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TIME TO THINK ABOUT ANNEX AND TRANSFER!
Posted by Arlene Peck, July 31, 2006. |
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I'd rather not be able to say, "I told you so." Yet, it's difficult not to gloat when I see how the rest of the world is "reluctantly" beginning to realize that something must be done soon about the evil and crazy culture that is attempting to thrust itself upon the rest of us. If not, we're all going to be in deep doo-doo... For the past five or six years, I've been writing about "us" as a confused and myopic generation, that didn't have a clue about the enemy it was facing. Belatedly, I believe that we in the 21st century are finally recognizing some uncomfortable truths, which may save our lives yet; that the culture of militant Islam, rabidly foaming at the mouth from across a yawning abyss of cultural and ideological implacability, is rooted and cemented somewhere in the 7th century. We have woken too late, only to discover that our culture is still in the midst of a crusade, which these poor people are conditioned to undertake (to their own detriment) by truly evil "religious" leaders, those carrion-eaters who call themselves Imams and Mullahs, and by corrupt politicians. Gawd! A crusade! Perhaps Mel Gibson could make a movie addressing that! Come to think about it.. I told you about him too! One of our major problems in the West is that we have a leftist-fed "sound byte" mentality, which hasn't been able to grasp the importance of "tribalism," the basis of Arabic culture, still continuing to hold complete sway over primitive countries such as Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia. This is the mentality that underpins everything there, complete loyalty to the clan. That, and submission to a God they say is no friend of the West! We Westerners have been living under a delusional cloud of stupidity. How else to explain the many nations and leaders who have been so blind to signs that have been glaringly clear and obvious, for so long? For the past six years I have been warning that anti-Semitism has been growing at a rapid rate among Arabs and Europeans, the latter in a sort of dj vu, totally reminiscent of pre-war Nazi Germany, and that this anti-Semitism is being actively acted out in the so-called Arab-Israeli conflict. The Islamic culture has never made a secret that it has targeted all Jews for extermination; after all, it is called for by their prophet and holy writings. Although pre-dating 9/11, since Americas attention was so barbarically drawn to Islamist demands, the world stage has been overflowing with Islamist leaders who declare this. The question remains: Why did we not heed their words? I can only say that, as expected, for far too long, it didn't seem to bother anyone too much. However, I now think many Western nations are beginning to take off the blinkers they've been wearing and are facing up to the fact that these ongoing Islamist actions are not about land issues but, religion. Their Koran tells the faithful 1.4 Billion Muslims that anyone who won't convert must die. And some are now mindful of another truth; that after the Jews, Christians and Hindus are next in their sights. They have been burning churches and killing Christians in the Horn of Africa for years now, with barely a word of protest from Western Nations. In light of these facts, how appalling that, due to world pressure, the Israeli Defense Force is forced to fight this, and all of its wars, like a prizefighter in the ring with one arm tied behind his back. Had the United Nations followed up on resolution 1559, agreed to by all parties, instead of sitting by watching for the past six years while Hezbollah armed themselves to the teeth, Israel would not have to be fighting this war. A war, which no one disputes, was started by Hezbollah. Incidentally, I was in many of those same "nests of vipers" cities such as Tyre and Sidon as a journalist, when I was in Lebanon reporting the conflict in June of 1982. These border towns aren't neighborhood communities. They are enemy territory used for the explicit purpose of launching rockets into Israel! Don't tell me about agreements! The Arabs only know to begin negotiations after the terms have been agreed. Anything else is considered "weakness" by this culture of war. Fortunately, many people are recognizing that the Middle East is littered with agreements that just did not work. Are they recalling our history, remembering that, if the United States and our allies in the Second World War not gone acted decisively and ruthlessly in places as far apart as Iwo Jima and Normandy, we'd all be speaking German today, or maybe, Japanese. No one back then spoke of disproportionate damage to the enemy. All that was important was that the west and our way of life were in immediate danger. Today, many are waking up to the fact that Israel and the West are in a fight for their lives with terrorists driven by fanatical adherence to the Koran, all around the world. Radical Islam started this latest outbreak of violence, and unfortunately, it has fallen, again, on Israel to finish it. The Jewish state must not be pressured to stop this offensive until the enemy is disarmed as they were supposed to be, under UN Resolution 1559, when Israel left Lebanon six years ago. Again, it was not the fight that Israel started. What Israel knows and the West has to acknowledge, is the absolutely vital necessity for Israel to win this war. A cease fire allows Hezbollah to declare itself the winner. Inside the Islamic world, it will be seen no other way. The United Nations and the European Union is "the enemy" and has always acted in a manner designed to bring about nothing less than the demise of the Jewish state. The Vatican, which incidentally has enough on its plate internally and internationally, never-the-less finds time to condemn Israel. All these paragons of virtue remain blinded to one incontrovertible fact; that Israel is in a fight for her life and is in a defensive position. There is no such thing as "proportionality" in a fight for survival. The recent shooting attack at the Jewish Federation in Seattle where one innocent person was killed and six wounded is a perfect example of what where facing. Carried out by the son of one of the founders of the Muslim Mosque in that city, I wonder to myself, how proportionate is that? Now that, once again, almost 5 years after 9/11, Islamist attacks are again being seen on our shores, will there be an outcry from my country? I doubt it. However, if churches and Christian Ministries are next, perhaps attitudes might change. Only then, might we begin to admit, to ourselves first, and then publicly, that Israel and its little strip of land has nothing to do with the Muslim craziness. Since when did the media wag the tail of the dog? Now that they on a cease-fire with Hezbolah with whom is Israel to negotiate? Is Israel to sit down with terrorists who represent no sovereign nation? Apart from the inanity of that idea, as Hezbolah is an internationally proscribed terrorist organization, Hezbollah would only use this time to re-group and re-arm. And how, exactly, is Israel fighting this war? I know of no other army that warns the enemy by megaphone, television, leaflet, radio and even calling people on the phone to tell them that they must leave specific areas because they were going to be attacked. Only Israel would do this to avoid large civilian casualties. Then the world condemns them for defending their country against this terrorist militancy/malignancy. Drastic times...drastic solutions. I feel now is the perfect time for Israel to annex Gaza and the West Bank, and expel all Arabs. Beginning soon, all Israelis must have the security of knowing that those in Gaza will no longer have the leisure of running into Israel and bombing or kidnapping hostages. The same pamphleting campaigns, which warn of Israeli retaliations, should now carry a new message. If they insist on continued campaigns of terrorism and warfare against any Israeli territory... anything, then ten percent of Gaza will be taken back by Israel. Be specific; which village, which well, which mosque, which street to which street... and then do it, the next time they 'test' Israeli resolve. Transfer "the Arab enemy within" to any of the surrounding Arab countries. Let us see how well they like living in a Muslim controlled country. And, like a mantra... Let us repeat that this is only one front in a global aimed at global Muslim domination! World War III has been going on for decades. We've just been so busy entering a new millennium that this monster facing us has only belatedly gotten our attention! Arlene Peck is an internationally syndicated columnist and television talk show hostess. She can be reached at: bestredhead@earthlink.net and www.arlenepeck.com |
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THE ETHICAL CODE OF THE IDF
Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, July 31, 2006. |
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Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is the most moral and scrupulous military in the world, bar none! No army will risk the lives of its soldiers in order to save enemy's lives in the midst of a raging war. The Geneva Convention clearly puts the blame on those who use civilians as human shields, as Hezballah is doing with the South Lebanese civilian population. This practice is defined as war crimes. Following, please find an anguished letter from my friend Linda Olmert. Now, is it not time to stop blaming Israel on a whim and begin to stand by her with full conviction? |
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Dear Friends I have not written in the last weeks. So many words were spilled onto the internet, most said it all. And although there are things that words can not possibly cover, I have come to the point that I need to try. * What words can possible convey the heartsick and pain of visiting Nahriya last Thursday and finding that the silence of those who had fled was so much more audible than the sounds of tourists flocking to the town in previous years. We invest in building, planting and growing, and in a moment, a few madmen, crazed with their lust for our blood and the ruin of our accomplishments, invest their all in destruction. I could fill a book with the words that I do not have for this latest instalment to our tragedy. Instead, I ask that you go to this address, where you can find the
Ethical Code of the Israel Defence Force --
Contact Zuval Zaliouk by email at yz@glasscity.net |
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WHAT IF LEBANON'S ARMY JOINS HIZBULLAH?
Posted by David Nathan, July 31, 2006. |
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This was written by Alan M. Dershowitz, who is a professor of law at Harvard and the author of "Preemption: A Knife that Cuts Both Ways." It appeared in The Jerusalem Post yesterday. |
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As Israeli ground forces cross over into Lebanon in an effort to destroy Hizbullah's capacity to fire rockets and missiles at Israeli civilians, the president of Lebanon Emile Lahoud is taking sides and flexing his nation's muscle for the first time. He told a German magazine that he "respects Hizbullah" and its terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah, and he has threatened to turn the Lebanese army against Israel. This would cause a self-inflicted, and perhaps lethal, wound on Lebanon. Militias associated with several Lebanese political parties -including the party of the speaker of the parliament and of the Lebanese Communist Party - have already joined Hizbullah in attacking Israel. Up until now, the Lebanese government has claimed that it has no real army, not even one capable of controlling the Hizbullah terrorists who have "occupied" southern Lebanon. It has claimed an inability to enforce UN resolution 1559 which, adopted by the Security Council in 2004, "calls for the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias," meaning Hizbullah. And it has disclaimed any responsibility for Hizbullah atrocities against Israeli civilians and kidnapped soldiers. NOW, ALL of a sudden, its tune has changed. Suddenly its army is strong enough to take on Israel, and it is willing to collaborate with the terrorist organization from which it previously sought to disassociate itself. Nor can the Lebanese government plausibly argue that this about-face has been caused by the Israeli decision to have its ground troops cross over into Lebanon. Intelligence sources have confirmed that elements of the Lebanese army have been working with Hizbullah terrorists from the beginning of this conflict, providing the terrorists with electronic, radar and other logistical supports. The Lebanese government is not as innocent - not as much of a victim - as it has gotten the international community and the media to believe. It is playing a dangerous and two-faced game of both sides against the middle. Large segments of its Islamic population in Lebanon support Hizbullah, while much of its Christian population is terrified of the radical Islamic goals of Hizbullah but too intimidated to speak out. Israel and the United States do not want to turn Lebanese moderates into anti-Israel and anti-American zealots, but the tragic reality is that moderates have little influence in Lebanon these days. Israel made a serious blunder by worrying too much about the impact its military actions might have on Lebanese public opinion, and was consequently quite tentative in its initial response to Hizbullah rockets. If this decision was made for military reasons, I would have insufficient expertise to question it. But it appears that military considerations may have been compromised in order to influence Lebanese public opinion. If that was the reason, it was self-defeating. ISRAEL WILL be criticized regardless of what it does or refrains from doing. If it succeeds in destroying Hizbullah, it will be criticized for the civilian deaths it caused, even though the civilian deaths are the fault of Hizbullah for operating from civilian population centers. If Israel fails, it will be criticized for leaving the poor Lebanese in the grip of an emboldened Hizbullah. Israel was attacked from areas that it does not occupy. It gave up this land as part of what peace-lovers in Israel believed was a swap of "land for peace." But Hizbullah and Hamas turned it into "land for rocket launching and kidnapping." Israel is entitled to fight back and defend its citizens from aggression, as every other democracy would do. The media and international organizations are focused on the plight of the Lebanese who have had to leave their homes, paying little attention to the thousands of Israelis who have had to leave their homes in Haifa, Safed, Nazareth and other cities in range of Hizbullah rockets. They are obsessed with comparative body counts, as Hizbullah complains that more Lebanese than Israelis have been killed. Would they be satisfied if more Israelis had been killed? Would that render Israel's actions more proportional? Should Israel be blamed for having built bomb shelters for its civilians, while Hizbullah has built bunkers only for its leaders, leaving civilians exposed? Should Hizbullah be given credit for deliberately increasing the number of civilian deaths on both sides by firing its anti-personnel rockets into densely populated areas and from densely populated areas? Should Israel be blamed because many Israelis left their homes in dangerous areas while many Lebanese decided to remain in war zones in order to serve as human shields for the terrorists? HIZBULLAH IS on the wrong side of morality, international law and human rights. If the Lebanese army now joins it in fighting against Israel's efforts to stop terrorism, it will become complicit with terrorism and a legitimate military target. It will share responsibility for the deaths of its own civilians. It would be wise and moral for it to stay out of the fight and preserve its firepower to use against the real enemy of Lebanese democracy - Hizbullah. Contact David Nathan at davenathan@aol.com |
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THE PILLARS OF THE CURRENT WORLD CONFLICT -- THE UNDECLARED WW III
Posted by Nurit Greenger, July 31, 2006. |
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Today's riots in Lebanon, Gaza and other places take me back to Haim Harari's April 2002 speech on War on Terror. Here it is. MEMORIZE! MEMORIZE! MEMORIZE! |
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"It is also a fact that almost everybody in the [Middle East] region blames this situation on the United States, on Israel, on Western Civilization, on Judaism and Christianity, on anyone and anything, except themselves." Thus destroying the UN buildings, burning UN and USA flags and calling for the destruction of Israel. "The events of the last few years have amplified four issues, which have always existed, but have never been as rampant as in the present upheaval in the region. Though we are already well into it, few more years may pass before everybody acknowledges that it is a World War!" "The following are the four main pillars of the current World Conflict, or perhaps we should already refer to it as "the undeclared World War III": 1. The first element is the suicide murder "All of these happen daily in Iraq and in the Palestinian areas. What do you do? Well, you do not want to face the dilemma. But it cannot be avoided. " "The problem is that the civilized world is still having illusions about the rule of law in a totally lawless environment." "The good news is that all of this is temporary, because the evolution of international law has always adapted itself to reality. The punishment for suicide murder should be death or arrest before the murder, not during and not after. After every world war, the rules of international law have changed, and the same will happen after the present one. But during the twilight zone, a lot of harm can be done. " The picture I described here is not pretty. What can we do about it? In the short run, only fight and win. In the long run -- educate the next generation and open it to the world. The inner circles can and must be destroyed by force. "Above all, never surrender to terror. No one will ever know whether the recent elections in Spain would have yielded a different result, if not for the train bombings a few days earlier. But it really does not matter. What matters is that the terrorists believe that they caused the result and that they won by driving Spain out of Iraq. The Spanish story will surely end up being extremely costly to other European countries, including France, now expelling inciting preachers and forbidding veils and including others who sent troops to Iraq. In the long run, Spain itself will pay even more." I have no doubt that the civilized world will prevail. But the longer it takes us to understand the new landscape of this war, the more costly and painful the victory will be. Europe, more than any other region, is the key. Its understandable recoil from wars, following the horrors of World War II, may cost thousands of additional innocent lives, before the tide will turn. Contact Nurit Greenger at 4nuritg@gmail.com |
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THE WORLD IS ANGRY WITH ISRAEL
Posted by Ken Heller, July 31, 2006. |
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This was written by Barbara Ginsberg of Maale Adumim, Israel. Contact her at barhow@.netvision.net.i |
| The world is angry at Israel. And that is great! It means that we are slaughtering the enemy. We made Hizbullah choke on their words that "Hizbullah defeated the Goliath", defeated indestructible Israel. The world is angry at Israel for fighting a "war as a war" should be fought. Israel's strategy has thank G-d proved effective and the world screams "stop". Civilians were killed and some 50 Lebanese in Kana Well my friends, that is called war. Israel unlike any other nation, drops flyers, to warn the civilians to leave the area they are going to bomb. Whether the deaths were caused by Israeli bombs, or by Hizbullah to get the sympathy of the world, does not bother me. The world is angry at Israel, because Hizbullah in their abnormal, animalistic rage attacked the UN personal and their building, both in Lebanon and Gaza. The very people who help these terrorists and are always on their side. Great! Let the world be angry. Where was the anger of the world when Israel's innocent civilians were killed and hurt in our Northern towns? Where was the world's anger when Gush Katif, Sderot and Netivot had missiles and Katyushas raining down on them -- in so-called times of peace? Where was the world's anger when citizens were blown to pieces by suicide bombers? Where was Tony Blair? Why did he not appear on TV and shout, - Stop! Enough! There was a deafening quiet as Jews were being blown to pieces. Enough -- we must continue this war and win. Israel has no choice. I remember the U.S. using napalm fire against villages in Vietnam, killing innocent civilians. The French fought in Algeria and thousands of Muslim civilians lost their lives in French bombing raids, and vigilante reprisals. And the chutzpah of Tony Blair to angrily speak on TV that it is... "enough"? The Jewish people remember Britain's occupation of our country - keeping Auschwitz survivors from entering what was then called Palestine. Turning their backs and closing their eyes as the Arabs slaughtered Jews The moral Tony Blair's country used the noose to end the lives of Irgun and Stern fighters. The British were not for a goodwill gesture to set men free, as foolishly Israel is constantly doing today with her arch -enemies. Please G-d let the world be angry with us. It means that we are winning and how great it is to be a winner and hated by the world. Please G-d, help us and let this be. Ken Heller is a pro-Israel activist and a member of the Philadelphia Chapter of Americans For A Safe Israel. He can be reached at kayjayphilly@yahoo.com |
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PLENTY OF BLAME TO BE SHARED
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, July 31, 2006. |
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The Hi-Tech war against Hezb'Allah has put the spotlight on the weakness of a Hi-Tech Army like the IDF (Israel Defense Force) vs. a relatively primitive terrorist army. We now see it in Israel and the U.S. sees it in Afghanistan as the Taliban re-surfaces. The U.S. faces it in Iraq where road-side munitions blow up U.S. tanks, trucks and APC (Armored Personnel Carriers). Israel once again trained for the wrong war. This is reminiscent of the dominant philosophy which led to the catastrophic surprise of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. That "philosophy" was called in Hebrew "Conceptzia" or the Concept. The IDF higher command fixed in their mind that Egypt and Syria wouldn't dare attack Israel but - they were wrong - dead wrong for some 6,000 young men who died too young because of the "Conceptzia". Even as Egypt was upscaling their training and pre-positioning ground-to-air missiles particularly, the "Conceptzia" blinded the Israelis. Intelligence reported their findings but failed to convince the Military Staff and the politicians so - Intelligence failed! Clearly, History repeats herself as Hamas and Hezb'Allah built defense and pre-positioned tonnage of munitions virtually under the noses of the Generals and pathetically ignorant politicians whose present day "Conceptzia" was to ignore the build-up of terror capability. The focus of attack against the Right to lead the nation, wholly ignoring the growing danger embodied in Syria, Iran, and their proxies of Hamas and Hezb'Allah. It was "Conceptzia" 2006. Presently, Barbara Opall-Rome in U.S. DEFENSE NEWS, July 17, 2006 wrote a scathing and correct analysis of Israel's misplaced confidence in her technology while ignoring "boots on the ground" training for their soldiers.(1) Claiming preparedness for war but allowing the enemies to build up for war and not touching them was a vital, death-dealing mistake as proven by the two front war begun in Gaza by Hamas on June 25th by an attack that killed two Israeli soldiers and kidnaped one, Corporal Gilad (ben Akiva) Shalit. Hezb'Allah began in Lebanon on July 12, 2006 by kidnaping two soldiers Ehud (ben Malka) Goldwasser and Guy (ben Rina) Hever. Remember that Lebanon still holds 3 Jewish prisoners from the Sultan Yaaqub battle on June 11, 1982: Zecharia Shlomo (ben Miriam) Baumel, Tzvi (ben Pninah) Feldman and Yekutiel Yehuda Nachman (ben Sarah) Katz. Remember also Ron (ben Batya) Arad captured when his plane was downed over Lebanon on October 1986. Unfortunately, the U.S. had over-ridding political priorities in the Middle East. Keeping the Arab Muslims pacified required holding Israel on a short leash. Every Israeli politicians and General knew that they were only allowed short bursts of retribution for hostile Muslim attacks, lest the "Arabs get angry". They acclimated to the schizophrenic role they were told to play. Israel ignored their own politicized military, reduced their military capability and purpose and were subservient to weak politicians who closed their eyes to the dangers of the mounting Terrorist build-up of forces and armaments. Once, years ago, the elite of the military undertook night missions to spy out what the enemies were doing but, then the politicians didn't want casualties that might weaken their hold on political office. The Oslo Accords and philosophy became their training ideology where the lessons taught were not to engage the enemy lest the media unleash a storm of Israel-bashing. Lessons were not learned from the U.S. Hi-Tech ariel assault on the Caves of Tora Bora in Afghanistan. The U.S. Generals even allowed the Taliban to escape Kabul in long lines of trucks with their weapons, heading for the cave networks in the mountains. America was certain that air attacks with big bunker-busting bombs would crush the caves and the Taliban inside. In the end, it was "boots on the ground" who had to explore every cave and blow them up virtually by hand - one by one. We were never told the casualty figures this low-tech fighting caused, but there was no other way to dig them out of their deep tunnels and hidey-holes. The U.S. faced the same tunnel problem in Vietnam but, the Israeli planners refused to learn the lesson. Where were Israel's brilliant generals when they observed the "war of the caves" in Afghanistan? Just across the border of Lebanon, Hezb'Allah took 6 undisturbed years to create a virtual tunnel city, with nary a word from Israelis or from the U.N.'s UNIFIL observers who were (supposedly) watching and reporting back to the U.N. about the ongoing preparations for war. I have little doubt that one day we will see a detailed book paralleling the U.N. "Oil-for-Food" scandal only this time it will cover 28 years of UNIFILS' (United Nations' Interim Forces in Lebanon) operational relationship with Hezb'allah via Iran and Syria. It should also describe UNRWA (United Nations Relief Works Agency) who were funding and assisting the Arab Muslim Palestinian terrorists from Yassir Arafat through Hamas. All that was needed for the better organized terrorists was a small spark. First, it was a demented Sharon who was advised by Ehud Olmert to abandon the 10,000 Jewish men, women and children in 21 communities of Gush Katif/Gaza and the 4 northern Samarian towns. Despite repeated warnings, these two self-serving dimwits, along with their Leftist generals, who decided to hand over what amounted to a firing positions for a base of Global Terrorists. Why this entire cabal is not now serving time in prison for betraying the Jewish nation, I will never understand. Because the vaunted Israeli military has shown weakness in the face of organized terror, why should the U.S. continue to consider Israel a vital ally. Giving up crucial land and armaments to hostile Muslim Arabs converted Israel from being a valued asset into a degraded liability. Ehud Olmert, Shimon Peres, Amir Peretz, Gen. Dan Halutz, et al thought the U.S. would appreciate their 'restraint' in NOT hitting those Arab Muslim neighbors who were openly preparing for war. What these shallow country bumpkins did NOT understand was that Israel was only valuable as a tough, dependable army that could be called upon by the U.S. when necessary. What the Israeli bumpkins did NOT understand was that Washington Arabists, like the "Foggy Bottom" State Department, did NOT want Israel moving to defend herself. Their only goal was to appease the Arab Muslim oil nations and multi-national oil companies. Part of that appeasement was to keep Israel on a short leash. This required recruiting Jewish Leftists such as Peres, Yossi Beilin, certain Leftist Generals and Media to maintain the mantra of Peace-Peace, Peace Uber Alles - Land-for-Peace - even as the Kassem Rockets and Katyusha Missiles were falling. Any sane nation would define such action as treason and a hanging offense in time of war. Israel (if you haven't noticed) has been in a state of Permanent War and low-level conflict (which is the definition of Terrorism) from her first days in 1948 until today. Israel, under control and command of useless Olmert, Peretz (now Defense Minister) and Gen. Halutz (now in Command of the IDF) has been wasting tons of ammunition by firing at empty fields in Gaza. Now, as in the Yom Kippur fiasco, Israel desperately needs re-supply. The noisy boom-booms may have kept the Arab Muslim Palestinian up at night but did not stop Hamas from launching Kassem rockets into southern Israel with more useless boom booms. (If possible, I would stuff Israel's current politicians and generals into those circus canons where the clowns are shot out into a net. In this case, I would unload those failures over Gaza and Lebanon - without the net!) Even as the entire North is being hit with saturation missile attacks from Hezb'Allah, there are Leftists like Shulamit Aloni, the Women in Black (of which the Prime Minister's wife Aliza, is a leading member) and other Leftists staging protests against Israeli soldiers fighting in Lebanon to stop the missiles falling on Israelis in the North and rockets hitting Israelis in the South. If Fidel Castro, with the help of Jimmy Carter, arranged the Mariella boat lift of criminals and crazies to be shipped to America, why cannot the sick and twisted Leftists be sent on a forever boat trip to Uganda or Saudi Arabia? Surely they deserve a rest from their arduous efforts to subvert the nation of Israel. Have you noticed that Jewish attempt at humor increase proportionately to the terror? I wonder what jokes will be employed when the Europeans, Americans, the U.N. and Russia bring in NATO to run the lives of the Israelis. Certainly, as with UNIFIL, we cannot expect them to actually fight Hezb'allah as missiles continue to come in from Lebanon. Imagine the blame game when these NATO forces start to come home in body bags. They will inevitably blame Israel. The Solution: Drive Olmert's government immediately out of power. Return to power those retired generals who proved their worth in past engagements. Do it now! Or prepare to weep bitter tears and name another day of national mourning. ### 1. "RAID REVEALS HOLE IN ISRAELI NET: Hezb'Allah Ambush Shows Flaws in Sensor Strategy - Analysts say Hizbollah attacks are aimed at boosting Iran's strategic position" by Barbara Opall-Rome Tel Aviv U.S. DEFENSE NEWS July 17, 2006 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@interaccess.com |
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ISRAEL WAS ATTACKED BY LEBANON
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, July 31, 2006. |
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Might the world be less inclined to skewer Israel for a perceived "disproportionate response" against Lebanon, as a consequence of Hizbullah's unprovoked attack on its soldiers, if indeed Israel declared war on sovereign Lebanon itself? In fact, that sovereignty did invade and attack Israel on its northern border! Never mind that the attackers are affiliated with fanatical Hizbullah. That Islamic cadre, obsessed with annihilating Israel, is represented in Lebanon's Parliament, and is supported by much of Lebanon's citizenry. Hizbullah is not in any way a rogue outside entity that infiltrates Lebanon for the express purpose of tormenting Israel. So what if the elected Lebanese President Lahoud and Prime Minister Siniora infer they have no control over such Jew despising fanatics. Why don't they expel Hizbullah representatives from Parliament? They certainly have the authority to do that, if they truly believe Hizbullah's behavior is contrary to Lebanon's best interests, perhaps even of a treasonable nature. When one nation attacks another, the aggrieved nation has every right and in fact obligation to retaliate aggressively in order to defend its own citizens. Period! There are no exceptions to this rule. Israel surely attempts to minimize civilian casualties within Lebanon, however, Hizbullah cowards intentionally hide themselves and their deadly weapons, including missiles, behind civilian human shields, including women and children, in order to gain sympathy from a nave world, thus what can IDF forces do? The ongoing tragedy could in fact be lessened if Hizbullah was justifiably excoriated instead of Israel by worldwide observers, indeed reversing any psychological gains from the Shiite fanatics' despicable strategy, perhaps pressuring Hizbullah to either cease launching missiles at Israel or move its launching pads to desolate areas away from civilians; implementation of the latter contingency, of course, would be as likely as pigs flying in the desert. The media blitz against Israel in many venues, especially but not exclusively in Europe (The New York Times, for one, in fact regularly displays graphic images of Lebanese corpses, no doubt intentionally portraying Israel as the devil incarnate) is repugnant, unabashedly exhibiting no sense of fairness whatsoever from editorial staffs that ought to know better. Might a sliver of true perspective every once in a while emerge, casting aspersions on manipulative subhuman Arabs willing to put presumed brethren in harms way for the sake of their wretched cause, strategically trading those human lives for misplaced sympathy and in many Muslim quarters even delusional hero worship, or is that too much to ask for? Let us hope Israel ignores the double standard it seemingly must always bear, perseveres in this true test of will, slays its enemies, and becomes a stronger nation for the daunting effort. That surely would be one rare but oh so important victory for justice and mankind. Lawrence Uniglicht is a career civil servant, working for the Social Security Administration. He advocates for the State of Israel with an American perspective. He writes, "Advocating for the disrespected underdog has been my passion, no doubt Israel falls into that category." Contact him by email at luniglicht@snip.net |
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LEBANON: MYTHS AND FACTS
Posted by Shaul Ceder, July 30, 2006. |
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This was written by Shraga Simmons and Pesach Benson. Shraga Simmons is the founding editor of HonestReporting.com. Pesach Benson is the editor of HonestReporting's daily blog, MediaBackspin.com. This article is archived at:
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Ammunition for how you can defend Israel. It happens every time. Israel is forced into a defensive war, and winds up defending itself against canards of aggression and excessive force. Around the water cooler and on talk radio, Israel's supporters are put on the spot: Why are so many Lebanese civilians being killed? Why the destruction of so much infrastructure? Can't Israel show some restraint? At times like this, every Jew becomes an ambassador for Israel. Even if you don't agree with everything Israel does, we must defend Israel's right to self-defense. So let's sort out fact from fiction -- for the sake of Israel, and for ourselves. Myth: Israel is attacking and killing hundreds of Lebanese civilians. Fact: The death of any innocent civilian is tragic and Israel regrets the loss of life. Why are civilians dying? Because Hezbollah is hiding among civilians, using villages, mosques and even private homes to store and manufacture weapons caches that include 12,000 missiles. This creates a conundrum for the Israeli military, where Hezbollah wins either way: If the IDF shies away from attacking because of the proximity of civilians, Hezbollah's terror infrastructure remains in place. And if the IDF attacks, no matter how carefully, there will be collateral damage -- triggering condemnation in the media, and emboldening Hezbollah to operate from civilian areas. Even the UN's humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, said: "Hezbollah must stop this cowardly blending... among women and children. I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this." Ynet News reports that Hezbollah is trying to maximize Lebanese civilian deaths, presumably for its own propaganda purposes: Roadblocks have been set up outside some villages to prevent residents from leaving. Meanwhile, in order to minimize civilian casualties, Israel has dropped warning leaflets in Lebanon, advising residents to protect their own safety by "avoiding all places frequented by Hizbullah." When was the last time that Arab terrorists alerted Israeli civilians of an impending strike? So let's be clear who bears responsibility for the deaths of Lebanese civilians. As Alan Dershowitz writes: A bank robber who takes a teller hostage and fires at police from behind his human shield is guilty of murder if they, in an effort to stop the robber from shooting, accidentally kill the hostage. The same should be true of terrorists who use civilians as shields from behind whom they fire their rockets. Myth: Israel deliberately attacked a United Nations post, killing four UN personnel. Fact: That UN post, in the words of the Canadian peacekeeper who was killed there, was being used by Hezbollah as cover. As retired Canadian Major General Lewis Mackenzie, interviewed on CBC radio, explained: "We received emails from [the Canadian peacekeeper who was killed at the UN post] a few days ago, and he was describing the fact that he was taking fire within, in one case, three meters of his position for tactical necessity, not being targeted. Now that's veiled speech in the military. What he was telling us was Hezbollah soldiers were all over his position and the IDF were targeting them. And that's a favorite trick by people who don't have representation in the UN. They use the UN as shields knowing that they can't be punished for it." Furthermore, Hezbollah has attacked UNIFIL observers repeatedly this week. From the UN's own press releases: In the last 24 hours... Hezbollah fired from the vicinity of four UN positions at Marwahin, Alma Ash Shab, Brashit, and At Tiri. (27 July 2006) One unarmed UN military observer, a member of the Observer Group Lebanon (OGL), was seriously wounded by small arms fire in the patrol base in the Marun Al Ras area yesterday afternoon. According to preliminary reports, the fire originated from the Hezbollah side during an exchange with the IDF. He was evacuated by the UN to the Israeli side, from where he was taken by an IDF ambulance helicopter to a hospital in Haifa. He was operated on, and his condition is now reported as stable. (24 July 2006) Note that the UN observer was injured badly enough to be evacuated to an Israeli hospital -- where they saved his life. Kofi Annan's reaction? Not a word of condemnation against Hezbollah, and not a word of gratitude for Israel's rescue of the UN observer. Myth: Israel is needlessly targeting Lebanon's civilian infrastructure. Fact: Prior to the fighting, Lebanon was recovering from a long, destructive civil war. Last year's "Cedar Revolution" against Syrian occupation gave the world high hopes for the possibility of a new Lebanon. Tourism was on the rise, business was improving, and national infrastructure was being rebuilt. Hezbollah has now used this infrastructure to support its own violent agenda. For years, weapons shipments passed through the capitol's international airport, across the Beirut-Damascus highway, and through various coastal ports. That's why Israel has been forced to bomb the transportation network, to hinder the arrival of arms from Syria/Iran, and to stop Hezbollah from moving the kidnapped Israelis out of the country. Other Israeli strikes have targeted telephone links used by Hezbollah to communicate, Hezbollah offices, banks that handle their money, and TV transmitters from which Hezbollah's Al-Manar station is broadcast. In fact, Israel is carefully selecting targets, in order to minimize damage. Writes David Frum of the American Enterprise Institute : [Israel] has fought this war on its northern border as humanely as it can. Flip the switch in Beirut and the lights come on; open the taps, and the water flows. Essential services have been spared. The runways at Beirut Airport have been bombed to stop reinforcements to Hezbollah, but the control towers and the newly built terminal have been spared because Lebanon will need them later. Myth: Israel's military response is "disproportionate and excessive." Fact: We need to define our terms: Israel's response may be "disproportionate," but it is not "excessive." In war, you don't measure response by what the enemy has done in the past, but rather how to stop their threats to attack you in the future. Hezbollah is threatening to send missiles into Tel Aviv, and there is the looming threat of Iran supplying Hezbollah with nuclear weapons. This is a serious security threat that must be eliminated. Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen exploded the myth of "excessive force": For Israel, a small country within reach, as we are finding out, of a missile launched from any enemy's back yard, proportionality is not only inapplicable, it is suicide... It is not good enough to take out this or that missile battery. It is necessary to reestablish deterrence: You slap me, I will punch out your lights. Hezbollah boasts 12,000 missiles -- not for defense, but to destroy Israel. Why would the world not allow Israel to defend itself? Because it is more comfortable to live with the illusion of peace, to hope that this will pass and things will somehow work out. But Israel cannot afford to ignore the reality of the threat. It is true that the fighting has produced more Lebanese casualties than Israeli casualties. But if Israel were to tell its citizens not to hide in bomb shelters, so that the thousands of rockets launched from Lebanon would kill many more Israelis, would the world's journalists and government leaders then smugly agree that Israel's effort to stop Hezbollah is indeed "proportionate"? Myth: Hezbollah has a justified grievance and is being provoked by Israel. Fact: Charles Krauthammer said it best: What's the grievance here? Israel withdrew from Lebanon completely in 2000. It was so scrupulous in making sure that not one square inch of Lebanon was left inadvertently occupied that it asked the United Nations to verify the exact frontier defining Lebanon's southern border and retreated behind it. This "blue line" was approved by the Security Council, which declared that Israel had fully complied with resolutions demanding its withdrawal from Lebanon. In the meanwhile, Hezbollah has created a mini-state inside of Lebanon -- with territory, weapons and soldiers. Over the past six years, Hezbollah has launched dozens of attacks across the internationally-recognized border on both civilian and military targets within Israel. The current crisis began on July 12, when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israeli towns and cities in an unprovoked attack, and then crossed the border killing eight Israeli soldiers engaged in routine patrol and kidnapping two more. Hezbollah "claims" that it is fighting over Shebaa Farms, a small tract of land where the borders of Israel, Lebanon and Syria converge. The UN maintains that Shebaa Farms was captured from Syria in 1967, and is subject only to Israeli-Syrian agreement. Shebaa Farms is a thin smokescreen. Hizbullah's goal is the total destruction of Israel, plain and simple. (Read the Hizbullah charter, and Hezbollah's goals in their own words.) Even Arab states like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan have now chastised Hezbollah for its "unexpected, inappropriate and irresponsible acts." Myth: Lebanon bears no responsibility for the actions of Hezbollah. Fact: According to UN Security Council Resolution 1559, it is the responsibility of the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah and to assert Lebanese sovereignty in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese government has completely failed in this regard, standing by while Hezbollah has assembled weapons stockpiles and entrenched itself in Lebanese towns. Further, Lebanon cannot claim disassociation: Hezbollah is actually part of the Lebanese coalition government, holding two seats in the cabinet! The irony of all this is that most of the world -- including the Lebanese population -- hopes that Israel will succeed in doing the job that the Lebanese army has not: liberating southern Lebanon from Hezbollah rule, and giving it back to the Lebanese. Let's all do our part to promote the facts, and to help Israel win its battles on all fronts. Contact Shaul Ceder at shaul.ceder@gmail.com |
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WHEN YOU SLEEP WITH A MISSILE
Posted by Paula Stern, July 30, 2006. |
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Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gilerman was just quoted as saying, "When you sleep with a missile, you may not wake up." He then went on to ask when was the last time Hizbollah apologized for any injury to Israeli civilians. The answer is known to all of us, never. Perhaps these difficult battles against Hizbollah in the north, Hamas in the south, and preventing terror attacks in our cities is not so much about where we fight as what we fight against. This is especially hard after the tragedy in Kfar Qana, but even more important now than ever to remember. On Friday, Hizbollah fired katyusha rockets into Nahariya and hit a hospital. Only by the grace of God and the army's forward thinking had the hospital been evacuated previously and despite massive damage to the building, no loss of life occurred. But there was no miracle in Kfar Qana today in Lebanon. Five days ago, the Israeli army warned residents to leave these villages. Satellite images publicized by the Israeli army show clearly what every resident of Kfar Qana could not have avoided knowing, that Hizbollah was using their village as a launching ground for at least 150 rockets fired into northern Israel. When you sleep with a missile? Meanwhile, pictures continue to pour out of Lebanon that makes much of the world angry and at odds with Israel. What is missing, they claim is proportionality. It is wrong, says the world, to destroy a country for the lives of two or three soldiers. As always, the world is partially correct -- what is missing is proportionality. BBC continues to show the bombed out remnants of buildings in Beirut, but fails to make it clear that they are centering their broadcasts from an area that compromises about 1% of the total land area of Beirut. The other 99% remains untouched because there are no Hizbollah targets there. Our government and politicians are taking to the airwaves to explain to the world why we do what we do, and how we do it. Kofi Annan's insulting comment that we hit a UN base in Lebanon on purpose shows the extent that Annan has been corrupted by his personal politics. The media shows pictures from Lebanon and the tens of thousands of fleeing Lebanese with little regard to the fact that more than 300,000 Israelis have fled the battle areas as well and more than a million others have spent days and nights in bomb shelters. Pictures, the tool of the media, can be misleading, for all the thousand words they pretend to represent. Ultimately, perhaps the truth really lies in the words, the real words that leaders use to describe their goals. The General Secretary of Hizbollah, Hassan Nasrallah has summed up the battle we face on all fronts, "We have discovered how to hit the Jews where they are the most vulnerable. The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win because they love life and we love death." Nasrallah is correct in that Jews love life, that we do all we can to preserve the lives of our people and of those we must battle. It is not our forces that hide weapons among civilians and shoot katyusha rockets at cities indiscriminately. It was Israel that warned the Lebanese civilians to leave Kfar Qana and the Hizbollah that prevented them from going. It was Israel that warned civilians to distance themselves from Hizbollah bases, and the UN that decided to leave their base so close to Hizbollah's training camp. And finally, it was Hizbollah that chose Kfar Qana as a launching pad for those rockets, Hizbollah that used the houses of Kfar Qana to hide the missile launchers, and finally, Hizbollah that needs to explain the strange time difference between when Israel launched missiles in the vicinity of a house that only collapsed some 7 or 8 hours later. But regardless of what happened in Kfar Qana, Nasrallah is right - we love live and they love death. But he is wrong in the conclusion he draws from this. Our loving life is not what makes us vulnerable, it is what makes us invincible. And finally, Dan Gilerman is correct. "When you sleep with a missile, you may not wake up." Contact Paula Stern at paula@writepoint.com |
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PHOTOS THAT GIVE INSIGHT INTO THE UPCOMING ANTI-ISRAEL RALLY IN DC
Posted by Carrie Devorah, July 30, 2006. | ||
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A rally is planned by the muslim community on August 12th at the White House. I learned about the rally while I was in Chicago. These are some of the photos of the event I covered. The rest of the photos, all 289, are posted on my website www.carriedevorah.com (look on the home page for the gallery Chicago anti Israel rally).
What disturbs me as a news photographer who covered similar protests in Europe, this is the first protest I covered here in DC where the protesting community was predominantly muslim and dressed in their traditional garb of bhurkas and such. 
On my website, look at the Protest Gallery for the Hyde Park protests, the Uzbekhistan protest at Marble Arch, the Bloody Sunday march in Northern Ireland and under Travel, look at the murals in Northern Ireland then back into the galleries for the image taken from the walls and made into a poster for the Chicago protest. And take a moment to look at the photos of Gerry Adams in the first ever presence of PLO flags in the Bloody Sunday March. Yes, I sent those pics out too. Sort of answers the question does a leopard lose its spots..... or.... in modern day language, can a terrorist ever really become a politician. The August 12th rally is on a Saturday I believe. How do we combat the hate seen on the faces of the protesters..... prayer.... maybe prayer in the park -- no speeches, no featured groups, just a minyan and more -- the old fashioned way of showing who we are and that we don't duck and run. If the soldiers in Israel can pray amidst tanks and rocket fire, then we can pray too, can't we.... Sincerest Regards
Carrie Devorah is an investigative photojournalist based in DC.
Former religion editor of "Lifestyles" Magazine, her areas of focus
are faith, homeland security and terrorism. Devorah is the sister of
Jewish Press columnist Yechezkel Chezi Scotty Goldberg, victim of
Egged Bus 19 bombing, 1-29-04. Goldberg was a noted psychologist with
expertise in at-risk youth.
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THE POWER OF PRAYER -- MARK YOUR CALENDARS
Posted by Nurit Greenger, July 30, 2006. |
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To: ALL Dear Friend, Israel's Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Yona Metzger, is calling all of us to join in a world-wide prayer to be held this coming Tuesday, August 1st, at 7PM Israel time (9AM Los Angeles time). We join hands, Jews and Gentiles alike, one people, under God, as praying becomes the force engulfing the world. At the time this e-mail is sent, almost 40,000 people have already joined. Let us see how this number grows and explodes as we reach Tuesday evening, Israel time. You may add your name to the world-wide chain of people who are joining this mission. The names of those who join will be printed and put in the Western Wall by Chief Rabbi Metzger, with his blessing. You may view the prayers for the IDF Soldiers and for the well being and safe and speedy return of the kidnapped soldiers (Gilad Shalit, Udi Goldwasser, Eldad Regev) using the following link: These days, when we are "between the straits", and in these desperate hours, our brothers Sons of Israel in the State of Israel face hard and murderous times from our enemies and those who are up to destroy us. While in the battle front our brave soldiers in the Israeli Defense Forces risk their lives in the air and sea to repel those who turn upon us, and defend our people and the cities in Israel. I call upon our Jewish brothers in the Diaspora, wherever they are, to pray for the well-being of our soldiers and their success this Tuesday at 19:00 (Israel time, for the recovery of the wounded, and the return of the captives to the loving arms of their families all safe and sound. Time is fixed on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 at 7:00 PM Tel Aviv time. Prayer for Gilad Shalit, to be read by all communities Shelomo Amar composed by the Rishon Le'Sion,
(Psalm readings: Chapters 70, 13, 142, 126) Prayer for the Deliverance of the Captured Israeli Soldiers MAY it be Your will, Lord our God and God of our fathers, that these Psalms which we have read before You today should come to You favorably, and be accepted before you as if King David Your anointed one -- peace be on him -- had said them himself. Please take action for the sake of Your Holy names which are written in them, and which are alluded to in them, and accept with mercy and favor our prayers and requests, so that our supplications reach You. Have pity, show concern and extend mercy to the captives, Ehud ben Malka Goldwasser; Eldad ben Tovah Regev; and Gilad ben Aviva Shalit, and save them, showing redemption and mercy, together with all captives and prisoners from Your nation Israel. MAY the One who can liberate captives release them from their detention, deliver them from captivity to liberty, from tyranny to redemption, and from gloom to brightness, and restore them to complete health -- a healing of the soul and of the body -- and revitalize their spirit, reinvigorate their strength, and help them in happiness and joy; then they will be strengthened and healed and will have eternal happiness. MAY the merit of the prayers, the cries, and the supplications of the multitudes who plead for them all over the world stand for them as a shield and a protection, freeing them from their captivity. Please tear asunder any negative judgments. May all their merits be presented before You, the Blessed One, and all that they have achieved and done for the sake of our nation and our heritage. Tear up their verdicts for the merit of the Holy Name that is alluded to in the initial Hebrew letters of the phrase "Accept the prayer of your nation; fortify us, purify us, You who are so awesome." MAY the words of this scriptural verse (Isaiah 53:10) be fulfilled for them: "God's captives will return and come to Zion in joy; eternal happiness will be on their heads, they will be invested with joy and happiness, and sorrow and anxiety will be banished." May this happen very soon! Translation by Rabbi Mayer Waxman, Director of Synagogue Services,
Orthodox Union Edited by David Olivestone, Director of Communications,
Orthodox Union
Contact Nurit Greenger at 4nuritg@gmail.com
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ISLAMIC TERRORIST ATTACKS JEWISH FEDERATION IN SEATTLE
Posted by Ezra HaLevi, July 30, 2006. |
 (From Cox and Forkum "Editorial Cartoons," http://www.coxandforkum.com/) Pam Waechter, 58, was shot dead, and five people are in serious condition after a Muslim man opened fire inside a Jewish Federation building in Seattle, Washington Friday. The Arab murderer entered the building Friday afternoon at 4 PM, following behind a woman who had just punched in her security code. He shot a receptionist and demanded that she call 911 and tell them he was holding everyone hostage. "He told the police that it was a hostage situation and he wanted us to get our weapons out of Israel," an employee told the Seattle Times. According to Jewish Federation official Amy Wasser-Simpson, the man had told staff members, "I'm a Muslim American; I'm angry at Israel," and then began shooting. Some reports said he held a gun to the head of a 13-year-old girl for a while while threatening the others in the room. Most of the employees were able to escape through a back door, and once police teams arrived, 31-year-old Naveed Afzal Haq soon surrendered. He was charged with one count of murder and five of attempted murder. He is reportedly a US citizen, from outside the Seattle region. All five of the wounded are women as well. None of the names of the victims have been released, but three of them with abdominal injuries underwent emergency surgery Friday. One victim is pregnant and was wounded only in her arm. Police SWAT teams and bomb squads combed the area for hours looking for additional threats. Robert Jacobs, the director of the local chapter of the Anti-Defamation League in Seattle, issued a recommendation to all Jewish institutions, including synagogues, to cancel services and evacuate the buildings until it is determined if the shooting is a lone incident. Despite this, he told the Times, "We're trying to keep the community as calm as possible." Most of the city's synagogues ignored the directive, saying it would be a surrender to terrorism. The Jewish Federation organized a large rally last week in support for Israel's Re-Engagement War. Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske told an evening news conference that in addition to providing an extra layer of protection to the city's synagogues, police would be guarding mosques as well, fearing retaliation for the shooting.
writes for Arutz-Sheva.
This is from today's Arutz-Sheva (www.IsraelNN.com).
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CNN HAS BECOME THE PROPAGANDA ARM OF HEZBOLLAH
Posted by Marlene Young, July 30, 2006. |
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CNN IS ALLOWING HEZBOLLAH TO SHOOT AND SHIELD THEMSELVES BEHIND "CIVILIANS" AND THEN BLAME ISRAEL Instead of condemning Hezbollah for firing rockets in and around Lebanese buildings full of children, in neighborhoods full of Rocket launchers, from which Israel WARNED REPEATEDLY to let the civilians leave, the UN, EU, USA and the MEDIA continue to blame Israel for defending itself from those rockets aimed at Israel's civilian areas. The Media is therefore being used as a PROPAGANDA TOOL to allow Hezbollah to shield itself behind "civilians" and attack Israel civilians from behind civilian children, AS THEY DID IN QANA, a Hezbollah stronghold, from where Hezbollah fired hundreds of rockets at Israel against International Law.. PLEASE ASK CNN WHY THEY NEVER ASK THEIR GUESTS WHY HEZBOLLAH IS ALLOWED TO FIRE ROCKETS FROM HOUSES FULL OF CHILDREN? PLEASE CONTACT CNN: Go to one of these Websites and fill in one of the forms: www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?21 -Wolf Blitzer www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?10 -Anderson Cooper www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form9b.html www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?11 -Paula Zahn www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form4.html?19 Paula Zahn www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form4.html?1 -Christiane Amanpour Send e-mails to: situationroom@cnn.com
HOW TO CONTACT CNN
As a former CNN employee ( I was the CNN Radio Correspondent during the Gulf War in 1991), my advice is to CALL CNN's Internet Desk and to ask for the staffer in charge. You present yourself as an avid viewer of CNN and then start asking questions in a very matter of fact manner. After the conversation, send a short, personal note to the person whom you have spoken to. This is the methodology used by Israel's adversaries, in a very effective manner. Send the letter both by e-mail and by hard copy, and always copy the CEO of CNN. The telephone number of the internet desk is 404-827-1519. Brachot David Bedein
Contact Marlene Young at malka613@gmail.com
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HIZBALLAH SAYS "WE'LL ATTACK INTERNATIONAL FORCE TOO"!
Posted by David Nathan, July 30, 2006. |
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White House: Tragic Qana bombing shows critical need for Israel to show restraint. Condoleezza Rice returns to Washington Monday. The UN Security Council meets Sunday evening on the Lebanese crisis July 30, 2006, 5:38 PM (GMT+02:00) The Lebanese government refused to hold diplomatic discussions without an immediate unconditional ceasefire by Israel. Rice who cut her mission short said she was saddened by the tragedy in Lebanon. Prime minister Ehud Olmert and chief of staff Lt. Gen Dan Halutz voiced deep regret at the tragic loss of life at Qana after 57 reported dead including 37 children in collapse of buildings in Kafr Qana where the Israeli air force struck Hizballah rocket sites. Halutz said Israel did not know there were civilians and children in the building and blamed Hizballah for using them as human shields. Olmert: This war was not started by us and we did not want it, but we will finish our counter-offensive until northern Israel safe from Hizballah attack. He spoke of another 10 to 14 days. Hizballah religious leader Sheikh Nabulsi: If international troops come to South Lebanon, we will attack them in the same way as we fight Israelis. This next is called the Qana Trap and is a DEBKAfile Special Report The unfortunate South Lebanese village of Qana has been rigged time and again as a trap to snatch Israel and its international reputation in its jaws. In 1996, a stray Israel shell aimed at Hizballah inadvertently killed 100 civilians, bringing a former Israeli counter-terror operation "The Grapes of Wrath" to a dismal, foreshortened end. Hizballah knows from long experience that maximizing Lebanese civilian casualties is the most effective way to disarm Israel and its military, using international opprobrium as its instrument. Embedding its combat operations among helpless civilians is an old and proven method. The prime minister who first fell into that trap was Shimon Peres, deputy premier in the Olmert government in 1996. A world outcry forced him to bow to Hizballah's terms for a ceasefire. The Shiite terrorists agreed to discontinue its attacks on Israeli civilians (which they never upheld), but assaults on Israeli soldiers were not deemed violations. Ten years on, the Qana village tragedy confronts prime minister Ehud Olmert with the same kind of horrific weight to capitulate to an instant ceasefire, thereby granting Hassan Nasrallah and his rocket arsenal a free hand to continue to bludgeon two million Israeli civilians. When, Sunday morning, July 30, Olmert told the cabinet: "We are not in a hurry to reach a ceasefire before our goals are achieved," he did not know about the Israeli chopper which two hours earlier had sent ordnance flying over a three-story building in Qana village, which housed civilians as well as a Hizballah site for shooting rockets against the Israeli towns of Haifa and Nahariya. The death toll was appalling -- 57 civilians including 37 children, some of them disabled. The Qana disaster abruptly derailed the diplomatic initiatives to halt the hostilities put together in the last ten days through painstaking efforts in Washington, Paris, Jerusalem and Beirut, as well as the understandings the Israeli prime minister reached with US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in their face to face conversation in Jerusalem the night before, Saturday, July 29. Olmert's statement to the cabinet will go down as a misplaced, mistimed assertion by an inexperienced leader. By failing to understand the tempo of war, he was overtaken by the Qana disaster. He also wasted precious time by relying on Israeli air might, its navy and artillery to defeat Hizballah. Even the ground forces sent in eventually were not correctly used. Instead of deploying small, rapid teams for lightening raids on Hizballah positions, bunkers and villages and moving on to the next, large contingents fought day after day against Hizballah strongholds in Maroun es Ras and Bint Jubeil supported by armored force and artillery fire. Hizballah made good use of the advantage it enjoyed of speed to regroup and return to the fray. A salutary shift in tactics was finally apparent Saturday night. This error was the outcome of two shortcomings: 1. The slow responses of the IDF's northern command and central military war room. DEBKAfile's military sources report that towards the end of the week, general staff headquarters took over the management of the campaign from the northern command. 2. A shortage of tactical intelligence on Hizballah's field operations and methods of warfare, which has turne out to be the Israeli military's Achilles heel in the Lebanon war. In these circumstances -- and in response to Hassan Nasrallah's pose as the victor, which is far from the case -- Olmert must start moving fast, else another unforeseen disaster like Qana will again catch him unawares and snatch the pace of events out of his hands. Contact David Nathan at davenathan@aol.com |
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JUDGMENT DAY
Posted by Hebron Community, July 30, 2006. |
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This was written by Yehudit Barsky and it appeared in the New York Sun July 28, 2006. Ms. Barsky is the director of the Division on Middle East and International Terrorism at the American Jewish Committee. |
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With the international community focused on Iran's quest to develop nuclear weapons, little attention has been paid to Tehran's preparations for a possible showdown with America and its allies. For more than a year, Iran has been preparing, together with terror organizations it controls and finances, for a confrontation code-named "Al-Qiyamah," which is Arabic for "Judgment Day." Hezbollah's unprovoked war against Israel may well be the first step in this Iranian-inspired conflict. Leading this war effort is Brigadier General, Qassam Sulaymani, who heads the Al-Quds "Jerusalem" Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards. Based in Tehran, the Al-Quds Force is considered responsible for having trained thousands of operatives from Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad. Now Sulaymani has been tasked with coordinating and providing logistical support to the terror organizations that will execute Iran's plans for a confrontation.The plan reportedly includes suicide bombing attacks on America and British targets in the Middle East as well as on Arab and Muslim countries allied with the West. Participants in Iran's "Judgment Day" plans include Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hezbollah cells in Europe, North America, the Persian Gulf region, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the leaders of Iraq's insurgency, and the Mahdi Army of Iraq's Muqtada Al-Sadr. Iran's Revolutionary Guards also have reportedly invited operatives from the Mahdi Army to be trained in Iran and have increased its funding to Al-Sadr to over $20 million. Although Hezbollah is identified as a Lebanese terrorist organization, it was originally created in Iran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Representatives of Iran's Revolutionary Guards were sent to create Hezbollah cells in Lebanon and other countries with large Shi'a populations, including Western countries. Mojtaba Bigdeli, a spokesman for Hezbollah in Iran, recently threatened to carry out attacks globally. "We have 2,000 volunteers who have registered since last year. They have been trained and they can become fully armed. We are ready to dispatch them to every corner of the world to jeopardize Israel and America's interests," said Bigdeli. "We are only waiting for the Supreme Leader's green light to take action. If America wants to ignite World War Three -- we welcome it." Meanwhile, Iran has accelerated its supply of arms to Hezbollah during the past few months, sending rockets, missiles, explosives, and guided missiles to the terror group's bases in Lebanon. Hezbollah's arsenal of artillery today ranges from the relatively small Katyusha rockets which carry an 18-pound warhead packed with high explosives, Arash rockets which carry 40 pounds of explosives, to the Fajr 3 "Dawn" missile which carries 100 pounds of explosives, the Fajr 5 missile, which carries 200 pounds of explosives, and the Zilzal 2 "Earthquake" missile, with a warhead of more than 1300 pounds. Hezbollah also has been equipped with four types of surface-to-surface missiles. More than 3,000 Hezbollah operatives went to Iran to be trained in military tactics, including guerrilla warfare, firing missiles, and artillery, the operation of unmanned aerial drones, conventional warfare, and marine warfare. Iran's outfitting of Hezbollah with military grade weapons over the past six years has transformed it into a militarized terror organization with offensive capabilities resembling that of a state. In tandem with its continued efforts to push for the legitimacy of its nuclear weapons program on the diplomatic front, Iran has been open about its support for Hezbollah. In a recent interview with the Arabic daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, an Iranian official stated: "Hezbollah is part of us and does not need guarantees to be certain the Islamic Republic is with it. We are standing with the Party, in spirit and physically, militarily and financially." Iran has bluntly expressed its intentions toward America and Israel. In a military parade held in September 2005, during "Sacred Defense Week," Iran flaunted the latest versions of ballistic missiles produced by its military including the Zilzal 1 and 2. The namesake of this missile is a verse in the Qur'an that tells of the final earthquake that precipitates Judgment Day. The missiles were emblazoned with the slogans: "We will trample America under our feet," "Israel should be wiped off the map," "Death to America," and "Death to Israel." Based on Iran's public statements and Hezbollah's opening salvo of rockets and missiles over Israel's northern border, this appears to be only the beginning of Iran's "Judgment Day" plans. We would be wise to take them at their word. You can contribute directly to The Jewish Community of Hebron, POB10, Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100, hebron@hebron.org.il, 972-2-9965333 or write to The Hebron Fund, 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230, hebronfund@aol.com |
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ISRAEL'S "GOERING DELUSION" AND THE FALLACY OF "SIGNALING"
Posted by Steven Plaut, July 30, 2006. |
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One theory of why Germany was defeated in World War II was that it placed too much reliance on air assaults in the Battle for Britain, as a substitute for a ground invasion. The decision to forego a ground assault was a political one, produced by maneuvering and competition among German leaders for prestige. Hermann Goering was the head of the Luftwaffe, the German air force. While other generals favored a quick naval and ground assault against Britain to force it out of the war, Goering wanted the glory of defeating Britain reserved for his own pilots and planes. He convinced Hitler to allow the Luftwaffe to conduct the battle of Britain on its own. It did not work. While suffering many losses, Britain won the battle. By then, it was also too late for Germany to attempt a ground and naval invasion of Britain. Germany was bogged down elsewhere. It lost the war. Let me first ask readers to forgive me for a seemingly obscene analogy. But I only mean this in the most restricted sense of analyzing the over-reliance on air power in war. I realize that it is de rigueur these days for anti-Semites to draw comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany and I ordinarily consider such comparisons outrageous. But, in this one restricted sense of over-reliance on air power, Israel has been repeating the same strategic error as Goering. In 1967, Israel defeated the combined armies of the Arab world in six days. We will soon be approaching a month's worth of fighting between Israel and a ragtime militia of Shi'ite Islamist terrorists, without a clear Israeli victory even being in sight. And the main reason for this has been Israel's Goering Delusion, its belief that air strikes alone can decide a battle and a war. They cannot. Air strikes on targets largely consisting of empty buildings do almost nothing. Sure they are swift and clean and allow ground troops to stay safely out of the fighting. But had the Allies attempted to defeat Germany during World War II using the Goering Strategy of relying on air strikes, World War II might still be going on. Israel's Goering Delusion is due, in part, to the same political maneuvering and in-fighting that created the original one in Germany, namely, political pressure from the head of the Air Force, seeking to boost the prestige of his pet corps. Israel's current military commander-in-chief, Dan Halutz, got his job after serving for many years as head of the Air Force. In the early stages of the current war against the Hezbollah, he no doubt pressured the political leadership to let his Air Force have an exclusive crack at the Hezbollah, delaying any ground invasion. He got his way. The air force led the assault and accomplished nothing besides comforting but meaningless video tapes of explosions meant to comfort the population under the barrage of Hezbollah missiles. Meanwhile, the element of surprise was completely lost. Suppose - instead of the flamboyant air strikes - Israeli paratroopers had seized the bridges over the Litani on the first day of battle, followed by a rapid tank movement designed to cut off southern Lebanon. Suppose this had been followed by mopping-up operations of the Hezbollah bunkers and cells. It is certain that the katyusha rockets would have stopped falling on Haifa, Safed and Nahariya within the first few days of fighting. Moreover, there was no international pressure on Israel against conducting precisely such an operation. It was not carried out only because Israel's government was afraid to conduct it. Instead, the Halutz strategy was to let the air force blow up buildings that make nice sound bites for the evening news. Israeli audiences could watch the reassuring explosions, a bit like Americans did in the early days of the liberation of Iraq. Except that in Iraq, the tanks and marines entered almost at the same instant as the cruise missiles. Israelis huddling in their bomb shelters could watch the nice explosions in Beirut and Tyre. But katyushas were falling on them all the while because of the Goering Delusion. Ultimately, when Israel's leaders realized the bombings of the empty buildings were achieving nothing, they ordered ground troops in, but in a half-hearted, cowardly, hesitant manner. The ground fighting has resembled that old song from Bar Mitzvah parties, "Hokey Pokey." The Israeli version has gone something like this: "You put your ground troops in, you take your ground troops out, you put your ground troops in, and you move them all about. That's what it's all about." The ground troops were moved into Lebanon and out again, as more of Israel's long term strategy to defeat terrorism by means of useless empty "signaling". They were ordered to remain close to the Israeli border and in limited numbers, which is why they were completely ineffective against the katyushas. For many years Israel's leaders have attempted to defeat the enemy by "signaling". Under signaling, half-hearted warnings are issued in numerous forms, everything from sonic booms over terrorist encampments to brief incursions into the Gaza Strip, Nablus or Lebanon. The problem with "signaling" is that an empty signal not backed up by real force achieves nothing. Indeed, it does great damage, by conveying to the enemy that Israel does not have the stomach for a real battle and is afraid of using its military in a serious way. Israel destroyed its own deterrence by endless empty threats of "really, really serious retaliation" and its perpetual "signaling". Let us be clear. The Israeli army that defeated the Arab military machine in 1967 in Six Days could have cleared southern Lebanon of the Hezbollah in a very short time. But it was shackled by Israeli politicians, convinced that symbols and signals are all that are needed. Sending into Lebanon troops in small numbers and then ordering them to return to base is an empty threat. Declaring over and over that ground troops will not be sent deep into Lebanon is equivalent to declaring that the Hezbollah has nothing to fear from Israel. "Over-flying" Latakia in Syria without dropping a single bomb tells Syria that it has nothing to fear from Israel either, other than from more empty "signals". "Bombing" Lebanese cities with leaflets calling on the Lebanese to expel the Hezbollah shows that Israeli leaders still think they can destroy terrorism by making terrorists laugh themselves to death. Empty signaling is indeed effective, but not in the sense Israel's leaders believe. Reliance upon signaling rather than the serious use of the military merely convinces the enemy that Israel is on the run and is too frightened of international pressures or of suffering military casualties to do what is required. In other words, it is a shot of adrenaline in the arm of the Hezbollah. It proves to the terrorists that Israel is afraid of a real fight. It signals that the one strategy Israel will not attempt against terrorism is military victory. What better way to invigorate the Hezbollah militia men? Empty threats do indeed signal - but they signal weakness and defeatism. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. Contact him at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il |
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THE ISRAELI-HIZBULLAH WAR
Posted by Gilbert Simons, July 30, 2006. |
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How to end this war successfully? Lots of words but no solution or permanent closure. Israel has been down this road many times before and should not do so again. This crisis offers a superb opportunity to bring Israel a major victory, resulting in Permanence, Security and Peace to this beleaguered nation. 1. Israel must conquer all of Southern Lebanon up to the Litani River. It has the international right to conquer any territory from which it is attacked, up to the point from which it will be more secure. It does so with minimal casualties by by-passing all pockets of resistance, to be annihilated at leisure. 2. Israel then dedicates this land as Palestine, offering stakes to all peaceful Arabs wanting to build homes and gardens or orchards thereon. This new nation will be a beacon to millions of Arabs living in hovels in refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel. Many Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Coastal Israel may also wish to settle in this new Palestine, rather than being under Israeli rule. Lebanese homes will be off-limit What are the results of the above actions? - Hizbullah is all but destroyed. Contact Gilbert Simons by email at gsimons@adelphia.net |
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SOLANA AND THE SIGN
Posted by Women in Green, July 30, 2006. |
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This was written by Sarah Honig and it appeared in the Jerusalem Post July 28, 2006. |
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What connects European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana to a Jerusalem landmark inscription? Hypocrisy. Obfuscation of truth. Tampering with history, be it more distant or very recent. Far from the sound and fury of unabated fighting on Israel's South and North, both Solana and the sign set new standards for insincerity, duplicity and pretence. Both travesties - equally stomach-churning, mind-boggling and plainly exasperating - came to light on the same day last week. The marker was put up to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the King David Hotel blast in which the IZL (in the framework of an ad-hoc partnership with the other undergrounds - the actual operative order having come from Hagana commander Moshe Sneh) blew up the edifice that served as the British Mandate's nerve center. The IZL phoned warnings to the French Consulate, The Palestine Post (this newspaper's forerunner) and the hotel switchboard, requesting that the building be vacated forthwith to avoid casualties. The Brits haughtily pooh-poohed all three advance notices. This is the marker's original text: "The hotel housed the Mandate Secretariat as well as the Army Headquarters. On July 1946 Irgun fighters, at the orders of the Hebrew Resistance Movement, planted explosives in the basement. Warning phone calls had been made urging the hotel's occupants to leave immediately. For reasons known only to the British, the hotel was not evacuated, and after 25 minutes, the bombs exploded, and to the Irgun's regret and dismay, 91 persons were killed." IT'S ALL incontrovertibly true, but truth isn't everyone's cup of tea. And so Her Majesty's embassy demanded the sign be revised. To curry favor and avoid discord, Jerusalem's municipality dutifully promised to remove offensive references to the British refusal to clear the premises. It may seem paltry considering current bloody events, but it's symptomatic. We're always so eager to please and so hungry for foreigners' approval - even at the expense of the justice of our cause. The King David bombing is still cited today by Israel's maligners as an example of "Jewish terrorism," exploited particularly in order to set up synthetic moral equivalency between Arab suicide bombers who deliberately target civilians and the Jewish underground, which went out of its way to avoid casualties, civilian and otherwise. The King David lie remains too useful to too many. They can't let it be dented, not even via a forgettable memorial plaque. And in our alacrity to accommodate ourselves and bask in the warm glow of enlightened post-modernist bon ton, we all too often willingly sacrifice the ethical core of our case, that which sets us apart from those who would annihilate us. We even omit to stress the existential nature of Israel's struggle: how it was savagely attacked on the day of its birth by seven armies (some trained, equipped and led by the very same Brits who denied entry into this country to Jewish refugees from Hitler's hell, and later to hell's emaciated survivors). We compliantly submit to our characterization as somewhat unsavory. SOLANA, HABITUALLY disseminating these de-rigueur characterizations, showed up here on "a fact-finding mission" on behalf of the EU, which presumably couldn't figure out what triggered the latest regional fuss and didn't apparently realize that fanatic Islamo-fascists - in possession of territories unilaterally ceded to them by Israel - had violated Israeli sovereignty, killed Israeli soldiers, abducted others and shelled noncombatants deep inside the country. Both Hamas and Hizbullah owe allegiance to masters and manipulators in Damascus and Teheran, hardly the darlings of the world's progressive, liberal and tolerant democracies. Some of these democracies nevertheless dispatched Solana to discover what the uproar from troublesome Israel's vicinity was all about. While here, Solana saw fit to uphold the EU's refusal to classify Hizbullah as a terrorist organization, asserting that the EU "does not possess sufficient data to determine" whether Nasrallah's nasties belong on its baddie list. He insisted on this not being a moral lapse on Europe's part, but strictly "a legal issue." Solana's humbug isn't paint on metal. But it is, in essence, indistinguishable from the King David plaque modification. In both instances manifestly evident facts are denied and disingenuously covered up to serve vested interests and facilitate double standards. If the specter of Jewish terrorism can be artificially conjured and magnified, it may not-so-subtly excuse horrific unrelenting terrorism against Jews. Conversely, if that monstrously barbaric terror unleashed against the Jews can be diminished and deceptively passed off as something else, then Jewish self-defense is cast in a villainous light and tarnished with malicious tendentiousness as "disproportionate" and, indeed, inherently terrorist itself. BY PRETENDING that Hizbullah may possibly be on the up-and-up, Solana knowingly propagates falsehoods. He isn't a misguided visitor to Beirut - like the three young women whose tearful departure from that city was so heartrendingly documented by the BBC. Probably never lovers of Zion to begin with, they were allowed to ramble on - without interruption or critical interrogation - about how Israelis "torture" the undeserving Lebanese. Solana surely knows better. His realpolitik sanctimony notwithstanding, he knows that had Hamas and Hizbullah stayed inside their side of the demarcation line and not terrorized Israelis, no violence whatever would have broken out. No "humanitarian disaster" would be looming over either Gaza or Beirut. But worse yet - in his heart of hearts - Solana knows that had Israelis not resisted the aggression of the Hamas and Hizbullah objects of his compassion, had Israelis not taken up arms in their self-defense, they'd face another Holocaust, as Hamas's and Hizbullah's Iranian sponsor has already explicitly threatened, mincing no words. Unlike the British Mandatory high command, Israel cannot afford to superciliously dismiss serious forewarnings. Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org |
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MUST SEE VIDEOS
Posted by Deb Kotz, July 30, 2006. |
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Video Of The Zahal Soldiers A new video that just came out.. Pass along if you like it... Obsession, What the war on terror is really about. This
comes from Little Green Footballs.
Deb Kotz is an active member of the Brandeis Chapter of the Zionist
Organization of America (ZOA) and maintains an email list to
distribute articles of interest to the local community. She can be
reached at DebKotz@aol.com
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RUN AND HIDE IN SEATTLE? THINK AGAIN!
Posted by Matthew S. Finberg, July 30, 2006. |
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I read with great disappointment that the director of the Seattle
chapter of the Anti-Defamation League "issued a recommendation to all
Jewish institutions, including synagogues, to cancel services and
evacuate the buildings" following the murderous attack on the Seattle
Federation building last Friday. This reaction is all too reminiscent
of the "run and hide" response of the Jewish People over the past
2,000 years when we have been attacked, and plays directly into the
hands of our enemies.
It reflects a fatal lack of bitachon [confidence in HaShem], rejecting His ways for the perception of safety one has with his head buried well in the sand. Instead, all Jews should be armed and/or otherwise ready to defend themselves to the full extent permitted by law, and go to prayer services, rallies, and ordinary day to day activities of normal Jewish life. We should be openly Jewish and attend our services in our synagogues in numbers larger than ever. Of course law enforcement should provide security to us as it would for any group targeted for hate crimes and terror. Nevertheless, we must be prepared to take care of ourselves as there are not enough law enforcement officials to cover every anti-Semite with a weapon. Get your heads out of the sand and stand up straight and proud, confident and strong. That is Yeshurun - Israel at our finest. HaShem doesn't want his Children to run from the class bullies. Never Again. Matthew Finberg is Chairman of B'nai Elim. Contact him at matt@finberglaw.com or go to the website: www.bnaielim.org |
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A CRY TO THOSE USING BABIES AS SHIELDS
Posted by Naomi Ragen, July 30, 2006. |
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My son is in the army. He is not the type at all, believe me. Quiet, studious, a writer, a lover of Jewish history, Talmud, ethics. He spent two years in a pre-army program in the Galilee called Karmei Chayil. He made many good friends there from all over the country, and now he and all his friends are in the army. One of them I know well. A bit chubby, with payot, and a great laugh. He and my son have become like brothers. While both of them tried out for the elite paratroopers unit, only he made it in. He and his unit are the ones in Lebanon. They were there over a week, fighting under horrific conditions, running out of food and water. Even though the Israeli airforce dropped tons of leaflets warning civilians to flee because they were in terrorist territory and likely to be injured, they still encountered civilians. My son spoke to his friend yesterday,and this is how he described it: "The village looked empty, and then we heard noises coming from one of the houses, so we opened fire. But when we went inside, we found two women and a child huddled in the corner of the room. We were so relieved we hadn't hurt them. We took up base in one of the empty houses. And then all of a sudden, we came under intense fire. Three rockets were fired at the house we were in. Only one managed to destroy a wall, which fell on one of us, covering him in white dust, but otherwise not hurting him. I spent the whole time feeding bullets to my friend who was shooting non-stop. We managed to killed 26 terrorists. Not one of us was hurt. Our commanding officer kept walking around, touching everybody on the shoulder, smiling and encouraging us: "We're are better than they are. Don't worry." It calmed us all down. And really, we were much better then them. They are a lousy army. They only win when they hide behind baby carriages." Please remember this when you hear about the "atrocity" of the Israeli bomb dropped on Kfar Cana, killing many civilians, a place from which Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets at Israel. Unlike previous administrations, Mr. Olmert has my respect when he says: "They were warned to leave. It is the responsibility of Hezbollah for firing rockets amidst civilians." Terrorists and their supporters have lost the right to complain about civilian casualties, since all they have done this entire war is target civilians. Every single one of the more than 2,500 rockets launched into Israel, is launched into populated towns filled with women and children. Just today, another suicide belt meant to kill civilians in Israel was detonated harmlessly by our forces in Nablus. So don't cry to me about civilian casualties. Cry to those using your babies and wives and mothers; cry to those who store weapons in mosques, ambulances, hospitals, and private homes. Cry to those launching deadly rockets from the backyards of your kindergartens and schools. Cry to the heartless men who love death, and however many of their troops or civilians die, consider themselves victorious as long as they can keep on firing rockets at our women and children. Save your sympathy for the mothers and sisters and girlfriends of our young soldiers who would rather be sitting in study halls learning Torah, but have no choice but to risk their precious lives full of hope, goodness and endless potential, to wipe out the cancerous terrorist cells that threaten their people and all mankind. Make your choice, and save your tears. That terrorists have been unsuccessful in killing more of our women and children is due to our army, God and prayers, not to any lack of motivation or intention on their part. If you hide behind your baby to shoot at my baby, you are responsible for getting children killed. You and you alone. Naomi Ragen is an American-born novelist and journalist who lives in Jerusalem. She can be contacted at www.naomiragen.com, where you can subscribe to her newsletter. |
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THE BEST MULTINATIONAL FORCE
Posted by Zalmi, July 30, 2006. |
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Israel should never have left Lebanon.
In a few weeks, we shall be back to square one.
 From that perspective, I would like to suggest the perfect multinational force to occupy this area. Russian Jews and French Jews. Jews from America and Britain. Argentinian and Brazilian Jews. Jews from Italy and Germany. A whole contingent of olim from all corners of the globe. Those are the only peacekeepers we can trust.
Contact Zalmi at zalmi@zalmi.net or go to his website:
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