalek [Amalek: the tribe in the Torah that hit our people from the rear, seen as a prototype of those who arise in every generation to destroy us] did to us, and we won't forget to be prepared for the new Amalek, who is making an appearance on the stage of history and once again threatening to destroy the Jews. And so we ask — as the international community fails to address the threat of Iran with seriousness and strength — what is he telling us about our self-defense? What does he intend, to keep us safe? All other questions recede in the face of this one. Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info |
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LEADING AMERICAN TERRORIST ARRESTED IN YEMEN
Posted by CPocerl, January 27, 2010. |
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This is from the Last Crusade
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An American Muslim accused of helping recruit men known as the "Lackawanna Six" to train at an al-Qaeda terrorist camp and of planning a massive attack on U.S. soil has been taken into custody again in his native Yemen. Jaber Elbaneh has asked for a lawyer to defend him against charges he's faced in Western New York since 2002. Federal authorities accuse Elbaneh of recruiting the Lackawanna Six, and bringing them to an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in 2001. They also maintain that he was engaged with Adnan el-Shukrijumah in planning a nuclear attack on American soil. According to The Washington Times and other news sources, Mr. Elbaneh was on the campus of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and may have gained access to the University's nuclear reactor, which is one of the largest reactors for educational purposes in the western hemisphere. Scott Wheeler and other reputable reporters have claimed that Mr. Elbaneh and four other Muslim men on the McMaster campus allegedly stole 180 pounds of nuclear material from McMaster. The 43-year-old Yemeni-American is on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorism suspects. He had been held several times by Yemeni officials since being charged in the U.S. The two countries do not share an extradition treaty. "We would like to get him back here in the United States for prosecution," said James Robertson, the Special Agent-in-Charge of Buffalo's F.B.I. Office. "He's on our top 28 Most Wanted Terrorists Lists. I think there's a five million dollar reward out for him. It's a matter of high interest to the United States Government." Elbaneh was previously in custody in Yemen before escaping from a prison with nearly two dozen suspected terrorists in February of 2006. The U.S. has ramped up anti-terrorism efforts in Yemen since before a
Nigerian man, with ties to al-Qaeda, allegedly trained there to bomb a
jetliner near Detroit on Christmas day.
Contact CPocerl at Cpocerl@aol.com
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POLITICAL CORRECTNESS KILLS, SAYS ISLAM EXPERT
Posted by Ken Timmerman, January 27, 2010. |
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The U.S. military missed multiple direct warnings that Major Nidal Malik Hasan was contemplating mass mayhem once he learned he was going to be deployed to Afghanistan but ignored them because of political correctness, an Australian scholar of Islam told Newsmax in Washington, D.C. recently. "At a certain point, someone explained to Major Hasan that he had a duty to fight Americans and that if he didn't, he would go to Hell," says Dr. Mark Durie, who has written several books on Islamic ideology. His latest is, "The Third Choice: Islam, Dhimmitude and Freedom." Hasan made a presentation to Army colleagues 18 months before the Fort Hood massacre, warning them that Muslim soldiers were compelled by Quranic teaching to turn against the U.S. military if they were ordered into combat against fellow Muslims. "A public debate needs to take place about whether ... an Islamic worldview can be in conflict with loyalty" to the United States or any other non-Muslim country, Durie said. "This debate needs to be pursued without being censored by political correctness." And yet, the 86-page Pentagon report on the Ford Hood massacre, released last week, failed to mention the words "Islam," "Muslim," or "jihad," and called Hasan's actions the product of "self-radicalization." Challenged at a press conference where he presented his findings last week, the report's main author, former U.S. Army chief Togo West, dismissed Hasan's Muslim faith as a cause of his murderous rampage. "Suppose it were fundamentalist-Christian-inspired," West said. "Our concern is not with the religion. It is with the potential effect on our soldiers' ability to do their job." For Durie such views are profoundly misguided, since they fail to take into account the guidance Muslim authorities are providing to their co-religionists around the world on how they should live and interact with the West. Durie cited recent rulings by some of the world's most respected Islamic jurists on the subject of "divided loyalties" that eventually drove Hasan to murder. "Their rulings presuppose that naturalization in a non-Muslim nation, without proper justification, is unacceptable," he said. A condition for making naturalization acceptable was that the Muslim should not seek to advance the cause of his adopted nation above that of Islam, for example, by fighting against fellow Muslims." Rulings calling on Muslims to reject assimilation into non-Muslim societies are not being issued by clerics the West would call radical, but by mainstream Muslim authorities who are currently advising the U.S. government on issues such as Shariah finance, Durie said. "Major Hasan explained, citing chapter and verse, the beliefs that could lead to a member of the U.S. armed forces attacking his fellow soldiers. He cited examples where they had happened before." Durie said that Muslim scholars and interest groups in the West have engaged in a massive campaign to disguise the true nature and goals of Islam. They lie about the true content of Muslim scripture, claim that key quotes calling for violence have been mistranslated, and advance spurious allegations of victimization that have no basis in fact. He pointed to the violence that erupted in the Muslim world when Pope Benedict XVI made a public reference during a speech in Regensburg to Islam's historical practice of spreading the faith through violent jihad. The grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abd'al-Aziz al-Sheikh, issued a press release to refute the Pope's claim, objecting that the sword was only "the last resort" offered to non-Muslims who refused to convert or surrender to the armies of Islam. While Muslims expect to be allowed to live without hindrance in non-Muslim societies, "Islamic teaching doesn't accept reciprocity" when it comes to non-Muslims living under Islam. "From the Islamic perspective, non-Muslims are expected to display two psychological characteristics as part of their surrender. One is a sense of gratitude to the Islamic community for having spared their lives. The other is a sense of their own inferiority." Durie says he sees both on display in the actions and speeches of President Obama, in particular his frequent references to the "debt" the U.S. owes the Muslim world. "The important thing about what President Obama is saying is not whether it is factual or not, but the need to express gratitude as a means of engaging the Muslim world." This is the response demanded of the "dhimmi," or the subjected peoples who live under Muslim rule, Durie argues. Many in the West wonder whether Islam can undergo a Protestant-style "reformation" and become more West-oriented and less violent. The U.S. government has spent millions of dollars since the Sept. 11 attacks trying to foster "moderate" Muslim thinkers and institutions. Durie thinks these are wasted efforts. "Reformation in Islam is already happening, and al-Qaida is the product," he says. The Quran itself calls for "virtually unlimited war against unbelievers," Durie writes in "The Third Choice," citing chapter and verse of the Islamic text. "It is a sad fact that incitement against non-Muslims, and specifically against followers of biblical faiths, is an integral part of Islam, being hardwired into the Quran and the Sunna," the authoritative Muslim texts.
This appeared in Newsmax
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TOP TEN ABSURD STATEMENTS ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST
Posted by Alex Grobman, January 27, 2010. |
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This is a Press Release from the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies WASHINGTON — Authors claiming that President Franklin Roosevelt was helpless to rescue any Jews from the Holocaust topped the 2009 annual list of ten most absurd statements about the Allies' reaction to the Nazi genocide. The annual list for 2009 was released this week by The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, in conjunction with International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is commemorated on January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. "Despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, some FDR apologists still claim there was nothing he could have done to rescue Jews from the Holocaust," said Wyman Institute director Dr. Rafael Medoff. "Like the last Japanese soldier holding out on a remote island years after World War II ended, these diehards simply refuse to face the facts." Medoff said the purpose of the annual list is to "expose the most severe misrepresentations of the Allies' response to the Holocaust, so that the public will have an accurate and balanced account of those crucial historical events." The nominees were judged by a panel of scholars who have researched the Allies' response to the Holocaust: Prof. David S. Wyman, author of The Abandonment of the Jews; Prof. Laurel Leff, author of Buried by The Times; Dr. Racelle Weiman, founding director (emer.) of Hebrew Union College's Center for Holocaust and Humanity education; Prof. Bat-Ami Zucker, author of In Search of Refuge; Prof. Judith Baumel-Schwartz, author of Unfulfilled Promise; Dr. Alex Grobman, author of Denying History; and Wyman Institute director Medoff, author of Blowing the Whistle on Genocide. |
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The Ten Most Absurd Statements in 2009 About the Allies' Response to the Holocaust 1. "The only meaningful way to save the intended victims of HItler's murder machine was to win the war as quickly as possible." — (William J. Vanden Heuvel, longtime president of the Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, on NewYorkTimes.com, 5 October 2009.) [COMMENT: There were, in fact, a variety of ways that Jews could have been saved before the war ended, such as using empty troop supply ships returning from Europe to bring refugees for temporary shelter to the United States; bombing the Nazi death camps or the railway lines leading to them; and pressing the British to open Palestine to Jewish refugees.] 2. "[W]e have to keep in mind that the German army controlled everything after 1940. Nobody was escaping. The uh — the uh, nobody could get out....The Jews of Europe had been Hitler's prisoners since 1940. They couldn't get out. It didn't matter whether we let 'em in, they couldn't get out." — (Robert N. Rosen, author of 'Saving the Jews,' speaking on May
7, 2009 at the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies, Grand
Valley State University, Allendale, MI,
[COMMENT: In fact, Hitler Europe was far from hermetically sealed. For example, more than 26,000 European Jewish refugees escaped to Palestine between 1941 and 1944; about 8,000 Jews escaped from German-occupied Denmark to Sweden in 1943; thousands of Jews fled from German-occupied territory to Soviet territory during 1940-1945; several thousand refugees, mostly Jews, were smuggled out of Vichy Francy in 1940-1941 by Varian Fry's rescue network; and thousands of Jewish refugees escaped from elsewhere in Europe to Italy, 1,000 of whom were brought to the United States in 1944.] 3. "[A]ll presidents are required to take an oath of office to enforce the laws of the United States, and the then-in-effect law, that of 1924, prohibited more than 100,000 people coming into this country a year, and that 100,000 were allocated by a complicated formula. So the fact that a president [such as Roosevelt] doesn't like a particular law doesn't somehow mean that there is automatically a change in the law." — (Prof. Gerhard Weinberg, speaking on the radio program "MTSU
on the Record" [Tennessee] onq October 18, 2009.
[COMMENT: The maximum number that could have been admitted in any one year was 154,000, not 100,000. The fact that President Roosevelt could not unilaterally alter the immigration law does not change the fact that the Roosevelt administration could have saved many Germany Jews without changing the law, simply by permitting the existing quotas to be filled each year. A total of 184,525 immigrants could have been admitted to the U.S. from Germany (and, later, German-annexed Austria) from 1933 to 1939, but the actual number of German Jews admitted during those years was only about 70,000.] 4. "We have found some fundamentally new information about the president's views and policies before and during the Holocaust..." (p.4) "[W]e have uncovered some key episodes in changing American refugee polices previously overlooked ... President Roosevelt promised McDonald and George Warren, under the right circumstances, to ask Congress to appropriate $150 million to help resettle refugees in various parts of the world." (p.335) — (Richard Breitman, Barbara Stewart McDonald, and Severin Hochberg, eds. Refugees and Rescue: The Diary and Papers of James G. McDonald 1935-1945. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.) [COMMENT: The episodes Breitman et al claim to have "uncovered" were not "previously overlooked"; they were described in, among other works, David S. Wyman's Paper Walls (1968) and Henry Feingold's The Politics of Rescue (1970). McDonald did not succeed in "changing American refugee policies"; indeed, the Roosevelt administration's intransigence was the whole problem. Roosevelt's statement to McDonald and Warren may or may not have constituted a "promise," but in any event he did not fulfill it; he never asked Congress to appropriate funds to resettle refugees. Finally, the term "under the right circumstances" is an elastic loophole that in effect cancels out the rest of that "promise"; for when it came to FDR and the Jews, "the right circumstances" never arrived.] 5. Concerning the Wagner-Rogers bill, which would have admitted 20,000 refugee children from Germany outside the quota system, and which FDR refused to endorse: "[President Roosevelt] saw that bill as a gesture — not a solution. He was a man of grand vision who wanted to resettle a much larger number of refugees from Germany." (p.335) — (Richard Breitman, Barbara Stewart McDonald, and Severin Hochberg, eds. Refuge es and Rescue: The Diary and Papers of James G. McDonald 1935-1945. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.) [COMMENT: There are no known documents in which FDR states that he disliked Wagner-Rogers because it would have saved too few Jewish refugees.] 6. "Bombing the railway lines to Auschwitz and other camps would only have achieved a temporary respite for the Jews, and distracted attention and resources from the larger purpose of overthrowing the regime that was killing them." — Richard J. Evans, The Third Reich at War (New York: Penguin Press, 2009), p. 560 [COMMENT: Even a temporary respite might have saved many lives by disrupting the mass murder process. The claim that bombing the railway lines would have "distracted resources" was made by the Roosevelt administration in 1944, and was baseless, as demonstrated by the fact that U.S. bombers were already in the area, flying over Auschwitz repeatedly in the summer and autumn of 1944 as they struck German oil factories in the vicinity, some of them less than five miles from the gas chambers.] 7. "McCloy, he was Assistant Secretary of War, and he's a very convenient target, because he's kind of a WASP, mildly anti-Semtitic guy, who belongs to some clubs in New York that Jews don't belong to, and so he's kind of a good guy to make into a villain." — Robert N. Rosen, author of 'Saving the Jews,' speaking on May
7, 2009 at the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies, Grand
Valley State University, Allendale, MI,
[COMMENT: In fact, scholars have criticized McCloy not because of his ethnic background or club memberships, but because of his opposition to the use of even minimal U.S. military resources to aid refugees or interrupt the mass murder process; his instruction to an aide to "kill" a request to bomb the railways to Auschwitz; his knowingly false claims, in rejecting bombing requests, that bombing would require the diversion of planes from elsewhere in Europe; and his decision to pardon or commute the sentences of large numbers of Nazi war criminals when he was High Commission of Germany from 1949 to 1952. 8. "[American c]ollege and university presidents defended cultural exchanges [with Nazi Germany] as a good way to enhance mutual understanding between the people of Germany and the United States. ... In the 1930s, of course, leaders in higher education didn't have the luxury of hindsight." — Glenn C. Altschuler, in the Boston Globe, July 26, 2009, in
his review of The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower, by Stephen Norwood.
9. "The United States accepted about twice as many refugees as the rest of the world combined, 200,000 of 300,000." — Robert N. Rosen, author of 'Saving the Jews,' speaking on May
7, 2009 at the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies, Grand
Valley State University, Allendale, MI,
[COMMENT: In fact, while the United States did admit about 200,000 Jews between 1933 and 1945, the "rest of the world combined" admitted about 365,000. Thus the U.S. admitted about one-third, not two-thirds, of the world total. (The most widely-accepted figures for Jewish immigration to destinations other than the U.S. from 1933 to 1945 are: Palestine, 138,000; Latin America, 85,000; Great Britain, 70,000; Canada, 5,000; Australia, 15,000; Switzerland, 22,000; Shanghai, 18,000, and Sweden, 12,000.)] 10. "[W]hen Allied long-range bombers were able to make flights from our airbase in Foggia, Italy, with long-range fighter support, they were unaware of what was going on down below in the 'death camps.' Could they then have bombed the marshalling yards at Birkenau? Yes, they could have, but by that time all activity had really ceased and the Germans by November 29, 1944 were dismantling the crematoria at Auschwitz, and making efforts to re-locate, or kill the balance of the Jews that remained." — Richard J. Garfunkel, radio talk show host, June 16, 2009,
"The Bombing of Auschwitz and Jewish Reaction to the Holocaust: Fact,
Feelings and Reactions.
[COMMENT: The Allies had sufficient information about Auschwitz-Birkenau and control of the skies in the region to bomb it by the early summer of 1944. The mass deportation of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz was still underway at that time; it is not true that "by that time all [mass murder] activity had really ceased." ABOUT THE WYMAN INSTITUTE: The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, located in Washington, D.C., is a research and education institute focusing on America's response to the Holocaust. It is named in honor of the eminent historian and author of the 1984 best-seller The Abandonment of the Jews, the most important and influential book concerning the U.S. response to the Nazi genocide. The Institute's Advisory Committee includes Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel, Members of Congress, and other luminaries.
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DETIPHING HEBRON
Posted by David Wilder, January 27, 2010. |
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Lieberman-Ayalon doctrine should spell end to the TIPH mandate in Hebron. 
The past two weeks witnessed massive attacks aimed at Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon as a result of his "infamous" meeting with Turkish Ambassador Ahmet Oguz Cellikol. The meeting was purported to be an Israeli diplomatic scolding following airing of a Turkish television show which allegedly portrayed IDF soldiers kidnapping and shooting Arab children. The Turks denied the allegations, retorting that the soldiers in the show were not Israeli. When the meeting commenced, Ayalon refused to shake the ambassador's hand, Cellikol was seated undiplomatically on a low sofa and the Turkish flag, customarily present as such an event, was missing. If the point wasn't readily understood, Ayalon verbally described the scene to Israeli cameramen present in the office. What followed, which might have been expected, was a small, virtual war between Turkey and Israel, which led to an Israeli apology. However, clearly, behind this less than diplomatic rendezvous was more than meets the eye. Only a few weeks ago, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman instructed Israeli diplomats stationed around the world to "stop turning the other cheek." At a heads of missions conference in Jerusalem he declared: "The problem with Israeli diplomacy over the years is that it does not do enough to preserve the honor of the State of Israel. Terms like 'national honor' have value in the Middle East. There is no need to provoke or exaggerate, but there must not be an attitude of obsequiousness and self-deprecation, and the need to always justify the other side. This is a wrong approach." This is exactly the policy Ayalon represented when meeting with Cellikol. And it had little to do with a television show. For the past year, since Operation Lead Cast, Israel-Turkish relations have hit an all time low. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of "inhuman acts" in Gaza and demanded placement of international observers there to prevent Gaza's "self-destruction."
ERDOGAN'S SUGGESTION of "international observers" strikes a raw nerve, especially in Hebron. Turkey is one of six countries participating in the Temporary International Observer Force (TIPH) in Hebron. This organization has been actively operating in Hebron for the past 12 years, since the implementation of the "Hebron Accords" between Yasser Arafat and Israel, which divided Hebron into two, unequal parts. According to the official TIPH mandate, its major functions include:
The allegations implicit in this mandate are clear. In spite of the fact that the Palestinian Authority now controls 80 percent of Hebron, its Arabs are "insecure" and their lives are abnormal due to the Israeli presence in the city. TIPH has no obligation to observe Arab instigation or violence against Hebron's Jewish citizens. Unfortunately, TIPH is far from objective. The organization also partakes in activities outside of the framework of its mandate. Such activities include interference in internal Israeli affairs. For example, following the purchase of Beit Hashalom in Hebron, TIPH head of mission Karl-Henrik Sjursen, in a media release, said: "TIPH urges the IDF to evacuate the settlers from the building to avoid that new facts of the ground are being established... This action of the settlers can be seen by the Palestinians as an unnecessary provocation in an already tense environment. It might have serious consequences for the security situation in the city." He later added, "The occupation of the house has not only led to increased violence but also further destabilized the situation in Hebron as a whole. In this respect TIPH again urges the Israeli authorities on all levels to take necessary measures to evict the occupants. In the light of the ongoing violence and the continuing violation of both Israeli and international law, we also encourage the Israeli authorities to evict the settlers occupying the house on Patriarchs' Hill with no further delay." This type of intervention by a foreign body is blatantly negative toward Israel and certainly produces negative impressions in countries around the world, most definitely in the other countries participating in TIPH and the "host countries" — the US and Russia.
IN FEBRUARY 2004, outgoing head of mission Jan Kristensen, in a media interview, accused both Israeli civilians and the IDF of ethnic cleansing in Hebron: "The activity of the settlers and the army in the H-2 area of Hebron is creating an irreversible situation. In a sense, cleansing is being carried out." One further example of TIPH's bias: On November 12, 2000, Mary Robinson, then chairwoman of the UN Council for Human Rights, visited Hebron. While driving in a TIPH vehicle up the hill to the Tel Rumeida neighborhood, her car was shot at. TIPH later examined evidence concerning the attack and concluded: "TIPH received the results of a ballistic expertise carried out by the Danish police. The expertise showed that the shot was fired from a Kalashnikov AK-47 rifle. Moreover, a reconstruction conducted by TIPH personnel in cooperation with the Danish experts clearly designated the origin of the shot: a house in the H1 area, north of Bab al-Zawiya." This information was included in the 15th periodic report published by TIPH, but it was not publicized to the public-at-large, leaving many people believing that the attack had been perpetrated by Jewish civilians or IDF personnel serving in Hebron. The TIPH presence is detrimental, damaging and disadvantageous to the State of Israel. In conducting tours for civilians and diplomats without any Israeli representation, TIPH presents a very one-sided, biased account of Israeli and IDF policies, which only add to the negative propaganda being disseminated internationally. When Ayalon visited Hebron, in response to a question, he emphasized that the "T" in TIPH stands for temporary, and clarified that the organization's mandate would not be automatically renewed. His spokesman told The Jerusalem Post that it would not be "rubber stamped," as had been practiced in the past. Clearly, the logical continuation of the Lieberman-Ayalon doctrine, preserving Israel's pride against foreign animosity, leads to the conclusion that Israel must end the TIPH mandate in Hebron when the it expires at the end of this month.
David Wilder is spokesman of The Jewish Community of Hebron.
You can contribute directly in Israel to The Jewish Community of
Hebron, POB105, Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100, email: hebron@hebron.org.il
or phone: 972-52-431-7055. In USA, write to The Hebron Fund, 1760
Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230, email: hebronfund@aol.com or phone:
718 677 6886.
This article is archived at
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ISRAELI SEES WAR WITH LEBANON AND HIZBULLAH; IRAN AND TURKEY BOOST
RELATIONS; BRITAIN UNFREEZES TERRORIST ASSETS
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 27, 2010. |
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ISRAELI SEES WAR WITH LEBANON AS WELL AS WITH HIZBULLAH Lebanon is arming, and an Israeli expert foresees war with it along with Hizbullah. Lebanon has been acquiring and refurbishing military helicopters that it claims are not for military use but which France is concerned might get into the hands of Hizbullah. Noting the Lebanese Army's close cooperation with Hizbullah, which has a prominent official place in the government, PM Netanyahu said that one may as well consider the Lebanese Army and Hizbullah as a coordinated force. Former Israeli national security adviser Gen. Giora Eiland said that in another war with Hizbullah, Israel would have to consider the Lebanese Army as hostile. (Former Israeli actions in Lebanon tried to ignore the Lebanese Army.) UNIFIL may think it is impeding Hizbullah aggression, but under its watch, Hizbullah built up militarily. The Washington Post considers UNIFIL's mission obsolete, since Hizbullah has installed longer range rockets north of the UNIFIL patrol line. Hizbullah can attack Israeli cities from beyond UNIFIL's jurisdiction (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/, 1/27). One flaw in the UN ceasefire that was supposed to keep Hizbullah from resuming its aggressive menace, was to limit UNIFIL to the border area, although Iran had rockets it might give Hizbullah, and did give, that can be, and are, placed outside the border area. This was foreseeable then, obvious now. Notice that the menace escalates, from Hizbullah having 10,000 rockets to beyond 40,000, and from Hizbullah alone to including the Lebanese Army that the U.S. and EU arm, and from UNIFIL restraining Hizbullah probably to impeding Israeli forces striving to eradicate rockets before they all are fired. The menace escalates, because Israel failed to eradicate it during the prior war. The government of Israel is like a surgeon who deliberately removes half of a cancer, and in the process detaches a few malignant cells that then lodge in additional places. Israeli Foreign Minister Livni, who helped the UN halt the IDF operation praised her efforts in removing half the cancer, since then and predictably metastasized. Since Hizbullah helps run the government, and the head of the government kowtows to Syria, and Hizbullah gets cooperation from the Lebanese Army, what sense does it make for the U.S. and EU to arm the Lebanese Army? It would make a kind of sense if the U.S. and EU seek to get Israel destroyed. That deadly purpose is not rational in the long run, for it assists the forces of jihad against the West, not just against Israel. Why is there no outcry against U.S. policy on this? IRAN AND TURKEY BOOST RELATIONS FURTHER 
IRAN AND TURKEY BOOST RELATIONS FURTHER The Foreign Ministers of Iran and Turkey declared the desirability of forming closer ties, trading more, and linking Turkey with Pakistan by rail through Iran. The Turkish official called Iran constructive (www.imra.org.il, 1/27). Many countries make such statements. They may express sentiment about historical ties between two peoples who know nothing about each other. Iran and Turkey, however, have been implementing their friendship. Since Iran fosters terrorism in the region, The Turkish Foreign Minister's praise for Iran as a regional force is ominous. Turkey has suffered much from terrorism, often fostered by foreign countries. Apparently its opposition to terrorism is limited to its own safety and is not a matter of principle. Isn't that the way of governments, who do unprincipled things in the name of principles! Most Turks are Sunnis and most Iranians are Shiites. Those twain were supposed never to meet. The supposition proved misguided. The two sects can ally themselves against what they consider a common enemy, even though Pakistani and Iraqi Sunnis bomb their countries' Shiites. Decades ago, we were assured we need not worry about Soviet efforts to penetrate the Mideast. Islam, we were told, is not compatible with Communism. Nevertheless, Syria and Egypt were on their way to becoming satellites of the USSR. (Afghanistan briefly had a Communist regime, but for its own reasons, the USSR overthrew it.) Another policy misconception. Fortunately, Israel helped retard the imperial ambition of the Soviets' Arab allies. In 1973, when Israel's U.S. weaponry destroyed his Soviet weaponry, Sadat saw an opportunity to switch from Soviet aid to U.S. aid. At what point do our policy-makers realize they operated under a misconception? As circumstances change, do they re-examine policy assumptions? TURKEY-ISRAEL RELATIONS UPDATE 
The story reported was that at a meeting between Turkey's Ambassador and Israel's Foreign Minister, the Foreign Minister deliberately insulted the Ambassador. He had the Ambassador seated on a low couch and without the customary presence of the Ambassador's flag, and then pointed this humiliation out to the media present. Afterward, he apologized. Today came out the story behind the story. Note the irony in its phrasing. "Only a few weeks ago, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman instructed Israeli diplomats stationed around the world to 'stop turning the other cheek.' At a heads of missions conference in Jerusalem he declared: 'The problem with Israeli diplomacy over the years is that it does not do enough to preserve the honor of the State of Israel. Terms like 'national honor' have value in the Middle East. There is no need to provoke or exaggerate, but there must not be an attitude of obsequiousness and self-deprecation, and the need to always justify the other side. This is a wrong approach." (David Wilder, Hebron Jewish Community spokesman, 1/27). The new policy supports Israeli diplomacy, whose obsequiousness aroused contempt. Let us see whether the Foreign Minister stops self-deprecation without further "need to provoke." BRITAIN UNFREEZES TERRORIST ASSETS Today, Britain's Supreme Court ordered the government to unfreeze assets of some convicted terrorists. The Court ruled that the act exceeded the government's authority. Parliament would have to approve. The government is anticipating swift Parliamentary approval and delegation of authority for further such freezes. The assets were frozen in 2006, after a UN resolution urged countries to freeze assets of terrorist organizations (Israel Law Center, 1/27 in www.imra.org.il). Why stop at freezing those assets and not confiscate them? OBAMA JUDGED ON HIS ECONOMICS BY HIS ANTI-ZIONISM 
The Zionist Organization of American added its criticism of ADL head Abe Foxman to that of conservative commentators Norman Podhoretz, Michael Ledeen, and Mark Steyn. Mr. Foxman had rebuked radio show host Rush Limbaugh for stating that President Obama's criticism of bankers verged on antisemitism. Pres. Obama had not referred to Jews. Mr. Limbaugh, however, said that since Jews are associated with banking, criticism of bankers hints at criticism of Jews. Foxman turned the tables on Limbaugh, by condemning Limbaugh's remarks as verging on antisemitism, because he raised the stereotype of Jews and money. Foxman's critics wondered how Foxman could think that of Limbaugh, who is quite pro-Israel. They also raised older criticisms of Foxman, whose ADL has made excuses for real antisemitic enemies of Israel, such as psychotic Islamists, the Far Left, Yasir Arafat the terrorist, and Desmond Tutu, who compared Israel with Apartheid; called Zionism racism and used the anti-Semitic canard of the Jewish lobby supposedly stifling debate, while condemning Evangelical Christians who are pro-Israel (from 1/26 press release by ZOA, headquartered in New York and of which I am a member). Yes, Foxman sometimes confuses who is antisemitic with who is not. But I also think that the financial crisis justified Obama's complaint about bankers. Indeed, his complaint was too narrow and self-serving. The problem is not just bankers, but Congress, Presidents, Federal Reserve, speculators, realtors, etc.. I doubt that Obama was hinting at antisemitism, and think that Limbaugh was mistaken. A leader should not refrain from legitimate expression because antisemites may imagine he is confirming their prejudice. Perhaps Obama should have been more specific in his complaint, and thereby avoided misunderstanding. He should not be judged on economic policy by his policy on Israel. People are more complex than to warrant that single yardstick. Incidentally, I never associated bankers with Jews. I was the second Jew hired by a certain major bank, which formerly hired only Catholics.
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 and visit his website:
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LAWYER VISITS RABBI SHAPIRA IN PRISON, REPORTS ABUSE
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 27, 2010. |
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There is no abomination the unJews will not pursue in order to actualize their hatred for Torah. To anyone familiar with the physical conditions of the area and village where this alleged arson occurred, it is clearly impossible that it was done by Jews. The only Jews that could have entered and left that Arab village undetected without the active cooperation of its Arab residents would have been a commando unit and not a bunch of teenaged, Yeshivah boys. Nevertheless the Government of Netanyahu and Barak will stop at nothing to "prove" that it was Jews who did it. Those who are members of this Government of Goon Squads, Synagogue destroyers and Rabbi torturers are all equally guilty of its crimes against the Jewish people. Jewish patriots will never forget nor forgive your crimes. This is a news item from Arutz-7
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(Israelnationalnews.com) Attorney Moti Grossman met with Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira at Shabak headquarters late Tuesday night and reported that the rabbi is being humiliated by his interrogators who are using methods that border on torture. Rabbi Shapira, who heads the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva near the Jewish village of Yitzhar, was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion that he participated in a recent arson attack against a nearby mosque. Several students of his yeshiva had been questioned in recent weeks but no charges have been filed thus far. Many villagers from Yitzhar have claimed that police are using the incident at the mosque as an excuse to harass and libel local Jews. The meeting between the rabbi and his attorney took place blindfolded. UPDATE: January 27, 2010 "Judge Releases Rabbi Shapira of Yitzhar"
Judge Anat Singer of the Jerusalem Magistrates' Court released Rabbi Yitzchak Shapira of Yitzhar and sharply critcized the law enforcement authorities over the way he was treated. "There is not even the beginning of a justification for remanding [the rabbi] into custody," she said at the court proceeding. 
Rabbi Shapira, Dean of the Od Yosef Chai (Joseph Still Lives) Yeshiva in the Shomron (Samaria), was arrested on Tuesday night, with police insinuating that he may have been involved in the torching of a mosque in Kafr Yassuf, near Tapuach, last month. Rabbi Shapira emphatically denies all involvement in the incident. Rabbi Shapira's lawyer, Moti Grossman of the Honenu Civil Rights Organization, said that he met with his client after midnight in the Petach Tikvah police station, and said he was shocked to see the rabbi "with his eyes blindfolded as if he were a terrorist. It was very difficult to see this, especially as he is a respected rabbi." 
"The Shabak (General Security Service) is exerting all sorts of heavy pressure on him," Grossman said. "They didn't even allow him to keep his tefillin and prayerbook after he finished praying. This is a clear to attempt to pressure someone under interrogation." The police announced that Rabbi Shapira would be held overnight, if not longer, and students from his yeshiva arrived at the Petach Tikvah police station in solidarity with their rabbi. They sang and danced to show their support. Rabbi Shapira lives in the Shomron community of Yitzhar, where several students were arrested in recent overnight raids on similar suspicions. MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari (National Union), who took part in the impromptu rally outside the police station, said he was shocked at the rabbi's arrest. "I condemn the police for its methods," he said, "which have been taken from the darkest, most oppressive regimes. The agenda of the police against residents of Yitzhar smacks of attempts to conduct a 'lynch' against them."
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.
He writes, "In the history of the world, no tyranny has ever
voluntarily relinquished power
or been replaced by peaceful means."
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MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD IN TURKEY
Posted by Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi, January 27, 2010. |
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In Turkey the existence of a branch of the Saudi-funded Wahhabi ("Islamist") Muslim Brotherhood [1] dates back to the period after World War Two. In the 1980s, however, something happened in Turkey which was inconceivable to happen in an Arab branch of the Brotherhood: The new generation of modern Turkish pro-Saudi Wahhabis ("Islamists") (today's Turkish prime minister Erdogan and president Gul) reconciled with Syria. They compelled the old Turkish Wahhabi ("Islamist") leader (former Turkish prime minister Erbakan) to retire, and limited him to leadership of an insignificant minority party constituting three percent of Turkish voters. For some years, Adnan Oktar ("Harun Yahya" = Arabic for Aaron/Jesus) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adnan_Oktar http://www.harunyahya.com/ was on good terms with both Erbakan (former Turkish prime minister) and Erdogan (current Turkish prime minister). With the agreement of both Erbakan and Erdogan, Oktar published many anti-American, anti-semitic and Holocaust denial pamphlets and booklets (under the nickname of "Harun Yahya"). When (current Turkish prime minister) Erdogan called for all supporters of the Wahhabi Muslim Brotherhood in Turkey to sever relations with (former Turkish prime minister) Erbakan and his followers, Oktar hesitated to do so for some years. Erdogan did not like it and the police investigation came. However, Erdogan did not immediately order Oktar's arrest, as Oktar still has powerful Saudi and Syrian protectors. For the moment being, I see no signs of change in this situation. Should Oktar begin to move freely from Istanbul, then this means something has changed. A reader wrote, saying, "I was told that Oktar does not ever leave Turkey. He will not come to Israel". That is clear, as Oktar was sentenced to three years in prison by a Turkish court in May, 2008, and is now appealing his conviction. Some of those who left Oktar's group and accused him of violence, harassment, threats, cocaine use, and sexual abuse of girls are now Turkish governmental consultants for religious affairs. Oktar is making a desperate final attempt to show his Saudi bankrollers that he still has a role to play in helping Syria get Israel off the Golan Heights. Hence Oktar's many invitations to Jews and Israelis to fly to visit him in Istanbul on all expenses paid trips for "dialogues". This helps create a false impression of "moderation" on the part of Turkish prime minister Erdogan and president Gul's ruling Justice and Development party (AK Parti). Oktar's efforts are designed as part of an attempt to lull Israelis and Jews into a false sense of security that will make them more amenable to giving the Golan Heights "back" to Syria. Erdogan, the current Turkish prime minister, is inclined to
consider Oktar as a fringe figure and to cut his funding in favor of
Mustafa Akyol's ("Akyol" = Turkish for "The White Path") organization
Professor Sheikh Adbul Hadi Palazzi is an
Italian Muslim leader. He is Muslim Co-Founder and Co-Chair, R&B
Islam-Israel Fellowship |
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HALT THE VERBAL AND PHYSICAL VIOLENCE DIRECTED AGAINST ISRAEL
Posted by Yehudit Tayar, January 27, 2010. |
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Under different circumstances I would agree that we Jews, especially we Israelis, suffer from a persecution complex. However, considering the continuous attacks directed against Israel proves that the hatred against Israel is a reality. Just evaluate the Goldstone Report, the accusations of the United Nations against Israel, the pressures by Obama, Hilary Clinton and George Mitchel for Israel to capitulate to the violent attacks directed against us despite the fact that it is known and recognized that this will further encourage terror. The United States was a partner in the infamous Oslo Agreements and it is therefore responsible for the PA implementing the agreement to stop the violence both verbal and physical directed against Israel. In reality the United States continues to ignore the fact that this part of the agreements was never implemented including the fact that the PA never intends to do so. The deliberate lack of coverage of Israel's humanitarian efforts each time a world catastrophe occurs is not coincidental. While on the one hand the world continues to condemn Israel for what they determine is "continued oppression by Israel ", the truth is purposely ignored or distorted. For example our teams have established a field hospital and are tirelessly working to save lives in Haiti yet the world ignores this. Israel does carry some of the responsibility for this, since governments of Israel are over-sensitive to placating unrealistic and dangerous demands by the United States and other countries. One of the outrageous examples is the "freeze of building" forced upon citizens of Israel who live in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, and the Jordan Valley. Another blatant example is the fact that Israel does not shout out, "Why should we have responsibility for the lives of Arabs living in Gaza more than their Arab brothers in Egypt and dozens of Moslem countries? Why should Israel supply fuel to enable the terrorists to attack them? Why should Israel more than Egypt and other Arab countries take responsibility for helping ease the misery of Arabs living under Hamas rule in Gaza?" The Israeli courts also bear a major part of the responsibility for the outrageous behavior directed against Israel no matter what dangers Israel exposes our soldiers to. One personal example which is especially unacceptable to each of us who have served in combat units, who now have sons serving in combat units, is the fear that if an Israeli soldier responds to danger if he is attacked he is the one who will be arrested and punished. For example, the groups of anarchists along with Arabs who continuously demonstrate violently against the "separation wall" are allowed to travel freely, even though it is recognized that they go out there and attack our soldiers. Is the so-called freedom of expression more important than the fact that soldiers are continuously getting injured? The same can be applied to collaborating Jews like Arik Ascherman, who for years has been leading these violent groups, and yet is allowed to continue to incite and orchestrate violent demonstrations. It is unthinkable and unacceptable that there is this incredible imbalance by the courts and governments of Israel especially considering that no matter how much Israel capitulates more is demanded and expected of Israel to capitulate to. Actually if Israel would finally stand firm on our basic rights, and speak out loudly against the verbal and physical anti-Israeli attacks directed against us by the PA, by Turkey, Egypt, Jordan — against the hypocrisy and double standard used against Israel than perhaps, finally, we would witness a change in this. Israel must stop being so over sensitive and finally stand up for the basic rights of our citizens and soldiers to be able to hold our heads high against the propaganda and hate directed against us. Yehudit Tayar is a veteran spokesperson for the Jewish pioneers living in Yesha and lives with her family in Bet Horon, in the Benjamin Region of the Shomron |
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OBAMA ASKS: WAR? WHAT WAR?
Posted by Yaacov Levi, January 26, 2010. |
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Whatever doubt there was that President Barack Hussein Obama is a pacifist and sides with Islam, that doubt can be removed. Obama does not wish to defend America or her allies. He only makes speeches about bravery — where he has none. Obama's entire regime must be removed from power by a vote of the people — very soon — before he can do more harm to America's finances and healthcare. The damage he has done to our military may be reversible and salvageable. This was written by Charles Krauthammer and it appeared
January 1, 2010
in National review Online
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Janet Napolitano — former Arizona governor, now over-matched Secretary of Homeland Security will forever be remembered for having said of the attempt to bring down an airliner over Detroit: "The system worked." The attacker's concerned father had warned US authorities about his son's jihadist tendencies. The would-be bomber paid cash and checked no luggage on a transoceanic flight. He was nonetheless allowed to fly, and would have killed 288 people in the air alone, save for a faulty detonator and quick actions by a few passengers. Heck of a job, Brownie. The reason the country is uneasy about the Obama administration's response to this attack is a distinct sense of not just incompetence but incomprehension. From the very beginning, President Obama has relentlessly tried to downplay and deny the nature of the terrorist threat we continue to face. Napolitano renames terrorism "man-caused disasters." Obama goes abroad and pledges to cleanse America of its post-9/11 counterterrorist sins. Hence, Guantanamo will close, CIA interrogators will face a special prosecutor, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will bask in a civilian trial in New York — a trifecta of political correctness and image management. And just to make sure even the dimmest understand, Obama banishes the term "war on terror." It's over — that is, if it ever existed. Obama may have declared the war over. Unfortunately, al-Qaeda has not. Which gives new meaning to the term "asymmetric warfare." And produces linguistic — and logical — oddities that littered Obama's public pronouncements following the Christmas Day attack. In his first statement, Obama referred to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as "an isolated extremist." This is the same president who, after the Ford Hood shooting, warned us "against jumping to conclusions" — code for daring to associate Nidal Hasan's mass murder with his Islamist ideology. Yet, with Abdulmutallab, Obama jumped immediately to the conclusion, against all existing evidence, that the bomber acted alone. More jarring still were Obama's references to the terrorist as a "suspect" who "allegedly tried to ignite an explosive device." You can hear the echo of FDR: "Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — Japanese naval and air force suspects allegedly bombed Pearl Harbor." Obama reassured the nation that this "suspect" had been charged. Reassurance? The president should be saying: We have captured an enemy combatant — an illegal combatant under the laws of war: no uniform, direct attack on civilians — and now to prevent future attacks, he is being interrogated regarding information he may have about al-Qaeda in Yemen. Instead, Abdulmutallab is dispatched to some Detroit-area jail and immediately lawyered up. At which point — surprise! — he stops talking. This absurdity renders hollow Obama's declaration that "we will not rest until we find all who were involved." Once we've given Abdulmutallab the right to remain silent, we have gratuitously forfeited our right to find out from him precisely who else was involved, namely those who trained, instructed, armed, and sent him. This is all quite mad even in Obama's terms. He sends 30,000 troops to fight terror overseas, yet if any terrorists come to attack us here, they are magically transformed from enemy into defendant. The logic is perverse. If we find Abdulmutallab in an al-Qaeda training camp in Yemen, where he is merely preparing for a terror attack, we snuff him out with a Predator — no judge, no jury, no qualms. But if we catch him in the United States in the very act of mass murder, he instantly acquires protection not just from execution by drone but even from interrogation. The president said that this incident highlights "the nature of those who threaten our homeland." But the president is constantly denying the nature of those who threaten our homeland. On Tuesday, he referred five times to Abdulmutallab (and his terrorist ilk) as "extremist(s)." A man who shoots abortion doctors is an extremist. An eco-fanatic who torches logging sites is an extremist. Abdulmutallab is not one of these. He is a jihadist. And unlike the guys who shoot abortion doctors, jihadists have cells all over the world; they blow up trains in London, nightclubs in Bali, and airplanes over Detroit (if they can); and they are openly pledged to wage war on America. Any government can through laxity let someone slip through the cracks. But a government that refuses to admit that we are at war, indeed, refuses even to name the enemy — jihadist is a word banished from the Obama lexicon — turns laxity into a governing philosophy. 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@gwinstonglobal.org |
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CONSTRUCTION FREEZE: STATE DESTROYS SYNAGOGUE
Posted by Hillel Fendel, January 26, 2010. |
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Special Yassam units have destroyed a synagogue in the Shomron-Binyamin community that was built after the construction freeze was announced. The Torah scrolls were first removed from the building, and the bulldozers began the destruction shortly afterwards. Earlier this morning (Tuesday), it was reported that large police forces and special Yassam units had arrived in the Talmonim bloc and prevented entry to the communities of Dolev, Neriah, Talmon, Nachliel and Haresha. They thus wished to prevent residents from arriving en masse to thwart their destruction of a synagogue in Nachliel, said to have been built in violation of the two-month-old construction freeze. The construction freeze was abruptly imposed on all new Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria by the government to entice the Palestinian Authority back to the negotiating table. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and other government ministers have vowed that the freeze will be removed after ten months. The destruction of a synagogue, especially in Israel, is considered very serious, in terms of both religious sensitivity and the efforts, in the words of the Knesset Law Committee, to "prevent harm to synagogues around the world." After the Disengagement/expulsion from Gush Katif in 2005, the government originally planned to destroy the synagogues that remained in Gaza, in order to avoid their desecration by local Arabs. However, even this fear was not considered sufficient reason to destroy those holy sites, and following opposition by rabbis around the country and much debate, the decision was rescinded. Hillel Fendel is Senior News Editor, Arutz-7 |
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SECRET REPORT: IRAN WILL HAVE NUCLEAR BOMB THIS YEAR
Posted by Malkah Fleisher, January 26, 2010. |
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A secret intelligence dossier currently being reviewed by US, Israeli, German, and Austrian governments reveals secret Iranian tests and hierarchies of power dedicated to the successful development of a nuclear bomb, and predicts that Iran will have a primitive nuclear bomb by year's end. According to the classified document featured in an exposé by Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, Iran is well on its way toward obtaining its first nuclear bomb. The country's nuclear research program, it turns out, has a military wing answering to the Defense Ministry which the West was not aware of until now. Der Spiegel explained the structure of Iranian nuclear establishment at length. Iran's new Minister of Science, Research, and Technology, Kamran Daneshjoo, 52, is in charge of the country's nuclear energy agency. A close ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Daneshjoo was educated in Manchester, England. He worked for some time at Tehran's "Center for Aviation Technology", which later developed into FEDAT, the "Department for Expanded High-Technology Applications". FEDAT ultimately became what the German paper calls "the secret heart of Iran's nuclear weapons program", answering directly to the Defense Ministry.
FEDAT is currently run by Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, 48, a professor at Tehran's Imam Hussein University and officer in the Revolutionary Guard. Western intelligence agencies say FEDAT and the Ministry of Science are working together to create the bomb. They also believe that a primitive nuclear weapon the size of a truck will be completed this year. Two to four years after that, the bomb will be compressed to a size capable of fitting into a nuclear warhead and being launched at Israel. Iran is believed to have conducted successful tests of a nuclear detonating device 6 years ago. 'Not just Israeli propaganda' Despite the severity of the situation, the international community is still undecided on sanctions of Iran. China is considered likely to try to block sanctions, as it currently holds billions of dollars in energy deals with the country. A military option may prove difficult, according to military experts, because many of the Iranian nuclear installations are deep underground. The report will likely cause the US government to raise its alarm level from yellow to red, according to Der Spiegel. "Skeptics who in the past, sometimes justifiably so, treated alarmist reports as Israeli propaganda, are also extremely worried," including IAEA officials, said the magazine. The report also says, somewhat cryptically, that a laptop computer passed on to the IAEA by way of German and American intelligence agencies contained highly volatile material. No compromise Fears of a nuclear Iran have been compounded by information provided by Iran's former deputy defense minister, Ali Reza Asgari, and nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri, both of whom defected to the United States and were given new identities. Iran has consistently stated that its nuclear program is for the peaceful provision of nuclear energy to the country's citizenry. In October, the IAEA presented a plan to Iran which had been developed by the US government. Under the plan, Iran would send 70% of its low-enriched uranium abroad. A year later, the uranium would be exchanged for fuel rods, a potent form of nuclear fuel which is very difficult to enrich for military purposes. The plan would have provided sufficient fuel for a nuclear energy program and to fuel the reactor for scientific experiments. At the same time, the world would have been assured that Iran truly had no intention of developing nuclear weapons. On January 19, Tehran offered a "counter-proposal", effectively rejecting the IAEA plan and casting off illusions of a compromise with the West. Malkah Fleisher writes for Arutz-7, where the story appeared today. |
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GOLDSTONE SHMOLDSTONE
Posted by Rabbi Jonathan Gross, January 26, 2010. |
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Lebanon, or Hamas, nor is it the demographic threat of an Arab Israeli majority. Today, the biggest threat to Israel is the pressure placed on Israel to abolish the state's Jewish character. On October 26th 2009 the US State Department openly came out against Israel's right to be a Jewish State. In a recent report on international religious freedoms, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor has declared that Israel discriminates against Christians, Muslims, and Messianic Jews as well as secular Jews. According to the state department Israel is guilty of the following:
The report acknowledges how the Israeli government gives 65 million shekels a year for the building and maintenance of non-Jewish houses of worship (churches and mosques), as well as other funding for non-Jewish religious education — yet Israel is admonished because more money is given to Jewish religious institutions and education. This report is a direct affront to Israel's right to be a Jewish State. Will we see the Israeli government come out as strongly against this as they did against the Goldstone report? The State department report is fundamentally more important. If Israel does not stand up for its right to have a Jewish State that can give preference to Jews and Judaism then why is Israel fighting? Were Israel to abolish its Jewish character, Israel could peacefully annex the West Bank and Gaza and form a secular democracy for Arabs and Jews. To deny Israel's right to be Jewish is denying Israel's right to exist. Agudath Israel released a Jewish patriotic statement condemning the State Department report. "One country was created as a Jewish state. Israel's choice of timeless Jewish tradition in the public realm and with regard to issues of personal status requires no apology. Criticism of Israel for being true to its foundational ideal is ill-conceived." Unfortunately these days Jewish Patriots are hard to come by. Ironically, of all the enemies that Israel has defeated since it's inception, it is liberalism that may be responsible for Israel's demise.
Rabbi Jonathan Gross is with Beth Israel Synagogue in Omaha, Nebraska.
This article was posted on his website:
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WAS OBAMA ELECTED TO LEAD THE MUSLIM WORLD?
Posted by CPocerl, January 26, 2010. |
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This is from China Confidential
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Looking ahead to the State of the Union speech, this reporter wonders: Was Barack Hussein Obama, who was born a Muslim according to Islamic law, which he is inclined to respect, elected President of the United States or President of the so-called Muslim world? The answer, of course, is that Obama was elected President of the United States; but based on his performance during his first year in office, one would think he was elected to lead the world's Muslims, supposedly united by "the Holy Koran," as Obama insists on referring to Islam's central religious text, to a degree that allegedly transcends all political boundaries and non-Islamic legal systems as well as all differences in nationality, ethnicity, race, and class. Obama has given enormous credence to the menacing, Muslim world concept — the bedrock of Islamist ideology — while achieving nothing of importance for the American people. He has produced no new jobs, created no new industries, initiated no new programs or policies that resonate with and inspire ordinary Americans. He has, however, helped the Muslim world, also known as the Ummah, or Muslim nation, enormously by elevating its status to the level of a globe-spanning superpower, allowing its most powerful "Islamic republic" — a monstrous tyranny that muses openly about a world without America and Israel — to come closer to acquiring atomic arms, and downgrading the war against Islamist terrorism to the level of a mere law enforcement challenge. The latter initiative involves banning the W word — war — altogether and treating enemy combatant terrorists, such as the Al Qaeda war criminals responsible for carrying out the 9/11 mega-attacks, and the Nigerian, Christmas Day airplane attacker, as common criminals entitled to civilian court trials, public defenders, and, incredible as this may seem, plea bargains. Conservative-leaning U.S. voters are outraged by Obama's obvious attempts at expanding the power of the federal government, raising taxes, and crippling U.S. industry through crushing overregulation and the choking-off of energy (the Democrats' despised "fossil fuels" on which our civilization runs and will run for the foreseeable future). The outrage is more than justified. But all voters should be alarmed by Obama's foreign and counterterrorism policies, which are effectively increasing the nation's vulnerability to threats that were more or less unthinkable before 9/11, but now seem more and more likely to actually occur. Understand, as Obama likes to say, that while the U.S. is a big, powerful country, the threats it faces border on the existential. Could the U.S. economy withstand waves of suicide bombings and Mumbai-style swarming assaults? Maybe. Could the U.S. economy recover from a nuclear blast in a high-population area, or a major biological attack on the homeland? Probably not. Could the U.S. as a nation survive an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack — the increasingly plausible detonation of a nuclear warhead at high altitude above U.S. soil in order to wipe out the country's communications and electronics systems? The truly terrifying answer, according to many defense and national security experts, is no. An EMP attack would overnight plunge the world's mightiest military power back into the 19th century. Millions of Americans would die from lack of food, water, electricity, medicines, and heat. Those who somehow survive the chaos would long for the days when it was still possible to argue passionately about health care reform (or media coverage of the Tiger Woods scandal). If an EMP attack seems far-fetched, bear in mind that a cargo ship with a concealed, containerized launch system could fire the necessary nuclear-tipped missile — or missiles — that thousands of cargo ships, flying flags of convenience, approach U.S. coastal waters every day, that there is no known way to defend U.S. (or any other) cities against sea-based, ballistic missile attacks, and that Iran and North Korea are believed to have successfully test-fired missiles from cargo vessels. For what purpose have they done this? Does Obama know — or care? Observing the President, this reporter often thinks that he inhabits a different planet, or, at the very least, a different country from the one he is supposed to be leading and protecting. Contact CPocerl at Cpocerl@aol.com |
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IT'S NOT JUST ISRAEL: HOW OBAMA UNDERMINES US ALLIES
Posted by Donnella Whitacre, January 26, 2010. |
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This was written by Abraham Katsman, an American attorney
and political commentator currently living in Jerusalem.
This article appeared in the Jerusalem Post
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Obama has made his own personality and identity cornerstones of US diplomacy. For those worried that US President Barack Obama is particularly antagonistic toward Israel, there's good news and bad news: The good news is that Israel is hardly Obama's obsession; the bad news is that his administration's conduct toward it is consistent with its pattern of backing away from embattled American allies — a predictable byproduct of Obama's approach to foreign policy through dictator outreach. US President Barack Obama. US President Barack Obama. Photo: AP [file ] Obama, more than any recent president, has made his own personality and identity cornerstones of American diplomacy. He assumes his potent charm can bend America's adversaries his way, that American history began anew on January 20, 2009 and that hostilities can be resolved through dialogue with him. His tactic of choice has been to visit a troubled region, apologize to the local authoritarians for America's sinful pre-Obama history, disavow acts of previous administrations and suggest that he brings with him a diplomatic "reset-button." But there are dangerous repercussions to conducting such personality-focused foreign policy: By promoting his unique diplomatic touch as the key to rapprochement, any failure by Obama to harmonize hostile relationships indicates the insufficiency of his skills. Accordingly, in practice, hostile governments have learned that Obama sets lofty diplomatic goals in public, but is willing to cut almost any deal to keep up appearances. He has made countless concessions and conciliatory gestures to Iran, the Arab world, China, Russia and Venezuela, vainly urging some demonstration of good faith in return. Yet time and again, seeing no downside, America's adversaries simply pocket the concessions without reciprocating. Refusing to concede any error, Obama has instead doubled his diplomatic bets, paying in the currency preferred by the hostile regimes: by jettisoning the interests of US allies who are thorns in their sides. Obama has vocally criticized Israeli security policy, coerced a settlement freeze and put the status of established Jerusalem neighborhoods in question. Yet the Arab governments and Palestinian leadership keep moving the diplomatic goalposts, making no concessions, knowing he will only increase pressure onIsrael to restart the "peace process." Obama's one-sided pressure against Israel has earned him, according to an August Jerusalem Post poll, the assessment of only 4 percent of Jewish Israelis that his administration is pro-Israel. But it's not just Israel. In April he praised "the Czech Republic and Poland, [who] have been courageous in agreeing to host" a missile-defense system, promising deployment "as long as the threat from Iran persists." By July, though the threat from Iran certainly persisted, Obama caved in to Russian objections, abandoning the missile-shield along with those courageous Czechs and Poles. In Honduras, his administration backed the reinstatement of a power-usurping, Chavez-allied anti-American president in spite of the legal democratic process which had removed him. In Iran, Obama still talks of engaging the mullahs and slowing down sanctions even as the theo-fascists thumb their noses, ramping up their nuclear capability and mowing down democratic protesters holding signs saying "Obama, are you with us or against us?" From China, Obama had high hopes for progress on human rights and cooperation regarding Iran and North Korea. He got nothing, save for an ironic lecture on fiscal responsibility from the communist government. Is there a threatened ally he has ever stood up for? If I were Taiwan, I'd be worried.
OBAMA TRULY believes in his special persuasive powers. "I have a gift," he is famously reported to have said to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. During the campaign, the crux of hisforeign policy was his eagerness to immediately meet the world's most brutal dictators and enemies of America, without preconditions; he would personally make them less antagonistic. He wants to hold a Muslim summit, since "I have lived in a Muslim country" [as a schoolboy], "I know it is possible to reconcile Islam with modernity and respect for human rights and a rejection of violence." Well, that's a relief. Obama's belief in his own powers was reinforced by a love-struck press. After his vaguely messianic campaign and inauguration, Newsweek's Evan Thomas typified the mood, hyperventilating that Obama was "standing above the country... above the world. He's sort of God." But once president, reality intruded: The leaders of Russia, China and North Korea don't believe in God. And the Islamist God is somewhat less warm and fuzzy than Barack Obama. With nothing to show for his efforts, Obama's continued belief in his ability to pacify adversaries by personal appeal is as delusional as it is dangerous. Nations don't have personal friends; they have interests. And American interests are not advanced by presidential groveling, but by creating the right mix of carrots and sticks to induce desired behavior. Obama's willingness to sacrifice embattled allies to appease hostile regimes ultimately weakens America. As Bernard Lewis has said: "A nation can make few mistakes worse than this: to be harmless as an enemy and treacherous as a friend." Especially when that nation gets nothing in return.
Contact Donnella Whitacre by email at screenqwen1@yahoo.com
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ANTISEMITE AT UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM (USHMM)
Posted by Patrick Dempsey, January 26, 2010. |
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For my part, I largely endorse all that USHMM stands for and when asked about what it should stand for, it surely stands as a marker for 6,000,000 Jews no longer with us. I am always asked cotentious questions, as if I am an authority on all that the Holocaust details. But I do my best to respond, especially when People have taken the time to respond to one of my Books on the Holocust as I am only wishing to add further to what I feel the destroyed Jews of Europe would seek to have said on their behalf? When asked recently about the position of Mr. Chodakiewicz as a board member of USHMM, a person who, if not an anti-Semite then is a disliker of Jews, I felt compelled to add a dissenting voice. Perhaps Chodakiewicz asserts that the 4 year old Tokele, murdered in Sokoly after the Nazi's left, was in some way collateral damage? Surely Tokele couldn't have been a communist, and if she were, would it have shifted any political balance let alone bias? Also, would Chodakiewicz contend that the Jewish property, Jewish valuables and all Jewish wordly goods, now enjoyed by the Poles, are the product of them simply falling into Polish laps, or are they the spoils of War? Did the fact that the disappearance of some 3,000,000 Polish Jews not enrich the Polish People somehow? Is that not against all Christian ethics and surely his own moral code would not allow for the enrishment of one People upon the destruction of another People, even if they were Jews? If Poles are not to be the least bit outraged by Auschwitz, then let them balk at the stain Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibior and Treblinka casts over their blood stained Country. Let us not forget, that what Poland did not do to the Jews of Poland and Europe, it is apparent that Poland did not prevent or resist what was happening to the Jews of Poland or all of Europe. Patrick Dempsey writes on the Holocaust. Contact him at pd1010@hotmail.com |
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LANCET STUDY BLAMES PALESTINIAN WIFE-BEATING ON ISRAEL
Posted by Israel Academia Monitor, January 26, 2010. | |
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This below was written by Phyllis Chesler and it appeared in
Pajamas Media
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It's official. Britain's premier medical journal Lancet[1] has been completely Palestinianized. It no longer bears any relationship to the first-rate scientific journal it once was. Perhaps Lancet is no longer a standard-bearer but has become a follower in the global movement in which standards have plunged, biases have soared, and Big Lies now pass for top-of-the-line academic, scientific work. The post-colonial academy is itself thoroughly colonized by the false and dangerous ideas of Edward Said (please read my dear friend Ibn Warraq's most excellent book Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism [2]). However, I once believed that Said's paranoid perspective had primarily infected and indoctrinated only the social sciences, humanities, and Middle East Studies. We now see his malign influence at work in a new article, just out today, by professors who work at the Department of Medicine at Harvard University; the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health at Minnesota University's School of Public Health; The Boston University School of Medicine; the School of Nursing at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey; and at the School of Social Work and Social Welfare at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. Their study [3] is titled: "Association between exposure to political violence and intimate-partner violence in the occupied Palestinian territory: a cross-sectional study." And yes, they have found that Palestinian husbands are more violent towards Palestinian wives as a function of the Israeli "occupation" — and that the violence increases significantly when the husbands are "directly" as opposed to "indirectly" exposed to political violence. I believe that Arab and Muslim men, including Palestinian men, are indeed violent towards Arab and Muslim women. I also believe that war-related stress, including poverty, usually increases "intimate partner violence," aka male domestic violence. But beyond that, how does one evaluate this study? First, let's follow the money. This study was funded by the Palestinian National Authority as well as by the Core Funding Group at the University of Minnesota. The Palestinian Authority is not a disinterested party. But even worse: The data was collected by the Palestinian Central Bureau. These are the people who told the world that Israeli soldiers shot young Mohammed al-Dura, committed a massacre in Jenin, and purposely attacked Palestinian civilians (who just happened to be jihadists dressed in civilian clothing or hostage-civilians behind whom the jihadists hid). Second, let's note that the study has a political goal which trumps any objective academic or feminist goal. (These researchers claim to have a "feminist" perspective). In my view, this study wishes to present Palestinian men as victims, even when those men are battering their wives. And, it wishes to present Palestinian cultural barbarism, which includes severe child abuse, as also related to the alleged Israeli occupation. Third, therefore, the study has purposely omitted the violence, including femicide, which is routinely perpetrated against daughters and sisters in "occupied Palestine" and has, instead, chosen to focus only on husband-wife violence and only on couples who are currently married. The honor murders of daughters and sisters by their parents and brothers is a well known phenomenon in Gaza and on the West Bank. I have written about some high profile cases before. "Souad" barely survived being set on fire [4] by her fWest Bank family because she became pregnant out of wedlock by the man who promised to marry her; Israelis nursed her back to health and she fled the area for Europe, where she wrote a book about her near-death experience. Asma'a al-Ghoul [5], whom I interviewed in 2008, was fired for writing a series of articles about honor killings on the West Bank and in Gaza. These barbaric, misogynist, and femicidal customs are not due to any alleged political, military, or economic "occupation" by Israelis. Fourth, if one is completely serious about violence against women, the researchers would have factored in the role of Hamas, which has "occupied" Gaza both militarily and religiously. Since they have done so, more and more (previously modern) women have been forced to veil; more child marriages as well as arranged marriages are now taking place. Indeed, Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups have lured young Palestinian women into becoming suicide killers [6]. In 2002, they manipulated Wafa Idris, a clinically depressed woman into blowing herself up, and in 2004, they lured Reem al-Riyashi, a wife and mother of two, into an affair and then threatened to shame her (which would have led to her being honor-murdered). Instead, they gave her a path to glory. This study chose not to include such terrible violence against women because it could not, strictly speaking, be attributed to the alleged Israeli occupation — or to the still unresolved matter of the disputed territories. Fifth, had the Lancet study wished to study — truly study — the effects of war on women in domestic settings, they would also have studied or at least referred to studies about the fate of Israeli women in terms of "intimate partner violence"; after all, they are also women and they are on the other side of the exact same conflict. A comparison might have been both just and arguably more feminist. Sixth, Lancet is a British journal and it has hereby descended to the same level of anti-Zionist/anti-Jewish propaganda that is quite common among Britain's own non-academic journalists. Countless British journalists have done precisely what this study has attempted to do: Blame it all on Israel. Lancet has done this before, and I have written about this rather nasty tendency more than once. I have also written about this tendency among feminists in my book The Death of Feminism [7]. Make no mistake: This Lancet study is introduced by Rita Giacoman, a real feminist, who teaches at the Institute of Community and Public Health at Birzeit University which is located in, as Lancet describes it, "Occupied Palestinian territory." In 2002, in an updated version of her book The Price of Honor, British-American (and anti-Zionist) journalist Jan Goodwin claims that the Israeli military policies of self-defense have emasculated Palestinian men. Curfews keep grandiose, woman-hating, and honor- and shame-reared men at home for long hours. Based on anecdotal evidence, Goodwin believes that such men take their considerable frustrations out on women and children. Here, Goodwin quotes Suha Sabbagh, who says that the "Palestinian male, a father, the authority figure in the house, has lost all his authority." Goodwin dwells on the systematic "humiliation" of the Palestinian man by the Israelis. She writes: "Much of this belittling has taken place in front of their children and womenfolk," which in turn has "cut down" the image of the Palestinian man as the family's "hero" figure. "For Arab men, this is the same as losing their masculinity." And here Goodwin, like so many other feminists, contradicts herself. Arab and Muslim overly vigilant paternal authority is precisely what has brutalized Arab and Muslim women. In 1992, Jean Sasson published Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia [8]. The unnamed al-Saud princess (whose story Sasson tells), describes the typically cruel way in which fathers, brothers, and husbands treat their "womenfolk." Let me quote her: "The authority of a Saudi male is unlimited; his wife and children survive only if he desires. In our homes, he is the state...From an early age, the male child is taught that women are of little value...the child witnesses the disdain shown his mother and sisters by his father; this leads to his scorn of all females...[the] women in my land are ignored by their fathers, scorned by their brothers, and abused by their husbands." Iranian-Swiss Carmen bin Laden, in her book Inside the Kingdom [9], portrays life for women under Saudi male rule similarly. Women cannot go out without a male escort and they cannot leave the house or the county without male permission and accompaniment. A daughter can be married against her will, a father can seize custody of his children and not allow their mother to ever see them again. Bin Laden writes: "I rarely met a Saudi woman who was not afraid of her husband...A wife cannot do anything without her husband's permission. She cannot go out, cannot study, often cannot even eat at his table. Women in Saudi Arabia must live in obedience, in isolation, and in the fear that they may be cast out and summarily divorced." Saudi Arabia has not been "settled," "colonized," or "humiliated," by Israelis. Jordan has not been "settled," "colonized," "occupied," or "humiliated" by Israel. And yet, Jordan has a high rate of honor killing. According to Elaine Sheeley, in her 2007 book Reclaiming Honor in Jordan [10], nineteen to one hundred honor killings take place in Jordan each year. Based on another author's use of United Nations statistics, Sheeley also cites a much larger number of honor killings in Jordan, Gaza, and the West Bank. (I am not sure how they came to this figure or if it is at all accurate but the number given is 2,550 per year). Due to the Bedouin leadership, honor killing is rampant in Jordan; the police jail the intended victims (for their safety) rather than the potential perpetrators; and even the King dare not sign into law serious sentencing consequences for an honor killing. Judges are allowed to use their discretion in sentencing and sentences are very light. Egypt is not colonized by Israel, and yet serious violence against women is common there. This includes female genital mutilation, wife-beating, daughter-beating, forced marriages — and, with the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, the forced veiling of previously modern women. The Lancet researchers operated in exceedingly bad faith both academically and politically. For example, they write: "Occupation policies, including a separation barrier that is being erected in various parts of the West Bank, affect family connectedness, depriving women of regular contact with their families who might otherwise intervene to prevent intimate-partner violence." Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim families do not intervene when a husband is beating a wife. On the contrary. Both the husband's family and the wife's own family view this as a husband's right or as a wife's fault. These researchers have got to know that. Thus, they are playing to western naiveté or ignorance about this by claiming the Israeli road blockades are stopping such imaginary, pro-woman family interventions. I am not denying that war is Hell or that women do not often bear the brunt of war-related male frustration at home. I am challenging how Israel alone is being blamed in this study for a war that in truth, was declared long ago against the Jewish state by the Arab League, the Palestinian Authority, and more recently, by Hamas and Hezbollah. I am challenging the "politics" of both this study and of Lancet, whose aim is to scapegoat Israel for the barbarism and misogyny which is indigenous to Arab and Muslim culture, even more so, when jihad and terrorism dominate the world. Footnotes [1] Lancet:
[2] Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism:
[3] study:
[4] barely survived being set on fire:
[5] Asma'a al-Ghoul:
[6] lured young Palestinian women into becoming
suicide killers:
[7] The Death of Feminism:
[8] Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in
Saudi Arabia:
[9] Inside the Kingdom:
[10] Reclaiming Honor in Jordan:
Contact the Israel Academia Monitor by email at e-mail@israel-academia-monitor.com |
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THIS IS NOT PORT-AU-PRINCE
Posted by Patrick Dempsey, January 26, 2010. |
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"..a vale of sorrow. No human beings are they who walk its streets
..all are phantoms ..shadows ..haunting a world that is no longer in
existence. ..They have even ceased to weep. ..congestion ..stench
..poverty ..disease ..chaos ..cannot be paralleled anywhere on earth.
..bodies strewn on ..roadside like old cinders. Shrouds ..no longer
..for ..dead. ..water ..foul ..cannot be drunk. ..They wander
..sad-eyed ..distraught ..mourners at funerals. ..devil ..could not
have devised such hell."
This is the description Moldawer witnessed while the Jews of the Reich were being displaced and deposited in the Lublin reserve, circa 1939. While the past can be so mirrored in atrocity and played out in natural disaster, efforts are made to ameliorate the catastrophe of Haiti, but what effort has there been truly made to atone for the crimes that humanity waged and raged against the Jews of Europe, not so long ago? Patrick Dempsey writers on the Holocaust. Contact him at pd1010@hotmail.com |
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HELP, NOT HATE
Posted by Michael Devolin, January 25, 2010. |
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Since last fall, the federal Conservative government has been withdrawing taxpayer funding from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that use their grants to take sides against Israel in the Middle East conflict. Now comes word that last week, Ottawa told the United Nations it would no longer fund the world body's Palestinian refugee agency. From now on, Canadian aid to Palestinians will be directed to specific projects. We will no longer give lump-sum aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA), since most of that money simply goes straight into the Palestinian Authority's (PA) general treasury, where it might be used for humanitarian projects or might be used to arm and train terrorists. This is a bold move for Ottawa, which is the first Western government to cut off funding for UNWRA. Although UNWRA has long been a biased player in the Arab-Israeli conflict, it is seldom criticized for its incitement of anti-Israeli hatred and violence by Palestinians. It has funded textbooks that deny the right of Israel to exist and paid teachers who call on Palestinian children to push the Jewish state into the sea. It harbours radical Islamists and anti-Semites on its payroll and was even caught in 2004 using its own ambulances to ferry terrorists away from Israeli sites they had just attacked. But most politicians and journalists consider UNWRA to be sacrosanct. Too many swallow whole the agency's assurances that it is not involved in promoting terrorism and anti-Israeli sentiments in the West Bank and Gaza. Criticism of it always elicits howls that UNWRA's mission is only to care for four million refugees in 59 camps and promote peace and understanding in the region. So rather than get dragged into a public relations war with the UN and its acolytes, last week, before Prime Minister Stephen Harper shuffled his Cabinet, then-Treasury Board President Vic Toews informed UNWRA and the PA that from now on, Canadian aid would be earmarked to specific projects, chosen by Ottawa, such as food aid. Ottawa also announced it would defund Alternatives, a Montreal NGO that two summers ago organized an education camp in Quebec, welcoming "500 motivated militants" from Lebanon, Iraq, "Palestine" and Venezuela. International Development Minister Bev Oda withdrew $7-million in tax dollars, too, from KAIROS, an "ecumenical partnership" that had adopted a vehemently anti-Israel policy and been at the forefront of boycotts against the importation of Israeli goods and visits by Israeli professors. For too long, Ottawa has subsidized NGOs that claim to be after peace, but that in truth seek to demonize Israel. It's good the Conservatives are seeking to halt these attacks. Michael Devolin is a B'nai Elim; he lives in Canada. This article appeared in the National Post. |
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PAKISTANI JIHADISTS:
'THE JEWS, WHO DREAM OF RULING THE WORLD, HAVE INVENTED... VACCINES, DRUGS, AND INJECTIONS... TO WEAKEN MUSLIMS'
Posted by Levi, Yaacov, January 25, 2010. |
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Article in Urdu-Language Women's Magazine of Pakistan-Based Jihadist Group, Titled 'Polio: Disease or Dangerous Jewish Conspiracy?' States: 'The Jews, Who Dream of Ruling the World, Have Invented... Vaccines, Drugs, and Injections... to Weaken Muslims' An article published by an Urdu-language magazine for women in Pakistan has called the international polio eradication campaign a Jewish conspiracy being furthered by various international organizations. The article, by Mohammad Kamran Talib, is titled "Polio: Disease or Dangerous Jewish Conspiracy?" It was published in the Urdu-language monthly magazine Mahnama Banat-e-'Aisha ("Daughters of 'Aisha" — 'Aisha was one of the wives of the Prophet Muhammad). Mahnama Banat-e-'Aisha is a sister publication of Haftroza Al-Qalam, an Urdu-language weekly loyal to Jaish-e-Muhammad, an Al-Qaeda-linked militant organization based in the Pakistani province of Punjab. The article first appeared in June 2006 an Urdu-language magazine called Mahnama Rahnuma-e-Sihat, and was reproduced in the October 2009 issue of Mahnama Banat-e-'Aisha. The article alleges that several international organizations, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the WHO, Rotary International, the World Bank, and UNICEF, which are providing massive funding for international polio eradication campaigns, are serving Zionist interests. Claiming that the eradication campaigns are a Jewish conspiracy, the article quotes reports from Urdu-, Hindi-, and English-language newspapers on various incidents in India of children contracting polio despite being vaccinated. It also refers to several such cases in Yemen and Indonesia, adding that Islamic scholars in Nigeria have issued a fatwa against polio vaccination. The article also notes that Dr. Ibrahim Datti, a physician and president of Nigeria's Religious Law Supreme Council, has accused the U.S. of including anti-fertility components in the polio vaccines. This article was translated by The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), an independent, non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle East (www.memri.org). The following are excerpts from the article:[1] |
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The Polio Eradication Campaign "The U.N., the U.S. Health Department's Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Red Cross, and 16 wealthy European countries are collaborating with the WHO's polio eradication program to carry out their nefarious designs by giving aid to the poor countries. And that is why three states of Nigeria have banned this program. "The governor of the state of Kanu, Ibrahim Shikarao, has said, 'We have opted for the lesser of two evils. We don't want to affect the reproductive system of millions of children, especially girls, by allowing the vaccination campaign; instead we have preferred the disease in which a few — two, three, five, 10 children — are afflicted with [polio]...'" "Ninety-Eight Million People Have Been Infected with the SV-40 Virus Because of the Polio Vaccine; Consequently, the Number of Cancer Patients in the U.S. Has Increased Alarmingly" "When the polio eradication campaign was launched in the U.S. in 1950, only 13 people out of New York's population of 15 million [sic], and the question was raised as to what was the need for it. None seemed to be convinced that such a massive program should be launched for such a meager number of patients, one person in 100,000. "According to 1996 figures, in comparison to deaths from polio, 276, 203, 60, 40, 23 and 11 people died in the U.S. of heart disease, cancer, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes, and AIDS, respectively. "The polio virus is a genetically engineered virus made of the components of a monkey's kidney. Monkeys' kidneys have Simian Virus (SV-40). It may create the danger of incurable diseases if it's injected into [the] human body. It may cause osteosarcomas, brain tumors, and malignant mesosmthlisomas [sic], which are difficult to cure. "Besides, the BK virus and JU virus are in the polio virus, and they can cause cancer. In 1962, unsuccessful experiments were carried out in advanced and standard laboratories to do away with the effects of these fatal viruses. These viruses spread rapidly into the human body and became difficult to control. "Every year, about 20,000 people die in the U.S. due to this. According to U.S. scientist Dr. Mercola, around 50,000 people become afflicted with dangerous diseases every year due to these viruses. In his words, 'We believed the experts that they would free us from polio, but it happened that they injected the fatal viruses of cancer into the human body, and because of it 20,000 people die every year in the U.S.' "Debbie Bookchin and Jim Schumacher, authors of 'The Virus and the Vaccine [The True Story of a Cancer-Causing Monkey Virus, Contaminated Polio Vaccine, and the Millions of Americans Exposed'] say: How would you feel when you come to know that the vaccine you have given to your child to save them from a disease has injected into their bodies the SV-40 virus that is responsible for the cancer that ninety-eight million U.S. citizens have suffered from? This vaccine is a great medical fraud. "Barbara Loe Fisher, the president of the National Vaccine Information Center, has claimed that the sole reason behind weak immune systems in most children and youth, as well as learning disabilities, asthma, arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, seizure disorders, skin diseases like lupus and hyperactivity, are the protective vaccinations. Ninety-eight million people have been infected by the SV-40 virus because of the polio vaccine. Consequently, the number of cancer patients in the U.S. has increased alarmingly. "According to a report in The Washington Times of September 21, 2003, the vaccination drugs given to Americans between 1962 and 2000 had a monkey virus in them. Besides, the report has mentioned evidence and reports tabled before the House Committee. Citing these reports, Stanley P. Copse, an attorney handling lawsuits by people afflicted with polio, has said that it has not been proven to date that oral polio vaccines are completely free of the SV-40 virus. He has written an article in this regard on 'Oral Polio Vaccination and Cancer,' on the basis of legal documents, stating that SV-40 virus is found in the vaccine. This was published in the 'Anti-Cancer' magazine in 2003. He writes: 'In the oral polio vaccine case the Lederle company is unable to say that all its vaccines are free of SV-40 virus. Lederle's director has said that examination of all the vaccines is impossible. So, experts should not be confident in the absence of any solid proof that these vaccines are totally safe.' "Dr. Philippe Che Chunin, a prominent oncologist at Mount Sinai Hospital and a mesothelimoa [sic] specialist, says, We are seriously considering the fact that the SV-40 virus is becoming a greater cause of cancer in human beings. Russian scientist Dr. John Martin says that SV-40 virus is so dangerous that it can be transmitted by birth to the next generation without any vaccination. Currently, Dr. Tain Garnie is researching how the SV-40 virus destroys cells. Dr. Venus Jophon Tana says that there is a close relationship between the SV-40 and mesothelimoas [sic] cancer." The U.S. Has Banned the Oral Polio Vaccine "The Useless and Fatal Polio Drugs (OPV) Kept in U.S. Warehouses Are Being Flown to Asian Countries via the World Health Organization (WHO)" "Few know that the U.S. Health Department and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have banned oral polio vaccines as of January 1, 2000. Over 600 million polio vaccines were sold between 1969 and 1999. Lederle has been ordered to close its operations. The CDC has stated that these vaccines contain live viruses, which may affect healthy people or those who have not taken the polio drops. This is why injections, instead of oral vaccines, are being given to the people in the U.S. "It is being claimed that the danger of the spread of polio has been substantially reduced by the use of inactivated and killed polio vaccines (IPV). The cost of one injection for a child can come to 500 [Pakistani] rupees. It is obvious that such costly injections are beyond the reach of Third World children. Therefore, the useless and fatal polio drugs (OPV) kept in U.S. warehouses are being flown to Asian countries via the World Health Organization (WHO)." "[This Oral Vaccine] Might Be Why Healthy Children in Indonesia, Yemen, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Niger And Nigeria Contract Polio Even After Taking [It]" "Dr. Allen Cantwell MD — the author of two books on the man-created disease AIDS, titled 'AIDS and the Doctors of Death' and 'Queer Blood' — has even said that the two drops of oral polio vaccine has increased the risk of polio in the next generation, and has also increased the risk of paretic polio, a dangerous strain of polio. This might be why healthy children in Indonesia, Yemen, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Niger, and Nigeria contract polio even after taking this oral vaccine." "Samples of the OPV Given In India [Were] Found... To Be Dangerously Adulterated" "Dr. Haroon Fatiya, a prominent pharmaceutical scientist and the dean of Ahmadu Bello University, which is based in Zaria, Nigeria, said in March 2008 that his examination of samples of the oral polio vaccine given in India found them to be dangerously adulterated. "According to a report on lifesite.net, dated March 11, 2004, when asked why the companies adulterated their drugs, he gave three reasons: a) There are some secret agendas of those who make and distribute vaccines and dangerous materials, and detailed information regarding this distribution can only be obtained after research; b) they know that the Third World countries do not have the skill, education, and facilities to discover the truth easily through research; c) and last but not least, they have their supporters among us... It is extremely sad that people from our medical field are associated with those whom we trust to protect our interests. "That is why Dr. Fatiya has demanded the prosecution of these people who have brought counterfeit drugs into their countries, in the name of [eradicating] polio, and that they receive the harshest punishment [possible] as criminals. A group of medical experts has solid ground to believe that genetically engineered viruses can be used to spread diseases." "In 1971, the [U.S.] Army's Bio-Warfare Department... Entered Into a Secret Pact... With the National Cancer Institute; That Is Why... Experts Claim That the AIDS Epidemic Was Spread In An Organized Way" "The U.S. Army began working on biological warfare during the term of President Richard Nixon. In 1971, the army's bio-warfare department, based in Maryland, entered into a secret pact regarding this with the National Cancer Institute. That is why a sector of experts claims that the AIDS epidemic was spread in an organized way, in which the patient falls victim to cancer at the end. "A London Times report, of May 11, 1987, said that the AIDS epidemic in African countries was the result of the anti-smallpox vaccination of 1972. Experts like Dr. William Campbell Douglas, MD, do not recognize this as more than rumor. According to the WHO declaration, green monkeys are responsible for AIDS in Africa. They say that the study of the structure of genes in monkeys proves that it is impossible for the AIDS virus to naturally enter the human body. Doctors also say a human cannot get AIDS unless he is given [an] injection with a needle [previously used by an infected individual], or that [the disease] is transferred from one person to another via blood transfusion and multiple sexual relations. "However, rejecting the facts and figures, Dr. Theodora Strecker says that even if it is agreed that monkeys are responsible for it, only 8,000 people should have contracted AIDS between 1972 and 1987 through this one cause — not 75 million." "How Did the AIDS Virus Spread in the U.S.?... [The Epidemic] Was Caused by the Hepatitis-B Vaccines Given to Homosexuals in U.S. Cities in 1992" "And how did the AIDS virus spread in the U.S.? Did the green monkey come flying there? [The epidemic] was caused by the Hepatitis-B vaccines given to homosexuals in U.S. cities in 1992 are responsible for it. "Dr. R. J. Bugger specifically stated, in an article published in Lancet, that AIDS viruses were prepared in laboratories. Quoting from a WHO Bulletin (Vol. 47, p. 289, 1972), Dr. Campbell said that the WHO is destroying our immune system in the name of fighting diseases through vaccines; he asked whether it wants to eradicate human beings from the earth itself." Why is Polio Eradication Sponsored? "The Jews, Who Dream of Ruling the World, Have Invented Different Types of Vaccines, Drugs, and Injections... to Weaken Muslims... The Oral Polio Vaccine Campaign Is Being Run Under a Worldwide Conspiracy — Except in the Zionist Countries" "The Jews, who dream of ruling the world, have invented different types of vaccines, drugs, and injections in an organized way to weaken Muslims in their beliefs on spiritual, practical, and moral levels, and make their bodies contaminated. The oral polio vaccine campaign is being run under a worldwide conspiracy — except in the Zionist countries. Its total focus is now on South Asian countries — India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The U.S. has already marked this area as an extremely strategic region." Why Are "These Greedy Jews and Christians... Spending Millions on This Campaign?" "Have we ever thought why these greedy Jews and Christians are spending millions of dollars on this campaign?
The Polio Vaccine is Prepared from Impure Animals "An Analysis of How the Polio Vaccination is Prepared is Sufficient in Order to Understand How the Viruses of Haram and Unpious Animals... Are Being Injected Into Our [Muslim] Bodies" "An analysis of how the polio vaccination is prepared is sufficient in order to understand how the viruses of haram [forbidden in Islam] and unpious animals like monkeys, chimpanzees, dogs, mice, and pigs are being injected into our [Muslim] bodies. "Experiments were carried out in different stages on 4,000 monkeys imported from India and the Philippines in 1955, at a deserted place near a river in the area of Bluffton, in southern California. After that, polio vaccines were prepared from their kidneys. "None other than Jonas Edward Salk (1914-1995) was responsible for this achievement. Besides being a prominent bacteriologist, he was a great Jewish spiritual leader who is revered even now by Jewish religious scholars and rabbis. He established the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in the Lazola area of California in 1963. The annual budget of this [institute], one of the biggest biological laboratories of the world, is $120 million, and 400 scientists work there around the clock. For a long time, the U.S. government used the vaccine prepared in this laboratory for their sweeping polio drives." According To a Recent WHO Report, "500 Million People Around the World Were Given the Hepatitis-B Vaccine — A Vaccine Which is Only Not Given In Israel" "Even today, Lederle prepares the polio vaccine from the kidney of Rhesus monkeys. According to U.S. journalist Michael Dorman, only Christian children in the U.S. were given the vaccine prepared by Dr. Salk during 1962-2000, while the Jews, who constitute less than 1.5 of that country's population, refused the vaccination on religious grounds. "On the other hand, a recent WHO report says that 500 million people around the world were given the Hepatitis-B vaccine — a vaccine which is only not given in Israel. "It is strange that the world media did not make it an issue, while it forced the Saudi government to vaccinate its eight million children by creating a concern that three pilgrims from Nigeria could spread polio." [1] Mahnama Banat-e-'Aisha, Pakistan, Vol. 9, Issue No. 10, October 2009. Contact Yaacov Levi by email at jlevi_us@yahoo.com |
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WHEN DOES SELF-REFLECTION BECOME SELF-DESTRUCTION?
Posted by Sheridan Neimark, January 25, 2010. |
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This was written by David Harris, AJC Executive Director, and appeared January 24, 2010. |
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I read the article in the New York Times on January 22nd with dismay. No, this was not about the paper itself. It had nothing to do with a poorly-chosen photo, a misleading headline, or a lack of balance or context. Rather, it dealt with an all-too-familiar story being reported — the instinct for Jewish self-destructiveness. Entitled "For Israelis, Mixed Feelings on Aid Effort," referring to the response to the earthquake in Haiti, the article was best summarized by the following excerpt: "But Israelis have been watching with a range of emotions, as if the Haitian relief effort were a Rorschach test through which the nation examines itself. The left has always complained that there is no reason to travel thousands of miles to help those in need — Gaza is an hour away. The right has argued that those who accuse Israel of inhumanity should take note of its selfless efforts and achievements in Haiti." Forgive me, but this is nuts. Israel responded magnificently to the immense tragedy unfolding in Haiti. Both the governmental and non-governmental sectors were on the scene almost immediately. The Israeli field hospital, by all accounts, quickly became the finest medical unit in the country. Grateful Haitians even took to naming children born in the facility "Israel." Israeli rescue-and-relief teams found survivors in the rubble and restored them to life. Other Israeli units are providing a range of basic services to a population whose needs are almost impossible to grasp. The Israeli effort far exceeds the nation's small size and dwarfs the response of many larger countries. Of course, some countries, most notably in the Arab world, shamefully sat on their hands, doing nothing in the face of a human calamity. Cynics would suggest that Israel had some narrow, self-serving interest for helping, but there is none, other than a life-affirming desire to alleviate suffering. Haiti is the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere, its voting record on Israel-related issues at the UN is nothing to write home about, and the Jewish community on the island is infinitesimal in size. Israel's role in Haiti should be a source of national pride, not a trigger for a "Rorschach test." In fact, Israel's quick action in Haiti is nothing new. There is a long and proud record of Israel's response to international humanitarian crises, reflecting the state's core values. I visited an entire prefabricated town that Israel built in Turkey after a devastating earthquake, in 1999, destroyed thousands of homes. I saw the Israeli field hospital in Macedonia set up to assist Muslim refugees from neighboring Kosovo, who were driven out of their land by Slobodan Milosevic's ethnic-cleansing campaign. I recall Israel's offer to assist Iran — yes, Iran — after a powerful earthquake hit Bam in 2003, when more than 25,000 people were killed. Tehran rejected the offer, presumably preferring some of its citizens to die rather than be rescued by Israelis. And the list of Israel's lifesaving efforts goes on, at times in countries with which it had no formal diplomatic ties and where its initiatives, while welcomed by the beleaguered nation, nonetheless had to be kept below the radar. Indeed, few countries react so quickly and consistently as does Israel when it comes to mobilizing emergency responders at a moment's notice. The volunteers arrive on the scene with no fanfare, go immediately to work, and set a standard for professionalism and courage. Yet, according to the Times' story, all of this, at least for a few Israelis, is, in the end, rather meaningless as a source of national pride. Instead, the litmus test for Israel must be Gaza. This is when self-reflection turns to the instinct for self-destruction. Gaza has declared itself an enemy state. It is run by Hamas, whose goal is the annihilation of Israel. Anti-Semitism runs rampant throughout the Hamas Charter and the blood-curdling statements of its spokesmen. The smuggling of ever more lethal weapons into Gaza is a top priority. Iran is Gaza's foremost state patron. Of course, it didn't have to turn out this way. In 2005, at great political risk, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withdrew all Israeli soldiers and settlers from Gaza. The unilateral disengagement offered local residents their first chance in history for self-rule. Moreover, Jewish donors, as a gesture of peace and reconciliation, purchased the Israeli-built greenhouses in Gaza and presented them to the Palestinian Authority. These were meant to form part of a new foundation of economic and social development. It was in Israel's vital national interest to see Gaza thrive as a society committed to construction and coexistence. Alas, it was not to be. Hamas ousted the PA and seized power in a bloody civil war. Israel's brief re-entry into Gaza in December 2009 was an inevitable outcome of daily provocations that no sovereign nation could have long abided. And yet today, bizarrely, there is, it seems, a convenient convergence between a consummate "blame culture" and at least a few notable representatives of a consummate "guilt culture." While leaders of Gaza strikingly abdicate all responsibility and blame everyone but themselves for the misfortunes of their land, according to the Times, some in neighboring Israel anguish over Israel's purported responsibility for Gaza's travails. One could argue that this is eloquent testimony to their ethical reflex, their desire to heal the world of Gaza. That might well be laudable but for the simple fact that Gaza is at war with Israel, a seemingly obvious proposition to all but those Israelis blinded by their own self-generated "guilt," which prevents them from confronting reality and those ultimately accountable for the facts on the ground. Were circumstances different, would Israelis offer help in Gaza as they have in Haiti, Turkey, the Balkans, and elsewhere? I have no doubt. In fact, Israel would doubtless do far more, given the proximity and the stakes. Meanwhile, no national self-examination is required. Rather, Israel should be immensely proud of its role in Haiti — and what it reveals about the national character. As a friend of Israel, I certainly am. Contact Sheridan Neimark by email at sneimark@browdyneimark.com |
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FROM ISRAEL: WEEP FOR AMERICA
Posted by Arlene Kushner, January 25, 2010. |
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And then stand strong and bring her home again. In reading Barry Rubin's most recent column, "F for failure," I recognized concerns that have gripped me of late. And so, while I hadn't intended to post today, I knew I wanted to share this. Many of you on this list will understand what he's saying, but across the board I believe his points are more obvious from here in Israel. A great many Americans are still not seeing the forest for the trees. And too many cling to that last bit of residual hope in Obama, and won't yet grapple with the enormity of the failures of his government. ~~~~~~~~~~ Writes Rubin: "We must now face an extremely unpleasant truth: Even giving the Obama administration every possible break regarding its Iran policy, it is now clear that the US government isn't going to take strong action on the nuclear weapons issue. Note that I didn't even say "effective" action, I'm saying that it isn't even going to make a god show of trying seriously to do anything. ~~~~~~~~~~ While I'm at it, I want to also share a January 16th NY Post piece by Ralph Peters — "Hood massacre report gutless and shameful" — that echoes similar themes. (And thanks to Dave A. for calling this to my attention.) Wrote Peters: "There are two basic problems with the grotesque non-report on the Islamist- terror massacre at Fort Hood (released by the Defense Department [January 15]):" [] It's not about what happened at Fort Hood. ~~~~~~~~~~ America is too great — in its courage and its principles — to go down this way. Her come-back (for which I sincerely pray) will depend on the legion of good Americans who do understand what is going on and will, finally, refuse to let it happen. I hope this makes you spittin' mad, and that you share what is written here broadly. Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info |
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FT. HOOD MASSACRE REPORT GUTLESS AND SHAMEFUL
Posted by Dave Alpern, January 25, 2010. |
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This was written by Ralph Peters;
his latest book is The War After Armageddon.
It was archived at
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There are two basic problems with the grotesque non-report on the Islamist- terror massacre at Fort Hood (released by the Defense Department yesterday): * It's not about what happened at Fort Hood. Rarely in the course of human events has a report issued by any government agency been so cowardly and delusional. It's so inept, it doesn't even rise to a cover-up level. "Protecting the Force: Lessons From Fort Hood" never mentions Islamist terror. Its 86 mind-numbing pages treat "the alleged perpetrator," Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, as just another workplace shooter (guess they're still looking for the pickup truck with the gun rack). The report is so politically correct that its authors don't even realize the extent of their political correctness — they're body-and-soul creatures of the PC culture that murdered 12 soldiers and one Army civilian. Reading the report, you get the feeling that, jeepers, things actually went pretty darned well down at Fort Hood. Commanders, first responders and everybody but the latest "American Idol" contestants come in for high praise. The teensy bit of specific criticism is reserved for the "military medical officer supervisors" in Maj. Hasan's chain of command at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. As if the problem started and ended there. Unquestionably, the officers who let Hasan slide, despite his well-known wackiness and hatred of America, bear plenty of blame. But this disgraceful pretense of a report never asks why they didn't stop Hasan's career in its tracks. The answer is straightforward: Hasan's superiors feared — correctly — that any attempt to call attention to his radicalism or to prevent his promotion would backfire on them, destroying their careers, not his. Hasan was a protected-species minority. Under the PC tyranny of today's armed services, no non-minority officer was going to take him on. This is a military that imposes rules of engagement that protect our enemies and kill our own troops and that court-martials heroic SEALs to appease a terrorist. Ain't many colonels willing to hammer the Army's sole Palestinian-American psychiatrist. Of course, there's no mention of political correctness by the panel. Instead, the report settles for blinding flashes of the obvious, such as "We believe a gap exists in providing information to the right people." Gee, really? Well, that explains everything. Money well spent! Or "Department of Defense force protection policies are not optimized for countering internal threats." Of course not: You can't stop an internal threat you refuse to recognize. The panel's recommendations? Wow. "Develop a risk-assessment tool for commanders." Now that's going to stop Islamist terrorists in their tracks. The Fort Hood massacre didn't reflect an intelligence failure. The intelligence was there, in gigabytes. This was a leadership failure and an ethical failure, at every level. Nobody wanted to know what Hasan was up to. But you won't learn that from this play-pretend report. The sole interesting finding flashes by quickly: Behind some timid wording on pages 13 and 14, a daring soul managed to insert the observation that we aren't currently able to keep violence-oriented religious extremists from becoming chaplains. (Of course, they're probably referring to those darned Baptists ...) To be fair, there's a separate, classified report on Maj. Hasan himself. But it's too sensitive for the American people to see. Does it even hint he was a self-appointed Islamist terrorist committing jihad? I'll bet it focuses on his "personal problems." In the end, the report contents itself with pretending that the accountability problem was isolated within the military medical community at Walter Reed. It wasn't, and it isn't. Murderous political correctness is pervasive in our military. The medical staff at Walter Reed is just where the results began to manifest themselves in Hasan's case. Once again, the higher-ups blame the worker bees who were victims of the policy that the higher-ups inflicted on them. This report's spinelessness is itself an indictment of our military's failed moral and ethical leadership. We agonize over civilian casualties in a war zone but rush to whitewash the slaughter of our own troops on our own soil. Conduct unbecoming. Contact Dave Alpern at daveyboy@bezeqint.net |
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WHY ARE AMERICAN SOLDIERS DYING SO IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN CAN REMAIN SHARIA LAW NATIONS?
Posted by Family Security Matters, January 25, 2010. |
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This was written by D.L. Adams and is archived at
D.L. Adams is an analyst and historian, and a co-founder of SIOA (Stop Islamization of America). He can be reached at daniel@sioanetwork.com. How can this dirty little secret be countenanced — that American soldiers are told to fight and die for "freedom" in Iraq and Afghanistan when in fact they fight to prop up two Sharia law states? |
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With great fanfare but little grit or talk of victory, President Obama announced at West Point last month that 30,000 additional American soldiers are going to Afghanistan. If the mission in Afghanistan is two-fold, the defeat of the abysmal Taliban and the creation of a stable, democratic state, it would appear that we are not doing well. The same could be said of "nation building" in Iraq, where violence of late appears to be diminishing in comparison to the bloody mountains and valleys of Afghanistan. While the reduction of violence in Iraq is comforting, the diminishment of violence is not the definitive measure of the success of nation building. The true measure of our efforts in both beneficiary countries should be based upon an examination of the foundations of these countries that we have created with the blood of our best and treasure. When such an examination is made the result can only be horror. The constitutions of Iraq and Afghanistan — for those who love democracy, freedom, and liberty — are failures. If the constitution of a new nation is a failure, then what kind of nation can be built upon it? After the U.S. military (with our allies) drove the Taliban out of Kabul, we endeavored to create a new Afghanistan based upon Constitutional law. Neither the Constitution of Iraq nor of Afghanistan is structured on the secular American model of the state subordinate to the will of the people. This concept is the foundation of American democracy given to us by Jefferson, Washington, Adams, Madison, Monroe, Franklin, and Hamilton; this is tragically not the foundation of our failed nation building strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iraq and Afghanistan are both Islamic states (specifically stated as such in their constitutions). The people of both beneficiary states are therefore in service to Islam (the state is Islam and Islam is the state); this is not any form of "democracy" that most Americans can countenance nor reasonably support. After WWII, Douglas MacArthur remained in Tokyo to oversee the creation and passage of a new American-style constitution on the defeated Japanese; one which entirely rejected the previous system of government/society. The new Japanese constitution removed the power of the Emperor and created an American-style democracy in which the people have power over the government through the constitution. This approach completely overturned the old order of Japanese totalitarian empirical rule. In announcing the new constitution in Tokyo, MacArthur said that "the Japanese people thus turn their backs firmly upon the mysticism and unreality of the past and face instead a future of realism with a new faith and a new hope." Regarding the Emperor, MacArthur said in a public statement that the new constitution "leaves the throne without governmental authority or state property, subject to the people's will, a symbol of the people's unity." The new constitution represented a complete and total shift in approach to government in Japan and most importantly, the relationship of citizen to the state. "Declared by its terms to be the supreme law for Japan, it places sovereignty squarely in the hands of the people. It establishes governmental authority with the predominant power vested in an elected legislature, as representative of the people, but with adequate check upon that power, as well as upon the power of the Executive and the Judiciary, to insure that no branch of government may become autocratic or arbitrary in the administration of affairs of state." — MacArthur's Announcement of Japan's New Constitution, March 6, 1946 Japan's post-war constitution specifically identifies the
constitution itself as the supreme law of the land. This is the same
structure of constitutional democracy that exists in the United States
as delineated in Article 6, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution.
Constitutionalism is ensconced in Japan by Chapter X, Article 98
"This Constitution shall be the supreme law of the nation and no law, ordinance, imperial rescript or other act of government, or part thereof, contrary to the provisions hereof, shall have legal force or validity." The new constitution reiterated the overturning of the old empirical order; the Emperor was now legally powerless and subordinate to the constitution. "The Emperor or the Regent as well as Ministers of State, members of the Diet, judges, and all other public officials have the obligation to respect and uphold this Constitution." Article 99, Constitution of Japan We have taken a tragically different course in Afghanistan and Iraq. Article One of the constitution of Afghanistan states that "Afghanistan is an Islamic Republic, independent, unitary and indivisible state." Article 2 of the constitution of Iraq states that "Islam is the official religion of the State and it is a fundamental source of legislation." Both states identify Islam as the bedrock of the state and also the law of the land. "No law that contradicts the established provisions of Islam may be established." — (Article 2, A; constitution of Iraq.) Both Afghanistan and Iraq are Islamic states as codified in their new American-supported constitutions. Sharia Law is the law of Islam. Islamic law supersedes any laws in the constitution that are not Sharia law-compliant. Any review of the implementation of Sharia law anywhere in the world (or of Sharia itself) shows it to be brutal, cruel, misogynist, anti-homosexual, anti-free speech, supremacist, anti-democratic, and anti-freedom of religion among its many unpleasant qualities. Even in Afghanistan as late as 2006 a Muslim Afghan convert to Christianity was sentenced to death for leaving Islam. Only American outrage prevented the implementation of the Sharia death penalty. Under Sharia Law, leaving Islam is not permitted. It is considered a crime worse than murder and is punishable by death. A Sharia judge on the case commented at the time, "We are not against any particular religion in the world. But in Afghanistan, this sort of thing is against the law. It is an attack on Islam." The inherent contradiction between democracy and Islamic law did not go unnoticed by everyone, however. "But, while democracy is taking root in Afghanistan, the country's constitution is not a truly secular document." — Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Sharia law is derived from Koran, Sira, and Hadith, the three foundational documents of Islam. Sharia law therefore has the authority of both Allah and Mohammed as it is the codification of their commands, and the words, deeds, and example of the prophet. American support of this barbaric "legal system" anywhere on this planet is folly. Sharia law is antithetical to American concepts of freedom and democracy. What can be the reason that we have created two Islamic states founded upon American blood and treasure? Why did we take such a radically different approach to Iraq and Afghanistan than we did with Japan after WWII? There is no overlap whatever between American concepts of decency and justice and Sharia law. Among the horrors of Sharia are death for criticism of Islam, death for leaving Islam, dhimmitude for those who are non-Muslims living under Sharia, the near impossibility of rape victims to prove rape, wife beating, child marriage, unequal rights for women, no legal rights for non-Muslims, and the subjugation of women. The list of Sharia's horrors is lengthy and disturbing. An illustration of Sharia from the definitive book of Sharia law, Reliance of the Traveller, is illustrative. The following are not subject to retaliation: Under Sharia law there is no "retaliation" by the Islamic state against a Muslim who kills a non-Muslim for whatever reason. Can there be a more barbarous "legal" system that is more overtly opposed to our own concepts of right/wrong, good/evil, decency/barbarism, and justice/injustice? This is the system of "law" for which we fight in Iraq and Afghanistan? This is folly. No American who loves our Constitution and the freedoms guaranteed under it should accept Sharia Law anywhere in this country or actively support it elsewhere. How can it be countenanced that American soldiers are told that they fight and die for "freedom" in Iraq and Afghanistan when in fact our soldiers fight to prop up two Sharia law states? Why did we free the Japanese people from the backwardness, totalitarianism and aggressive warfare of the empire of Japan but chose to co-operate in imposing the anti-human injustice and brutality of Islamic Sharia law on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan? The blame for this disaster must be spread across two administrations. We have failed in that we did not create a society based upon justice, secular law and constitutional democracy in the American model as we did for Japan. Sharia law is horrific and anti-human and should be opposed by decent people everywhere. Our "allies" across the Islamic world implement Sharia law to varying degrees but every Islamic state must acknowledge their Islamic obligation to implement it. The goal of Islamic expansion everywhere is the implementation of Sharia law in countries and cultures where it is not now enforced. This expansion is fueled by jihad. Jihad is required of all adherents of Islam. What can be the purpose of the United States (the "great Satan") in creating new Islamic states? The answers are not forthcoming because the question is rarely (if ever) asked. We now fight a war around the world and at home against Islamic brutality against us (our so-called "war on terror") motivated entirely by the doctrine of Islam, yet we fight two wars to create and prop up two new Islamic countries bound to the same doctrine — folly. What can be our war aims when the result will be the creation of two countries that are ideologically opposed to our existence? It would appear that we have been fooled, or worse. Our mistakes carry a staggeringly high cost; to bring any value or meaning to our efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq we must admit that our course has been tragically in error and quickly make the necessary corrections. Contact CPocerl at Cpocerl@aol.com |
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HOW LAWFARE IS GETTING OUR TROOPS KILLED NEEDLESSLY
Posted by CPocerl, January 25, 2010. |
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This is from Strategy Page and is archived at
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January 25, 2010: The Taliban and drug gangs have hit a snag with their media campaign against the American and NATO use of smart bombs. For the last few years, the Taliban have been using human shields to protect themselves from the smart bombs. The civilian deaths that followed caused the foreign troops to change their ROE (Rules of Engagement), to limit the use of the bombs when human shields were in play. Civilian casualties, from smart bombs declined, and Afghans began to notice that even more civilians were being killed by Taliban bombs and attacks. So the Taliban came up with a new idea; getting a ban on foreign troops raiding Afghan homes at night. The Taliban and drug gangs had no trouble persuading local journalists to run with this (bribes or death threats were applied), and now the Afghan media is full of heart wrenching tales of women and children terrified when American or NATO troops charge in after midnight. There were no stories published about how those night visits often catch bad guys asleep, and enables troops to make arrests without any gun battles. NATO has responded by issuing new rules restricting the use of night raids. Not surprisingly, one of the biggest gripes combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have is the Escalation of Force (EOF) and Rules of Engagement (ROE) procedures they must follow when faced with enemy action, or the threat of enemy action. These rules have gotten more complex year by year, although there have been some attempts to simplify the complications (if that makes any sense.) Put simply, the ROE/EOF stuff is there to limit civilian casualties, while fighting a foe that wants dead civilians (for their propaganda impact). Al Qaeda even has an official name for this; "involuntary martyrs." The U.S. buzzword is "collateral damage." Naturally, there's a big difference between the ROE/EOF stuff that is regularly delivered to the troops (who are supposed to demonstrate that they have memorized them), and what actually happens in combat. For all the ROE/EOF exhortations directed at the troops, there is also an escape clause. That is, you are always allowed to use any force necessary to protect yourselves. This does not negate ROE/EOF, and if you kill a bunch of civilians, there will be an investigation. If you cannot make some kind of case that you fired in (what appeared to you at the time to be) self-defense, you will get punished. The troops know this, the brass know this. No one is sure if the lawyers, who are sometimes brought in to help out with the periodic ROE/EOF training sessions, know this. Lawyers are generally considered the enemy, since they tend to spend most of their time telling you what you cannot do in combat (whether you're fighting for your life or not.) Troops who have spent more than a year in Iraq or Afghanistan have come to believe that the biggest problem with ROE/EOF is that the people who create this stuff have done a very bad job of explaining the cause and effect of it all. While the troops can understand that, "killing civilians" is usually counterproductive, the brass rarely go to any great lengths to explain the thinking behind the long list of ROE/EOF things you can, or cannot, do. There is a belief that the ROE/EOF is not well thought out, and the lawyers are sent in to lecture the troops in an attempt to hide that fact. Definitely a credibility gap here. Contact CPocerl at Cpocerl@aol.com |
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NY MUSLIM BEHEADS WIFE;MOUNTS BATTERED SPOUSE DEFENCE-2ND DEGREE
Posted by Cpocerl, January 25, 2010. |
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This is from AP. This is from 560WND and is archived at
"MY WIFE ABUSED ME" "SO I HAD TO CHOP OFF HER HEAD." |
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The founder of an Islam-oriented television station who is accused of beheading his wife was abused by her for years, according to his lawyer, who said Friday he will pursue a defense combining that justification as well as psychiatric claims. Defense attorneys' claims that Muzzammil Hassan was victimized by his wife drew a blunt response from District Attorney Frank Sedita after a hearing Friday. "He chopped her head off," Sedita said. "He chopped her head off. That's all I have to say about Mr. Hassan's apparent defense that he was a battered spouse." Hassan, 45, is charged with one count of second-degree murder in the Feb. 12 death of 37-year-old Aasiya Hassan at the offices of Bridges TV, the station the Pakistan-born couple established in 2004 to counter negative stereotypes of Muslims. During Friday's hearing, Hassan fired the attorney who has been representing him for nearly a year and replaced him with a lawyer who promised "a revolutionary defense" at the March trial. "The spouse was the dominant figure in this relationship," attorney Frank Bogulski said outside the courtroom. "He was the victim. She was verbally abusive. She had humiliated him." Nancy Sanders, a former news director at Bridges TV, was skeptical of the abuse claim, noting the stocky Hassan stood over 6 feet tall and "filled a doorway," while Aasiya was slender and several inches shorter. "I never ever heard her disparage him in the workplace at all," Sanders said. "It just did not seem to be in her nature. She was very gentle." Bogulski's strategy differs slightly from that of Hassan's previous attorney, James Harrington, who had outlined a psychiatric defense claiming Hassan had experienced extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the killing. But any psychiatric defense was placed in jeopardy Friday when the judge granted Assistant District Attorney Colleen Curtin Gable's request to bar such claims because the defense had taken too long to reveal its strategy. Erie County Judge Thomas Franczyk left the door open for Bogulski to file motions seeking to have a psychiatric defense reinstated. Hassan was served with divorce papers a week before his wife's decapitated body was found at the offices of their television station in Orchard Park, the Buffalo suburb where the couple also lived with their two small children and Muzzammil's two teenagers from a previous marriage. Hassan was arrested after walking into the Orchard Park police station Feb. 12 and telling officers his wife was dead. The way she died led the state president of the National Organization for Women, Marcia Pappas, and others to label Aasiya Hassan's death an "honor killng," which Pappas said appeared to be rooted in Muslim notions about women's subordination to men. Harrington dismissed the theory early on and domestic violence advocates cautioned against shifting attention from the universal issue of violence against women. Contact CPocerl at Cpocerl@aol.com |
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OFFICERS WHO DESTROYED OUTPOST WILL PAY
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 25, 2010. |
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This is truly a victory for Jewish patriots. Let us hope that it is not negated by the Supreme Cult. The unJews of Israel are always screaming that the rule of law must be defended; that no one is above the law. Well let's see what they scream now. Will there be an internal investigation in the IDF as to what to do with these criminals? Will they be court-martialed, imprisoned and thrown out of the Army? The top brass of the IDF knew the details of this from the beginning and have done nothing. Unless forced to do so by the courts, they will continue to do nothing. As long as the head of the military establishment is an unJewish hater of Jews like Barak, there will be no rule of law for Jews in Israel. This was written by Hillel Fendel and it appeared today Arutz-7
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(Israelnationalnews.com) IDF officers have been ordered to pay court costs from their own pockets after being sued for violating a Supreme Court order and destroying a civilian outpost. The defendants have not filed a defense, and the plaintiffs now expect that the Court will rule in their favor and award them the full amount of damages: more than 430,000 shekels ($115,000). The story began in 1991, when a resident of the southern Shomron-Binyamin community of Dolev, Ya'ir Mendelson, was murdered by Palestinian terrorists. His neighbors wished to establish a community on the site of the murder, in keeping with the long-standing tradition of "a suitable Zionist response to terrorism." It was ultimately decided to establish a military base there, named Yad Ya'ir, and in the coming years, a park, synagogue, and play center were also built on the site — under the watchful eyes of the army and at the initiative and dedication of residents of nearby Dolev and Talmon. "For years," said Meir Goldmintz, one of the prime forces in the cause, "the Yad Ya'ir group worked on building up a vibrant Jewish presence there: prayers, Torah classes, activities. A monument to Ya'ir was erected, as were a playground for children, a plaza, and a synagogue. Cakes and other foodstuffs were given out to soldiers on Purim and other occasions, and we lit Chanukah candles there. The high point was our yearly springtime event, in which hundreds of people would take part." The army abandoned the site circa 2004, Goldmintz said, "after which began a period of constant Arab vandalism, which the army did not 'manage' to prevent. Over the course of time, the electric grid was destroyed, the synagogue was looted, the monument was defaced, and the synagogue was set ablaze no fewer than three times. "Finally, after a group of radical leftists and Arabs set fire to the synagogue and even replaced the Israeli flags with PLO flags, we realized that we would have to do something — and we decided to start our own town there." Meir, his wife Chana and their four children moved to the site, together with a group of students from Yeshivat Nachliel. "It required great self-sacrifice, as well as financial resources. The yeshiva helped out and held classes there, and nearby communities helped with fuel for the generator, guards and food for the yeshiva students. But we still had to deal with problems such as minimal housing conditions and getting back and forth to work and school" After the army left, Meir emphasized, "we purchased the land from the Arab owners. It is our private property." Arab vandalism continued, however, and ultimately, in September 2008, IDF Division Commander Brig.-Gen. Noam Tivon ordered the site's destruction. It took the IDF two days to do so, because the first time the army arrived, it called off the plans when it saw the size of the crowd standing ready to protect the town — some 300 Jews from nearby Jewish towns. Two days later, the army arrived in larger numbers and did the deed — even though word of a Supreme Court ruling to delay the action until 4 p.m. that day had already been received. The army later claimed that the fax machine didn't work and that the order was not received until it was too late. "Let's assume this is true," Goldmintz said. "So what? They knew that no demolition orders had ever been issued for my 'house,' and therefore it was illegal to destroy it; I had been there for well over the required 30-day period. In addition, there were some structures for which demolition orders had been issued — but we were promised a pre-destruction hearing, and the officers knew that no hearing had been held, so they knew that they were acting illegally." Furthermore, there exist recordings of phone conversations showing that the officers knew of the Supreme Court order not to destroy the site, but yet made every effort not to "receive" it — and continued their destruction even after it was officially received. The plaintiffs also aver that much of their property could have been saved after the destruction: "The officers did not allow the Jews to enter the site and recover it, but did allow Arab marauders to loot and steal." No Defense, Pay Court Costs Goldmintz and others sued the army officers for the damage they caused, but Tivon and the others did not submit a defense. Finally, after four delays caused by the officers' failure to respond to the suit, the court has now ordered each of them to pay 1,500 shekels in court costs. Goldmintz now hopes and expects that they will be awarded the full sum of 430,000 shekels in damages for which they have sued. "The officers know why they didn't submit a defense," Goldmintz said, "because their actions are indefensible. They were in clear violation of the law." Soldiers Must Pay on Their Own The IDF Spokesman announced, "It goes without saying that no officer will be forced to pay out of his own pocket because of the ruling." It was not clear if this refers to the current ruling regarding the court costs, or to future rulings on the damages. If the latter, Mendelson says, "the army would be in violation of the law by paying for the damages. In general, IDF soldiers need not pay for their army actions if they were within the law — but this was not the case here, when they were clearly acting illegally, and therefore they must pay out of their own pockets." No announcement has been made as to the scheduling of the next court date for the trial. 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. He writes, "In the history of the world, no tyranny has ever voluntarily relinquished power or been replaced by peaceful means." |
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NETANYAHU: ISRAEL MUST KEEP MILITARY PRESENCE IN JORDAN VALLEY
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 24, 2010. |
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If you carefully read Netanyahu's past and present words, he has already abandoned Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights and all those parts of Jerusalem illegally occupied and desecrated by Jordan for 19 years from 1948 to 1967. With a weak gesture he says that his regime will retain the Jordan Valley to be protected by Israeli soldiers. Netanyahu is a calculating liar tied to President Barack Hussein Obama's coat-tails. He knows the false meaning of his statement as do his Intelligence resources. Anyone familiar with the topography of the Jordan Valley and the Judean/Samarian mountains knows that on Jordan's East side of the Jordan River is a line of high hills. On the Western side where Israel sits, there is also a line of high hills. Armed Arab Muslims sitting on both these long range of mountains or hills (East and West) would have Israeli soldiers in a trap or — as is said: "Like shooting fish in a barrel." The main reason (in addition to her sovereignty) that Israel needs to keep the Jordan Valley is that it is a 16 mile wide tank trap against Arab armies (including Jordan, Syria, Iraq and/or Iran) coming from Jordan's "East Bank" through 5 passes which are the only way hostile armies can traverse Israel's narrow waist. WHEN Israeli artillery controls the Western slopes and the top ridges of the Judean/Samarian mountains, she could make the Jordan Valley impassable to any Arab Muslim invasion force. Similarly, surrendering Judea and Samaria makes all of Israel an irresistibly vulnerable target from the Jordan River to the Sea and a totally dry country as 2/3rds of Israel's fresh water resources are in aquifers under the Judean/Samarian mountains and the Golan Heights. As is said in graveyard humor: "If you believe the Arab Islamists will ever give Israel peace, I have a bridge in London to sell you." Prime Minister Netanyahu must be made to tell the whole truth rather then issuing clever press releases that speak a partial, misleading political half-truth, designed to keep his government from falling. Now that President Obama has put a choke collar on Bibi, he cannot protect the Jewish Nation/State lest Obama yank on his leash. Israel needs a Prime Minister like Yitzhak Shamir who refused to be chained like a dog to the U.S. "diktats". As for Netanyahu, he is simply too weak, too pliable to be leading the Jewish Nation/State against irredeemable enemies and "friends" who just happen to be friends of our enemies. This below is the DEBKAfile Special Report, January 21, 2010. |
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Israeli premier draws a line Even after the establishment of a Palestinian state, Israel should keep a military presence in the eastern West Bank along the border with Jordan, said Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu to foreign reporters Wednesday, Jan. 20. He spoke as US President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell was due in Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ram'Allah Thursday and Friday for another bid to restart the stalled peace process after holding talks in Damascus with Syrian president Bashar Assad and a visit to Beirut. Netanyahu stressed that Israel could not afford to replicate the Hamas missile launching base of Gaza Strip on the West Bank. To stop rockets from entering the territory bordering on Israel's heartland, "an Israeli presence was necessary on the eastern side of a prospective Palestinian state," he said. Palestinian Authority spokesman Saeb Erekat replied: "The Jordan Valley is Palestinian." DEBKAfile adds: The Likud prime minister has partly redrawn the lines of the "Alon Plan" which followed the Security Council Resolution 242 clause promising Israel "secure and recognized boundaries" after the Six-Day War. Netanyahu said the Palestinians were the cause of the one-year impasse in the peace process. "We want to move forward, but the Palestinians have placed preconditions which did not exist in the 16 years since Oslo. They have climbed up a high tree. They like it up there. They are piling demand upon demand." Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded a freeze of all Israeli construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem before sitting down at the negotiating table with the Netanyahu administration. In late November, Israel announced a 10-month construction moratorium in West Bank settlements, but refused to halt building in Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. "Israel draws a clear between Jerusalem and settlements," he reiterated Wednesday. 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@gwinstonglobal.org |
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THE JIHAD DECADE COMETH
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 24, 2010. |
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I cannot help but wonder if the American people and the Congress is educable on the matter of Islam's declared war of their Civilization against ours. The Left is always in a mode of surrender when it is not gnawing away at the supports of our nations. Generally, History provides a window into the past wherein the Leftists having colluded in the collapse of their own Civilizations but, always ready to be first to run — unless they offer their services to the invader as happened with the Vichy French who collaborated with Adolph Hitler. The Left in America, a certain species of Traitors who work inside to subvert their own nation. The following article by Pamela Geller explores this problem but, the actual awakening will only occur when the Islamists already in America starts their attacks across the country. Then the Leftists will run for cover — while denying their role in
supporting radical Islamist Terror.
This below is by Pamela Geller and it appeared January 3, 2010
in the American Thinker
Pamela Geller is the editor & publisher of the Atlas Shrugs website http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/ & is former associate publisher of the New York Observer. She is the author (with Robert Spencer) of the forthcoming book: "The Post-American Presidency: The Obama ADministration's dWar on America (Simon & Schuster) |
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As we look back on the past ten years, it is clear that we are now entering a post-American decade. How did it all go so wrong so quickly? The year 2000 kicked off with the Democrat ruse of a "stolen election" — this from the racketeering party of ACORN — but thankfully, it was not stolen after all. George W. Bush took the reins, but soon thereafter came the culmination of all the Islamic attacks on the U.S. during the Clinton years. Islam's fatwa on the West during the Clinton administration came home to New York and Washington on September 11th. And while the Bush Doctrine (you are either with us or against us) was the right approach, the well dressed jihadists that Islamists like Grover Norquist ushered into the White House after 9/11 managed to sabotage the best strategy to fight Islamic jihad. The cowboy swagger set against the whole fantasy about the hijacking of Islam and the "religion of peace" nonsense was irreconcilable. It confused people. And it led to the marginalization and even dismissals of brave men and women who evaluated and exposed the jihadist ideology in our government agencies. Who can forget the case of counter-jihad expert Steve Coughlin, the Pentagon's most knowledgeable specialist on Islamic Law and jihad terrorism? The Pentagon ended the career of its most effective analyst at the behest of a Muslim aide, Hesham Islam, within the office of Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England. Islam scholar Andrew Bostom observed that Couglin's firing was symptomatic "of the intellectual and moral rot plaguing our efforts to combat global jihadism." In February 2009, former Bush administration official Douglas Feith told me that that kind of rot is systemic. He recalled that an Office of Strategic Influence was created within his Pentagon office to fight the ideological war — but then "somebody leaked" — well, leaked, no. No, somebody lied to the New York Times and gave a report saying that this Office of Strategic Influence was intending to lie to foreign journalists. And the New York Times ran a front-page story saying that. It caused a big imbroglio that resulted in the shutting down of this office. I don't think the U.S. government has recovered to this day from that fiasco, because every time anyone suggested creating an office to really deal with jihadist ideology in a systematic or strategic way at the Pentagon, people would say, oh, no, we are not going to have another Office of Strategic Influence problem." And so the drip, drip, drip of jihad continued through the last decade. We became more paralyzed, impotent, and deceived. Meanwhile, the Leftist/Islamic alliance, a deadly marriage between the Democratic Party and their propaganda handmaidens in the mainstream media, engaged in daily beatings of Bush and his administration. Removing Saddam Hussein was good. There is no way around that powerful truth. But why stop there? Removing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as well would have been even better. But Bush lost his mojo in 2006. The relentless pounding by the Left, Israel's halfhearted performance in the war with Hezb'allah in the summer of 2006, and the loss of the House and the Senate in November 2006 all contributed to the rout. But what really led to the downfall of Bush's leadership was the falsity of his premise. He wanted to believe, like Condi and Powell and the soft diplomacy crowd, that Islam would negotiate with the West. Islam cannot negotiate. Yet still the West continues its pursuit of the impossible, despite great risk. This is a function of the Western mind. These people think it inconceivable that talk can't solve anything and everything, that war is an indelible part of the human condition. But it is. War is as much in the makeup of man as sex, food, art, love, all of it. And wars must be fought. They will not disappear, but we will. Of course, we know this. But the Left, our in-house enemy, demonizes any war that America chooses to fight. The egregious, horrible crimes of Mao, Stalin, bin Laden, Che, Lenin, Pol Pot, Ahmadinejad, et al, which are so heinous and so enormous, are in their terrible minds a historical footnote. They become cultural icons for the "radical chic." Cold-blooded monsters have co-opted our country. And so successful was the Left at infiltrating our government, schools, and institutions that eight years after the most heinous attack on American soil, we elected an icon of our mortal enemy. A Kenyan, Indonesian, third-worldish boulevardier with as much understanding of the American experience as any foreign national. Don't call me a racist for calling him what he is — I am not interested in the color of his skin, but in the content of his character. His lack of experience in all relevant areas to the office of the president is breathtaking. And his bowing to Islam and our enemies worldwide is disastrous. Bush's premise was false, but Bush was a patriot. Bush loved America, and he protected America, even if he refused to see the enemy for who and what it was. It was no accident that America was safe for eight years post-9/11. Eight years of safety is cracking apart now under a weak and pro-Islamic president. The jihadi attacks on America in 2009 were staggering. And it has only just begun. Dismantling the Bush protections against jihad and launching attacks on Americans, bloggers, tea partiers, town hallers, patriots, and vets is incomprehensible — and if I hadn't lived through it, I wouldn't believe it possible. I pray that America examines the Left decade and takes stock. It was the appeasement of the Left that destroyed the foundations of this country. We must rebuild them. The advancement of Islam would never have been possible — could never have happened — without our surrender to the Left. The real war is against the Leftist/Islamic alliance. This is a fighting year. 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@gwinstonglobal.org |
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NETANYAHU: ISRAEL NOT LEGALLY OBLIGATED TO HONOR OSLO
Posted by Yaacov Levi, January 24, 2010. |
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This was written by Aaron Lerner, November 28, 1996. Dr. Lerner heads IMRA — Independent Media Review and Analysis. Its website is www.imra.org.il |
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On November 28, IMRA asked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, after a press conference in Tel Aviv, the following question: "Are you saying that Israel is legally obligated to honor the Oslo Accords despite the Palestinian violations?" Netanyahu replied: "No. Israel is only obligated if the Palestinians honor the agreement." Netanyahu's position is consistent with the position taken by former Foreign Ministry legal adviser Yoel Singer, during a briefing of the Knesset law committee on December 14, 1993. Singer said then that even after signing, the agreement is reversible. If the Palestinians declare a state, for example, the agreement will be nullified. "If one side violates the agreement in a substantial way, it is clear that the other side does not have to fulfill its part," he explained (The Jerusalem Post, December 15, 1993). During the same briefing, Savir, who was the member of the Israeli team negotiating with the PLO in Cairo responsible for drafting the agreement to implement the Israeli-PLO Declaration of Principles, explained that the IDF will be able to go anywhere in the Palestinian autonomous area to defend Jewish lives. "There are no restrictions on the IDF," Singer told the committee. "The army's responsibility to protect Israelis is not restricted in time or space."
Contact Yaacov Levi by email at jlevi_us@yahoo.com |
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OBAMA AND THE MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS
Posted by Marc Prowisor, January 24, 2010. |
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Examining President Obama's recent Time magazine interview, many media outlets translated the President's feelings to say that he felt "over confident" regarding the Middle East Peace Process. I would not use the term "over confident." I would change it to "wrong". A quote from the article — "I think it is absolutely true that what we did this year didn't produce the kind of breakthrough that we wanted, and if we had anticipated some of these political problems on both sides earlier, we might not have raised expectations as high". To my line of thinking, this translates to "We failed because we didn't study the conflict and history of the region. Furthermore we have no idea or understanding regarding the Arab world." I do not blame President Obama for these mistakes. After all, he hires "experts" to delve into this arena. Unfortunately, this team of "experts" he is working with has one of the worst records regarding Israel since the rebirth of the Jewish State. Perhaps the fact that they are not objective, or, better, are straight out supporters of the Arab nations has something to do with it. Or maybe they have negative attitude towards Israel? Wait. I could be wrong. He did hire these guys, so I guess I do blame him. But he can still make things right and hire people who do understand. Or maybe they just have it all wrong. Maybe the champion of North Ireland, George Mitchell, does not realize there is a different dynamic here in Israel. Hey George, WAKE UP! The Arabs have been against the Jews being here for a LONG time...even before the State of Israel. Way before. Maybe the problem is that they constantly want to destroy us? No this is not paranoia, it is an opinion based on historical facts and COMMON KNOWLEDGE! Why don't you tell your President that? The biggest joke is that people still think that a "Palestinian State" will bring about peace. The Arab nations of this region have been at each other's throats forever and they will continue this "tradition" of not getting along. In 1948, they attempted to carve up this region. They promised the locals here of Arab victory if they would join in and fight the Jews. They called it "Fez'a," or reign of terror, giving the "innocent" Arab villages in and around the fledgling State the opening to attack Jews where ever they could. The Arabs call the result of 1948 "Naq'ba", or catastrophe. I call it defeat. They have been at war with us here since we have been in this land and when the Jewish State and Army were reborn they all attacked, they lost, and they have been crying "foul" ever since. One of the key words to success of this process was "Gestures." Of course, Israel is to blame for not making enough gestures or enough "Bold" gestures. Who has been doing the shooting and bombings here? Who are the Professors of Terror, whose media and scholastic programs preach murder and death? What is wrong with you? You want bold gestures, you want peace? Stop the teaching of terror in the schools! You will not get a move like this, to get closer to peace, from most of the Arabs in the Middle East, because the concept of living with a Jewish State in their midst is not acceptable. Equality, mutual respect, women's rights, religious tolerance and a whole slew of other nice values that exist in Western Culture do not reign here in this part of the world. Why do you think so many Arabs leave the Middle East? So go back to the drawing board, study history, do more research, and we'll talk soon. You want Peace in the region? Guess what. So do we. More than anyone, but we must survive and must protect our people — not just for another few years, but also for future generations. If you also want peace, you need to understand that it takes two to tango. We don't have a partner for peace, because the other side wants power we can't afford to give them. If we give what they truly want, we will no longer be here. So, if you want peace also, get real, because we are here to stay. Contact Marc Prowisor by email at marc@friendsofyesha.com. And visit http://yeshaviews.blogspot.com and www.friendsofyesha.com |
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BIN LADEN THREATENS MORE ATTACKS ON US. BUT THE REAL NEWS IS THAT OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD!
Posted by Arnie Barnie, January 24, 2010. |
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CAIRO (Jan. 24) — Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the Christmas Day airline bombing attempt in Detroit, in a audio message released Sunday, and vowed further attacks on the U.S. The message suggests that bin Laden wants to show he remains in direct command of al-Qaida's many branches around the world. Facts: A news report carried by Al-Jazeera Arabic "Propaganda" channel claims Osama bin Laden has issued a new threat to the West. In the short recording, a voice attributed to bin Laden addressed President Barack Obama saying the Christmas day Underwear bomber's failed attack was a message similar to that of Sept. 11, 2001 and more attacks against the U.S. would be forthcoming. The voice on the tape purportedly was that of Osama attempting to rally support of Al Qaeda operatives and to recruit more young, naïve, impressionable Islamic vegetable heads to join Al Qaeda in its attempt to terrorize and intimidate the world into supporting the Palestinian cause and blaming Israel for Al Qaeda's terror tactics. But don't let them fool you! Osama bin Laden has been Dead for years. That is why you have not and will not see him in an up to date video tape. It is hard to dress up and stand up a corpse for a news conference. The Al Qaeda gang of murderers and fools can only pretend he is alive. They periodically use someone else mimicking his voice on an audio tape to deceive you that he is still in charge of operations. Otherwise, Al Qaeda recruitment efforts would rapidly decline they know. Ask yourself why there are no current videos of Bin Laden on the battlefield or addressing his brain-washed "troops" but only faked feeble audios released from time to time to convince young unhappy idiots like the Underwear bomber and misfits like the deranged Fort Hood mass murderer to commit suicide in the name of Allah their peace-loving god. While there is no doubt the remnants of Al Qaeda will continue to send soldiers of Allah to attack Americans, British and other nations who defend Israel's right to be free, note that it is only the Islamic terrorists worldwide who target civilians and soft targets in order to terrorize democracies into caving into their demands. Their ultimate goal is war on the West and in the Mid East to establish Islamic states in Israel and in the "West" of the world. They use the Palestinian cause as a convenient battle cry while corrupt Palestinian leaders like Yasser Arafat and Islamic nations have done little or nothing to help the so-called Palestinian people become free or self sufficient. Nothing will change until the terrorists are defeated. They will continue to send out threatening messages of violence and bombers who will try to kill or poison innocent civilian targets with their anti-personnel and anti-God bombs and chemical/biological weapons of mass destruction. Their real enablers are the Evil satanic nations of Iran, Syria, North Korea, Libya and Russia their supporters and suppliers who are about to be judged by the real God of the Universe who has had enough of their wickedness. While evil will exist in the world as long as there are evil men, the good news is that while we can expect more terror attacks on our homeland the ultimate battle will be won by God In whom We Trust and His People not the Jihad warriors who deceive themselves and others into following false gods. So don't believe a lie. The terrorists are not fighting for the freedom of the Palestinian people they are fighting to stop Freedom from spreading to Freedom-loving people everywhere. They will not stop until they are stopped dead in their tracks like Osama bin Laden. The real message to Barack Hussein Obama is not to cave in to cavemen and be foolish enough to give them Constitutional rights, Miranda Rights and a platform from which to preach their false religion in our Federal Courts but to bury them where we find them before they bury U.S. The War on Terror must be fought and won on the battlefield not in our courts or with forgiveness and Political Correctness. A soldier of the Army of One
Contact ArnyBarnie by email at ArnyBarnie@aol.com |
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PROGRESS IN APPLYING ISRAELI LAW TO JUDEA AND SAMARIA
Posted by Israeli Initiative, January 24, 2010. |
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Progress In Applying Israeli Law To Judea And Samaria At a conference held at the Knesset next week, an attempt was made to coordinate international and domestic recognition of Israel's sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, based on international law. Many important public figures participated in the conference, which was hosted by MK Tzipi Hotoveli (Likud) and MK Nissim Ze'ev (Shas). Recently, we learned that Minister of Defense Barak approved turning Ariel College to a University. The college has been the center of a controversy due to its "sin" — that it is in the so-called West Bank. This news, although it is encouraging, shows how absurd the reality is in Judea and Samaria — the Defense Minister needs to approve Academic processes that have nothing to do with defense... This shows, once again, the importance of a law that will resolve the status of Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria, granting their residents rights that are equal to those of the rest of Israel's citizens. Last week, in order to raise public awareness for this law, The Israeli Initiative published a position paper — the first in a series titled "Think Again" — on "Applying the Law to Israeli Municipalities in Judea and Samaria — Background and Significance." In the paper, we discuss the status of Judea and Samaria under International Law, and review the current, complicated legal situation. We end the booklet with a survey of the significant gains Israel will make as a result of applying Israeli law to the municipalities in Judea and Samaria. The booklet was sent to Knesset members, journalists and public figures in order to raise awareness about Israel's historical and legal right to this land, and to promote the law that may be brought to a vote in the Knesset. To read the booklet (in Hebrew):
Conference on UNRWA and the Refugee Problem "The Jewish Statesmanship Center for Strategic Planning" (http://jsc1.org/eng) held a conference for Hebrew University students in the Jerusalem Begin Center on the topic of "Refugees and the Jewish State". The event featured two lectures: Miki Bavli, the representative of UNHCR (the United Nations Refugee Agency) in Israel, who reviewed the organization's activities and Israel's policies in connection to the refugees. As readers of this update know, this organization takes care of all the refugees in the world — except for the Palestinians. As Bavli explained in his lecture, the organization does not deal with the Palestinian refugee problem because "our organization deals with solving refugee problems," and not perpetuating them. Bavli said that UNHCR's goal is to change the refugees' status, and assume that that is what the refugees want, as well. After his lecture, I represented The Israeli Initiative, and spoke
about UNRWA and the Palestinian Refugee problem. I emphasized the
strategic significance of perpetuating the refugee problem and its
ramifications as far as the continuing international de-legitimization
of Israel. Everything I said was based on known facts that are
available to all, but once again I saw that very few people are aware
of the situation, even majors in Political Science or Middle Eastern
Studies. The world is beginning to see UNRWA for the absurdity that it
is. The Canadian government, the seventh-largest state donor to UNRWA,
decided to reallocate some of its support for UNRWA to Palestinian
Authority projects, due to their lack of faith in the UN agency. For
more information:
For our blog post on the subject:
At The Israeli Initiative, we hope that this will be the first in a series of steps that will lead to states no longer funding UNRWA. The world is slowly recognizing that not only are they indirectly funding terror, the greatest crime is UNRWA's existence. Leaving millions of people as refugees without aiming to rehabilitate them is an anti-humanitarian act, and a true step towards ending the conflict and continuing the cycle of violence in the Middle East. Volunteers The Israeli Initiative is looking for volunteers who would like to help spread the word and share the Initiative's ideas. If you're interested, send an e-mail to: israelinitiative1@gmail.com Please write your full name, phone number, e-mail address and languages you speak/read, and we will get back to you with the ways you can spread the news about the Initiative. Contact Israeli Initiative by email at hayozmanNL@gmail.com |
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HOLOCAUST CABINET MEETING: "WORLD IS OBLIGATED TO JEWISH STATE"
Posted by Hillel Fendel, January 24, 2010. |
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Cabinet Meeting in Shoah Shadow The government has dedicated today's meeting to the memory of the six million Jews starved, tortured and massacred in the Holocaust. This Wednesday, the United Nations and at least 20 countries will mark International Holocaust Day. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, speaking at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, said, "I hope the United Nations will remember what happened when the Jews did not have a state — and the privilege and obligation of the international community to defend the Jewish State's existence." The date of January 27 was chosen for this purpose in 2005 because it was the day, in 1945, that the Russian Army liberated the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp. Germany, Britain and some other countries commemorated Holocaust Day on this date even before the UN adopted it. Former Israel Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, who survived the Holocaust as a child, participated in the special Cabinet session. Rabbi Lau also serves as Chairman of Yad VaShem. Netanyahu displayed a photograph of a survivor holding her great-granddaughter's hand. The survivor's tattooed number is clearly visible on her arm, and the photo will be displayed at the UN as well. "This is the essence of the history of Zionism," Netanyahu said. On Wednesday, a special ceremony will be held at Auschwitz, where about one million Jews were murdered and massacred. Among the participants will be President Shimon Peres, Rabbi Lau, the president and prime minister of Poland, and the Chief Rabbis of Poland and Lodz. Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of the German concentration camps, was named for the two towns the camp in and around which the camp was built; the Germans essentially destroyed the small Polish village of Birkenau to make way for it. Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler designated Auschwitz as the site of the "final solution of the Jewish question in Europe," and it received transport trains of Jews from all over Nazi-occupied Europe for 30 months, until late 1944. Some 1.1 million people, 90% of them Jews, were killed in the camp's gas chambers or died of starvation, forced labor, disease, medical experiment, shooting, beatings, and the like. Hillel Fendel is Senior News Editor at Arutz-7. |
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FROM ISRAEL: SPINES STIFFENED
Posted by Arlene Kushner, January 24, 2010. |
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Mitchell's efforts at re-starting negotiations are going nowhere. His talk with PA President Mahmoud Abbas was not productive, as he still refuses to come to the table unless we freeze all building in Jerusalem. The political climate he must deal with internally makes it close to imperative that he hold out for this — for this is what he set as his stipulation back several weeks ago. To agree to less now would mean he was either caving to US pressure or making concessions to "the Zionist entity," and neither would play well with his people. ~~~~~~~~~~ Not only is a complete freeze being demanded, PA negotiator Saeb Erekat has declared, not for the first time, that it is "an Israeli obligation..to have negotiations resume where we left them in December 2008 [when Olmert was negotiating]." And I hasten to declare, also not for the first time, that this simply and unequivocally is not so. Olmert signed nothing. We have no commitment to what he offered to Abbas. That offer is reported to have included just over 93% of Judea and Samaria, with a land swap [from inside the Green Line] of close to 6% plus a safe passage between Gaza and Judea and Samaria, to "make up the difference." What is more, he apparently agreed that the "holy basin" in Jerusalem (the old city and some area outside it) would be administered by a consortium that included Saudis, Jordanians, Israelis, Palestinian Arabs and Americans. (I cannot write this without a shudder.) Abbas may now regret that he turned this down, while we must thank Heaven. Please G-d, an offer even vaguely resembling this will not come the way of the PA again. ~~~~~~~~~~ With it all, I am pleased to report, we're not making any additional concessions to Abbas. And so there is stalemate. Mitchell was supposed to leave this area after meeting with Abbas yesterday, but requested an opportunity to come back and speak again with Barak and Netanyahu today. I cannot say exactly what he was trying to do, or what he proposed. But in the end it appears his efforts yielded nothing. ~~~~~~~~~~ Next Shabbat is Tu B'Shvat — technically a new year for the trees, which determines the age of trees, relevant with regard to when fruit can be harvested. More popularly it is treated as an arbor day, a time for celebrating and planting trees. In that spirit, Prime Minister Netanyahu, after his meeting with Mitchell today, went out past the Green Line to plant a couple of trees. First in Kfar Etzion, which is part of Gush Etzion (the Etzion bloc south-east of Jerusalem in Judea) and then in Maaleh Adumim, which is a major community just outside of and due east of Jerusalem. Later this week he said he would plant in Ariel, a major community and surrounding bloc in Samaria. By planting these trees, said Netanyahu, he wanted to "send a clear message that we will stay here. We are planning and we are building." These areas, he declared, are an "indisputable part of Israel forever. This is an idea that is accepted by the majority of Israelis." This is a defiantly political act following a meeting with Obama's envoy, and I salute it as such. It's worth noting that he selected areas in the south, center and north of the Judea-Samaria region — clearly no accident. And so I won't quibble and say that there are a lot of other communities within this region that are also "an indisputable part of Israel forever." Not now. ~~~~~~~~~~ It's fascinating: the dynamics surrounding the Fatah-Hamas relationship, as well as the face Hamas is seeking to present to the West now. There are so many aspects, so much that is unspoken, so many different — and sometimes conflicting — motivations. I carried a story the other day, by Khaled Abu Toameh, regarding statements made by Hamas representative in the West Bank, Abdel Aziz Dwaik, who said that Hamas accepted Israel's existence and was prepared to consider changing its charter, which calls for Israel's elimination. This did not play well with Hamas leadership, and Dwaik was apparently required to take a few hesitant steps back. There is, first, the distinction, and it's a real one, between recognizing Israel's RIGHT to exist, and Hamas's pragmatic de facto acknowledgement that Israel does exist. It was the latter, and not the former, that Dwaik was said to be speaking about. ~~~~~~~~~~ As to amending the charter, Dwaik has pointed out that the PLO changed its charter to eliminate calls for Israel's destruction and gained nothing for having done this. And here I must stop to correct this statement. In the heyday of Oslo, indeed, Arafat agreed to change the PLO charter. He even mentioned which clauses had to be amended and appointed a committee that was charged with seeing to this. But the committee never met, and the charter was never changed. There is a broad impression that it was — that Arafat's action in appointing the committee sufficed as evidence that this would happen. But it's important to know that it didn't. Even though (then) President Bill Clinton celebrated the fact that changes were made. This is just one more signal lesson — not to be forgotten — in how the Palestinian Arabs conduct themselves. ~~~~~~~~~~ There is also a signal lesson here — which we Israelis should not forget — with regard to how we acted in that situation: The Israeli government conducted itself as if the charter had been amended, and, in point of fact, the PLO got plenty in terms of political autonomy and international support. The process should have been called to a halt back then. ~~~~~~~~~~ Now, Mahmoud Ramahi, whom Abu Toameh calls "another top Hamas operative in the West Bank," clarified further, saying that while Dwaik said Hamas would accept a Palestinian state within the '67 lines, it was envisioned "only on a temporary basis and without recognizing Israel's right to exist." This, of course, is worse than nothing. For such a "temporary state" would be simply a means for weakening Israel — and that "temporary state" would be used as a base for attacking us. (I hasten to point out here that this not different from what the PLO aspires to, as part of its "Strategy of Stages.") ~~~~~~~~~~ From Saladh Bardaweel, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, we had further clarification, clearly designed for Western consumption: Hamas, he explained on a Hamas website, does not seek to destroy Israel. (Perish the thought!) "There is a huge difference between our demand to restore the Palestinian people's rights and the annihilation of Israel. We haven't said that [we want] to destroy Israel, but we are striving to restore our people's rights and refugees' rights to return to their dwellings and land from which they were deported." A few points here, briefly: Hamas is a jihadist movement, not a nationalist movement. Its goal is not a Palestinian state, its goal is the elimination of Israel from land that it sees as Muslim and which would form part of a larger Islamic caliphate. Here Hamas uses claims of the "refugees' right" to return to Israel precisely as the PLO has used it for many years — as a means of destroying Israel from within. What is being pushed is the introduction into Israel of over 4 million so-called refugees, many of whom are Hamas-connected and overtly hostile to Israel. In light of this, it's hardly necessary to say the movement seeks Israel's destruction — that is obvious on the face of it. The Hamas goal hasn't changed, only the tone is different as it seeks international acceptance. (I will not deal now with the issue of "refugees" having been "deported" from Israel, or who counts as a genuine refugee, or how UNRWA operations fit into this picture — that is a whole other subject that must be re-visited in a post one day.) ~~~~~~~~~~ So we have Hamas playing to the West. And what do we see? The PA has warned the EU not to legitimize Hamas via dialogue. For anyone who's been following PA actions over time, this is nothing short of delicious amusement. Consider this explanation by a Fatah spokesman: "In one voice directed toward our people and Arabs and Muslims, Hamas is saying that it's a resistance movement. In another voice directed toward the international community, Hamas is talking about its readiness to recognize Israel and accept a long term hudna [temporary truce]." All this, he said, is "an attempt to deceive public opinion by playing with words." How about that! This is precisely what the PLO/PA has been doing for some 17 years now. What was Arafat's promise to change the PLO charter that was never really amended? And what is Abbas doing when he speaks in English about negotiating a "two state solution," while in Arabic he officially declares the three terrorists who killed Rabbi Chai in the drive-by shooting to be "holy martyrs for the Palestinian resistance"? Those of us who watch the Palestinian Arabs know clearly: Watch what they say in Arabic to their own people; this is where their truth resides. And now we have someone from Fatah pointing a finger at Hamas and admitting this very thing. ~~~~~~~~~~ We need to look carefully at the motivations of Fatah leadership as they attack Hamas. Fatah has agreed to a reconciliation with Hamas, brokered by Egypt. Hamas, while saying it goes along in principle, actually has not signed on. It is in Fatah's interest, then, to discourage the international community from legitimizing Hamas as a stand-alone movement. The stronger Hamas is, the less it requires unity with Fatah in order to be legitimized. Thus we have Fatah saying that meetings between Hamas and Westerners undermine efforts at reconciliation. ~~~~~~~~~~ But to my mind there is another piece to the puzzle. The PA is bouncing between two poles: the West (and particularly the US and EU) and Hamas. Yes, they play one end against the other, and yes, they there are games with one thing said in private and another publicly. But ultimately, there are choices they must make. If they were to renounce the charade of seeking "peace" with Israel, and declare for "resistance," Hamas would embrace them. But as it is, for the sake of the Western largesse and political support, they have continued to play the peace game. How they speak about and respond to Hamas, it would seem, provides some clues, within a very complex and schizoid situation, as to the nature of PA positions more broadly. So far, they have not renounced a relationship with the West, and so we see a readiness to criticize Hamas. But we may be close to a change. For Abbas is expressing grievous disappointment with the US for not sufficiently pressuring Israel, and he now says he doesn't believe there will be a settlement. However, I am not hearing at this juncture any further statement by Abbas regarding a unilateral founding of a state. It may be because Obama, after his political blow in MA last week, is less ready to stick his neck out in supporting a position as radical as this. (Could Abbas's disappointment, unspoken, also be with regard to this?) We have here a major "watch and see" situation. Let me add to this stew of events the fact that PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is seeking to undermine and best Abbas, and it is likely that he will continue to play to the West. Fayyad, who is the darling of the West and perceived as exceedingly clean and moderate, in point of fact is neither. He simply plays a very good game. ~~~~~~~~~~ I know I use the word "ironic" a good deal lately, but that is simply because the situation abounds in irony. And the greatest irony of this entire situation is that the US president who came into office determined to court Muslims has made a mess of his relationship with the PA because he elevated expectations unreasonably. Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info |
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REFLECTIONS ON ISLAMIC CULTURE
Posted by Yaacov Levi, January 24, 2010. |
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This was written by Paul Eidelberg, pewaiswnr od The Foundation for Constitutional Democracy, POB 23702, Jerusalem 91236, E-Mail: Eidelberg@foundation1.org; Tel. 02-586-9208; Cell phone 0544-407581. Visit his Web site: http://www.foundation1.org |
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Bat Ye'or, an outstanding scholar of Islam, calls Islam a "culture of hate." If this is racism it is also the truth. Another scholar, Dore Gold, describes Saudi Arabia as "Hatred's Kingdom." If this is racism, it is also the truth. Saudi Arabia has established thousands of mosques — engines of hatred, hatred of the West, of America, of Jews, of Israel. As a culture of hate, Islam may be more accurately described as culture of murderous hatred. Who does not know that Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran are the world's leading patrons of Jihad? Since the Quran exalts the Muslim who "slays and is slain" for Allah (Sura 9:111), we may also say that Islam is a culture that fosters a love of death, a culture in which the love of death surpasses the love of life. Perhaps because martyrdom, for Muslims, is the gateway to eternal life or paradise. It follows that the purpose of bringing Muslim children into the world is to teach them that their highest goal in life is to slay and be slain for Allah, hence to become suicidal murderers of infidels! This Muslim imperative cannot be overcome by logical reasoning, which means that devout Muslims are incorrigible. Thus, if an infidel refuses to convert to Islam, the Muslim imperative to slaughter him is inexorable — impervious to moral suasion. You can no more talk a Muslim out of his murderous faith than you can talk a paranoid schizophrenic out of his fear of others. Some say Islam is a form of psychosis. One may then conclude that just as an individual can become a psychotic, so a nation can become psychotic if its people are educated, from infancy on, to believe in the Manichean world of Islam. To enable Muslims to cope with their evil enemies, it is necessary to educate them in taqiyya — dissimulation and deceit — an art in which Muslims have no equals. Taqiyya is a military tactic Muslims employ to deceive and eventually conquer their enemies. The late Professor Y. Harkabi, once head of Israel Military Intelligence, quotes Arab sociologist Sonia Hamady: "Lying is a widespread habit among the Arabs, and they have a low idea of truth" Indeed, whereas truthfulness (in principle) is a Western virtue, mendacity is an Islamic virtue. This is why treaties Muslims have with infidels as well as with other Muslims are worthless. But this means that Israeli prime ministers who engage in negotiations with Muslims are fools. Because truthfulness is not an Islamic virtue, Muslims have a tendency to believe in their own lies. Hence Muslims can lie with sincerity, which makes them the most effective liars. Unsurprisingly, Muslims have been called pathological liars in contradistinction to Western leaders, many of whom may be deemed "conventional" liars. Is there a psychological nexus between the mendacity of Muslims and their love of death? Yes. A lie negates the connection between speech and reality. Since the essence of speech is a sharing of one's thoughts and feelings with others, false speech, like death, severs any bond with others. It is a denial of the "other," of the other's humanity. This is spiritual murder, which conduces to physical murder. In other words, lying is a denial of the "other" as a human being, and this makes his murder of no moral consequence. People in the West are incapable of dealing with Muslims on a moral level. Western elites live under the illusion that all peoples are equal, meaning, equally amenable to Socratic dialogue and equally receptive to notions of right and wrong. This is not true. For example, to reward good deeds with evil is abhorrent to people in the West. We have learned this is not the case of Muslims who sought to destroy Israeli hospitals that have healed them. (For an example of Muslim ingratitude, see Brigitte Gabriel, Because They Hate.) It is futile to counter by citing exceptions. We are speaking of a culture, not of individuals, who have not lost, or who have recovered, their humanity. If these reflections on Islamic culture appear like racism, so be it. Islam's love of death strikes me as a mental disorder, which places in question the sanity of any democracy that prohibits ethnic profiling? Contact Yaacov Levi by email at jlevi_us@yahoo.com |
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THE ANTI-LEFTIST GROGGER
Posted by Steven Plaut, January 24, 2010. |
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1. The anti-Leftist "Grogger"
For months now, every Friday in Zion has seen noisy screaming violent leftist rioters attacking Israeli soldiers, engaging in hooliganism, and breaking the law. The thugs are a mixture of foreign pro-terror "anarchists" that Israel foolishly lets into the country, joined by some members of Israel's own "Leftists for the Extermination of Israel." For months they have demonstrated in the West Bank towns of Bil'in and Nil'in to show their support for terrorists mass murdering Israeli Jews. They oppose Israel having a security fence because it makes it harder for the suicide bombers to reach Israeli children. These past few weeks they have shifted their noisy activities to the Simon the Righteous neighborhood in Jerusalem. The demonstrators demand that no Jews be allowed to move into the homes they legally own in that neighborhood because the neighborhood "belongs" to Arabs. They closely resemble the Ku Klux Klan marchers who try to prevent black folks from moving into neighborhoods where they "do not belong." Now while I personally would prefer loading the noisy violent protesters onto a one-way bus for Gaza, or perhaps a one-way plane for Somalia, Israel insists on dealing with these thugs as "protesters." But now Israeli science and the ingenuity of the "Yiddishe Kopf" have come up with a new weapon that can be used to disburse these noisy cheerleaders for terror. Israel plans to fight their noise ... with noise. That is correct. Israel is about to take a lesson from Jewish history and adapt that weapon of mass destruction that we all use every year against Haman! Just in time for upcoming Purim, Israel is going to employ an anti-leftist Purim grogger. And it really works! Popular Science magazine on January 19, 2010 reported that Israel has developed a new "weapon" against terrorist cheerleaders and against pro-terror "Solidarity" rioters. It is a "sonic cannon." It makes loud noises that sound like the sonic booms of jets. It was developed by PDT Agro, a small company in Israel that had been previously building "sound cannons" that scare away pests from Israeli farms. The new invention will be used to scare away leftist pests trying to assist Palestinian mass murdering genocidal terrorists. The report in Popular Science is a delicious take-off on the science fiction classic "Dune," in which the desert fighters (called "fedayeen," of all things) battle the barbarians using sound weapons: "A desert people have developed a new weapon that uses sound instead of bullets. But this time, it will be used to control crowds instead of fighting giant worms or devious members of House Harkonnen. The Israeli Defense Ministry has contracted for the production of sonic-boom stun-guns called 'Thunder Generator cannons,' which they hope to use in crowd-control situations." The new contraption fights noise with noise as a sort of way to fight fire with fire. Here is the Popular Science explanation: "The weapon runs on LPG, a common cooking gas, which mixes with oxygen to generate powerful bursts of sound. Each sound burst lasts around 300 milliseconds, and generates a shockwave that travels from the cannon at almost six times the speed of sound." You realize what all this means? If Israel has invented ONE cure for leftist hooliganism, just imagine what could lie ahead? Perhaps an anti-leftism pill, which — when swallowed — raises the IQ by 50 points? How about a special rubber bullet that electronically hones in on marijuana? How about a special TASER that can only be discharged against the unbathed? Be that as it may, this new real invention represents a giant scientific step forward for Israel. As you may recall, Israel had been using Pepe Le Pew to help control the violent hooligans and anarcho-fascist thugs who pogrom weekly in the West Bank against Israel's security fence. A while back it was reported that Israel has decided to keep them in line by using "skunk bombs." These "bombs," actually just a canister spray, apparently are so smelly that even an anarchist who has not bathed in 18 months is capable of being offended and repulsed by the odor. The Jerusalem Post reported: 'The skunk bomb is a foul-smelling liquid which is sprayed on the rioters. "The smell is so strong that people flee immediately." Some news reports are claiming that the spray smells remarkably like a mixture of, well, Number One and Number Two. At least one web site referred to it as Zionist Death Dung. I am wondering whether the new sound cannon can be combined with other forms of anti-leftist music. We all recall the Apocalypse Now movie, where the choppers come in firing while playing Wagner music. So why not wheel in the new Israeli anti-leftist sound cannons while loudspeakers play loud Shlomo Carlebach songs in the background, or perhaps even Avraham Fried singing Chassidic songs? And then we can all just sit back and watch the leftist varmints scurry!! (Full news story here:
2. Lying Leftist Loons:
(Israelnationalnews.com) The latest accusation hurled against Israeli 'occupation' soldiers is that they defaced gravestones at the Arab cemetery of Awarta near Shechem, in Samaria, on Tuesday. This story, however, appears to be falling apart just a day after it was circulated in the Israeli and international press. Chief Military Prosecutor Brigadier General Avichai Mandelblit instructed the Military Police Thursday to launch an investigation into the accusations that IDF soldiers defaced gravestones while they escorted devout Jews to prayers at the tombs of Elazar HaCohen and the Seventy Sages. The investigation thus far has cast doubt on the accusations. It turns out that there were no Hebrew defacements on gravestones in the Muslim cemetery. However, it is possible that someone scribbled something on slabs of marble at a distance from the cemetery. At least one photo shows the Hebrew word 'Palchod', which is the name of a military unit. An IDF source told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew service that members of the Israeli pro-Arab NGO B'Tselem admitted to IDF officers that the photos which were featured in the press, and which purported to show writing in Hebrew and Russian on Arab gravestones, were "misleading". 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. Write him at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il His website address is
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JOYS OF MUSLIM WOMEN!' — UNBELIEVABLE
Posted by Fred Reifenberg, January 24, 2010. | |
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This might be about what is happening in the USA — However it applies in any western country as well. This below ws written by Nonie Darwish. Read and consider! | |
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In the Muslim faith a Muslim man can marry a child as young as 1 year old and have sexual intimacy with this child. Consummating the marriage by age 9. The dowry is given to the family in exchange for the woman (who becomes his slave) and for the purchase of the private parts of the woman, to use her as a toy. Even though a woman is abused she can not obtain a divorce. To prove rape, the woman must have (4) male witnesses. Often after a woman has been raped, she is returned to her family and the family must return the dowry. The family has the right to execute her (an honor killing) to restore the honor of the family. Husbands can beat their wives 'at will' and he does not have to say why he has beaten her. The husband is permitted to have (4 wives) and a temporary wife for an hour (prostitute) at his discretion. The Shariah Muslim law controls the private as well as the public life of the woman. In the West World (America) Muslim men are starting to demand Shariah Law so the wife can not obtain a divorce and he can have full and complete control of her. It is amazing and alarming how many of our sisters and daughters attending American Universities are now marrying Muslim men and submitting themselves and their children unsuspectingly to the Shariah law. By passing this on, enlightened American women may avoid becoming a slave under Shariah Law. Learn More.... Read: Cruel and Usual Punishment just released in most bookstores.
Contact Fred Reifenberg by email at freify@netvision.net.il |
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT REGARDING OBAMA AND ISRAEL
Posted by Sandra Levy, January 23, 2010. |
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The truth is no one seems to know who the real Obama is. I believe he won't get re-elected after what happened in Massachusetts but he still has 3 years to try to mess up Israel. They keep harping on a 2 state solution when in fact there are 3 entities here. The Hamas have over a million supporters in Gaza: The Hamas believe only in a one state solution — a Moslem state tied to Iran and Syria in all of what is now Israel, the west bank and Gaza and of course all of Jerusalem.. Abbu Mazen of the PA has very little support. The PA is mainly in the Ramallah area and more or less has some control of the West Bank. The PA is considered by most Palestinians, especially those living in Jerusalem, to be a kind of mafia. They hate them and of course they blame Israel for bringing Yasser Arafat and the PA out of Tunisia. They are right. King Hussein had kicked them out of Jordan in Black September and we went behind King Hussein's back and brought Yasser Arafat here on a red carpet. Our reward was the intifada. Marwan Barghoutti a PA man headed the intifada which murdered over a thousand Israelis and he is in prison for life (supposedly). There are some idiots here in the government that want to free Marwan Barghoutti to be the next Palestinian leader. We don't learn from our mistakes. By the way the educated Palestinians also blame the Israeli Likud government for the creation of the Hamas. This was the same mistake the CIA made in Afghanistan. They helped create the mudjahadeen against the communists. Communism is now gone — with no thanks to the mudjahadeen, but Afghanistan is now a real nightmare of terrorism and the results are dead American soldiers. Most Palestinians would be happy to be Jordanians again. This is also true for the Palestinians living in the Hebron area. They still consider Abdallah of Jordan to be their king. The Palestinians say that Abu Mazen's son is robbing their public coffers and lining his own pockets. They hate the PA and perhaps for this reason many of them voted for the Hamas. The truth is they were only given the choice of these two terrorist beasts to vote for. Gaza was never part of the kingdom of Jordan like those in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. This is a completely different problem. Gaza is everyone's nightmare. The late Yitzchak Rabin once said that the best solution for Gaza would be if it went into the ocean. May his words reach unto G-D and maybe we will see Gaza inundated by a major tsunami. The US and Europe turn a blind eye to the fact that most Palestinians except for the Gazans would prefer to be citizens of Jordan again. Those Palestinians living in Jerusalem opt for Israel. The US does not have face-to-face contact with Palestinians here the way we do. I speak to them all the time. After all we are living in the same city. If a plebiscite was held for the Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, the majority would vote to be part of Israel- after that Jordan. I don't think the Hamas or PA would get very many votes. If Jerusalem is divided most of them will lose their jobs and of course they will lose their National Security child allowance payments — they have big families and women don't work so they rely heavily on child allowance payments from Israel. There there are the hospitals. Whenever I go to either Hadassah Ein Kerem or Hadassah Mt. Scopus I see that about half of the patients are Palestinians from East Jerusalem. They know they are getting the best treatment at Hadassah. There are also two Hebrew universities that they attend — one in Givat Ram and the other in Mt. Scopus. It is simply not possible to divide Jerusalem and all those nations that are trying to divide Jerusalem should have their own capitals divided or punished by G-D. All the best
Contacft Sandra Levy by email at shula2933@gmail.com |