| HOME | Featured Stories | July 2006 Blog-Eds List | Background Information | News On the Web |
Opinions And Editorials By Our Readers
|
TIME TO THINK ABOUT ANNEX AND TRANSFER!
Posted by Arlene Peck, July 31, 2006. |
|
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 dιjΰ 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 |
|
THE ETHICAL CODE OF THE IDF
Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, July 31, 2006. |
|
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? |
|
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 |
|
WHAT IF LEBANON'S ARMY JOINS HIZBULLAH?
Posted by David Nathan, July 31, 2006. |
|
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. |
|
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 |
|
THE PILLARS OF THE CURRENT WORLD CONFLICT -- THE UNDECLARED WW III
Posted by Nurit Greenger, July 31, 2006. |
|
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! |
|
"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 |
|
THE WORLD IS ANGRY WITH ISRAEL
Posted by Ken Heller, July 31, 2006. |
|
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 |
|
PLENTY OF BLAME TO BE SHARED
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, July 31, 2006. |
|
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 |
|
ISRAEL WAS ATTACKED BY LEBANON
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, July 31, 2006. |
|
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 naοve 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 |
|
LEBANON: MYTHS AND FACTS
Posted by Shaul Ceder, July 30, 2006. |
|
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:
|
|
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 |
|
WHEN YOU SLEEP WITH A MISSILE
Posted by Paula Stern, July 30, 2006. |
|
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 |
|
PHOTOS THAT GIVE INSIGHT INTO THE UPCOMING ANTI-ISRAEL RALLY IN DC
Posted by Carrie Devorah, July 30, 2006. | ||
|
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.
|
|
THE POWER OF PRAYER -- MARK YOUR CALENDARS
Posted by Nurit Greenger, July 30, 2006. |
|
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
|
|
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).
|
|
CNN HAS BECOME THE PROPAGANDA ARM OF HEZBOLLAH
Posted by Marlene Young, July 30, 2006. |
|
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
|
|
HIZBALLAH SAYS "WE'LL ATTACK INTERNATIONAL FORCE TOO"!
Posted by David Nathan, July 30, 2006. |
|
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 |
|
JUDGMENT DAY
Posted by Hebron Community, July 30, 2006. |
|
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. |
|
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 |
|
ISRAEL'S "GOERING DELUSION" AND THE FALLACY OF "SIGNALING"
Posted by Steven Plaut, July 30, 2006. |
|
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 |
|
THE ISRAELI-HIZBULLAH WAR
Posted by Gilbert Simons, July 30, 2006. |
|
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 |
|
SOLANA AND THE SIGN
Posted by Women in Green, July 30, 2006. |
|
This was written by Sarah Honig and it appeared in the Jerusalem Post July 28, 2006. |
|
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 |
|
MUST SEE VIDEOS
Posted by Deb Kotz, July 30, 2006. |
|
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
|
|
RUN AND HIDE IN SEATTLE? THINK AGAIN!
Posted by Matthew S. Finberg, July 30, 2006. |
|
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 |
|
A CRY TO THOSE USING BABIES AS SHIELDS
Posted by Naomi Ragen, July 30, 2006. |
|
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. |
|
THE BEST MULTINATIONAL FORCE
Posted by Zalmi, July 30, 2006. |
|
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:
|
|
TISHA B'AV TEHILLIM FOR ERETZ YISRAEL (AUGUST 2 - EVENING)
Posted by Lee Caplan, July 29, 2006. |
|
Tisha B'av commemorates the destruction of both Temples and the exile of the Jewish people. Although Jewish sovereignty has been reestablished in Eretz Yisrael, civil hatred threatens its survival and the realization of a country built on Jewish values. The "convergence" plan embodies this problem. The plan calls for 50-100,000 Jews to be expelled from Yehuda and Shomron (West Bank), 90-95% of the area to be given away, and for the division of Jerusalem. This will create a terror state, infringe on the Jewish right to settle the Land, create a large population of Jewish refugees, and leave the State of Israel with indefensible borders. Despite the current attacks, the Prime Minister Olmert still says he intends to push the plan. Please recite the following tehillim - Psalms 137, 3, 126 and 133 - with a prayer that the horrible plan will not be realized and that Hashem will bring a true day of redemption and unity of the Jewish people. Pay attention to the meaning of the words and you'll find each one is relevant to the current situation. Let him know we are in favor of his support for Israel. The Arabs are calling at twice the rate of American Jews, trying to get him to change his policy supporting Israel. The President needs to know that we recognize and appreciate U.S. leadership regarding Israel at this very perilous time. PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU BELIEVE CARES. THANKS Use the phone: Call 1 202 456-1111 Memo to: Young Israel branches and friends
We are all aware of the current situation in Israel. Our brethren need our prayers and action. 1. We share with you an idea and suggestion from Rabbi Elazar Grunberger of St. Louis, Missouri. Dear Rabbi Lerner As per our discussion this morning I am writing to you about the practical idea I have for all Congregations throughout North America. Our constituents, Jews who care about the matzav in E"Y, want to do something that contributes to the well being, safety, and security of Jews in E"Y. This past Sunday morning in my Shul, Sha'arei Chesed (formerly Chesed Shel Emeth), I passed out slips of paper to the 25 mispalelim and after the Shir shel Yom, I announced that each one of us can make a significant difference and contribution to the well being, safety, and security of our brothers and sister, our mispocha in Israel. It's all about zechuyos. The more zechus that's built up, the more hatzlacha and bracha there will be. I asked everyone to write down ONE addition commitment, any mitzvah, any small effort, to be added to their daily routine, in the merit of the matzav in E"Y. I qualified that the starting place is saying Tehilim 83, 130, & 142 which is the suggestion of our Gedolim. After discussing this with Rav Aharon Feldman, Roshe HaYeshiva of Yeshiva Ner Israel in Baltimore, MD, he further qualified that the commitments should be within the context of Limud haTorah and Chesed, and for sure in Tefillah. Everyone in my minyan responded and each person felt like they are making a difference. The following were some of the commitments I received:
I believe that if this is a national effort where Rabbonim will participate and ask their congregants to each make a commitment along these lines of extra limud haTorah, Tefillah, and acts of Chesed, we can immediately build up tremendous zechuyos for Klal Yisroel which is desperately needed, particularly at this time. Please also request that the Rabbonim encourage their constituents to each share (anonymously) what their commitment is. This will be helpful as suggested ideas for others and this also solidifies their personal commitment when they write it down and forward it to their Rabbonim. Thank you for assisting in this important effort. May we all be zocheh to see yeshuos and nechamos, b'karov. Elazar Grunberger
2. Please continue to make emergency appeals. All funds will be coordinated through Yisrael HaTzair, Young Israel in Israel. Funds are needed to supply the bunkers with sleeping bags, food supplies, first aid kits, toys and games; to transport children to day camps further south; to assist those individuals who are currently not able to work (because their place of employment closed, their children are home, etc.) and can not even afford to pay for basic necessities; to assist effected families to relocate to host families in the center of the country, etc. Please have all checks made out to Young Israel Charities, and mark it Northern Israel Campaign. Funds should be sent to National Council of Young Israel, 111 John Street, Suite #450, New York, NY 10038. Please call us with the result of those appeals. We have an individual who will advance those funds so we can send the monies as soon as possible. 3. We encourage all shuls to add the tefillos for the State of Israel, Missing Israeli Soldiers, and for the Israel Defense Forces in their daily and Shabbat davening. Those tefillos can be found at www.youngisrael.org and printed for distribution to your congregants. 10 things to see or do 1. Many of us recognize the importance of the Internet as the new battleground for Israel's image. It's time to do it better, and coordinate our on-line efforts on behalf of Israel. An Israeli software company has developed a free, safe and useful tool for us - the Internet Megaphone. Please go to: < http://www.giyus.org/> http://www.giyus.org download the Megaphone, and you will receive daily updates with instant links to important Internet polls, problematic articles that require a talk back, etc. We need 100,000 Megaphone users to make a difference. So, please distribute his mail to all Israel's supporters. Do it now. For Israel. Please distribute to your friends. Amir Gissin - Director
2. Radical Islam 3. Thank some people: Friends,
As I sit here in Jerusalem writing, a fierce battle rages in Lebanon as our dear sons fight for the life and safety of the Jewish people in their homeland.
Because Israel doesn't broadcast news all day, I sometimes turn to the foreign networks. As I sat and watched Fox News reporters describe the war we fight, my heart was warmed in a way that it has not been for a very long time. I want to thank Shepard Smith and their excellent Jerusalem-based correspondent, Jennifer Griffin, for the thorough, fair, and informative reporting. I want to thank Sean Hannity for his forthright and stirring defense of Israel in this current crisis. I want to thank Greta Van Sustern for her excellent, sympathetic and fair coverage. For the first time since the intifada started, I felt that I was hearing the truth come from the news media. I am grateful to them for leading the way out of the darkness
sown in the world by CNN and BBC and the New York Times, who have let us all down time and time again, foisting off liberal editorializing as news reporting, and ignoring the inconvenient facts. We are where we are because of their brainwashing propaganda. All of Israel's friends should be watching Fox. And we should all be sending our thanks to them.
foxreport@foxnews.com (Shepard Smith)
Naomi Ragen.
4. This is a must watch from Arab TV. Watch this Arab - American Psychologist tell it like it is.
5. Send a letter to the brave IDF soldiers fighting for all our
freedom.
6. Must see videos and more: 7. Very moving pictures from the IDF
8. "IMPORTANT BREAK THROUGH WITH "Video - OBSESSION"
Last week, "Obsession: Radical Islam's War against the West" was
prominently featured for two consecutive days on the Rush Limbaugh
show, a radio show heard by millions across the United States. On the
second day, Wayne Kopping, the film's director, had an unprecedented
13-minute interview with Rush live on the show. (hear it now ...
Baruch Hashem, this generated a tremendous amount of publicity for
the film.
The Hannity and Colmes Show on FOX TV has now booked us for this
Thursday, July 27. The show airs from 9-10 PM EST. In our segment,
live interviewees representing Obsession will be Nonie Darwish,
daughter of a Gaza shahid, and Wayne Kopping.
9. ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES-SECRET WEAPONS - WAR PICS
10. please let me know if any links don't work and please send this
to all your friends...
Thank You
From: Manhigut-Yehudit@jewishisrael.org
What is Going Wrong?
Two weeks have now passed since the beginning of the war with no
name. Two weeks fighting a war that we deny. "Refugee camps" and "tent
cities" are springing up in the "safe" parts of Israel, housing the
residents of the north who were forced to flee their homes. All
available spots are immediately taken, and yet there are not enough
accommodations for the steady stream of refugees from the north. But
State Attorney Mazuz explains that this is not a war.
A heartless judge sends a 15 year old girl back to jail for an additional four months without trial. "Let's finish the trial quickly," the surprised prosecutor requested. "After all, even if the girl is convicted, she will get less time in jail than the time she has already spent there." But the judge refuses. Until she recognizes my authority and signs on the dotted line, she is not getting out. For the bullies in the judge's cloaks the Disengagement diskette has replaced the hard disk. (For more on 15 year old Oryah Shirel who continues to sit in jail, see Moshe Feiglin's article Bullies in Judges' Cloaks).
And what about Pollard? Who remembers him today? Bush wanted to release him last Passover, but Israel preferred not to let that happen. Who is interested in Pollard today, we have other prisoners to take care of and how is Pollard connected to the fighting in the north, anyway?
Businesses in the north are caving in. But never fear -- the government has a "solution for every settler." According to the media, we are winning and it is really the Hizbollah who have become refugees. It reminds me a bit of Cairo Radio at the start of the Six Day War reporting that the Egyptian soldiers are already celebrating on the beaches of Tel Aviv.
It is possible -- and vital -- to win this war. But in the meantime, without a clear strategic goal -- in other words -- a vision -- confusion reigns. The most that we can expect under the current circumstances is a cease fire, or, in other words, an honorable defeat. Olmert's spin doctors are surely already working on the new marketing formula that will transform his defeat into a momentous achievement.
Then the real war will start. Against the settlers, of course.
Although it may seem surrealistic, Olmert is still determined to carry
out the convergence. Need some convincing?
"Olmert has another, unspoken, consideration in this war. He wants to set a precedent for convergence on the West Bank." (Ha'aretz July 14th, '06)
"The Prime Minister must convince the public that he has a security answer for the post-withdrawal dangers. His leadership skills are now being tested." (Ha'aretz July 14th '06)
"This must be the strategic goal of the fighting -- restoring the Convergence Plan. "(Reserve General Uzi Dayan, former head of Israel's National Security Council)
How can we prepare for the war that Olmert plans to wage against
the settlers? Manhigut Yehudit has prepared a special pamphlet (in
Hebrew) with the conclusion and lessons to be learned on the first
anniversary of the expulsion from Gush Katif and North Shomron. (If
you are interested in helping us publish the pamphlet, please contact
shmuel@manhigut.org or call: 516-295-3222 [USA]). With G-d's help, we
will publicize translated excerpts from the pamphlet in the near
future.
G-d works in mysterious ways. At this point, the safest place for
an Israeli to be is in Judea or Samaria. Nasrallah's "surprises" are
not necessarily limited only to the wide range of his missiles. He may
surprise us in other ways, as well. Our advice to the local councils
is to start to prepare the infrastructure for huge refugee camps in
Judea and Samaria (Yesha). Why be taken by surprise? It's time to
prepare food, water, sewage pipes and all the basics that the refugees
from Israel's cities will need. The Jewish settlements in the
mountains of Judea and Samaria might well be the elixir of life for
millions of Israelis.
With prayers for the safety of the nation of Israel in all places,
How To Win the War - 3 Steps
In order to really win this war, a number of logical -- albeit challenging -- steps must be taken:
Stage 1. Restore our Sense of Justice:
The ammunition of justice is always in the hands of the side fighting for eternal truth. The sense of justice is the ultimate weapon. Whoever surrenders his own justice -- gets defeated.
Where is our sense of justice?
"Last week." reports Moshe Feiglin, "I paid my monthly visit to the Temple Mount -- the most sanctified Jewish site, the cornerstone of our justice.
As we ascended toward the checkpoint at the entrance to the Temple
Mount, we saw how people from all over the world pass through with
just a perfunctory check. But the Jewish-looking Jews? The ones with
the kippot (skull caps) and the side locks? As usual, they must stand
to the side, where they are examined as if they were ticking time
bombs. After the examination come the threats: "Whoever dares to pray
on the Mount will be arrested and will be banned from coming again."
Arab wakf personnel wait on the mount, bursting with pleasure at the
opportunity to keep watch over the Jews and make sure that nobody
dares move his lips -- lest they Heaven forbid pray to their G-d."
You can easily visit the Temple Mount as a tourist. But not as a Jew. It is important for the Israeli government to nurture the Moslem lie lest we, G-d forbid, reconnect to our own sense of justice.
What does all of this have to do with the war in the north? It's simple. As renowned poet Uri Tzvi Greenberg wrote over 60 years ago, "He who rules the Mount rules the Land." We lost the war over Israel's borders on the Temple Mount. The Mount is also our key to victory.
If we truly desire to win, we must re-conquer the Temple Mount. Torah
scholars must delineate the places permissible to tread on the Mount
according to Jewish law (for Jews and for Non-Jews as well). Entrance
to areas not permissible by Jewish law must be strictly prohibited.
Stages 2 and 3 are impossible from within our current stage of
consciousness. Only after we have restored our sense of justice and
rely on Jewish legitimacy as opposed to legitimacy from the Moslems
and Christians will we be able to begin to fight.
Stage 2. Eliminating the Real Danger First
Declare war on Iran and eliminate its nuclear capabilities -- even if this requires attacking nuclear installations in the heart of civilian areas. Those who shirked responsibility in the past got rockets on Haifa in the present. Those who shirk responsibility now will get a nuclear mushroom over Tel Aviv in the future. We are experiencing the preview of the "Mother of all Wars" and Israel's leadership -- to put it favorably -- just doesn't get it.
Stage 3. Expulsion of Enemy Civilians From South Lebanon
In the Six Day War all the Syrian residents of the Golan Heights
(approximately 60,000) were pushed back into Syria, and the Golan
Heights were annexed to Israel. Since 1973, the Golan Heights have
been quiet. Israel must immediately enact the Territorial Law of
Return. Any Biblical territory conquered by Israel will automatically
be annexed to the State.
You can turn the State of Jews into the Jewish State.
Press Release: State of Emergency
In its hard-hearted behavior toward the residents of Israel's north,
the Olmert government is re-enacting its cruel and impervious attitude
toward the refugees from Gush Katif. Manhigut Yehudit, under the
leadership of Moshe Feiglin, demands to immediately enact the State of
Emergency laws and to compensate the citizens of the north for the
disaster that the governments of expulsion and abandonment have
brought upon Israel.
The American Rope
The commentators explain that America is giving us a long rope. That is not precise. The truth is that America is urging us to fight. Although it counters his political interests, George Bush courageously decided to fight the enemies of freedom. Bush doesn't understand the dimension in which the war is being fought and mistakenly attempts to identify a national enemy instead of a religious one. That is why he is losing. But what he does understand is that the Hizbollah's attack on Israel is the front line of the same war that he is fighting. Bush understands that an Israeli victory in this war is like the victory of the allies on the German front. The problem is that Israel lacks vision and cannot win. Instead of being a strategic asset -- Israel is turning into a burden.
An Israeli defeat will force the US to find a more serious
strategic ally. Possibly Syria. Does that sound unrealistic? After
Israel withdrew from the Sinai, Egypt became a US strategic partner.
Until then, nobody would have dreamed of that scenario. America may
like Israel more than it likes the Moslems (or at least it hates
Israel less). But, as we know, business is business and international
relations are determined according to a country's interests. In the
Middle East jungle, a country that cannot defend itself does not
justify its existence.
A number of US allies that became burdens have already measured the
resilience of the American rope. Just ask the Vietnamese that the US
abandoned in Saigon. The truth is that we are no better. Remember the
Southern Lebanon Forces that Israel abandoned 6 years ago and
Pollard...
Olmert: 'West Bank withdrawal still on'
By Aaron Klein
JERUSALEM -- Even with a war in Lebanon after withdrawal from the country's border six years ago and with ground troops forced to return to Gaza following evacuation from the territory 11 months ago, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said yesterday Israel will forge ahead with his plan to pull out of Judea and Samaria.
"We will yet evacuate communities and it is important to me to complete this chapter as soon as possible so that we will be able to continue as a strong and united nation for the challenges that await us," Olmert told a group of Israelis evacuated last summer from the Gaza Strip.
Judea and Samaria, territories also c! ommonly called the West Bank, are within rocket-firing range of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport.
The prime minister, whose Kadima Party was formed specifically to carry out a withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, told the Gaza evacuees he is "convinced that we made the right decision to carry out the disengagement plan [from Gaza], and it is better for Israel that you are not living in the Gaza Strip at this time."
Since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip last August, rockets have been fired almost daily into nearby Jewish communities, Hamas has been elected to power and both Israeli and Palestinian officials have stated al-Qaida has infiltrated the territory. Egypt recently announced the terrorists who carried out April's deadly triple-bomb blasts in the Sinai resort town of Dahab trained for the operation in the Gaza Strip with local Palestinians. They said Gaza-based terrorists helped finance the attack.
Israel last month mounted its ongoing ground invasion of Gaza after Hamas carried out a raid against a military installation in which Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was abducted.
Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000. It had occupied a small section of Lebanon's border with Israel following repeated attacks by Palestinian terrorists in the area. Since the withdrawal, Hezbollah has staged numerous attacks against Israel, including rocket bombardments of civilian population centers, raids against military outposts and ambushings and kidnappings of Israeli troops. Israel says Hezbollah built an arsenal of more than 13,000 short- and medium-range rockets capable of hitting central sections of the Jewish state.
Israel is in its 14th day of a military campaign against Hezbollah guerillas in Lebanon following a Hezbollah raid earlier this month in which eight Israeli soldiers were killed and two were abducted. The past two weeks, Hezbollah has fired more than 2,000 Katyusha rockets at northern Israel, killing 15 and placing one third of the Israeli population under the threat of rocket attack.
Olmert's plan seeks to evacuate more than 95 percent of Judea and Samaria, which borders Israel's main population centers.
Several recent public opinion polls showed the majority of Israelis now oppose a Judea and Samaria withdrawal. The leaders of Egypt and Jordan have expressed reservations about the plan, fearing terrorism can spill over into their respective countries. (link:
Housing and Construction Minister Meir Sheetrit, a senior member of Olmert's Kadima Party, told reporters this month he thought it was unlikely any Judea and Samaria withdrawal could be implemented in the near future and that others in Kadima have been quietly expressing reservations about the Judea and Samaria evacuation plan.
Meanwhile, Olmert yesterday assured the Jewish Gaza evacuees Israel still cares about them.
"I know that you are angry," he said. "I know that you think that you need to be in Gush Katif. We think differently. The government will invest so that each evacuee feels that the state cares about him and so that your children love the country like your grandfathers did. It is important to me that you know that we are acting out of the same love for Israel that you have."
As WND reported, the vast majority of Jewish residents of the G! aza Strip evacuated by Israel are unemployed, have yet to find permanent housing and have not received full compensation promised to them by the Israeli government.
"The situation is extremely grave," said Dror Vanunu, a former Gaza resident and the international coordinator for the Gush Katif Committee, a major charity organization representing the Gaza Jewish refugees. "It is at emergency status in many cases."
Olmert's Deception - It Has Never Been] All Quiet On The
Northern Front
On February 18th, 2005, during a public presentation f! or the
annual Jerusalem meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations, Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert faced a challenge from a questioner. The questioner asked
Olmert how he could trust the intentions of Abu Mazen, since Abu Mazen
has been allowing terrorists under his jurisdiction to arm themselves
to the teeth.
Olmert's reaction was passionate. He pounded on the podium and exhorted people to examine "Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon as a model which Israel would apply to Gaza and Samaria." Olmert explained that Hizbullah terrorists now stationed in former Israeli army positions throughout Southern Lebanon had accumulated 15,000 missiles and mortars in Lebanon. Continuing to pound on the podium, Olmert that "they have never, never, never used missiles against Israel on the northern border since Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in May, 2000."
I found Olmert's comments to be incredible. My son Noam served on
the northern border in an IDF combat unit for almost three years and
was under fire the entire time This was not at some kind of summer
camp.
Our news agency dispatched a reporter to a press reception on February 23rd, at Jerusalem's Beit Agron International Press Center in Jerusalem, to ask Olmert if he stood behind his statement that the Hizbullah had not fired any missiles into Israel since Israel's withdrawal in May, 2000. The reporter showed Olmert a declassified IDF situation report from June 8th, 2004, the day that Noam completed his IDF service.
The IDF document shown to Olmert spoke for itself:
Olmert glanced at the IDF report, stood his ground, and reiterated his stand that "I meant to say that they have not fired into Israel in the last five years." When the reporter showed Olmert that the IDF report demonstrated that the Arab terrorists had continued firing missiles into Israel, killing 28 people, Olmert walked away, saying that he did not want to discuss it..
It is now abundantly clear that Ehud Olmert, the number two man in
the Israeli cabinet and Prime Minister Sharon's point man in
selling his political program to the Israeli public, will now be
using the "example" of a unilateral withdrawal that "worked".
Well, it worked in one essential way: less news reports come from
the north because hardly any reporters are stationed there, so the
mainstream media is bereft of news reports from the northern
border. Hence, all "seems" quiet on the northern frontier, at
least in the media
Indeed, during my son's tenure in the north, I, as a father and a journalist, received the reports about daily bombardments on the northern border from Noam - reports that were never reported anywhere in the Israeli media. But they often made it into my weekly news column in the Israeli weekly newspaper Makor Rishon.
The bottom line: Hardly anyone in Israel or abroad is aware of the arms buildup in southern Lebanon, and they are even more unaware of the attacks from the north, and how Israel's hasty withdrawal from southern Lebanon has left Israel vulnerable to attacks from the north.
What is clear from Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's public statements is that the Israeli government, seeking new ways to promote the Sharon Plan, which! will allow the PLO free reign in Gaza and northern Samaria - placing all of Israel in rocket range of Arab terrorists - will now try to sell the notion that 'all's quiet on the northern front.'
Contact Lee Caplan at leescaplan@yahoo.com
|
|
A MULTINATIONAL FORCE IS DEADLY FOR ISRAEL
Posted by Sergio Tessa (HaDaR), July 29, 2006. |
|
Jared Israel is the Editor of the Emperor's
New Clothes website (http://www.tenc.net/), which is dedicated to analyzing patterns of
lies by the media and political figures. This article appeared as an
Opinion piece on the Arutz-Sheva (www.IsraelNN.com) website
July 27, 2006. It is archived at
|
|
We have been misinformed, to put it gently. While claiming to support Israel's right to defend itself from Hizbullah and Hamas attacks, President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair have, in fact, mis-described the current Middle East war in a way that sets Israel up for media demonization, while creating public support for a "robust" (Kofi Annan's word) international intervention in southern Lebanon. Such an intervention would constitute a serious and possibly deadly threat to Israel. In a defining press conference held 16 July, at the G8 meeting, President Bush said: One of the interesting things about this recent flare-up is that it helps clarify a root cause of instability in the Middle East -- and that's Hizbullah and Hizbullah's relationship with Syria, and Hizbullah's relationship to Iran, and Syria's relationship to Iran. Therefore, in order to solve this problem it's really important for the world to address the root cause. Blair also blamed "...extremists backed, I'm afraid, by Iran and by Syria, who want to disrupt the positions in Lebanon and who want to create a situation of tension and hostility there." Blair and Bush focus on Syria and Iran as the root cause of the fighting, and stress that the Lebanese government is not only not a guilty party, but is itself a victim of Iran and Syria, which "want to disrupt the positions in Lebanon" and "create a situation of tension and hostility there." In the press conference, Bush and Blair refer to Syria and Iran collectively more often than Lebanon. What is the sub-text here? That since Syria and Iran alone are guilty, Israel should not be punishing weak, innocent Lebanon. This idea is implicit in Condoleezza Rice's July 21 statement, as reported (and embellished) by the Associated Press. Rice portrays Hizbullah as Syria's attack dog: "'Syria knows what it needs to do and Hizbullah is the source of the problem,' Rice said at the State Department as she previewed her trip, which begins on Sunday with a first stop in Israel." And concerning the Lebanese government: Hizbullah "extremists are trying to strangle it in its crib," Rice said of the Lebanese government, which has been a less potent force in the fractured country than the politically savvy and well-armed Hizbullah guerrillas.... Hizbullah exerts political control over southern Lebanon, overshadowing the weak democratic central government in Beirut. Bush, Blair and Rice do say that Israel has the right to self-defense, but their stance - that the Lebanese government is blameless - has set Israel up for the massive demonization we have seen in the media, portraying Israel as a bully, overreacting to a fairly minor incident by Hizbullah by unleashing devastating attacks on an innocent, weak, struggling democracy. The reality is quite different. Hizbullah is not just "an Islamic militant group that operates in southern Lebanon" with Iranian sponsorship. Combining Islamic fanaticism with a modern anti-Semitic ideology derived from the Catholic Church and Nazism, with a media which spreads that ideology worldwide, and with a mass base and virtual state control of Lebanon, Hizbullah stands for the destruction of world Jewry and the creation of a world Islamic state, modeled on Iran. The Lebanese government is not innocent. Facilitated by the US, the European Union and the UN, Lebanon has developed close ties with Iran. Hizbullah has been incorporated into the basic fabric of state domestic and international relations, giving free reign to Hizbullah's Nazi-like army, which makes democracy impossible, and defending Hizbullah's right to broadcast violent anti-Semitism worldwide. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora now calls on the world to help him disarm Hizbullah, the better to justify a NATO-like intervention. Yet, when he formed the first Lebanese government after the withdrawal of Syrian forces, Siniora said, "It is [a] good thing to have Hizbullah in this cabinet." (Turkish Daily News) He told Agence France Presse that Hizbullah's cabinet role made him "proud." Officially, Hizbullah got control of the important water and energy ministry. But in reality, it got much more. Guided by a carefully worded statement from State Department spokesperson Adam Ereli, that "to the extent that there are active members of a foreign terrorist organization in a government, then our ability to interact and work with those individuals is circumscribed," Fuad Siniora arranged with Hizbullah to pick a foreign minister who was a) to their liking, but b) not an active or open member of Hizbullah. So, Hizbullah in fact, but not in name, took control of Lebanese foreign policy. This was no mystery - the media knew, and of course the US knew, too. (Obviously they knew; as is clear from reading Ereli's press briefings, that was the purpose of his tortuously worded statement.) When the US says "protect this poor, struggling, fledgling democratic government," they are talking about a government they worked with to put Hizbullah in a key position of power - the foreign ministry! - without openly violating US policy. And all the while, Hizbullah maintained its own terrorist army, attacking Israel. Despite prodding from the UN, the Lebanese government has refused to remove Hizbullah forces in southern Lebanon, allowing them to man the so-called Blue Line, where they attack and kidnap Israeli soldiers and civilians, and fire antiaircraft weapons at Israeli towns. This is clear from the UN's yearly report on southern Lebanon, which, though worded to equate Israel and Hizbullah, makes it clear that a) Hizbullah is the provocateur, and b) they play this role with Lebanese government support. Media reports focusing on civilian suffering - real, exaggerated and sometimes invented - and statements by Western leaders, all push for an armed multinational force for southern Lebanon. Such a force would likely be comprised of troops under the command of states that portray Israel's conflict with Palestinian Arabs as the cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict (rather than the other way around), and that do not consider Hizbullah a violently anti-Semitic political army. Such a multinational force would have much in common with William Walker's Kosovo Verification Mission. It too had the stated purpose of separating belligerents in Kosovo in 1998. And its member states were hostile to Yugoslavia. According to Kosovo historian Cedomir Prlincevic, that multinational force was used as a cover for upgrading and training the Kosovo Liberation Army (for which substitute "Hizbullah") terrorists. Once a powerful multinational force was ensconced in southern Lebanon, it would be in position to intervene directly in Israel and the disputed territories. That would be disastrous for Israel. Contact Sergio Tessa (HaDaR) at HaDaR-Israel@verizon.net |
|
SEEING THE WAR IN ITS TRUE COLORS
Posted by Women in Green, July 29, 2006. |
| This was written by Caroline Glick and it appeared in the Jerusalem Post. |
|
Today US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The press reports leading up to their meeting were full of details about how European armies wish to send their forces to Lebanon. The reports also noted that Israel will be expected to surrender the Shaba Farms on Mount Dov to Lebanon in exchange for promises of security. For their part, Israeli leaders from Olmert to Defense Minister Amir Peretz to Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni have been demonstrating a disturbing lack of resolve. Their statements expose a consistent watering down of the goal of the IDF's mission in Lebanon - from destroying Hizbullah as a fighting force to weakening it as a fighting force and "paving the way for a diplomatic settlement" that will apparently include Hizbullah. On the other hand, other voices make clear that despite the best wishes of the government and the Israeli left-wing intelligentsia, it is far from clear that the IDF will end its operations without victory achieved. For instance, writing in The Sunday Times, former Conservative MP Michael Portillo told his British countrymen that their hostility for Israel and the US aside, "The bloody truth is that Israel's war is our war." Portillo went on to argue that given the threat that Iran and Hizbullah pose to Britain itself, "for us to turn against Israel and America would be perverse and potentially suicidal." STRENGTHENING the view that opposition to war against Iran and its proxies is suicidal, it was reported Sunday that Bulgarian border guards along their border with Romania had intercepted a British truck filled with radioactive materials for building a so-called dirty bomb. The components, which included dangerous quantities of radioactive caesium 137 and americium-beryllium, were stored in 10 lead-lined boxes addressed to the Iranian Ministry of Defense. According to the Daily Mail, this was the second time in less than a year that a British shipment of nuclear materials had been stopped by Bulgarian border guards. Last August, Bulgaria stopped a shipment of zirconium silicate, which can be used as a component of a nuclear warhead, at its border with Turkey en route to Iran. THE CURRENT campaign in northern Israel and Lebanon has brought into sharp focus the major pathologies and strengths of the West in fighting the Iranian-led jihadist axis. The British government's push for a cease-fire, together with the enthusiasm of the UN and France for sending their own troops to Lebanon to protect the Lebanese from the "disproportionate" Israelis; the demand of Israel's radical Left that a deal be made with Syria; and the demands of leftist ideologues in the US that an artificial deadline be set for the conclusion of Israel's operations in Lebanon all point to a similar pathology. As a group, the ideological Left rejects the notion of victory in war for Western forces (although it is fine for jihadists); rejects the notion that there are enemies that are impossible to appease; and specifically rejects the idea that Israel has a right to defend itself against its enemies, let alone vanquish its foes. LET US BE clear. The European foreign ministers and UN envoys who are tripping over one another on their way to Jerusalem are the same European foreign ministers and UN officials who brought about the misguided American decision to throw out 27 years of US practice and officially engage the mullahs in Teheran. That is, the same European governments now jockeying for a place in an international force that will protect Hizbullah from destruction are the ones who have been stymieing American attempts to take concerted action against Iran's nuclear weapons programs for the past three years. This is the pathology of the West. For if one takes the ideology of appeasing unappeasable foes to its logical conclusion, appeasing states will eventually join forces with their enemies against themselves, or, as Portillo put it, they will become suicidal. AND SO, Britain's Department of Trade and Industry can give export licenses to dirty bomb components en route to Iran. And so American columnists named Cohen can tell the world that Israel's existence is a mistake. And so, Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, can refuse to acknowledge that Hizbullah is an Iranian-run terrorist organization dedicated to Islamic world domination even as its supporters throughout Europe hold mass demonstrations where they hold signs calling for Europe's destruction at the hands of Hizbullah and Iran in the name of Islam. And so Yossi Beilin can say that Israel doesn't need to worry about the repercussions of standing down while a fifth of its population sits in bomb shelters, because Hizbullah is just a measly terrorist organization that poses no real threat to the country. On the other hand, events of the past two weeks have also shown some of the West's greatest strengths in fighting the war so many of its powerful citizens and statesmen refuse to acknowledge. First of all, the IDF has discarded its dangerous delusions that it will be possible to win this war by remote control. Today it fights like an army that knows it is both at war, and at war with an enemy that needs to be destroyed, whatever the price may be. SEVERAL supporters of Israel were quick to write off the IDF in the wake of unsupported statements by Chief of General Staff Dan Halutz and his generals last week, in which they announced - based perhaps on the tonnage of ordnance IAF jets dropped on Lebanon - that Israel had destroyed up to fifty percent of Hizbullah's capacities. "Israel is losing this war," these commentators moaned, not recognizing that the IDF is capable of learning from its mistakes. "Israel's intelligence services fell asleep on their watch," it was said. But these eagerly defeatist voices do not recognize that the failure was not one of intelligence, but of politics. Mesmerized by the dovish ideologies propounded by three consecutive governments, it took the General Staff a week to understand that Israel was at war. BUT NOW they know. And now the IDF is fighting well, boldly and effectively on the ground. Halutz initiated a rolling mobilization of the reserves, and the IAF has pulled back to its proper supportive role. As well, it is impossible not to recognize the Bush administration's centrality in the current campaign. Not only is the US rearming the IAF with bunker buster bombs, it is making certain that its own public and the international community recognize that what is at stake here is far greater than the well-being of Israel's citizens. As President George W. Bush has made clear, this is not just Israel's war. This is a campaign of the Iranian-led axis of jihad that seeks to dominate the entire free world. And echoing Bush are voices like Portillo's that are heard from Beirut to Sydney. Moreover, by rising to the challenge Hizbullah, Syria and Iran have placed before it, the entire Israeli public is setting an example for its army, its government and the world to follow. Families in the North are stoically accepting the around-the-clock bombardments and standing strong in their demand for victory. Families in the rest of the country are opening their homes to thousands of refugees from Haifa and Nahariya and Tiberias. As a friend put it the other day, "Halutz has no choice but to win. Israel is a country with five million chiefs of staff and they are all breathing down his neck." FINALLY, the campaign in Lebanon is indeed the opening salvo of Iran's war against the free world. But this works both ways. Iran and Hizbullah believe that the ferocity of the attacks against Israel will deter us all from taking action against Iran's nuclear facilities. But by giving the West the opportunity to fight it first in Lebanon, Teheran is providing the US, Israel and others with critical intelligence about its own installations. The subterranean bunkers in south Lebanon that IDF ground forces are now conquering were built by Iranian Revolutionary Guards units and designed by Iranian engineers - the same forces that conceived and constructed Iran's nuclear installations. IN 1982, when Israel destroyed the Syrian Soviet-made and trained air force in Lebanon, it was able to provide the US with critical information about the Soviet Air Force and its air defense systems that enabled the US to outstrip both in a manner that all but sealed the fate of the evil empire. Today, by fighting Iran's proxy, Hizbullah, Israel is amassing information that will be critical for planning a successful strike against Iran's nuclear installations. It is impossible to know what will actually be discussed today as Olmert meets with Rice. But it must be hoped that now that the US, Israel and other Western states are acknowledging the true nature of the war against Israel, they will abandon their suicidal demons and use this campaign as a stepping stone for neutralizing its chief instigator: The Islamic Republic of Iran. 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 |
|
THE VOCABULARY OF UNTRUTH
Posted by Nurit Greenger, July 29, 2006. |
|
Friends, If for a moment your thought you are well versed in the English language or you understand phrases expressed in the English language ... think again... The slimy, bias, dubious, and distorted and destructive language used by the international community that has lost all its morals. The FINAL solution for the future of Israel is the last 2 paragraphs. This article is by Victor David Hanson, a senior fellow at the
Hoover Institution. He is the author, most recently, of A War Like No
Other. How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War.
It appeared on National Review Online
|
|
Words take on new meanings as Israel struggles to survive. A "ceasefire" would occur should Hezbollah give back kidnapped Israelis and stop launching missiles; it would never follow a unilateral cessation of Israeli bombing. In fact, we will hear international calls for one only when Hezbollah's rockets are about exhausted. "Civilians" in Lebanon have munitions in their basements and deliberately wish to draw fire; in Israel they are in bunkers to avoid it. Israel uses precision weapons to avoid hitting them; Hezbollah sends random missiles into Israel to ensure they are struck. "Collateral damage" refers mostly to casualties among Hezbollah's human shields; it can never be used to describe civilian deaths inside Israel, because everything there is by intent a target. "Cycle of Violence" is used to denigrate those who are attacked, but are not supposed to win. "Deliberate" reflects the accuracy of Israeli bombs hitting their targets; it never refers to Hezbollah rockets that are meant to destroy anything they can. "Deplore" is usually evoked against Israel by those who themselves have slaughtered noncombatants or allowed them to perish -- such as the Russians in Grozny, the Syrians in Hama, or the U.N. in Rwanda and Dafur. "Disproportionate" means that the Hezbollah aggressors whose primitive rockets can't kill very many Israeli civilians are losing, while the Israelis' sophisticated response is deadly against the combatants themselves. See " excessive." Anytime you hear the adjective "excessive," Hezbollah is losing. Anytime you don't, it isn't. "Eyewitnesses" usually aren't, and their testimony is cited only against Israel. "Grave concern" is used by Europeans and Arabs who privately concede there is no future for Lebanon unless Hezbollah is destroyed -- and it should preferably be done by the " Zionists" who can then be easily blamed for doing it. "Innocent" often refers to Lebanese who aid the stockpiling of rockets or live next to those who do. It rarely refers to Israelis under attack. The "militants" of Hezbollah don't wear uniforms, and their prime targets are not those Israelis who do. "Multinational," as in "multinational force," usually means "third-world mercenaries who sympathize with Hezbollah." See "peacekeepers." "Peacekeepers" keep no peace, but always side with the less Western of the belligerents. "Quarter-ton" is used to describe what in other, non-Israeli militaries are known as " 500-pound" bombs. "Shocked" is used, first, by diplomats who really are not; and, second, only evoked against the response of Israel, never the attack of Hezbollah. "United Nations Action" refers to an action that Russia or China would not veto. The organization's operatives usually watch terrorists arm before their eyes. They are almost always guilty of what they accuse others of. What explains this distortion of language? A lot. First there is the need for Middle Eastern oil. Take that away, and the war would receive the same scant attention as bloodletting in central Africa. Then there is the fear of Islamic terrorism. If the Middle East were Buddhist, the world would care about Lebanon as little as it does about occupied Tibet. And don't forget the old anti-Semitism. If Russia or France were shelled by neighbors, Putin and Chirac would be threatening nuclear retaliation. Israel is the symbol of the hated West. Were it a client of China, no one would dare say a word. Population and size count for a lot: When India threatened Pakistan with nukes for its support of terrorism a few years ago, no one uttered any serious rebuke. Finally, there is the worry that Israel might upset things in Iraq. If we were not in Afghanistan and Iraq trying to win hearts and minds, we wouldn't be pressuring Israel behind the scenes. But most of all, the world deplores the Jewish state because it is strong, and can strike back rather than suffer. In fact, global onlookers would prefer either one of two scenarios for the long-suffering Jews to learn their lesson. The first is absolute symmetry and moral equivalence: when Israel is attacked, it kills only as many as it loses. For each rocket that lands, it drops only one bomb in retaliation -- as if any aggressor in the history of warfare has ever ceased its attacks on such insane logic. The other desideratum is the destruction of Israel itself. Iran promised to wipe Israel off the map, and then gave Hezbollah thousands of missiles to fulfill that pledge. In response, the world snored. If tomorrow more powerful rockets hit Tel Aviv armed with Syrian chemicals or biological agents, or Iranian nukes, the "international" community would urge "restraint" -- and keep urging it until Israel disappeared altogether. And the day after its disappearance, the Europeans and Arabs would sigh relief, mumble a few pieties, and then smile, "Life goes on." And for them, it would very well. Contact Nurit Greenger at 4nuritg@gmail.com |
|
OLMERT TOO WEAK
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, July 29, 2006. |
|
This comes from WorldNetDaily's Jerusalem Bureau. It was written by Aaron Sichel and appeared today at www.wnd.com |
|
Israel's current strategy for countering Hezbollah activity in southern Lebanon is not working and should be immediately changed, warned intelligence officials, analysts and commentators, some charging domestic politics was holding back what they said was a much-needed massive ground assault. "I hope our strategy is going to change, [and] that our government will take the Hezbollah situation with the seriousness it demands," Moshe Marzook, a professor at the Interdisciplinary Center University near Tel Aviv and a reserve military intelligence officer, told WND. The officer's remarks echoed sentiments expressed by a growing number of military sources and analysts following a week that saw the loss in one battle of eight Israeli soldiers to a Hezbollah ambush and a record number of Hezbollah rockets -- 130 in a day -- slamming into the Jewish state from Lebanon. "Right now there are a lot of discussions about what to do. -- There's an endless debate about whether or not to use [Israel's military] power," said Marzook. In a cabinet meeting yesterday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government voted against expanding Israel's ground assault in Lebanon while approving the call-up of an additional 15,000 reserve soldiers in part to replace some of the current brigades fighting in Lebanon. Military officials had publicly petitioned for the approval of a massive ground assault, complaining the current troop levels fighting Hezbollah are not enough to overwhelm the well-trained Lebanese terror group. Top military leaders also complained they were being asked by politicians to send ground troops into certain villages when the air force can do the job. "Look, at this point we've already lost one opportunity to destroy Hezbollah, and that's because we didn't go in using all of our forces," said Marzook. "In [Hezbollah stronghold] Bint Jbail the army was using some artillery guns. But it's not enough. Instead, we needed to be using air power after we warned the Lebanese [civilians] to get out. "Only after a massive aerial bombing should we have sent ground troops in for mopping-up operations In Israel we're a democracy, and the army is totally subordinate to the political echelon, so we do the most we can with what the politicians give us." Politicians out of their league? Michael Widlanski, a professor and frequent adviser to Israeli security and foreign policy agencies, told WND Israel's current strategy is a non-starter for defeating Hezbollah. "The problem for the military is that they're not being allowed to do what the country knows they need to do -- and there are already a lot of rumblings both in and out of government about this war being mishandled by Olmert and [Defense Minister Amir] Peretz," said Widlanski. "Instead of attacking Hezbollah at, say, four points simultaneously, and forcing them to reveal their capabilities and intentions and throwing them off balance, the army now is striking Hezbollah at a single point, and then falling back, and then assessing that battle, and then they start discussing where to go next. "It's slow, it's disordered and it's not very effective," said the analyst. Marzook says Hezbollah strongholds "like Bint Jbail need to be demolished. They need to be hit without any ambiguity at all, so that Hezbollah clearly understands" that Israel will not permit them further shelter in Lebanon. "I think we need to do it, or there will be more and more casualties in this fight," said Marzook. In a biting analysis in Thursday's Jerusalem Post, Israel Air Force (IAF) Col. (res.) Dr. Shmuel Gordon describes the Olmert administration as "ignorant" about counterterrorism. Throughout military history, there have been gaps between doctrine and reality. In the current case, the gap is particularly large, created by the [Israeli] government's ignorance of the appropriate strategy. The cabinet is ignoring, or simply doesn't understand, the principles of modern counterterrorism, especially those relating to air power. Gordon claims the IAF's current operations "do not even come close to conforming" to proper strategy, and advises the IDF General Staff to "acquaint" Israeli politicians with the nature of air power. Even Israel's dovish Ha'aretz newspaper asserted Friday the "the IDF must act with greater force" in Lebanon, and complained that Israeli politicians and senior military commanders "look as if they have been frozen in a huge ice cube." "The political failures are continuing," asserts Marzook. "I hope the politicians will accept that this is a war we must win. That message is coming now from the media, from the society, and even from some politicians." Caught between PR and the people? "In reality," says Widlanski, "Olmert isn't yet able to admit that disengagement didn't work. That's why rockets flew into Israel from Gaza for 10 months without Olmert stopping them. In Lebanon, Hezbollah's been fortifying itself since the IDF withdrew six years ago. "In both cases, a strong military response would have been seen as a de facto admission that withdrawal is an unfruitful strategy. "Now Olmert's sent in the IDF, but only when Hezbollah forced him to -- and he hasn't gone in [with] full force, and the army isn't happy about that. "[Olmert's] Kadima Party was founded last year for a purpose: to further the withdrawal platform of Ariel Sharon. If that platform is no longer usable, then Kadima has no clear raison d'etre." David Bedein, an Israeli journalist, commented, "There is a general problem that has gotten worse since the late '90s and [former Prime Minister Ehud] Barak's tenure. There's a wider gap now between the citizenry and the leadership, and there's often a feeling that policy is driven by advertising professionals -- that some leaders base national security decisions on the advice of their PR team. In a crisis like this, those feelings will come home to roost." Agreeing with those sentiments is Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick, who wrote yesterday: "The Olmert government insists that Israel can separate itself from terror and jihad and live a 'normal life' by [unilaterally withdrawing], building a big fence and hiding behind it. The government knows that nothing will prove to the public the emptiness of its political rhetoric better than a serious ground invasion of southern Lebanon. |
|
YouTuBe -- BROADCAST YOURSELF
Posted by Boris Celser, July 29, 2006. |
|
I want to share the following video with you:
Click here.
It is the Israelite answer to the leader of Hezbollah, Nasrallah - a song in Hebrew that let him know what we think about him. with the background clip of the combat engineering IDF corps (with an extraordinary girls unit) and a taste of the IAF. It has English subtitles. This video is awesome! Contact Boris Celser at celser@telusplanet.net |
|
THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT MUST EMERGE FROM FACTS ON THE GROUND
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, July 29, 2006. |
|
Much of the Arab and Persian street celebrates the fact that Hizbullah stands its ground against Israel, not at all acknowledging the Jewish democracy could easily level all enclaves infested by the fanatics thus totally obliterating that sworn enemy, however, choose a surgical course of restraint, morally bowing to Hizbullah's cowardly but effective strategy of hiding their bodies and weapons, including deadly missiles, behind Lebanese civilian human shields, including women and children. Much of the Arab and Persian street celebrates a misperception of strength exhibited by Hizbullah, extol the cadre's robed leader, yet fail to recognize the fact that a continuously besieged first world Israel, less than two tenths of one percent the size of the mostly Muslim Middle East, kicks third world Arab and Persian butt economically, at the planetary high tech vanguard of research and development, while most Middle East regimes rely on low tech raw material fossil fuel reserve economies for sustenance, not significantly embarrassed by this cerebrally challenged state of affairs when compared to the Israeli dynamo. Furthermore, much of the "non-Muslim world-street" spews venom at Israel for a presumed "disproportionate response" against those that would annihilate the Jewish State if they could. No doubt, it is tragic that hundreds of Israeli and Lebanese casualties result from a war that Israel did not start, yet it is more than presumptuous for others to so berate Jews for defending their nation, when most ancestors of such "outraged" world citizens literally turned their cowardly backs while Nazis slaughtered not hundreds but six million Jews during a Holocaust beyond human comprehension. How might they expect descendents of those Jews to react to an enemy that would only wish the same fate on them? Get real!!! Moralizing out of context is shameful. Hizbullah is totally responsible for putting Lebanese civilians in danger. Israel has a moral obligation to protect its own citizens thus must vanquish low life Hizbullah creeps, whether or not they hide behind skirts of Lebanese women and immature bodies of young Lebanese children, like vicious dogs without teeth, willing to put innocents at risk so they might live to see another day. Not so amazingly, much of the Arab and Persian street, perhaps suffering from ego-deflating humiliation caused by their own lack of progress in a modern world, morphs these acts of cowardice into victories, giving themselves the pathetic psychological boosts they yearn for, rather then face a reality that can only be overcome by introspection and a willingness to do the hard work that would allow them to thrive and compete with civil secular societies. For now, even erstwhile pie-in-the-sky Israelis must persevere with acumen, fully comprehending the fact that surrendering any land for peace is no longer an option. All remaining lands, indeed justifiably secured in Israel's 1967 war of survival, including the eastern sector of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the Golan Heights, must immediately be taken off of any future negotiating tables, with or without the blessing of even formidable ally America. Nothing would be gained from any such concession, as Israel's sworn Muslim enemies will never accept the existence of any Jewish State whatsoever in their perceived neck of the planet. Surely, when a nation's area is already incredibly tiny compared to hostile surrounding neighbors, it is worse than ludicrous to contract it further. End of that conversation! Thus Israel must establish common ground and stronger ties between other enemies of its incorrigible fanatical fundamentalist Islamic enemies within the region i.e. presumably more moderate Muslim states such as Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey; mostly non-Muslim nations such as Russia, China, and India; all attuned to the anguish of jihadist violence. No doubt, fossil fuel related considerations, especially by the latter nations immersed in business partnerships with Iran, will convolute the possibilities of extreme friendships, but convoluted strengthened alliances are better than no alliances at all. The bottom line, however, must be let land for peace "rest in peace". In fact, let Israel make that the unofficial but most powerful Eleventh Commandment. Future generations of Israelis will ever celebrate such a momentous decision! 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 |
|
GEORGE W. BUSH IS GOOD FOR JEWS AND ISRAEL
Posted by Rachel Kapen, July 29, 2006. |
|
He isn't perceived as much of an intellectual and although he learned a great deal since he became president he still didn't learn to say 'nuclear' properly. Also, if he doesn't have a written text in front of him he seems at a loss for words and tends to mumble, however, there one thing that couldn't take away from him and this is his steady and steadfast support for the State of Israel especially in these most difficult days when the U.S. support for Israel is invaluable for the Jewish state. And as a matter of fact, this unmitigated support isn't easy on the U.S., the traditional friendship between U.S and Israel notwithstanding, when day in and day out millions of people the world over are exposed to horror pictures of destruction and dying of innocent women and children Israel inflicts on a neighboring state. Still, President George W. Bush has the courage to declare to the world again and again, to those who perhaps don't know or those who don't want to know, that Israel is is not to blame for the human tragedy but the Hezbollah and all Israel is doing is defending her and her citizens; lives, something every nation would have done under the same circumstances including the United States if attacked the same way by its neighbors Canada or Mexico. Actually, at this very moment, it isn't known how long the United States will continue backing Israel and allowing it to go after the Hezbollah with the intensity it does. But no matter what happens, Israel couldn't have done what it did without U.S. unequivocal backing which came with a heavy price being that it is perceived more than ever as siding with the Jewish State and thus precluding it from any role in future peace negotiations - if ever this will happen - or securing the border between Israel and Lebanon. After the president first declared that Israel has right to live and thus to self-defence, I received an e-mail asking me to write the president a thank you message for his unwavering support of Israel. I wrote to him that I thank him from the bottom of my heart for proclaiming that Israel has a right to exist and defend herself, something that should have been a given but unfortunately is not. There are many who don't believe in Israel's right to exist and either call publicly or think that she should be wiped off the map. Throughout history our fellow Jews used to ask if it is good for the Jews. Now that there is an independent State of Israel we in the Diaspora and our brethren in Israel are asking if it is good for Israel and George W, is unquestionably good for Israel, So to him and his Administration as well as the U.S. Congress a resounding Kol Hakavod. Contact Rachel Kapen at skapen285466mi@comcast.net |
|
STOP A FUTURE REARMED HIZBOLLAH!
Posted by Barry Shaw, July 29, 2006. |
|
The Lebanese weep excuses of weakness. The international community has bought their sob story. They cry that they were unable to stop Hizbollah, even though they welcomed them as brothers into their Government. Then there is the issue of the Lebanese Government allowing Hizbollah to grow from a rag-tag terror group into a seven thousand strong, Iranian-trained, army with an estimated twelve thousand Katusha rockets plus far more sophisticated and deadly missiles. Where were the Lebanese Government six years ago, before Hizbollah owned such an awesome arsenal? Apologists for Lebanon would claim that the Government was hostage to Syria at that time. They were certainly either hostage, or partner, of Hizbollah leading up to the recent conflict. Which? We may accept that the Lebanese army would perform an awful job patrolling their southern border with Israel. We may also agree that they need the forceful arm of an international force with powers to disarm, arrest, or stop, in an way necessary, Hizbollah or others that would destabilize the area by launching further terror attacks against Israel. Israel will degrade Hizbollah's stockpile of lethal weaponry. There may be a force guarding the border, though this will bring no great confidence to Israel's northern citizens. The UN, NATO, or any other force imported into any of the world's trouble zones, have met with any great success. They have failed because there was always one side not committed to keep the peace. In fact, there is a bloody history of such imported forces being massacred by offending terror groups. Lebanon's soil is drenched with the blood of American servicemen who were there to keep the peace. They were killed by the very Hizbollah that is engaging Israel today. Does anyone think that they would give up on their radicalism because of an overseas force imposed on them? So where should the Lebanese Government display its responsibility for it's own security, if it cannot patrol its border with Israel? An excellent place to start would be to control its other borders, namely its airport, sea ports, and border crossing with Syria. Israel is paying a heavy and painful price not only protecting its own citizens but also reducing Hizbollah's hegemony and military capability. This must not be allowed to return. It is for certain that Hizbollah, with the eager assistance of its pay masters Syria and Iran, will eagerly begin to rearm. International soldiers and observers may be busy in the south, but Hizbollah will be restocked with the latest deadly missiles elsewhere in Lebanon. This must not be allowed to happen. Everything must be done to prevent this. Future weaponry can only be brought into Lebanon via air, land, or sea. Access points into Lebanon may bring in humanitarian aid. They can bring in whatever is needed to build up their country. They can bring in tourists and investors. They cannot bring in lethal Iranian and Syrian rockets, missiles, nuclear bombs, or any other type of weaponry. It must be the first and vital imperative that access to the tools of a future war, and the potential for a future destruction of Lebanon, be effectively blocked. Can such an essential task be safely entrusted to the Lebanese Government? Are they willing or capable of undertaking this important responsibility? If the Lebanese cannot be trusted in gurding their southern border, they cannot be trusted to prevent the rearming of Hizbollah through their own border crossings, and access points. Or, on this substantial issue, do we need an international force to observe, intercept, and confiscate, such dangerous imports? One final note. Much has been discussed, both in diplomatic and media circles, about the need of an international force to patrol and protect the Lebanese-Israeli border and southern Lebanon. It is glaringly scary that the issue of employing a force to oversee the ports and border crossings, and ensure that Hizbollah will not be resupplied by the malevolent provocateurs in Damascus and Teheran, has not been raised. Has no one considered this future threat? Has it not been discussed? Is the international community unaware of the future danger of leaving this loophole open? This is the time to ensure that this threat is blocked. Lebanon's borders should remain closed until assurance can be given, to Lebanese as well as to Israelis, that Hizbollah remains unarmed. Barry Shaw made aliyah from Manchester, England, 25 years ago with his family. He now runs a real estate office in Netanya. He writes the "View from Here" columns from Israel. To sign up to receive his emails, contact him at netre@matav.net.il |
|
TERROR EXPERT: 'WE NEED TO CHOOSE WAR!'
Posted by Dave Eberhart, July 28, 2006. |
|
WASHINGTON -- "An international peacekeeping force in Lebanon will change nothing, and we will have chosen shame. "We [not only Israel but the threatened West] need to choose war once and for all to eradicate that system," a former terrorist told NewsMax in an exclusive interview about the current Middle East crisis. His name is Walid Shoebat and he is a man with a tough message. He is also a former fundamentalist Islamic terrorist who, incredibly, reformed. He is now an author, lecturer, and unabashed friend of Israel. He travels the United States repeating, in a modern context, Winston Churchill's warning to those who would appease Hitler's evil: "We have a choice between shame and war!" Shoebat was born in Bethlehem. As a young man, he entered the belly of the beast and became a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, participating in acts of terror and violence against Israel. He was later imprisoned in the Russian Compound, Jerusalem's central prison, for incitement and violence against Israel. After his release, Shoebat continued his life of violence in Bethlehem and the Temple Mount. After entering the United States, he worked as a counselor for the Arab Student Organization at Loop College in Chicago, where he persisted with his extremist activities. But then in a life-changing event, his wife challenged him to study Israeli history and leave behind the Jew-hating indoctrination of his youth. He did and emerged from the "detoxification" experience with the fresh orientation that Israel is not a demon but simply perennially on the defensive against extremists. The Arabic speaker, who now makes a study of the fanaticism that once enveloped his life, told NewsMax that the West had better abandon its political correctness and worries about world opinion and get down-and-dirty in the war on terrorism. And the West should start with taming the roots of that terrorism, the "mosque clergy" that preaches the hate. "We have to treat the problem by going to the source of the problem, and that is what we are not doing," Shoebat said. "We are trying to destroy terrorist infrastructure - after it has been established. We have to look at the root causes of terrorism and the root causes spring from the mosque clergy." Shoebat explained that in his opinion there are thousands of hate-dispensing Islamic clergy, including hundreds in the United States: "We can't touch it because we don't want to invade another religion," he lamented. "We have to treat this dogma - not as a religion - but as a political dogma." All over the world, Shoebat wants laws enacted that just say - no more hate-mongering from so-called religious leaders: "Once a religion goes beyond its borders, it has to be treated differently. It has to be shut down. You have to arrest these clergy. You've got to throw them in jail." Shoebat explained that in his view the offending clergy has, for example, been "schooling out" from Saudi Arabia and from the University of Egypt. He derided the European Union's notion that if you can't beat them, then include them, and maybe they will learn from us - from our way of life - to change their ways. "This is a stupid thing," he unabashedly concluded. For sure, Shoebat doesn't mince words. Within the context of the crisis with Israel and Lebanon, Shoebat said that Israel needed to invade the whole of Lebanon and cleanse it of the Hezbollah - once and for all. "If you don't do that, it doesn't matter how much of a buffer zone that you establish, because you have to understand that we live in a world of technology and things get more sophisticated." He goes on to note that Iran, a sponsor of Hezbollah, has rockets that can reach Israel as well: "Terrorists are very creative, you know. As a terrorist we were very creative. We find a different way or different method." Shoebat said he was distressed that Israel was apparently not ready to occupy the whole of Lebanon because they are afraid of the condemnation of world community: "As long as we are worried about the feelings of the world community, we are never going to really eradicate the problem. "We either hit them now, or we have to hit them much harder later, and it is going to be much more expensive and much more deadly." No Room for Negotiation The negotiation thing is a raw spot with Shoebat, who routinely compares what Arabs say in English to what they say in Arabic. Basically, he is of the opinion that from the fanatics' deeply rooted and dogmatic point of view, there can be no treaties with an enemy. So if Israel gains the upper edge militarily, he opined, and even if Syria agreed to some kind of truce, any cease fire would only be temporary - until Syria's "puppets" in Lebanon, the Hezbollah, regroup and grow strong once again. "Condoleezza Rice is going to come back empty handed," he suggested about the U.S. secretary of state's current peace mission to the Middle East. "It is going to be worse," he added. "It is not time to move to send the State Department to do any negotiations. This is the wrong time to do any negotiations. You have to wait until Israel eradicates Hezbollah. We have to aide Israel - even if we stand with Israel by ourselves." Shoebat explained that, in his opinion, the Middle East is a very fragile society, where everybody is afraid of being painted as a pro-America, pro-Zionist. "Prime ministers and presidents in the Middle East can not get elected by being pro-America. This is what you have in Iraq. Iraq should be the lesson," he noted, referring to the Iraq president's recent overt and controversial sympathy with the Hezbollah. Shoebat added that the president of Iraq knows that some day the Americans will be gone and he is going to have to reckon with Hezbollah. "He supports Hezbollah because of the tie with Iran. They are afraid of Iran." "Yeah, we should negotiate Syria. It is not wrong to sit down at the table with Syria." "But," Shoebat emphasized, "the message must be, ?You dismantle Hezbollah, then we negotiate with you.'" "Look, this has nothing to do with jobs," Shoebat impatiently explained. "The issue of fundamentalist Islamic terrorism has nothing to do with land. Gaza was given back. Nothing changed, and it even became worse. It has nothing to do with poverty ... "It is the dogma of Islamic salvation that you must conquer the world for Islam ... They want to destroy the West. They want to establish Shia Islamic law all throughout the world. They have this crazy dogma - and somebody's got to take them seriously." Shoebat wants Americans to finally understand the true volatile nature of the beast they are up against: "Over 90 percent of Pakistanis want an Islamist state. They have nuclear weapons already, and the regime in Pakistan is so sensitive that it could be collapsing any moment as we speak ... "You have a country like Iran building nuclear and flexing its muscle on the whole Middle East region ... "You have Sudan where they killed 1.5 million Christian civilians ... "You have Jordan where the majority of Jordanians supported Osama Bin Laden and still do ..." Fanatical or not, wasn't it literally suicidal for Hezbollah to antagonize Israel with the kidnappings of its soldiers? "Hezbollah did not know the extent of Israel's retaliation," Shoebat opined. In his view, Hezbollah thought it would be more business-as-usual -- kidnap the soldiers and get Israel to exchange them for brethren being held by Israel. But Israel confounded the Hezbollah, drawing a line in the sand, saying basically that such kidnapping would only beget more of the same. "The bargaining chip didn't work their [Hezbollah's] way," he explained. ?We' Terrorists Are Very Patient Shoebat is known to start his lectures with, "I am not ashamed to stand in front of you and say I am Walid Shoebat and I used to be a Palestinian terrorist." Though now long separated from the murderous fundamentalist movement, the now middle-aged man who lives in northern California will occasionally slip and use the collective "we" in talking about the terrorists: "Hitler was about establishing his Nazi dogma throughout the whole word. Communism was the same thing. "This is the kind of system. They have no respect for borders, just like Communism and Nazis. The end justifies the means - it doesn't matter how you do it, or how long it takes, as long as we get what we want in the end." Yes, patience is the message, Shoebat preaches. The extremists outlasted the Russians in Afghanistan and they will eventually outlast the American occupiers as well, he says. The same sorry scenario is also potentially true with Iraq. And the patience thing extends all the way to the American homeland, Shoebat warned: "People ask me the question how come we haven't been hit [since 9/11]? Well, what they are looking for is a grand finale. They want to cripple America by one event. This is why you don't see small-time bombings in America... They are waiting to get a dirty bomb, a nuclear bomb of any sort and blow up a few cities. "Is that what it is going to take to wake America up?" "After an attempt to destroy trains in New York and after an attempt to destroy the Sears Tower and after an attempt of Canadian Muslims to blow up buildings, after Bali, and after all the evidence that we have - we not doing something about it. I think we are in deep trouble." Democracy-Building Is Not a Magic Bullet Shoebat derided the American insistence of including the Jerusalem Arabs in the Palestinian electorate. "You know, Israel warned America. Look, this is not an issue of democracy here because if you allow the Jerusalem Arabs to vote, they are going to elect Hamas." In Shoebat's view, there have never been any true democracies in the Middle East -- and most likely, there're never will be: "You show me in history, in 55 Muslim states, when was there ever a real democracy established? So for America to think that they can go and establish a democracy in the Middle East, I think is a very dangerous thing." Picking the Enemy and Choosing War All else said, returning to Shoebat's mantra of choosing war over shame, he wants the West to wake up to what he sees as the painful but only realistic course of action: "We can eradicate Iran. It is not a hard thing to stop Iran. But the will of the West is not there. They are not willing to understand, much less see, the writing on the wall." Shoebat sees the West as burying its collective head in the sand and not facing the grim reality -- or matching the enemy's fierce and rigid mindset: "Now we have to go fix Lebanon," he lamented, expelling a breath. "We have to send aide. We have to establish a peace force. We have to send money - and all of these things. Here we are sending all of this aide to Iraq. "We have to fix the whole world's problem. We can't do that. That is not what the American position should be. The American position should be that if any country in the Middle East wants to join us, welcome. Anyone who wants to support terrorism, then you are an enemy. End of story." Shoebat signs off -- there is yet another speaking engagement to go to -- another forum to preach the hard realities he learned from dwelling within the belly of the beast. He leaves some parting thoughts: "If the West wants to win, they must be even more stalwart and more intractable than the fierce, sly and ever-patient enemy." And, finally: "They must choose war over shame." This appeared in NewsMax.com and is archived at
|
|
PETITION AGAINST WITHDRAWALS, EXPULSIONS, AND DIVIDING JERUSALEM
Posted by Committee Lmaan Tzion<, July 28, 2006. |
|
http://www.lmaantzion.org/petition.html The Committee Lmaan Tzion has launched a petition campaign against the "convergence/realignment" plan. Our goal is to garner 10,000 signatures by January and distribute copies of the petition to important Jewish organizations and U.S. and Israeli politicians. Please sign for your name to be inserted on the petition. The text of the petition reads as follows: "We the undersigned declare that the policy of land withdrawal and expulsion of Jews from their homes in Yehuda and Shomron (the West Bank), as well as the policy of dividing Jerusalem, violates the Jewish right to and the integrity of the Land of Israel and our eternal Capital of Jerusalem, and constitutes an immediate and long-term threat to the safety and survival of the Jewish people everywhere."To sign, click here. |
|
WAR HITS SAFED
Posted by Sandy Rosen-Hazen, July 28, 2006. |
|
My grandson, Nissim, is being treated for injuries at the Safed hospital... Giving well-earned credit where it IS due.....nearly 100 people send me e-mails wishing us well & praying for our safety!!!! THANK YOU!!!! I'll now, G-d willing, set about marathon typing, to answer each and every one of those wonderful e-mails!!!! Love always,
P.S.....For anyone wishing to help Safed, directly: The organization "Lev Uneshama" is most helpful, in so many ways!!!! Donations to them are 100% used for aid to the individual people of Safed.....NO money is ever withheld for any reason (all work is done on a purely volunteer basis)!!!! On several occassions, we've approached them in order to help people who needed various things.....it is amazing that each and every time we approached this organization with a specific request, they never failed to reach out and help!!!! "Lev Uneshama" not only provides food for the needy, but they succeed in supplying many families with warm clothing in the winter, shoes, eye-glasses, dental care, etc.!!!! There are really not enough words to describe this marvelously generous organization!!!! Now, more than ever, as Israel finds itself in a difficult time, "Lev Uneshama" is succeeding in sending food packages, toys, clothing, etc., to as many people as possible in the city of Safed's bomb shelters!!!! Please share this information with all those generous people who you think may find it in their hearts to help this wonderful organization!!!! You can visit their Web Site to get an idea of what they are really all about.....at: www.levuneshama.org!!!! Checks (all tax deductable) can be sent to: "To save a life",
Sandy Rosen-Hazen lives in Safed. Contact her at Sandy@israel.net |
|
HIZBULLAH USED CIVILIANS, MOSQUES IN ATTACK ON IDF
Posted by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, July 28, 2006. |
|
Hizbullah refused to allow civilians to leave their village and used mosques in their ambush on IDF soldiers at Bint Jbeil Wednesday. Names of the nine fallen soldiers were released. Morale is high. Hizbullah stored ammunition and weapons in mosques, knowing that the IDF does not attack religious sites. Civilians were not allowed to leave so that Hizbullah could use them as cover. IDF officers said they ordered pilots not to strafe Bint Jbeil in order to spare civilian casualties. A United Nations peace keeping officer from Canada told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that Hizbullah used the same tactic to draw fire on the UNIFIL post which resulted in the death of four U.N. observers. "This is their favorite trick," he said. "They use the U.N. as shields." Morale of the Golani soldiers was extremely high after the bitter battle, the fiercest in many years. One of the soldiers injured in Bint Jbeil said from his hospital bed Wednesday night, "I want to go back and fight with my comrades. Morale is totally high. [The battle] was complex, and there is fear, but we have to take the fear and turn it around." IDF officers are trying to cool down the soldiers' enthusiasm to take over Bint Jbeil. The troops marked the Hizbullah terrorists with an "x." "Tomorrow will see their death," they said. "Tomorrow they will pay the price." The names of the fallen soldiers who fell at Bint Jbeil are:
Lt. Yiftah Shrier, 21, of Haifa, was killed in a separate incident when Hizbullah terrorists fired an anti-tank missile between Bint Jbeil and Marun A-Ras late Wednesday. Three soldiers still are in serious condition, and 19 suffered light-to-moderate injuries in the ambush battle, which occurred around 5 a.m. (10 p.m. EDT). when dozens of Hizbullah terrorist guerilla fighters ambushed their hilltop position. The IDF had maintained that the army was in control of the village, which is considered the capital of Hizbullah in southern Lebanon. Hizbullah has been building tunnels and stockpiling weapons in the six years since the IDF withdrew from the area, which they know thoroughly. The Hizbullah terrorist guerillas were well-equipped with Iranian- and Syrian-made rocket propelled grenades, anti-tank and mortar shells, Lau missiles and rifles. Several troops were injured while trying to rescue others, in an evacuation that took more than six hours. Helicopter rescue pilots endured enemy fire, and several soldiers carried stretchers more than one mile. Northern Command Head Maj.-Gen. Udi Adam said that despite the heavy loss of soldiers, the army recovered valuable intelligence information, and that large amounts of communication equipment, weapons and ammunition also were taken by the IDF. "The soldiers displayed sangfroid, bravery and professionalism after they came under fire," he said. "We estimate that at least 15 Hizbullah guerrillas were killed in the village. There are also assessments that put the number of casualties on the Lebanese side at 40 to 50 dead fighters," he added. Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu writes for Arutz-Sheva (www.IsraelNN.com).
This article is archived at
|
|
Posted by Sergio Tessa (HaDaR), July 28, 2006. |
|
These are the people we should talk to and shake their hands?... Fatah, Hizbollah, FPLP .... 
Contact Sergio Tessa (HaDar) at HaDaR-Israel@verizon.net |
|
ON THE 'OLMERT IS A NAZI' CARTOON CONTROVERSY
Posted by D.J. Teeboom, July 28, 2006. |
|
I wanted to tell you that as Jew and a Zionist, as a person who served in the IDF and who supports the war against Hezbollah 100%, I believe you have the right to publish as many disgusting anti-Israeli cartoons as you like. The freedom of speech is very dear to me. But don't worry. One day, when radical Islam gets out of control in Europe, we will be having a laugh on your expense too. I must point out however, that the image of the Israeli-Nazi is getting a little bit boring. I hope this doesn't hurt your feelings, but we have been enjoying these kind of Israeli's-are-Nazi-cartoons for almost 60 years by now. And because of that, I feel I can tell you, as a friend of the Norwegian people, that after 60 years they're not really funny anymore. Oh, I'm so sorry, did that insult you? They were funny the first time, honest. Don't cry. I had a great laugh the second time, and the third, the fourth and the fifth. But after 60 years and thousands upon thousands of these kind of cartoons...I think you should at least consider to try something new. It's no use, I know you won't. We Jews are the only nation on earth that doesn't have to worry about what 'they will come up with next'. You are perfectly predictable. Maybe the Israeli ambassador should issue an official demand for original insults? I mean, as a serious nation and a regional superpower, don't we have the right to be insulted in some other way? I hope you are not disappointed that Jews are not burning down Norwegian embassies and issuing death threats. It's simply not our style. Maybe that's a pity, because if we did such things the editor of this newspaper would appear on TV and tell everybody how much Jews and Israel should be respected. Your government leaders would tell the Norwegian people they should learn more about Zionism. Your leftwing intellectuals would visit the most violent extremist Jews. They would offer them their sincere apologies and upon their return they would sing the praises of the forbidden Kach and Kahane parties who only want to deport all the Palestinians, not to kill them. Look how moderate! After further outbursts of violence and death threats, some bright Norwegian politicians would call for Kach and Kahane 'to be integrated in the Israeli political process'. Heaven forbid. You know that you have nothing to fear from Jews and that is why you allow yourself to stoop so low. It wouldn't be such a problem if only you (meaning Europe)showed a some spine regarding Islamic intimidation. But because you don't other people less civilized then Jews, are coming to the conclusion that in order to be 'respected', they have to burn down embassies and kill people. Is that really the future we want? Contact Daniel Teeboom at d.j.teeboom@orange.nl or go to his website: www.hetvrijevolk.com |
|
HEZBOLLAH'S NAZI TACTICS
Posted by Sergio Tessa (HaDaR), July 28, 2006. |
|
This was written by Steven Stalinsky, the executive director of the
Middle East Media Research Institute.
It appeared July 26, 2006 in the New York Sun
|
|
"Just like Hitler fought the Jews, we are a great Islamic nation of jihad, and we too should fight the Jews and burn them." -- Hisham Shamas, political science student, at a symposium hosted by Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV at Lebanon's largest and only government-run university, Universitι Libanaise, November 29, 2005 In June 1944, a Red Cross delegation was invited by Nazi Germany to Theresienstadt, a "spa town" where elderly German Jews could "retire" in safety, according to Nazi propaganda. However, it was really a transit camp for Jews on their way to Auschwitz. In preparation for the delegation's visit, the camp underwent a beautification program, with gardens planted and barracks renovated. The Nazis produced a film using Jewish prisoners to show the world how well they were being treated (the entire "cast" would later be sent to Auschwitz). Theresienstadt served an important propaganda function for the Germans, and it is known by historians as an "an elaborate hoax." Taking a page directly from the Nazis' propaganda playbook some 62 years later, the terror organization Hezbollah is manipulating the press in the same way. Hezbollah's press officer, Hussein Nabulsi, has been giving Western press and broadcast outlets, including CNN, the Boston Globe, and the Chicago Tribune, daily tours of bombed-out Hezbollah-controlled southern Beirut. During the July 18 broadcast of Wolf Blitzer's "Situation Room" on CNN, Mr. Nabulsi took a CNN correspondent, Nic Robertson, to a bombed-out area he said was "only inhabited by innocent civilians." Mr. Robertson was overtly sympathetic to Hezbollah's claims, telling viewers, "We didn't see any evidence of military infrastructure." Mr. Roberston's sympathy for Hezbollah later was criticized on multiple blogs; even the host of CNN's "Reliable Sources," Howard Kurtz, asked his colleague, "To what extent do you feel like you're being used to put up the pictures they [Hezbollah] want?" In a report for the July 21 Boston Globe, Thanassis Cambanis wrote about his tour of the same area with Mr. Nabulsi, who admitted that his office -- Hezbollah's press office -- which he said was located in a "civilian area," was bombed. The Globe reporter wrote that the area "is full of obvious Hezbollah targets, including the organization's headquarters, its media office ... nestled among thousands of civilian homes." Just as the Nazis had their weekly newspaper, Der Stόrmer -- which was a significant part of their propaganda apparatus, spreading venomous anti-Semitic caricatures and themes, including the blood libel and the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" -- Hezbollah has its own radio station and TV channel, Al-Manar. Al-Manar is similarly a vehicle for spreading classic anti-Semitic subject matter, from Nazi forgeries to the blood libel and attacks on Judaism. The channel also frequently airs programs devoted to the killing of Jews and destruction of Israel. (See www.memritv.org to view examples.) Hezbollah celebrates Holocaust denial, as well. "Jews invented the legend of the Holocaust," the leader of Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, said on April 9, 2000. During an appearance on Al-Manar on February 3, Sheik Nasrallah called Europe's leading Holocaust denier, Roger Garaudy, "a great French philosopher." On February 23, Sheik Nasrallah appeared on Al-Manar and praised another leading European Holocaust denier, David Irving, for having "denied the existence of gas chambers." While Hezbollah has embraced much of Nazi Germany's anti-Semitism, it is not the heir apparent of the Third Reich. That distinction belongs to the Islamic Republic of Iran, which today has set out to launch World War III. Just as Nazi Germany used its cohorts in France and Italy to carry out its killing, Hezbollah is following orders from its master Iran, which created it on February 16, 1985. Hezbollah's official manifesto includes a picture of "our leader," Ayatollah Khomeini, on its back cover. A Washington Post article from that year reported that Iranian Revolutionary Guards were "carrying out their missionary work, indoctrinating the Lebanese Shiites in the spiritual and political teachings of Khomeini." As the Iranian parliament speaker, Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel, told the Iranian News Channel on July 18, "To Nasrallah we say -- the blood of Imam Khomeini rages in his veins." Sheik Nasrallah's deputy, Sheik Naim Qasem, quoted the Iranian regime in explaining his organization's position on Israel and jihad in a June 2, 2002, interview on Al-Manar: "Muslims should annihilate Israel. ... Imam Khomeini said, 'The goal of this virus [Israel] that was planted in the heart of the Islamic world ... The solution is in annihilating the virus.'" Anyone who has witnessed Iranian crowds chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" during religious rallies led by the country's ayatollahs, or at Lebanese rallies led by Sheik Nasrallah, can see how similar they are to the rallies Nazi Germany held -- only then, the chants were "Heil Hitler." Contact Sergio Tessa at Hadar-Israel@verizon.net |
|
OFFICIAL: HEZBOLLAH USED U.N. AS 'SHIELD'
Posted by May Leiner, July 28, 2006. |
|
Observer killed in strike wrote e-mail contradicting accusation against Israel United Nations flag flies with Hezbollah banner at U.N. post (photo: Canadian Jewish News) The United Nations post in Lebanon at the center of controversy over a deadly Israeli attack likely was being used as a "shield" by Hezbollah to fire rockets into the Jewish state, according to a former U.N. commander in Bosnia. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has accused Israel of deliberately targeting the post where four officials of the world body were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of El Khiam Tuesday night. But retired Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie points to an e-mail by one of the observers killed in the attack that backs Israel's claim that it was targeting Hezbollah, reported the CanWest News Service of Canada. The dead observer, Maj. Paeta Hess-von Kruedener, wrote an e-mail last week to the Canadian television network CTV that alluded to Hezbollah's tactics. "What I can tell you is this, we have on a daily basis had numerous occasions where our position has come under direct or indirect fire from both (Israeli) artillery and aerial bombing. "The closest artillery has landed within 2 meters (sic) of our position and the closest 1000 lb aerial bomb has landed 100 meters (sic) from our patrol base. This has not been deliberate targeting, but rather due to tactical necessity." MacKenzie said Hess-von Kruedener was indicating Israeli strikes were aimed at Hezbollah targets near the post, the Canadian news service reported. "What that means is, in plain English, 'We've got Hezbollah fighters running around in our positions, taking our positions here and then using us for shields and then engaging the (Israeli Defence Forces)," he said. McKenzie said this indicates Hezbollah purposely set itself up near the U.N. post, a tactic he observed in previous international missions. McKenzie was the first U.N. commander in Sarajevo during the Bosnia civil war, CanWest reported. The U.N. has claimed there was no Hezbollah activity in the area of the strike. From his U.N. post, however, Hess-von Kruedener wrote he had a view of the "Hezbollah static positions in and around our patrol Base." "It appears that the lion's share of fighting between the IDF and Hezbollah has taken place in our area," he wrote, noting later it was too dangerous to venture out on patrols. A senior U.N. official asked by CanWest about the e-mail denied the world body had been caught in a contradiction. "At the time, there had been no Hezbollah activity reported in the area," he said. "So it was quite clear they were not going after other targets; that, for whatever reason, our position was being fired upon. "Whether or not they thought they were going after something else, we don't know. The fact was, we told them where we were. They knew where we were. The position was clearly marked, and they pounded the hell out of us." Contact May Leiner by email at MayLeiner@cs.com |
|
AL-QAEDA CHIEF DECLARES JIHAD AGAINST JEWISH STATE
Posted by Bryna Berch, July 28, 2006. |
|
Seems like only yesterday that bin Ladin was ranting against foreigners polluting the sacred land of Saudi Arabia (SA). The ugliness of 9/11 was partial revenge for the nerve of the uppity Americans who dared to set foot in SA -- even if it was to protect the Saudis. This was his only concern. And now, his second-in-command is casting his evil eye on Israel -- which is preventing the Muslims from taking over all of the Middle East and Spain. So now Al-Qaeda is gungho to eliminate Israel -- mind you, not for the "noble" reason of aiding his fellow Arabs, the "Palestinians." No, it's because he wants all the Middle East (and control of the rest of the world) to be Muslim. He should get together with Peace Now. Don't care what Peace Now say they want -- they've done nothing but screw Israel for years. This was written by Ezra HaLevi for Arutz-Sheva (www.IsraelNN.com) . |
|
Al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri issued a call for Jihadists around the globe to attack Israel and make the entire region "from Spain to Iraq" into an Islamic kingdom. The speech by the terrorist network's co-founder was broadcast on the Al-Jazeera Arabic satellite channel. Al-Zawahiri declared a Jihad (holy war) against Israel on behalf of the global Jihadist movement. "All the world is a battlefield open in front of us," he said, rejecting the concept of an eventual cease-fire. "O Muslims everywhere, I call on you to fight and become martyrs in the war against the Zionists and the Crusaders... War with Israel does not depend on ceasefires. It is Jihad for sake of Allah and will last until our religion prevails from Spain to Iraq." Islamists believe that since Spain was once controlled by Muslims, it must be wrested from the hands of "the infidels" in the same manner as Israel. "The shells and rockets ripping apart Muslim bodies in Gaza and Lebanon are not only Israeli, but are supplied by all the countries of the crusader coalition. Therefore, every participant in the crime will pay the price," Al-Zawahiri threatened. The Egyptian doctor was filmed in front of a photo of the World Trade Center and two top Al-Qaeda terrorists killed in recent years. This is Al-Zawahiri's tenth message released to the public this year. It is unclear whether his declaration has a theological effect on his followers' desire to strike Israel. Already on February 23, 1998, he issued a joint fatwa (Islamic ruling), with Osama bin Laden, entitled "World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders," which called upon Muslims to destroy Israel. The Al-Qaeda number-two seemed to express a sense of admiration for Israel in his critique of the Muslim world. He also suggested that the world cared more about Israelis than Palestinians. "The 10,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israel's prisons do not move anything, while three Israeli prisoners have shaken the world," he said. |
|
THE LATEST ISRAELI GROWTH INDUSTRY
Posted by Yossi Shomron, July 28, 2006. |
|
Today I visited a refugee camp in the modern state of Israel. Actually, I live in the "internal refugee" camp of Nitzan; 480 prefab, upgraded caravans built for the expellees of Gush Katif. Four kilometers to the east, along the beach of Nitzan, is a new refugee "town", a tent city divided into two clearly designated areas: "Welcome from the northern areas" and "Welcome from the southern areas". Each area contains some 20 to 30 huge tents (approximately 25 by 40 meters each), with guards, fencing, bathroom facilities, and shuttle buses transporting people back and forth from highway 4. The new beach "town" contains thousands of Jews - refugees from missile attacks launched from Lebanon and the Gaza strip into Israeli towns and cities. The government of Israel seems to be in the business of creating Jewish refugees. Either the government expels thousands of Jews from their homes in towns considered to be a liability to the state or the government allows its citizens to be bombed for more than 5 years (southern area refugees), or 2 weeks (northern area refugees). Okay, to be fair, the Arabs are the perpetrators of the missile attacks causing tens of thousands of Jews to flee their homes. But for 5 years S'derot, Gush Katif, and surrounding moshavim and kibbutzim have been bombed from distances of 1 to 8 kilometers and the IDF has been restrained by the government from responding effectively. Of course the IDF bombed the "usual suspects": empty fields, roads, bridges, bomb factories, terror headquarters, empty PA buildings and even live terrorists when caught in the act. By and large, the Gaza "civilian" population of Hamas, Fatah, PFLP, Islamic Jihad supporters as well as thousands of terrorist fighters (who don't wear a uniform or carry a weapon) remain off limits to the IDF. And in the North? Again the usual list of targets has been bombed: bridges, roads, broadcast stations, Hezbalah bunkers and camps, and missile launchers and rockets when seen. The government of Lebanon, with a strong Hezbalah component, as well as Shiite southern Lebanon remain off limits to the IDF. To ensure that terror supporters in Lebanon don't pay a price, the inner cabinet of the Israeli govt. review all major IDF targets before bombing. Expect that as long as the Lebanese "civilians" and the thousands of Hezbalah supporters, terror operatives among them, remain untouched, the North of Israel will suffer the years of bombing that the South of Israel continues to endure. And the latest Israeli growth industry, internal Jewish refugees, will continue to grow. Yossi Shomron and his family were among the 8-9,000 Jews who were expelled from their homes and farms and orchards by the Sharon-Olmert government. |
|
PICTURES FROM THE LEBANESE FRONT
Posted by Menachem Kovacs, July 27, 2006. |
|
You'll find the other pictures from this series at
masoret.hevre.co.il/hydepark/topic.asp?topic_id=1990937 |
Contact Menachem Kovacs at takovacs@comcast.net |
|
WANT TO SUPPORT ISRAEL ONLINE? DOWNLOAD MEGAPHONE FROM WUJS
Posted by Avodah 15, July 27, 2006. |
|
This article was written by Linda Harel and it appeared on today on YNet
(www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3281619,00.html) |
|
GIYUS calls Jews of world to web duty Want to support Israel online? Just download Megaphone from WUJS website and get all needed updates When Giyus.org (http://giyus.org) noticed a poll on Albabawa.com, a popular Arabic website, asking whether the current violence in Lebanon is an Israeli provocation, they decided to help balance the results. A message with a link to the poll popped up on the desktops of GIYUS' Israel-loving members and soon, the poll results jumped from an overwhelming yes to an over 80 percent no. GIYUS (Give Israel Your United Support) is a new project that has recently been released by the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS) in order to balance anti-Israel sentiment expressed on the web and influence public opinion. To accomplish this, they created Megaphone, a free tool that can be downloaded from their website. Megaphone allows alerts to pop up on users' desktops every time it finds an attention-worthy article, poll or forum on the internet. Students and members of pro-Israel organizations are encouraged to visit the sites and express their opinions. In addition to making users aware of problematic biased articles and anti-Semitism, GIYUS encourages them to write letters of approval to the editors of sites that publish positive articles to help increase their popularity. The project is designed to be interactive. Megaphone users can contribute to its growth by reporting both biased and commendable websites and polls for consideration. To attract users from around the world, GIYUS translates polls into English, French and Hebrew, and soon Spanish.
|
|
NOW IS THE TIME FOR A BETTER USE OF AIR POWER
Posted by Sergio Tessa (HaDaR), July 27, 2006. |
|
This article was written by Shmuel Gordon and it appeared yesterday
in the Jerusalem Post
Dr. Shmuel L. Gordon, a colonel (res.) in the IAF, is head of the Technology and National Security program at the Holon Institute of Technology, and an expert in national security, air warfare and counterterrorism. He is also the author of The Vulture and the Snake: Counter-Guerrilla Air Warfare: The War in Southern Lebanon. |
|
A hard and fast rule of war is that the use of ground forces in urban combat is directly related to loss of life. In Gaza, the IDF has somehow learned to go in and get out with few casualties. Hizbullah is a different enemy, with different equipment, a different surrounding population and, perhaps, a greater motivation to fight. Wednesday's casualties in Bint Jbail may indicate that Hizbullah has managed, yet again, to neutralize the IAF's technological advantages. The proper use of air power against a terrorist or guerrilla formation takes time, and herein lies Israel's problem. Last week in Maroun a-Ras, several soldiers died fighting Hizbullah around their fortified bunkers. The correct use of military power in that situation would have been to use small special forces teams equipped with nothing more than GPS trackers, laser pointers and Uzi submachine guns. The elite forces, instead of going into the bunkers, could have laser-painted the bunkers' positions to the IAF, which would have destroyed them. That would be the correct way to leverage Israel's technological advantage. The massive bombings - the IAF's use of brute force - has its limitations with respect to high-value targets, and the deployment of ground troops neutralizes our advantages. When a soldier meets a soldier, when a Kalashnikov meets an M-16, when the fight is eye to eye, there are no technological advantages. It will always be like this. Hizbullah has no qualms about losing 50 fighters, whereas we Israelis do, and the Islamists know it. Wednesday's battle will give Hizbullah a huge morale boost - regardless of how many fighters they have lost. During the Lebanon War, I was in charge of the air force's underground command bunker. Every time the infantrymen got themselves into trouble, they would call on the IAF to "open the roads." This usually entailed civilian casualties. The air force chief at the time, Maj.-Gen. David Ivri, demanded that the ground forces provide quality intelligence to ensure that civilians were not being accidentally targeted. That is still the key now. Counterterror air warfare strategy has developed a great deal in recent years. It is now based on new intelligence technologies that have enabled airborne systems to locate small mobile vehicles such as rocket launchers, and even a pair of terrorists trying to launch a Kassam rocket, and precision-guided munitions, which have made it possible to hit such targets quickly and accurately. The most important characteristic of these systems is their ability to preserve the lives of innocent people located near the targeted terrorist. To find, designate (by laser-painter, for example) and hit terrorists in a limited time frame, teams of special forces should join the battle. The new strategy integrates intelligence, air power and special forces into a combined force that plans its missions as surgical operations. Intelligence officers search for the highest-value targets, including leaders of the terrorist organization, its training infrastructure, professionals who produce dangerous bombs, and those who recruit suicide bombers. The strategy is based on the assumption that it is almost impossible to demolish terror organizations in a short, intense war. On the contrary, the preferred scenario is a war of attrition. Step by step, operation by operation, the light at the end of the tunnel becomes brighter. Counterterror air warfare doctrine emphasizes using air power in a different way than in large-scale conventional warfare. The new doctrine prefers a longer but lower-intensity conflict. The Israel Air Force's operations in the current campaign do not even come close to conforming to this concept. The government is attempting to use the air force's brute force to crush Hizbullah and to compel the powerless Lebanese government to control southern Lebanon with its own toothless army. Throughout military history, there have been gaps between doctrine and reality. In the current case, the gap is particularly large, created by the government's ignorance of the appropriate strategy. The cabinet is ignoring, or simply doesn't understand, the principles of modern counterterrorism, especially those relating to air power. The cabinet needs to take into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of the intelligence/air power/special forces mixture. It is the duty of the IDF General Staff to acquaint the civilian leadership with the limitations and capabilities of air power. The government need to have the information to set the goals, which will then dictate the military means and strategy. There is no alternative. Contact Sergio Tessa at Hadar-Israel@verizon.net |
|
KRAUTHAMMER'S USUAL COMMENTARY ON FOX NEWS THURSDAY
Posted by Jerome S. Kaufman, July 27, 2006. |
|
Charles Krauthammer in his usual brilliant, trenchant manner made a statement on Fox News tonight that we can only hope the Israeli government heard (and I will do my best to see that they do.) Krauthammer said words to the effect that: "The current Israeli leadership including the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni are without genuin experience in their politically appointed tasks." No thought was, in fact, given to their ability to fulfill their appointed attacks. Appointments were made according to political expediency and political pay back. JSK Mr. Krauthammer registered genuine concern as to the Israeli government's understanding as to what is expected from them by the United States. For the very first time, the United States and Israel are fighting an unequivocally common enemy - Hezbollah. Israel is assisting immeasurably in this work and President Bush is giving them free rein to defeat this common enemy. Israel, unfortunately and certainly understandably, has been extremely cautious in their attack - unwilling to commit large ground troops and obtain severe casualties, unwilling to take up large swaths of territory in what may well become a long term occupation in order to be truly effective in wiping out Hezbollah and terminating Syrian domination of Lebanon. Israel has been there, done that. JSK Mr. Krauthammer went on to advise that the United States is watching closely. How effective are the Israelis? How much is their action helping the cause of the United States of America? Is Israel worthy of American trust and intimate association and of President G W Bush sticking his neck way out on a limb both internationally and domestically? Can Israel be depended upon as a successful ally or a worrisome dependent? Obviously the United States has given Israel full rein placing the ball squarely in Israel's court. And, in no way, unfortunately, are the decisions to be made by Israel easy. What is certain is that if Israel is not successful, the Arab world will be tremendously empowered, the Islamists further inflamed and emboldened and Israel will not have made any real progress in certifying its own very existence. All they will have done is live long enough to fight another day. That day will be undoubtedly under another American administration and most likely nowhere near as supportive as President G.W. Bush. At that very near point, Israel will have had its military and political power advantages diminished exponentially as is occurring, at this moment, before our very eyes. Of note, by the way, is what are America's options? Have we another ally who truly understands that the whole Western world is in the very same boat? How can the United States discard the only genuine ally they have in the entire Middle East? Maybe it's like a marriage - a whole lot of compromises have to be made. Jerome S. Kaufman is National Secretary of the Zionist Organization of America. and host the Israel Commentary website (http://www.israel-commentary.org). |
|
AN IDF SOLDIER AND HIS COMMANDER
Posted by Jeremy Gimpel and Ari Abramowitz, July 27, 2006. |
|
Shalom from Jerusalem. These days in Israel are some of the darkest we remember. Eight of our fellow soldiers were killed and countless more were maimed and wounded. That means eight funerals and eight families who would most likely prefer death to the nightmare that is now their lives. We are being barraged by missiles from Hamas and Hezbollah and by lies from the UN and the EU. It feels as if the world is against us and the country is losing morale. ! Personally, we have been told to remain accessible by phone at all times to join the war if need be. Over the last few days, we have received many e-mails inquiring about our feelings, thoughts, and welfare and we have therefore decided to share them with all of you in this email. Maimonides, one of our greatest philosopher sages, explained "At the time of war a man should not think of his wife, nor of his children, nor of his possessions, but he must free his heart of everything and set himself to battle. And more - he should think that the entire existence of Israel depends on him." There isn't one combat reservist in this country who has not thought that this war could be his end. When confronted with the possibility of losing ones life, introspection is inevitable. What am I losing my life for? Is it worth it? Firstly, one must come to grips with what he believes is the purpose of life. Reflexively, most people insist that happiness is what it is all about, and proceed to dedicate their lives to achieving that end. Whichever route one takes however, sooner or later the conclusion is always the same - real happiness comes from real meaning. A life spent pursuing meaning is a life well lived. The attainment of true love, all would attest, is among the most meaningful experiences one could ever achieve. Pirkei Avot, "Ethics of our fathers", provides valuable insight "Any love that is dependent on something - when the thing ceases, the love also ceases. But a love that is not dependent on anything never ceases." True Love means transcending the physical world of materialism and self-concern and giving of oneself without wanting, or expecting, anything in return. For thousands of years the Jewish people have been praying three times a day "to Jerusalem, Your city, return us with mercy." In our happiest personal moments every Jew recites the poetry of King David at his wedding "If I forget thee, Oh Jerusalem, may my right arm lost its cunning. Let my tongue stick to my palate if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my greatest joy (Psalm 137)." It is for Jerusalem that we have prayed and for Israel that we have wept. The reason for this undying love for Israel is because the only place that the Jewish people, as a nation, can transcend the physical and bring true peace and spirituality into the world is in this Land. Our Rabbi and greatest prophet, Moses, tells the Jews "Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments... that you should do in the midst of The Land which you go to possess." Our Torah and its commandments were given to us as the tools with which we are to use to fix the world, and only in the "midst" of the Land are we truly able to actualize their purpose. Over five thousand Kassam Rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel in the past year. The residents have been living in fear and fleeing for their lives. Along with the Jews of Gush Katif, we have turned the Jews of southern Israel into refugees and ignored their plight. Now the Jews of the north are refugees as well. Fleeing their homes and hiding underground, they now feel the pain that their brothers have endured for the past year. The message to Israel is that we, The Jewish People, are immediate family. Deuteronomy 14:13, "It will be that if you hearken to My commandments that I command you today, to love Hashem, your G-d, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I shall provide rain, that you may gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil." When the Nation of Israel is deserving, Hashem will bless us, as a people, with rain. When we are not deserving, the drought will affect us all. There is no distinction between the righteous in the Land and the wicked. If we are not worthy as a nation we will all suffer as a nation. Our Rabbi's explained "We are similar to a group of people in a boat. One suddenly began to knock a hole in the boat. Said the others to him: What are you doing? He answered: What concern is it of yours; am I not knocking the hole under my side? They replied: but the water will rise and sink the entire boat." Maimonides writes "It is a commandment to love each and every one of Israel as himself." The more we resist the reality of our unity and fight to keep standing the synthetic barriers that separate us, the more trials and tribulations G-d will place for us to help us grasp this truth. We stand in Jerusalem and hear tonight that three reserve battalions are to be called up and we do not yet know if we are among them. If our phones do ring and we are summoned, we will not be afraid but grateful. Grateful for the opportunity to show our love for the Jews of the north and the south, of America and the world. Fighting for The Land of Israel, the homeland of the Jewish People, is the ultimate testament of love and is therefore the highest level of meaning and happiness we could ever desire. To all of our brothers and sisters in Israel and around the world, it is time to unite. We must stand for what is right with courage and moral clarity. We must understand that true peace is not acquired by ignoring evil but rather by overcoming it. We must recognize that our fates are intertwined and our pain is shared. When we stand united no enemy can touch us. Or chadash al tzion tair, v'nizke culanu bimhera l'oro. Baruch ata Hashem yotzer Ha'meorot. May You shine a new light on Zion, and may we all speedily merit it's Light. Blessed are You, Hashem, Creator of all Light. TUNE IN TO FOX NEWS THIS FRIDAY (JUNE 28) AT 2:15PM ISRAEL TIME (7:15AM NY TIME) TO HEAR JEREMY GIMPEL, AN AMERICAN BORN RESERVE COMMANDER IN THE ISRAELI ARMY, SHARE A REFRESHING AND ENLIGHTENING PERSPECTIVE ON THE WAR IN ISRAEL. To contact Ari and Jeremy please visit www.thelandofisrael.com |
|
ELON MOREH NEEDS FUNDS TO HELP ISRAELIS FROM THE NORTH
Posted by Lee Caplan, July 27, 2006. |
|
p>Pinchas Fuchs visited our community several months ago and gave a
wonderful presentation on his beautiful community of Elon Moreh, and
he is also a good friend of mine. Tizku lemitzvos.
Lee |
|
Pinchas Fuchs Together with many other communities
Cost: $20 (100 ns) per person per day We are asking friends and supporters
TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS
Contact Lee Caplan by email at leescaplan@yahoo.com |
|
CHOCOLATE
Posted by Linda Sog, July 27, 2006. |
To send a Hug,
Click here.
Contact Linda Sog at linda@lindasog.com
|
|
HAZBALLAH ATTACKED UNIFIL TWICE THIS WEEK
Posted by Avodah 15, July 27, 2006. |
|
Notice: in this instance, the UN observer was injured badly enough to be evacuated to an Israeli hospital. Where they saved his life. |
|
Hizballah Attacked UNIFIL Twice This Week
Neither the mainstream media nor Kofi Annan have mentioned it, but Hizballah has attacked UNIFIL observers twice this week. (Hat tip: Larry.) From the UN's own press releases: 24 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. Notice: in this instance, the UN observer was injured badly enough to be evacuated to an Israeli hospital. Where they saved his life. Not a word of condemnation from Kofi Annan for Hizballah. And not a word of gratitude for Israel, for saving a UN peacekeeper?s life. 25 July 2006: This morning, Hezbollah opened small arms fire at a UNIFIL convoy consisting of two armored personnel carriers (APC) on the road between Kunin and Bint Jubayl. There was some damage to the APCs, but no casualties, and the convoy was obliged to return to Kunin. Contact Avodah 15 by email at avodah15@aol.com |
|
SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE
Posted by Buddy Macy, July 27, 2006. |
|
This was written by Richard A. Berg, Ph.D., whose area of expertise is in Military and Investigative Psychology. He lives in Moshav Neve Yamin, Israel. Contact him at Choil15@aol.com |
|
SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE. THE POLITICIANS ARE KILLING ISRAELI TROOPS The civilian politicians running our government here in Israel know nothing about warfare, strategy, tactics, realities. Olmert served in the IDF as a damn journalist. Peretz was a nothing. We are losing a lot of Israeli troops because the politicians want to avoid "innocent civilian casualties" among the Lebanese. The army dropped thousands, no -- millions of leaflets on southern Lebanon telling the "innocent civilians" to get out -- there was going to be an attack. The army broadcast that same message, over and over again on Lebanese radio and television. They set up phone banks and called the "innocent civilians" on the phone and warned them to leave. They flew over with loud speakers and warned them to leave. They warned them with loudspeakers on trucks. They warned them again and again and again: LEAVE -- YOU ARE IN A DANGEROUS WAR ZONE! Besides that, how much intelligence does it take to figure out that if you have a Hezbullah rocket launcher in your backyard, or your roof top has a Hezbullah sniper on it, or if your neighbor is storing a dozen missiles in his garage -- you are a target!! And, you should leave, NOW!! But the politicians will not allow the IDF to properly prepare the battlespace with artillery and airpower before sending in our troops. And, they will not allow the IDF to call up the reserves that are needed to attack Hezbullah with adequate force and tactics. And, they will not allow troops under fire to be given adequate air and artillery support. THEY ARE GETING OUR BOYS KILLED AND MAIMED. We need to tell the Israeli government: If it is in southern Lebanon now, it is the enemy. If it moves, kill it. If it is stationary, flatten it. If it shoots at IDF forces with a rifle, return fire with a battery of 155mm guns. If it is dug in, napalm it. THERE ARE NO INNOCENT CIVILIANS IN SOUTHERN LEBANON NOW. ONLY HEZBULLAH TERRORISTS AND THEIR SUPPORTERS. DO NOT PUT OUR BOYS AT GREATER RISK TO APPEASE THE EUROPEAN APPEASERS, AND LEFT WING NUT CASES IN THE U.S. FORGET WORLD OPINION UNTIL WE HAVE CRUSHED HEZBULLAH AND MADE THEM AN EXAMPLE FOR ANYONE ELSE WHO THINKS ABOUT HARMING ISRAEL. (Then we can "appologize for being bad." I, for one, have no intention of being the world's most highly moral corpse.) Rule of warfare number one (since the dawn of human time): The enemy must be attacked suddenly, mercilessly, unremittingly; with overwhelmingly dispropportionate force and violence; and, prosecuted until they and their supporters' ability and will to fight are completely crushed, and they surrender unconditionally. Compromise this rule -- restrain the military -- and there will be no peace -- ever. And, in the end, we will perish. Call, write, e-mail your U.S. government representatives, and Israeli government representatives -- tell them to unleash the IDF, to allow them to demolish Hezbullah for the sake of peace in the future If you are not part of the solution; you are part of the problem. Contact Buddy Macy at vegibud@aol.com |
|
ON MATTHIAS KUNTZEL'S ARTICLE
Posted by N.F. Karkowsky, July 27, 2006. |
|
[Editor's note: You can read Matthias Kuntzel's article below. |
|
To: Matthias Kuntzel, Spiegel Online. Thank you for your article, "Why Israel's Reaction is Right," at http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,428245,00.html. As the adult child of a mother who lost most of her family but somehow survived the Nazi concentration camps, I truly believe that, as a British historian said, the only thing necessary for evil for triumph in the world is for enough "good" people to do nothing. I also regret that most Europeans, even Germans, have forgotten Pastor Niebuhr's compelling warning that if the civilized world does not rally to the support of Israel in this initial terrible battle against terror, there will be no one to save them when the murderers come after them. You have made a cogent and compelling argument against the misplaced sympathies of your countrymen. I hope, for the sake of the civilized world, they read and understand your words. Thank you.
|
|
A 2006 EDITION OF "GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!"
Posted by Yoram Ettinger, July 27, 2006. |
|
Enclosed you'll find the lucid words of Captain Uri Lavie, a company commander of the Golani Brigade, which is fighting Hizballah terrorists along Israeli's northern border. May his words constitute the Pillar of Fire for Israel's leaders, and for western democracies, in their Third World War against Islamic terrorism. Yoram |
|
Captain Uri Lavie, a company commander in the Golani Brigade briefing his soldiers -- nine months into their military service -- a few minutes before joining the battle against Hizballah terrorists in southern Lebanon (Ha'aretz, July 27, 2006): "This is our time to rise to the challenge, put on the helmets and the bullet proof vests and make sure that the northern border is secure. We shall fulfill any mission in a most effective manner, in face of any challenge. If we shall not fulfill our mission we shall forfeit the right to exist. We shall not lose this war, which we did not start. Our duty is to serve as a defense force of the Jewish People, and to secure the peace of mind of the civilians in northern Israel. If we shall not do it, no one will do it in our place. For two thousand years we waited for the establishment of the Jewish State, and we are not going to roll back because a bunch of terrorists assume that they can scare us. He who cannot defend Liberty does not deserve Liberty. If we will not be able to fight until our last drop of blood, in order to secure the Liberty of our People on its own soil, our People will not enjoy Liberty. There is time to talk and there is time to act. At this time, when missiles and Katyushas afflict the North all the way to Haifa, in addition to the two kidnapped soldiers, the ten soldiers killed and the dozens injured, it is time to fight and not to talk. We are the force, which has been chosen to fight, and we shall perform in the most effective manner. I will be the first one to enter the battle and the last one to come out, and will do everything in my power to get you out alive and well. On Friday, with G-D's help, we will rejoin with our families. However, I cannot do it alone. Once we cross the northern border, you should exercise full alert and full responsibility toward your fellow soldier." Ambassador Yoram Ettinger is a consultant on US-Israel relations as well as the Chairman of Special Projects at the Ariel Center for Policy Research. Formerly the Minister for Congressional Affairs to Israel's Embassy in Washington, DC, Ettinger also served as Consul General of Israel to the Southwestern US. He is a former editor of Contemporary Mideast Backgrounder, and is the author of the Jerusalem Cloakroom series of reports. Contact him at yoramtex@netvision.net.il |
|
HAS ANYONE NOTICED?
Posted by Sergio Tessa (HaDaR), July 27, 2006. |
|
We keep on hearing by the propaganda lying masters of the left saying that "we sacrifice our soldiers to defend you settlers" and other baloney like this. Has anyone noticed that 3 of the 9 soldiers killed in combat yesterday, fighting with the special units of Golani in Lebanon, were RELIGIOUS SETTLERS, 2 from the Jewish village of Eli, in the Shomron - on Olmert's chop-block - and one from Bet Horon, near Jerusalem?... Contact Sergio Tessa (HaDaR) at HaDaR-Israel@verizon.net |
|
OPEN LETTER TO NICHOLAS KRISTOF
Posted by David Meir-Levi, July 27, 2006. |
|
Dear Mr. Kristof, I became a fan of yours when you began speaking out against the Arab Moslem Sudanese genocide of black African Christians and Animists in south Sudan, and against the Arab Janjaweed genocide against the Black African Moslems of Darfur. You were perspecatious enough to see the evil, and courageous enough to call that evil by its name. You seem to have lost that perspicacity when it comes to the Arab-Israel conflict. In your essays of 7/24/06 (Palo Alto Daily News, "Israel could learn restraint from Spain") and 7/26/06 (ibid, "Israel repeats our mistake"), you fall in to errors of fact, and you misunderstand the nature of the Israel-Arab conflict and its combatants. A.) You discuss Hezbollah and Hamas as though these were your typical run-of-the-mill off-the-shelf belligerents, akin to those that Europe and the USA have experienced for centuries. They are not! They are religiously motivated genocidal terrorists. Few recognize that this conflict is sui generis, in terms of its belligerents, its dynamics, its geo-political parameters, and its amenability to resolution. Let's review these three misunderstandings. A.) The nature of Hezbollah and Hamas Unlike the belligerents in other wars, who fought over borders or resources, Hezbollah and Hamas are fighting Israel because they want to destroy the Jewish state and genocide its Jews. They are not fighting for land, or for independence, or for freedom or civil rights. They are fighting in order to destroy a sovereign state and genocide its inhabitants. As Abbas Massawi (former Hezbollah leader) said: "We are not fighting you (Israel) because we want something from you. We are fighting you because we want to destroy you." Similarly, Hassan Nasrallah (current Hezbollah leader) has been quoted in Arab newspapers: "It is good that most Jews are in Israel. That will make it easier for us to destroy them." And Hamas leaders expressed no less of a commitment to the genocide of Jews. Sheikh Akhmed Yassin (former Hamas leader) spoke openly of his intent to destroy Israel "before the end of the first quarter of the 21st century." And his late successor, Dr. Abdul Aziz Rantisi, raged that "...there is no place for a Jewish state in Moslem Lands. We will destroy Israel even if we must do it one Jew at a time." And their deeds substantiate their words. Hezbollah and Hamas are both religious Islamic Jihadist genocidal terrorist paramilitary armies. They are terrorists in the fullest sense of the word. They target Israeli civilians for random killing, and rejoice in those murders even though such destruction offers no tactical or strategic advance. They are indifferent even to their own people's lives, as they intentionally and routinely use Arab civilian sites for their weapons and camps and ammunition storage. They are "teflon terrorists" in the sense that there is no institution or regimen by which they can be called to account: thus, for example, they can and do use UN camps and personnel as human shields. B.) The Nature of the Conflict 1.) The dynamics of the conflict This is an existential conflict. Victory for Hezbollah or Hamas means the destruction of Israel. Nothing less. Theirs is a war of genocide, to be waged eternally "...until victory or martyrdom." As such, theirs is a war that is not amenable to compromise or concessions made in the name of "advancing the peace process." In fact, there can be no peace process, because ultimately there can be no peace with Israel. In this war, a cease-fire is not a first step toward armistice, negotiations, reconciliation, and peace. Quite the opposite, a cease-fire is an opportunity to re-group, re-arm, re-load and re-deploy to be better prepared for the next round. Similarly, Israeli concessions have brought no movement toward cessation of hostilities, negotiations, or peace. When Israel has made concessions, the terrorists have simply pocketed the concessions and continued their terror war. One can deduce this quite readily from the 70-year history of the Arab war against Israel. Since 1937 the UK, UN, USA and /or Israel have offered peaceful resolution no less than 15 times. But each offer has been met with rejection, violence, murder, terrorism and war. Israel has successfully traded land for peace with Egypt and Jordan, and offered to do the same with Syria and the Palestinian Authority. But concessions and offers of more concessions have not quelled Hamas or Hezbollah in their lust for Israel's destruction. For the most recent examples, note Israel's withdrawals from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Israel withdrew unilaterally and unconditionally from Lebanon in May, 2000. The UN declared that withdrawal to be complete, and thus Israel no longer occupied any Lebanese territory. That should have ended Hezbollah's 15-year terrorist war against Israel: a war which Hezbollah spokespersons averred was a sacred war to liberate Moslem territory from Israeli occupation. But Hezbollah continued its terror offensive. Using Israel's retention of the Sheba'a farms area as an excuse [despite the fact that the UN had officially declared that area to be a part of Syria which Israel conquered in 1967, and therefore in no way a part of Lebanese sovereignty], Hezbollah kidnapped, tortured and killed Israeli soldiers just a few months after the withdrawal. It then went on to randomly fire a variety of rockets in to Israeli civilian territory, periodically deploy armed gunmen to attack Israeli military and civilian emplacements, and attempted several more kidnappings -- unsuccessfully until July 12. The same is true of the Gaza Strip. Israel withdrew unilaterally and unconditionally from the Gaza Strip in August, 2005. Instead of a cessation of hostilities, Hamas declared a victory for terrorism, promised more terror, and initiated a series of intense Qassam and mortar bombardments into Israeli civilian communities, firing more than 1,250 rockets in the months since the Israeli withdrawal, killing nearly a dozen Israelis and injuring hundreds. And during that time Hamas (or any of its dozen or so kindred terror gangs operating with its approval) launched dozens of drive-by shootings, road-side bombs, car bombs, sniper attacks, attempted kidnappings, and almost a dozen suicide bombers (only one of whom was successful). 2. The Scope of the Conflict a.) Time There is no time constraint for this conflict. The conflict began in earnest in 1922. As leaders of both terror armies have said, the conflict may go on for decades or even centuries. Preparations for a decades-long conflict are already in place, as Hezbollah and Hamas and the Palestinian Authority teach children from pre-school onward that they must hate Jews, hate Israelis, hate Israel, and hate the West. Arab children are taught that suicide bombers are roll models, and death guarantees an eternity of sexual bliss as long as you take a Jew with you when you go. "We buy paradise with Jewish blood" is a kindergarten song. "We knock on heaven's door with the skulls of Jews" is an oft-heard chant. And Hamas' covenant incorporates into the terrorists' long-range plan the ancient post-Qur'anic apocalyptic teaching that the world will enjoy redemption, and the dead will resurrect, only when Moslems have killed all the world's Jews. Only by finishing what Hitler began can the Moslem world enjoy its end-of-days scenario when all the world will worship only Allah. Hezbollah and Hamas have, literally, all the time in the world. b.) Geo-Political Space Israel is at war with far more than just Hezbollah and Hamas. And more countries than Israel are at war with these terrorist forces. The involvement of Iran and el-Qaeda raise this to the level of a truly global conflict. The Middle Eastern theatre of operations is merely a starting point. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are allied with Iran; and Iran manages Hezbollah through its proxy, Syria. As such, Israel is merely one of a number of Western targets. As Iran's president has unabashedly declared, Israel is to be obliterated in a nuclear holocaust, and the USA is to be destroyed as well (although he did not specify the mechanism). Iran is allied with el-Qaeda; and as Osama has said often in his television speeches, his enemy, first and foremost, is "global non-belief." Global non-belief means us: you and me and all the non-Moslems of the world, and even those Moslems who are not quite Moslem enough, per Osama's definition. As Iran's terror army in Lebanon, Hezbollah is carrying out Iranian terrorist intentions. And, indeed, hundreds of Iranian Revolutionary Guard agents are in Lebanon working with Hezbollah. Very suspiciously, approximately 60,000 Iranian "tourists" have made their way to Lebanon over the past few years, and have disappeared into the variegated fabric of Lebanese society. Iran's growing military force in Lebanon is waging war against Israel by supporting and re-enforcing Hezbollah, and Iranian Revolutionary Guard members have been killed in fire fights with the Israeli army. Iran is also "testing the waters" to see how the West, and especially the USA, will react to what is essentially a de facto declaration of war. Iranian troops in Lebanon, warring against an ally of the USA, is tantamount to Iran warring against the USA. That, combined with President Mahmoud Akhmedi-Nejad's openly avowed intent to use WMDs against an American ally and to wage war against the USA, is as clear a declaration of war as ever there was. And just in case someone thinks that Iran is only kidding (you know, just Moslem rhetoric about WMDs ), note the recent article in The Sunday Times (UK), by former Conservative MP Michael Portillo, who told his British countrymen that, their hostility for Israel and the USA aside, "The bloody truth is that Israel's war is our war." Portillo went on to argue that given the threat that Iran and Hezbollah pose to Britain itself, "for us to turn against Israel and America would be perverse and potentially suicidal." Strengthening the view that opposition to war against Iran and its proxies is suicidal, it was reported Sunday (UK Daily Mail) that Bulgarian border guards along their border with Romania had intercepted a British truck filled with radioactive materials for building a so-called dirty bomb. The components, which included dangerous quantities of radioactive caesium 137 and americium-beryllium, were stored in 10 lead-lined boxes addressed to the Iranian Ministry of Defense. According to the Daily Mail, this was the second time in less than a year that a British shipment of nuclear materials had been stopped by Bulgarian border guards. Last August, Bulgaria stopped a shipment of zirconium silicate, which can be used as a component of a nuclear warhead, at its border with Turkey en route to Iran. Moreover, Akhmedi-Nejad made clear his intentions to his Moslem allies as well. The opening paragraph of his recent letter to President Bush invites the President to lead the western world in to mass conversion to Islam. To western minds, this is a drole Moslem fantasy. In Islamic history, this is the religiously required offer prior to invasion: "Convert, or we make war upon you until you are Moslem or dead." That was the way that Mohammed did it with the Byzantine and Sassanian empires. The offer of conversion must precede hostilities. If that offer is rejected, then Jihad is justified. Akhmedi-Nejad has made the requisite offer. Bush's disregard for the offer now legitimizes, in Islamic religious tradition, a Moslem invasion of the USA or against USA forces or allies. El-Qaeda has set up terror cells in the Gaza Strip, and with Israel's pullout in 2005, these cells operate openly and unimpeded. Gaza's open border with Egypt (for which we must thank Condoleeza Rice) gives those el-Qaeda operatives easy contact with the four el-Qaeda bases recently established in the southern Sinai (much to the consternation of Egypt, which lacks the military ability to attack and shut down these bases). Hamas' allegiance with el-Qaeda brings it into the circle of enmity that predicates Osama's attacks against the USA and other Western targets. In a message broadcast by al-Jazeera recently, Ayman az-Zawahiri said that al-Qaeda views "all the world as a battlefield ... and that the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah will ... not be ended with cease-fires or agreements...It is a Jihad for the sake of Allah and will last until our religion prevails from Spain to Iraq." It is important to recall, at this point, that both Hezbollah and Hamas are the USA's avowed enemies in their own right.
In sum, this is not a regional war between Israel and some terrorists. This is a new front in the Islamofascist war against Western Civilization's "non-belief" that Iran and much of the Arab world have been waging since November 4, 1979. C. Inappropriate recommendations It is obvious from the above, that this conflict is sui generis. Israel, the UK, the UN, and the USA have tried every imaginable approach to a negotiated resolution. Peace offers, offers of statehood and independence, invitations to negotiations, negotiations with terrorist leaders even as they launch terror attacks, accepting partition, ceding territory, good will gestures, releases of prisoners, third party super power intervention, aid to Moslem states, repeated concessions, even Israel's acquiescence to the Arab demand that the Arabs' desired end of the negotiation process must be guaranteed at the beginning (a very non-western concept of negotiation), and even unilateral concessions with no strings attached... all these western ways of resolving conflict have drawn only derision from the Arab terrorists, and more terrorism. Nusrallah has no need, nor desire, for negotiations, concessions, or good will gestures. Hezbollah does not seek a cease-fire, and has no interest in diplomacy except where it can use that diplomacy to counter Israel's military victories. Their goal is destruction and genocide. Tthe terrorists have plenty of time; and thanks to Iran and Saudi Arabia, plenty of money. So what works? The nature of the conflict, and the fanatic religious genocidal commitments of its terrorist belligerents to a vision of apocalyptic world domination, all demonstrate that the only way that this conflict can end with western civilization intact is for Israel's terrorist enemies to be brought to their knees, reduced to acquiescing to unconditional surrender -- just as were Germany and Japan in World War 2. Victory must not be anything less than the destruction of Hezbollah and Hamas, the death or incarceration of their leaders, total disarmament, dispersal of all rank-and-file, and rendering both groups illegal as institutions, with laws against their hate-speech and hate-teach -- just as was done to the Nazis. Anything less is defeat... defeat for Israel and for Western Civilization in our defensive war against el-Qaeda and the forces of Islamic terrorist triumphalism. Victory for Hezbollah in the current Lebanon war is tantamount to a victory for Iran and el-Qaeda over the forces of western "non-belief"; a giant step forward in the Islamofascist supremacist triumphalist terror war for Islam uber alles. David Meir-Levi is an American-born Israeli, currently living in Palo Alto. His expertise is in Near Eastern studies and the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is Director of Peace and Education at Israel Peace Initiative (www.ipi-usa.org). Contact him at david_meirlevi@hotmail.com |
|
WHY DISPROPORTIONATE RETRIBUTION IS RIGHT
Posted by Jock L. Falkson, July 27, 2006. |
|
Ben Gurion In his article "The causes of war: Hizbullah's and Hamas's grievances" (Jerusalem Post 25 July 2006) Alexander Wright quotes Ben-Gurion as having said that "any attack against Israel will be met with disproportionate retribution." Wright* adds that "While the casualties of this war are heart-wrenching, since when is war supposed to be proportionate? When a state is attacked, would it make sense to strike back with an equal amount of force, and give your enemy space and time to fight back? What war has not produced innocent casualties?" (*Research Associate with the Centre for International Political Studies.) Eisenhower Germany's initial successes in WW2 were undoubtedly produced by disproportionate attacks. Montgomery's attack on Rommel at Alamein fell into this category. So did Eisenhower's "Operation Overlord". Israel conquered Egypt, Syria and Jordan by its surprise attack in 1967. Sadat almost won the Yom Kippur War this way -- he misunderstood Israel's resilience and was taken by surprise by Sharon's unexpected maneuver. Kofi Annan Kofi Annan and the other armchair proponents of proportionality never commanded a victorious army. All they are doing is repeating the most recent slogan of the Palestinians who are at their PR best when portraying themselves as victims. Shock And Awe Based on the result of wars in the last 50 years one thing is plain: if you want to win a war you should attack by surprise (if possible) but certainly with overwhelming force. That the US still believes this is manifest from its attack on Iraq in the "Shock and Awe" operation. Krauthammer In a criticism of the Powell Doctrine (April 20, 2001) eminent columnist Charles Krauthammer writes: "If you respond proportionately, you allow the enemy to set the parameters and level of the fighting. You grant him the initiative. In Vietnam, proportionality brought us endless losses and painful retreat." Simpson In an internet letter July 24, one Peter Simpson admonishes Sky News for accepting Hezbollah's figures of civilian casualties. He writes: "It is pure conjecture to assume that virtually all are real civilians caught up in this conflict or whether most are not in reality Hizbollah fighters/ supporters including those who allow their homes and thus their wives and children's lives to be put at risk through housing/hiding rockets and the like." Friendly Fire In fact Hezbollah have not published their casualty figures unlike Israel which does so daily. Moreover Israel makes military mistakes too as does any army engaged in a vicious war. Why the world does not accept Israel's mistakes is puzzling. Haven't we, sadly and unfortunately, killed enough of our own soldiers by friendly fire? Where's The Benefit? Especially tragic and unfortunate are the deaths of the four UN personnel. I have previously made the point that military actions are taken to produce benefits. Kofi Annan's hasty judgment in this light is certainly wrong - unless he believes Israel deliberately courted the world's displeasure. For there was neither any military nor PR benefit. If Israel did not make a mistake as Annan prefers to believe, would he kindly explain the nature of Israel's benefit? Well of course he can't. Neither can anyone else. Not even the Palestinians can seriously suggest that Israel is so stupid. That we would go to so much trouble just to shoot ourselves in the foot every now and again. (Indeed both feet.) Because apparently, we have an unexplained need to motivate the majority in the United Nations to hate us all the more. Missiles And Civilians Civilian casualties are indeed deplorable. So let us then remember that Hamas and Hezbollah have already shot over 2,000 rockets plus uncounted numbers of mortars into Israel's towns and cities specifically intended to kill and wound Israel's civilians. We do not complain that they have not given us prior notice to save ourselves, as Israel has done. We don't expect decent conduct from terrorists. To be put on Jock Falkson's email list, contact him at falkson@barak-online.net |
|
THE ONE THING THAT MAKES US VULNERABLE TO OUR ENEMIES
Posted by Rabbi Yaakov Palatnik, July 27, 2006. |
|
The worst thing the Jewish People could do, the one thing that would make us vulnerable to our enemies was ... Twice in our history, our enemies have destroyed Jerusalem and the holy Temple that stood near where the Western Wall is today. Ancient Babylonia and, later, the Roman Empire came and brought their destruction upon the Jewish Nation. "Was there a spiritual blemish, a lack of greatness in the Jewish Nation, that could have led to these events"? asked the sages of long ago. They answered that the Jewish People indeed did have a spiritual blemish that allowed those events to happen. What was it? Shabbat? Kosher laws? Not going to shul or praying? No, they said, it wasn't any of that. Senseless hatred among the Jewish People was the source of those events, said the sages. Senseless hatred between members of the Jewish people. Senseless hatred means hating someone because they are not perfect, make mistakes or show lack of character. They never did anything particularly to us, but we see their mistakes with all the power of an electron microscope. Those of you who have older children love them to pieces for sure. Do you also see their mistakes? You probably do, in Technicolor. But you love them anyway. It's harder to do that with other family members, people we work with, members of our community. We can see another's mistakes. We can't give up our faculty of judgement on moral matters. But we can judge the action, not the person. The action may be wrong, but it doesn't in any way mean we are better people than those making the mistake. We should try to love others in spite of their mistakes, as people often do for their children. This love is part of the "spiritual armour" of our people. For more on Tisha B'Va (the Ninth of Av) and the Nine Days, visit www.aish.com. A Viewing Suggestion I know we are all focused on events in Israel. I recommend Hannity and Colmes on Fox News Channel at 9 tonight (Thursday, July 27). I make no comment on the politics of the show, but the hosts will be examining the new movie Obsession on the Islamic battle to fight Western and Jewish values. I personally know the movie maker and 100 percent recommend that you learn for yourself about this remarkable film. Shabbat Shalom. Good Shabbos. Contact Rabbi Palatnik by email at ypalatnik@aish.com |
|
WW III, THE WAR OF LIES TARGETING JEWS, PARTS II, III
Posted by Professor Eugene Narrett, July 26, 2006. |
|
The entirety of this essay will be posted on www.israelendtimes.com on July 26; please visit and consider the breadth of the threat to the Jewish people. |
|
The Global State & Islam, Synergy of Interests, Means and Goals
The battles in Lebanon between the Islamic "army of Allah" (Hizbollah) and the armed forces of Israel (IDF) reveal distinctive historical, geopolitical, and ideological features about the drive toward a global state. For one, the latest in a series of mostly secular -- socialist governments of Israel is fighting a proxy war against the interests of the Jewish people, the people for whom the state was meant to serve as a sovereign source of identity and protection. It imperils rather than protects their interests because it is not a war but a bloody and utterly inadequate police action, part of an ongoing war of attrition that the ruling echelons, civilian and military, do not intend to win. Unless there is a fundamental change in the ruling cadres of their state, the people of Israel will have to get used to living in or near bomb shelters, and with the imminent threat of extinction via nuclear, biological or chemical weapons attack based in Lebanon, Syria or Iran. Israel is fighting this proxy war against Hizbollah, part of the government of Lebanon which has become, with its Shiite Muslim majority a de facto part of Iran in its drive to dominate not only the Middle East but the Islamic world. But Israel is fighting not only on behalf of the United States and Europe, the Europe that never tires of harming Israel via its media, economic boycotts and military aid to jihadist states; Israel also is fighting on behalf of the Anglo-American protectorates of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and now Iraq, assuming America can pull Iraq from the Shiite into the Sunni Muslim and pseudo-western camp. It is a bitter irony for the Jewish people .... the Global State and Islam, Synergies The powers of the world have awakened jihad to facilitate their imposition of the Age of Aquarius, a world of forgetting, sensory rapture, chronic terror and promises of security in order to create "a world that is free... free of Jews" (Hannah Newman, the Rainbow Swastika). Israel and the Jews are to be crippled, not utterly destroyed if the powers play their hands perfectly. Why do they not want to utterly destroy Israel yet? Because both power-blocks need Israel as a catalyst of Islamic rage and the crises that ensue (and must be managed by various diplomatic and economic processes); they need Israeli medical, communications, military and security technologies and skills. And they need superbly trained and brave Israeli soldiers to bleed for them in the eternal end game... Israel will continue to sacrifice its people to serve the interests of the power-blocks that war on it so long as it has client regimes and dominant classes that dislike or reject Judaism. The support of the Olmert administration by most power-blocks (even by fiercely anti-Israel Islamic states like the House of Saud) indicates how sure they are of its commitment to the further expulsion of Jews and constriction of Israel. Indeed, on July 26 Olmert announced his intention to continue expelling Jews from their land. The interlocking parts of the competing blocks, their divergent self-interests, their intense and irrational hatred of Jews, and also the spark of self-respect and self-preservation in the Jews of Israel all are wildcards that may overturn this intrinsically unstable game of crisis creation and management. The overturning may be apocalyptic in scope. It will come -- the only question is how soon. Professor Eugene Narrett teaches writing and Literature at Boston University. He is the author of hundreds of articles, columns and reviews on politics, American culture and the arts. He is completing a study on Romanticism and the longterm decline of Western Culture. He writes often on subjects relating to Israel and Judaism and is a weekly columnist for the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham, Massachusetts. His new book is "Israel and the Endtimes". Contact him at Culturtalk@aol.com |
|
HAARETZ GOT IT -- FINALLY
Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, July 26, 2006. |
|
Dear friends, Even the liberal-left Haaretz newspaper sees the light on
the subject. The editorial is entitled
"Only after a clear success." It is archived at
Bravo, Haaretz! This time you got it! Took some time, but finally you got it... |
| The number of Israelis who have died thus far in the fighting in Lebanon and on the home front rose yesterday, following a bitter battle at Bint Jbail, and now stands at over 50. This harsh fact sharpens doubts about the wisdom with which this campaign is being run -- a different issue than its purpose and justice. It is joined by an incident in which four United Nations observers in southern Lebanon were killed by an accidental Israel Defense Forces strike. Most of the peacekeeping burden in southern Lebanon is carried by UNIFIL. The very real danger to UN Blue Helmets may reduce countries' willingness to contribute units to a force that the United States is trying to set up in Lebanon as part of a new security arrangement. In the 28 years since its establishment, UNIFIL failed to achieve its mission of implementing Security Council Resolution 425 and contributing to the restoration of security and order along the border. Instead of serving as a buffer between the PLO, and later Hezbollah, and Israel, it was a loose sieve that offered immunity to the planners of attacks. Therefore, the American effort to establish a new multinational force instead of the weak UNIFIL is justified, as is the approach of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is working toward a stable cease-fire -- in other words, a cease-fire after Hezbollah is weakened. A premature cease-fire means a cessation of fire between salvos, and not an end to it. Hezbollah's leadership will be able to claim victory, arguing that it issued a call for a cease-fire immediately after it abducted two IDF soldiers, but that after two weeks of exchanging blows, their demand for negotiations were finally accepted. They will recoup their losses, with the generous support of their financiers in Tehran, and at a convenient moment, renew the fire. A serious blow to Hezbollah -- in order to bolster the political establishment in Lebanon, which objects to being held hostage by agents of Iran and Syria -- is essential in order to fashion a security arrangement, which will also be based on the multinational force. In order to deliver such a blow, the IDF must act faster, with greater force, in order to significantly lower -- to as close to zero as possible -- the number of Katyushas fired against Israel. The exclusive focus on the nearest ridge, with Bint Jbail at its center, will not bring about the desired results. If the rocket launchers that strike Haifa are further to the north, in the area of Tyre, control of Bint Jbail will not contribute to their destruction. The army's fighting ranks are characterized by determination and even enthusiasm, but the higher command ranks and the politicians look as if they have been frozen in a huge ice cube -- the trauma of the Lebanon War. The concern that they may be repeating that unfortunate adventure is paralyzing their steps to such an extent that they are themselves creating a new trauma, that of a home front helplessly being hit by Katyushas. Israel cannot allow itself to be drawn into a war of attrition, with mounting casualties both on the front and in the rear, that will end in a weak whisper of a draw -- which is effectively a victory for Hezbollah. The public in Israel understands very well what Rice also understands: a hasty end to the military operations, without any gains, will result in a renewal of the fighting in a few weeks. Yuval Zaliouk writes the Truth Provider columns. To subscribe, send an email to ynz@netvision.net.il |
|
A RIDICULOUS PHONE CALL FROM AVENTIS
Posted by Salah Choudhury, July 26, 2006. |
|
I received a phone call on 25th July 2006 from Mr. Mamun, Administrative manager of AVENTIS Pharmaceuticals in Bangladesh. Our Commercial Section had been sending copies of Blitz on complimentary basis to hundreds of potential advertisers since the launching of this newspaper. For the first time, this gentleman from AVENTIS called our office and looked for me. He told me that their company is not willing to receive copies of Blitz on complimentary basis as "this is a Zionist newspaper promoting ideas against Islam". I was completely surprised to see such reaction from a person, who works with a multi-national company. I told him, if they are affraid of the copies of Weekly Blitz, they should know for sure, most of the technology and formulas used by Aventis had also been invented by Jewish researchers. In this case, if they hate to read Blitz, why don't they close down their business, which runs with the formulas of our Jewish brothers and sisters. He replied, Blitz promotes some ideas, which he feels would seriously hamper the religious beliefs of the people in his company. So, anyway, this is one example where the companies are not only refraining from advertising in Blitz, they even do not wish to see the copies of this newspaper. To them, Blitz itself is a 'horror'. But, we have great news too. Every day, number of our readers are increasing. People are sending write ups from different countries for publication. Above all, Blitz is gradually becoming one of the most influential newspapers in Bangladesh. The writer is a journalist, columnist, author, and editor of "Weekly Blitz" in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Email him at salahuddinshoaibchoudhury@yahoo.com |
|
DOES ISRAEL HAVE A RIGHT TO EXIST? DOES THE U.S.
Posted by Shaul Ceder, July 26, 2006. |
|
This was written by Michael Medved,
an American nationally syndicated conservative radio talk show host, film critic and author.
It appeared
on the TownHall website:
|
|
It should come as no surprise that some of the same angry leftists who stridently deny Israel's "right to exist" similarly challenge the claims to nationhood of the United States of America. After all, the two allied and embattled democracies achieved independence in the same way -- the patient settlement of largely desolate and under-populated land, the building of a new civilization virtually from scratch, and a long, bloody fight against determined, sometimes implacable opposition. In fact, Israel boasts a far stronger "right to exist" than does its American counterpart (or many other nations) because of its ancient claim to the disputed land, and long-standing endorsement by international organizations. In order to place these realities in proper perspective, it's first necessary to reject some thirty years of wildly irresponsible anti-Israel propaganda. First of all, it's not true in any sense that the modern Jewish State ever supplanted or destroyed an existing nation of "Palestine." From the time of definitive destruction of the ancient Jewish commonwealth in 70 A.D., the land that comprises the current State of Israel never enjoyed independent existence but, rather, passed back and forth among competing world empires -- Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Crusader, Mamaluke, Ottoman and British. Over the course of more than 1,800 years, no nation with the name "Palestine" appeared on any maps, anywhere. The distinguished Arab-American historian Philip Hitti, professor at Princeton University, testified to the Anglo American Committee in 1946: 'There is no such thing as 'Palestine' in history, absolutely not." Mark Twain visited the Holy Land in 1867, shortly before the commencement of modern Jewish resettlement, and described it as "a desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds -- a silent, mournful expanse" A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action." According to the careful population figures of the Ottoman Empire, in 1882 (at the very beginning of the modern, organized Jewish immigration back to the ancestral home), the total population of land between the Jordan and the Sea was less than 250,000 -- in an area that today supports ten million people, Israelis and Palestinians. The resettlement of the sparsely populated Holy Land by the descendants of its ancient inhabitants, however, did not take place solely in the modern era. Throughout Jewish history, waves of returnees came back to the sacred soil of their ancestors. In the 8th and 9th centuries, A.D., Jewish immigrants re-established major communities in Jerusalem and Tiberias; by the 11th Century, they had built new communities in Jaffa, Ashkelon, Caesarea and Rafah. In the 16th Century, more Jewish immigrants developed the famous center of mysticism in Safed and beginning in the 1700's religious scholars and pilgrims intensely repopulated Jerusalem. The Jewish connection to Israel, in other words, remained impassioned and unbroken for some three thousand years, while the British connection with North American began only in 1607 (with Jamestown) and 1620 (with the Pilgrims at Plymouth). No European settlers to the New World claimed an ancient connection to the land they discovered, developed, and gradually populated. Moreover, the Native Americans who preceded them came to the Western Hemisphere across the land bridge from Asia at the very latest some 13,000 years before the White Men arrived, while the Arabs appeared in Israel for the first time in the 7th Century. If opponents of the modern Jewish State argue that Israelis have no meaningful claim on the land they occupy then on what basis do today's Americans have a stake in the vast continent once inhabited by millions of members of hundreds of Indian tribes? Moreover, the Jewish title to the land of Israel received long-standing recognition from international organizations that didn't even exist at the time of American independence. On July 24, 1922, the 52 governments of the League of Nations formally recognized and endorsed the British Balfour Declaration calling for "reconstituting... a national home for the Jewish people" in the land with which that people enjoyed "historical connections." Twenty-five years later, the United Nations (successor body to the League of Nations) validated this title with the partition plan, dividing the British Mandate in the area into two states -- one Jewish, one Arab. The Arab leadership violently rejected that solution, but after Israel's bloody war for Independence the UN recognized Israel as a full member state in 1949. Unlike Israel, the United States won no international recognition prior to the commencement of our own war for Independence; we only won that acknowledgment after the courage and sacrifice of the patriots who waged our Revolutionary struggle. In the end, an estimated 25,000 Americans died in the war -- nearly 1% of the Colonial population at the time. In a haunting similarity, Israel lost 6,373 fighters in its War of Independence -- nearly 1% of the Jewish population of nation at the time. In the case of the American struggle, final victory only became possible through the direct intervention of France, and the participation (at the climactic battle of Yorktown) of a French fleet and army of some 20,000. In the case of Israel, foreign assistance remained strictly limited (the US imposed an arms embargo on Israel and the rest of the Middle East in 1947) and no foreign armies of any kind ever fought alongside the beleaguered Israelis. In other words, the founders of the modern Jewish State built their nation on the same basis as the founders of the United States -- with generations of building, toil, business development, land reclamation, settlement, and sacrifice in battle. Tel Aviv -- by far the largest city in today's Israel, and the nation's financial center -- was founded in 1909 and built from nothing, mostly on reclaimed sand dunes. In Jerusalem, Israel's capital and second largest city, some two-thirds of the population lives in new neighborhoods built on empty land after Jewish immigrants began moving outside the Old City walls in the nineteenth century. Apparently, those who make the idiotic (but occasionally well-meaning) suggestion that the Jews of Israel should save the world some trouble and relocate in Florida, or Australia, or the moon, remain unaware of this history. The idea that literally millions of people would uproot their homes -- along with their businesses, parks, universities, museums, freeways and so forth -- makes no more sense than expecting residents of New York or Los Angeles to dismantle and abandon the cities that they (and their ancestors) built. Of course, those who suggest that Israelis should simply move their country somewhere else don't always mean well -- as evidenced by Iran's demented president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. His mad obsession with transplanting all Jews from the Middle East to Europe (he recently wrote a public letter to the Chancellor of Germany with that plan in mind) reflects one of the most pernicious big lies of Islamist propaganda: the contention that Israel was an alien intrusion "imposed" on the Palestinian people to compensate Jews for the Holocaust (which may never have happened anyway). Of course, this argument ignores the fact that the League of Nations endorsed the idea of a Jewish State in 1922 -- 11 years before Hitler even came to power! It also provides no explanation for the fact that the British Empire, which supposedly sponsored Israel as a refuge for allegedly persecuted Jews, actually blocked and outlawed settlement in the Middle East of all Jewish refugees from Nazi persecution both during the Holocaust years, and in the period immediately following the war. Most important of all, more than 700,000 Jews arrived in Israel as refugees from Islamic countries of North Africa and the Middle East and outnumbered all immigrants fleeing Hitlerism by a ratio of more than two to one. Ironically, one of these "Oriental Jews" who fled to the Jewish State from the Near East is the current President of Israel, Moshe Katzav -- who was born in Ahmadinejad's Iran, not Germany or Poland. Just as the population of the United States is made up of people whose forebears came from every corner of the globe -- from Africa and Asia and Latin America as well as Europe -- so too Israel has been populated by immigrants of all imaginable shades of skin color, from more than 80 nations (including a major recent influx from Ethiopia) on six continents. In neither case does the slogan "Go Back to Europe Where You Came From" make even the most superficial sort of sense. For those who instinctively resist any comparison of Israel's "right to exist" with that of the United States, the crucial difference must be one of longevity: America has now enjoyed 230 years of prosperous independence, while Israel has yet to reach its sixtieth birthday. Yet other nations (Slovakia? Turkmenistan? Namibia?) have come into being far more recently than Israel, without endless public challenges to their legitimacy. Montenegro, for instance, just joined the family of nations a few months ago -- despite the fact that more that 45% of the citizens of the new country voted against its independence. So if the long-standing, successful functioning of the American Republic provides the main basis for greater acceptance of our national existence, it might be more useful to analogize Israel today and the United States some 60 years after our own beginnings -- say, in the year 1836, at the height of the Jacksonian Era, when the admiring French visitor Alexis de Tocqueville toured the young Republic in eloquent amazement. Had America earned a "right to exist" by 1836? Countless Indian wars to secure the lands of the Great Plains and the West still lay in our nation's future, as did a spectacularly successful war against Mexico which brought about a vast expansion of American territory (into Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California and more)--- sort of the U.S. equivalent of Israel's Six Day War of 1967. Except for the fact that Israel has already given back most of the land it gained in that conflict -- returning all of Sinai and Gaza to Arab adversaries, with the current Israeli government committed to still further (and very significant) concessions in the West Bank. These compromises (and potential compromises) reflect a fact that nearly all Jews understand, but that most Americans want to deny: that history is frequently, even generally, unfair. Whatever Israel's claims to legitimacy -- no matter how ancient the connection with the land, or how definitive the recognition by international law and putative world governments -- the nation exists only because of the ability and willingness of its people (past, present and future) to defend it against ruthless enemies. By the same token, it might be pleasant to assume that America remains secure and safe because a grateful world appreciates what our nation has done to introduce the concept of liberty to peoples around the world, or to save humanity from Hitlerism, Stalinism and now, Islamo-Nazism. But with unreasoning, fanatical anti-Americanism on the rise nearly everywhere, more citizens have come to realize that we survive on the same basis Israel survives: through determination, through strength of character and (not least) through military power. Like Israel, the United States isn't a nation that grew up organically in one small corner of the earth, combining people who already spoke the same language and looked the same and shared common cultures. Both nations drew a dazzling array of dreamers and visionaries and crazies from around the world who made the choice to embrace the values and plans of the pioneers ("Halutzim," in Hebrew). Of course, these national origins (involving acts of will, rather than accidents of birth) mean that Israel and America can't ever be as perfect, and blameless, and pure in our turbulent histories as, say, our old world counterparts like France, say, or Spain, or Belgium. But as long as people in Tulsa and Tel Aviv, Jefferson City and Jerusalem, remain ready to sacrifice and even die for the still stirring visions of the founders, the two dynamic Republics will continue to exist -- regardless of the world's acceptance of their "right" to do so. Contact Shaul Ceder at shaul.ceder@gmail.com |
|
ISRAEL, THE MODEL
Posted by Shaul Ceder, July 26, 2006. |
|
This was written by William Bennett and Seth Leibsohn. William Bennett is the Washington fellow of the Claremont Institute, the author of America: The Last Best Hope, and the host of Bill Bennett's Morning in America. Seth Leibsohn is a fellow of the Claremont Institute and the producer of Bill Bennett's Morning in America. Originally this appeared at National Review Online. |
|
From the precincts of the European Union to the United Nations to the editorial pages in the United States, it is being argued that Israel's response to Hezbollah's kidnapping of Israelis and firing of rockets into Israel is "disproportionate," a threat to the region, and could undo the U.S. democracy project in the Middle East. What is disproportion in the Middle East? How should one state respond to multi-state-sponsored terror? Begin with the fundamentals. Hezbollah, once described as "the A-team of terrorists" by former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, is a terrorist group with a record of killing hundreds of Americans and Israelis (from Beirut to Saudi Arabia to Argentina to inside Israel). Hezbollah is of global reach and extent. It began with the fundamental goals of creating an Islamist state in Lebanon and the total annihilation of Israel. It is armed and supported by Syria and Iran, and it has branches in some 20 countries. It occupies 20 percent of the Lebanese parliament but that percentage does not give it sufficient due. Here is Amir Taheri in the London Times: Hezbollah is a state within the Lebanese state. It controls some 25% of the national territory. Almost 400,000 of Lebanon's estimated 4 million inhabitants live under its control. It collects its own taxes with a 20% levy, known as "khoms", on all incomes. It runs its own schools, where a syllabus produced in Iran is taught at all levels. It also runs clinics, hospitals, social welfare networks and centres for orphans and widows. The party controls the elected municipal councils and appoints local officials, who in theory should be selected by the central government in Beirut. To complete its status as a virtual state, the party maintains a number of unofficial "embassies": the one in Tehran is bigger and has a larger number of staff than that of Lebanon itself. Hezbollah also has its own media including a satellite television channel, Al-Manar (the lighthouse), which is watched all over the Arab world, four radio stations, newspapers and magazines plus a book publishing venture. The party has its own system of justice based on sharia and operates its own police force, courts and prisons. Hezbollah runs youth clubs, several football teams and a number of matrimonial agencies. In sum, it may very well have the run of Lebanon more than non-Hezbollah factions and institutions. Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, brags about this today. As for Israel's disproportion, it is worth remembering that Israel is but one state -- with a majority of Jews but a substantial Arab population. The Arab states number 22. The land-mass comparison is some 10,000 square miles compared to over five million square miles. That does not include Iran. The Palestinian Authority, situated now in the southwest of Israel, is a Hamas entity -- it is more lethal and Islamist than Arafat's PLO. President Bush, in articulating the post-9/11 doctrine, stated: "Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime." In some respects it is unnecessary to ask whether Lebanon "harbors" or "harbored" Hezbollah; but one definition of "harbor" is "to provide refuge" and there is no question that at the bare minimum, Lebanon allowed Hezbollah to operate in its country -- gave it ministerial portfolios in the cabinet and allowed the seating of its elected officials in parliament. It may, as a fragile, burgeoning, democracy have had no choice but to do this. But the question remains: Was that fragile democracy slowly moving to eradicate Hezbollah from its midst or was Hezbollah growing stronger and stronger? We know this about terrorists groups: As nature abhors a vacuum, terrorists thrive in them -- that is where they grow and empower themselves. And at least since Israel left Lebanon six years ago, Hezbollah has not gotten weaker. Further, if Hezbollah had believed Lebanon was constricting it rather than allowing it to thrive, it would not have launched an incursion into Israel. Nonetheless, Israel has not deliberately targeted the Lebanese government. Still, the question arises, however, that if the U.S. sides alone with Israel, would that not be a terrible message to send to the broader Middle East democracy initiative. This is the question that is the most lopsided of them all. We have long believed that, paraphrasing former CIA director Jim Woolsey, democracy is not one vote, one time. Israel is in the Middle East and is a democracy that passes the Woolsey test and has done so for almost 60 years. Lebanon has had one election in recent times and it weaved Hezbollah into that democracy. The PA had an election and it put Hamas in charge. It seems to us that if one wants to further the Middle East democracy project -- and not be cynical about it -- the U.S. is doing precisely what it should: showing support for the established democracy, not the fragile and inept one that allows, tolerates or -- at a minimum -- turned a blind eye to Hezbollah in its midst. At the end of the day, if Middle Eastern democracies are desired, and they are, does one not want models to point to? What model should the U.S. be pointing to to the Iranian dissidents, the Egyptian dissidents, the Saudi dissidents? Would we be right to say, "Vote and behave like they did in Lebanon, and erect a government like that (where 400,000 people live under Hezbollah control)," or "Look at Israel: It comes to the aid of others around the world, it has a minority population with full democratic rights that even serve in government, and its economy, free of oil, works." It may be wishful thinking to assume Arab peoples will fully want Israel as their model, indeed it is probably naive. Nonetheless, if the U.S. is to be held accountable for initiating and supporting democracies, the one that is one year old and hosts Hezbollah is not the model we should be propagating. So the next time the question is asked about the Middle East democracy project in light of Israel, Lebanon, and the Middle East -- the reminder needs to be made: Israel is a democracy and it is in the Middle East. And one final point: If Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran were to be victorious in their military actions and ideology, two things would not exist: 1) Israel and 2) Lebanese democracy of any kind. Contact Shaul Ceder at shaul.ceder@gmail.com |
|
NEW YORK POST: ISRAEL IS LOSING THE WAR
Posted by Zalmi, July 26, 2006. |
|
Sobering editorial from the NEW YORK POST July 22, 2006 (since which the tide has turned somewhat, but most points are still very valid). |
|
All Hezbollah has to do to achieve victory is not to lose completely. But for Israel to emerge the acknowledged winner, it has to shatter Hezbollah. Yet Israeli miscalculations have left Hezbollah alive and kicking. Israel has to pull itself together now, to send in ground troops in sufficient numbers, with fierce resolve to do what must be done: Root out Hezbollah fighters and kill them. This means Israel will suffer painful casualties - more today than if the Israeli Defense Force had gone in full blast at this fight's beginning. The situation is grave. A perceived Hezbollah win will be a massive victory for terror, as well as a triumph for Iran and Syria. And everybody loves a winner - especially in the Middle East, where Arabs and Persians have been losing so long. Israel can't afford a Hezbollah win. America can't afford it. Civilization can't afford it. Yet it just might happen. Israel tried to make war halfway, and only made a mess. Let's review where the situation stands: * By trying to spare Israeli lives through the use of airpower and long-range artillery fire instead of ground troops, the IDF played into Hezbollah's hands. The terrorists could claim that Israel feared them. Meanwhile, Israeli targeting proved shockingly sloppy, failing to ravage Hezbollah, while hitting civilians - to the international media's delight. This should set off global alarm bells: If Hezbollah can hide rockets, Iran can hide nukes. * The media sided heavily with Hezbollah (surprise, surprise). Rocket attacks on Israel were reported clinically, but IDF strikes on Lebanon have been milked for every last drop of emotion. We hear about broken glass in Haifa - and bleeding babies in Beirut. But the clock's ticking. Washington can only buy Israel so much time. * Every rocket that lands in Israel is a propaganda victory for Hezbollah. After 1,000-plus Israeli air-strikes, the rockets keep falling, and Israel looks impotent. The price of sparing Israeli infantrymen has been the elevation of Hezbollah to heroic status through the Muslim world. The situation is grim. Israel looks more desperate every day, while Hezbollah appears more defiant. This is ultimately about far more than a buffer zone in southern Lebanon. In the long run, it's about Israel's survival. And about preventing the rise of a nuclear Iran and the strengthening of the rogue regime in Syria. It's also about the future of Lebanon - everybody's victim. The mess Israel has made of its opportunity to smack down Hezbollah should be a wake-up call to the country's leadership. The IDF looks like a pathetic shadow of the bold military that Ariel Sharon led into Egypt three decades ago. The IDF's intelligence, targeting and planning were all deficient. Technology failed to vanquish flesh and blood. The myth of the IDF's invincibility just shattered. If Israel can't turn this situation around quickly, the failure will be a turning point in its history. And not for the better. Contact Zalmi at zalmi@zalmi.net or go to his website:
|
|
ORWELL MEETS ALICE - THROUGH THE MID-EAST LOOKING GLASS
Posted by Bernard J. Shapiro, July 26, 2006. |
|
Seeing through the fog of war Israel is at war and you need to know how to separate fantasy from reality. Understanding the meaning of words in such a situation is very difficult for even the best linguist or psychologist. We must go back and remember the classic book by George Orwell, 1984, in which a totalitarian government manipulates the meaning of words to confuse its citizens about reality. He called this new language "newspeak". While Orwell's book was an attempt to satirize the Soviet communist regime, its meaning extends much more broadly. A QUICK DECODER 1. Remember that Arabs lie and the figures given for civilian casualties are greatly exaggerated. Since most Hizbollah and Hamas terrorists wear civilian clothes and mix with the local population, it is very easy to distort the true toll on civilians. 2. Damage to Lebanese infrastructure is also greatly exaggerated. Photographers and reporters in Lebanon MUST repeat the Arab terrorist propaganda line or be tortured or executed. No such threat hangs over reporters in Israel. When the media reports from both sides, you can get a very distorted picture. We tend to think that the veracity of the two sides is equal. 3. It is a hoax that there is NO MILITARY solution to Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran and genocidal terrorism. Those that come to kill Jews must be destroyed. There is no other choice. No "Mr. Nice Guy". The most moral position for Israel is to protect its own citizens and soldiers. 4. It is a hoax that the UN can do anything good for Israel. That also goes for Europe, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The usefulness of international forces separating Arab terrorists from Israeli defenders is nil, nada, zero. In fact, it is a negative, inhibiting Israel's defensive measures. All diplomacy is also a hoax. Only the power of the IDF allows Israel to survive. Right and justice are nice, but in the final analysis, a nation's ability to survive depends on raw military power. Treaties, cease fires and negotiations are useless. 5. It is a hoax that public opinion is of great significance to Israel's survival. A strong aggressive public relations campaign is quite important, but is NO substitute for unflinching resolve to protect Israel's security and guarantee its survival. Golda Meir once said: "I would rather have a thousand angry editorials directed at Israel, than one beautiful eulogy." I would have to use the words of Harry Truman to express my contempt for the world that has murdered, raped, pillaged, expelled, forcibly converted and finally exterminated us. As Truman once said: "They ain't worth a bucket of warm spit." 6. Another hoax is that Israel depends on American aid and must be willing to sacrifice its security to the interest of its ally. The reality is that Israel and America have a very useful symbiotic relationship. The many ways in which the U.S. benefits from the relationship hardly need enumeration -- intelligence, technology, counterterrorism techniques and much more. America gets its money's worth and more. BUT THIS IS NEVER MENTIONED IN POLITE CIRCLES. For that matter, much or most of the monetary foreign aid to Israel is spent in the U.S. and goes into the American economy. It is Israeli leaders, for their own political purposes, who fail to utilize Israeli power to alter its asymmetric relationship to America. 7. Another hoax of the Left and the Islamists, for the past 13 years, is that when Israel defends itself it hurts its cause. That is, it should try to "win the hearts and minds" of the enemy, and "harming civilians" is counterproductive. Of course, we know that Hamas and Hezbollah barbarically and illegally operate freely within civilian neighborhoods in S. Lebanon and the PA. A very wise Rabbi Schiff gives the analogy: "If you and I were neighbors, and I allowed a family to move into my house in my living room and shoot rockets at your house from my yard, and to store their rockets in my basement, and the police do nothing about it for years, and have "Peace Now" on my lawn telling you not to harm me standing in my kitchen - what would you do?" Orwell Meets Alice - Through The Mid-East Looking Glass We have been treated to the modern equivalent of Orwellian newspeak, not to mention a harrowing trip through Alice's looking glass. One could not help but notice the extent to which the Arabs were being portrayed as pure and innocent. A casual observer would certainly think that all violence in the Middle East was a product of bloodthirsty Jewish settlers roaming the Judean-Samarian hills looking for Arab prey. The PLO/PA leadership, its hands dripping with Jewish and Arab blood, demanded protection from the vicious Jewish residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza (YESHA). It refused to return to negotiations until its demands were met. The gullible international media took this whole charade seriously. The United Nations began debating a resolution to give protection to the poor vulnerable Palestinians. The PLO demanded that all Jewish communities of YESHA be ethnically cleansed of those rotten murderous Jews. At the very least they needed to be disarmed, to make them easier targets for Arab terrorists. The high and the mighty beseeched Arafat to return to the talks with Israel. The late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, obviously anxious to please his PLO friends, began a crackdown on Kach and Kahane Chai and other so-called Israeli extremists. Consider this "logic": Rabin determined that Baruch Goldstein acted alone in his reprisal act. He then decided to outlaw the organizations associated with him. Guilt by association is what made McCarthy big in the 50's. It was wrong then and it is wrong now. Reality Check: Now Kach and Kahane Chai have been labeled as terrorist organizations, although they never have committed a single act of terror as a body. The PLO, which is guilty of thousands of murders of Arabs and Jews, continuing still, is labeled a "partner for peace" and will be given arms to kill some more (as "policemen"). Reality Check: Are Arabs in danger from armed Israelis in YESHA? Some research reveals the following figures since the famous handshake on September 13, 1993: Israelis killed by Arabs = over 1600, plus 10,000 injured and maimed for life
It is clear that except for the attack by Goldstein, the Arabs have not been threatened by Jews and certainly need no special protection. If you travel to YESHA you will notice that every Jewish village needs a security fence, while every Arab village is open. Doesn't this tell you who is threatened and who isn't? All the talk about disarming the Jews is a cover for the Arab desire to murder them. And if you desire murder, wouldn't it be nice to disarm your victim first? The media has begun to adopt another tactic which we should protest. In the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Houston Chronicle, CNN and most of the other media, opponents of the suicidal Oslo, Roadmap and Jewish Expulsion Plan are being referred to as rightwing extreme, Arab-hating and anti-peace groups. Do you ever remember the PLO, PA, Hezbollah or Hamas ever being referred to as Jew-hating groups, although their covenants and speeches are filled with hatred of Jews? Arafat and then Abbas often referred to Jews as "filthy, sons of monkeys and pigs", but are still rarely referred to in the media as Jew-haters. Reality Check: To the best of my knowledge there is a distinct difference between Jewish feelings about Arabs and Arab feelings about Jews. Arabs are taught from the earliest grades to despise Jews, and their clerics preach hatred (Itbach El Yahoud - slaughter the Jews) in many of their services. Jews, on the other hand do not preach hatred, but those who are not brain dead recognize, after 120 years of being attacked, that Arabs mean them harm. The media is totally obfuscating the truth about the conflict by the use of such clichιd phrases as "Arab-hating Jews" or "cycle of violence." Another problem with media coverage of the Israel-PLO/PA so-called "peace negotiations", is the way their opponents are described. Arabs opposed to the deal because they want to kill or expel all Jews from "Palestine" immediately, are equated with Jews and Israelis who want Israel to survive in secure borders. Opponents of national suicide are called "anti-peace", as opposed to supporters of such suicide being "pro-peace". Reality Check: Most opponents of the deal with Arafat/Abbas oppose it because it is suicidal for many strategic, historical and objective reasons. None of us are anti-peace. We just recognize that the path chosen by the Rabin/ Peres/Barak/Olmert governments will lead not to the hoped for and advertised peace, but to Israel's destruction. In another bizarre twist of logic the Los Angeles Times reports that Israel's leading peace group, Shalom Achshav (Peace Now), had urged Sharon to remove 500,000 Jewish inhabitants of YESHA (including Jerusalem) to avert widespread bloodshed under Palestinian self-government, and to forcibly evict all Jews within five years. They said that their continued presence, "fostering violence and bloodshed, endangers peace prospects." Reality Check: The facts demonstrate that it is the Palestinians and not the Jews that are the cause of 99.9% of the violence. Why not remove the Palestinians? What Peace Now is really admitting is that there is NO PEACE nor any prospect of PEACE. The liberal Jewish establishment and most of the media were appalled when Rabbi Meir Kahane first began talking about transferring the Arabs from Eretz Yisrael. Most are still appalled at this idea. A new idea has come into fashion, though, among these same righteous Jews: transferring the Jews from YESHA (heartland of Eretz Yisrael). Former Secretary of State James Baker once said it would be a good idea to use the $10 Billion in US loan guarantees to buy out and transfer the Jews from YESHA. US President Bill Clinton seemed to like the idea and so did Rabin's coalition partner Meretz. Reality Check: There is no moral difference between transferring either Jews or Arabs from YESHA. What Kahane said years ago about the inability of Jews and Arabs to live together is being validated today by the same people who condemned him. The 120-year war of extermination launched by the Arabs against the Jews of Israel has had many twists and turns. Sadly, it seems headed for Alice's looking glass and the world of 1984, where black is white, war is peace and good is evil. Bernard J. Shapiro is the Executive Director of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies. He is also the editor of its publications including THE MACCABEAN ONLINE URL:http://www.freeman.org/online.htm and its daily subscriber list of news and commentary, The Freemanlist and the Freeman Center blog. This is archived at
|
|
ISRAEL: A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS, RULED BY DWARFS
Posted by Jack Engelhard, July 26, 2006. |
|
Those of us who root for Israel are still waiting to exhale. Where's the headline that tells us that Israel has delivered a knockout punch? We search for it on Fox, MSNBC, even CNN, and certainly in our local and national newspapers, but it just won't give. The bad news keeps on coming. Israel is being scorched by rockets and missiles and the IDF is fighting gallantly but not as swiftly and as decisively as in the past. We got spoiled in 1948, 1967, 1973, wars with a beginning, middle and an end. Entebbe marked Israel as a nation of heroes. What happened? My guess is that the magic left Israel the moment Yitzhak Rabin shook the hand of Yasser Arafat. From there, Israel learned retreat and defeat. Or rather, Israel's leaders conditioned the people to accept passivity and humiliation, all for the illusion of a "peace process." Call it, rather, a softening up process, whereby Israel has been drowsed by the lullabies of its rulers. Ehud Barak pulled the IDF out of Lebanon in what the Arab world perceived as panic. Hezbollah moved in. The same panic motivated the regime of Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert to flee from Gaza, and Hamas moved in. These leaders (or their proxies), from Rabin onward, must answer for every Israeli life that's been lost as they, these leaders, went whoring after peace. Rabin, Barak, Netanyahu, Sharon, Olmert, Peres--all must explain how it has come to this, this day when Israel is vulnerable to thousands of rocket attacks. Where were they when those underground tunnels were being built? Most were busy slandering religious Israelis. Sharon and Olmert had no time for Hamas or Hezbollah, busy as they were bulldozing several thousand "nationalist" Israelis out of Gaza. Today, Olmert speaks heroically. Too late, Mr. Prime Minister. Also today, Israel's failed politicians continue to show up on our television screens as experts on this crisis, and that is disgusting. Mr. Barak, half of this is your fault. Please, stay out of our living rooms. Stay home and hide your shame. Sharon and Olmert kept talking about "painful concessions" and here it is, the pain. First came the concessions, and now, here's the pain. But who knew the pain would be this bad, so bad that as the rest of us weep, Tony Kushner and the Washington Post's Richard Cohen may have reason to laugh. They've been saying that Israel (not the 22 tyrannical and fanatical countries that surround Israel) is a "mistake." Incredibly, they are joined in Israel by journalists, writers, filmmakers, academics, jurists, and, as always, the political elite. They too must be held accountable for their treachery. I know the people of Israel first-hand, from my service in Haifa, yes, the same Haifa being bombed today. Israelis, 99 percent of them, are like Americans. They love peace, cherish liberty. They continue to advance all civilization in technology and science. They are, indeed, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. They deserve better and if there is a God in heaven--well, if there is, he'd better hurry up. Jack Engelhard is the author of the bestseller "Indecent Proposal," the award-winning "Escape from Mount Moriah," and the novel "The Days of the Bitter End," which is being prepared for movie production. His latest novel, "The Bathsheba Deadline," is now available in serial form at Amazon.com. He receives e-mail at viewopinion@aol.com This article appeared in
|
|
THE LEBANESE REALLY BLAME HEZBOLLAH
Posted by Daily Alert, July 26, 2006. |
|
This article was written by Michael Young, who is opinion editor of
the Daily Star newspaper in Lebanon and a contributing editor
to Reason magazine in the United States. It appeared in the Spectator
in England |
|
BEIRUT -- The smoke from the countless fires burning in Beirut's southern suburbs have turned the city's skies battleship grey. It makes mid-July seem almost autumnal and saps Beirut of what remains of its spirit. Even the busiest high streets are largely empty now, and most shops close quickly at midday, not wanting to release their employees too late. Outside central Beirut, the effect of Israel's attacks is more dramatic. Many of the country's roads are pocked with craters, the damage to the infrastructure could take years to repair, 235 are dead so far -- most of them civilians -- and buildings burn. On Wednesday morning, Israeli troops crossed into southern Lebanon to carry out what they call "pinpoint attacks". The Lebanese Prime Minister, Faoud Siniora, has said that "the gates of hell have been opened up in Lebanon" -- and it's difficult to disagree. But what has not been so widely reported is that while officials will blame Israel for the misery and chaos, a substantial number of Lebanese -- in some cases, ironically, the officials themselves -- have a more nuanced view. Of course the people here are angry and anxious about the possibility of a widening of the Israeli attacks, but their rage, as they see the country being taken apart, is often directed against Hezbollah. The Lebanese people have watched as Hezbollah has built up a heavily armed state-within-a-state that has now carried the country into a devastating conflict it cannot win and many are fed up. Sunni Muslims, Christians and the Druze have no desire to pay for the martial vanity of the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Nor will they take kindly to his transforming the devastation into a political victory. Some even welcome Israel's intervention. As one Lebanese politician said to me in private (but would never dare say in public) Israel must not stop now. It sounds cynical, he said, but "for things to get better in Lebanon, Nasrallah must be weakened further". Even some Shiites are beginning to have doubts about Nasrallah. If interviewed on television they will praise Hezbollah, but when the cameras are off, there are those who will suddenly become more critical. Many have had to flee, leaving behind their homes and possessions with no hope of recovering anything of any worth. One evening this week I looked out of my apartment window in the Christian neighbourhood of Ashrafieh and saw an Israeli shell exploding on top of the grain silo at Beirut port. The colossal concrete silo got the better of that exchange, but in the Shia quarters of southern Beirut the bombs have won outright. Hezbollah's so-called "security perimeter" -- the party's sanctum sanctorum, where Nasrallah and his officials lived and worked -- has been reduced to a smouldering wasteland. Displaced Shia families have moved into Beirut proper, taking refuge in schools, public facilities and empty apartments. Here in Beirut, Nasrallah is also blamed for the suffering in southern Lebanon which, under heavy fire from Israeli cannons, has suffered in the same way as the southern half of the city. On Tuesday, a family of nine died after air strikes in Aitaroun; another family was killed in Tyre. It's difficult for journalists to gain access to the south since the Israelis have bombed all the roads and bridges, but local television crews on the ground record an exodus of refugees northwards. Now that Israel has started targeting transport trucks -- in the hope of preventing the movement of weapons to Hezbollah -- it is becoming increasingly difficult for even UN aid to get through. It is quite understandable, then, that those who can have fled or are fleeing the country. Nearly 400 people left on an Italian navy vessel on Monday night, and a ferry chartered by France took 1,200 Europeans to Cyprus. On Tuesday the first Royal Navy warship, HMS Gloucester, took 180 Britons to safety, with a further 4,750 waiting on the dock, hoping to follow by the end of the week. An American cruise ship is on its way to Lebanon to collect many of the reportedly 25,000 US citizens here, followed by planes and ships from countries as far away as Chile. Even the UN has let its non-essential staff go. For the rest of us, stuck here in Beirut, the real question is how long the electricity, the water and the telephone network will last. Israel has not yet resorted to its usual tactic of hitting the power grid, and the electricity remains on in most regions outside the south; however, it seems inevitable that if Hezbollah bombs Tel Aviv, Israel will retaliate with an attack on the power supply. Even without a direct hit, if Israel pursues its blockade shortages will become acute -- this could return us to the Israeli siege of Beirut in 1982, when we lived for three grinding months without electricity, water, fresh food or telephones. The difficulties of doing without food and fuel are obvious, but what people forget is that when the electricity goes, so does the television. All the main stations have special programmes on the conflict which means extended news broadcasts with reports from around the country and interviews with analysts -- dismally protracted to fill up a 24-hour schedule. It's exhausting but the coverage can also be life-saving. It provides an early warning system for us here, allowing us to gauge where the danger zones are. If the TV goes, so does Al-Manar, Hezbollah's television station which is still transmitting from a remote location (though the Israelis have demolished its headquarters in the southern suburbs). Al-Manar is all rousing propaganda, stock footage of successful raids on Israeli positions, of intimidating militiamen marching through the southern suburbs, of poor Shiites throwing rice on party members celebrating the Israeli withdrawal in May 2000 -- the party's moment of absolute triumph. Interminable interviews with guests praise "the brave resistance" -- a phrase which even to Shiite ears sounds increasingly hollow. The Daily Alert is published by the Jewish Center for Public Affairs for the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Contact them to subscribe at daily-alert@dailyalert.org |
|
CNN REPORTER ADMITS BEING HEZBOLLAH TOOL
Posted by Likud-Herut, July 26, 2006. |
|
[Editor's Note: Brigette Gabriel commenting on Robertson being
Hezbollah's Tool said in www.americancongressfortruth.com, "While
talking about media coverage today, I thought you would be interested
in this information. Gee? It was only like 2 years ago when CNN
admitted they shaded stories for Saddam to get access to Iraq....
Basically becoming Saddam's Propaganda Network...... So they could
gain a "competitive" advantage on Fox by having access to Iraq........
Now a CNN Reporter gains access from Hezbollah and turns in a
propaganda piece for them, later admitting he was their propaganda
tool... this after the CBC and BBC printed stories that the Israeli
Army is the one censoring the news!!!!
"CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson admitted on Sunday that his anti-Israel report on civilian casualties in Lebanon was stage-managed from start to finish by Hizballah terrorists... CNN's Robertson Now Admits: Hezbollah 'Had Control' of His Anti-Israel Piece."] |
Back on July 18, Hezbollah took Robertson and his crew on a tour of a heavily damaged south Beirut neighborhood. The Hezbollah "press officer" even instructed the CNN camera: "Just look. Shoot. Look at this building. Is it a military base? Is it a military base, or just civilians living in this building?" In his original story, Robertson had no complaints about the journalistic limitations of a story put together under such tight controls, and Robertson himself at one point seemed to agree with the Hezbollah propaganda claim that Israeli jets had targeted a civilian area: "As we run past the rubble, we see much that points to civilian life, no evidence apparent of military equipment." Challenged by Reliable Sources host (and Washington Post media writer) Howard Kurtz on Sunday, Robertson suggested Hezbollah has "very, very sophisticated and slick media operations," that the terrorist group "had control of the situation. They designated the places that we went to, and we certainly didn't have time to go into the houses or lift up the rubble to see what was underneath," and he even contradicted Hezbollah's self-serving spin: "There's no doubt that the [Israeli] bombs there are hitting Hezbollah facilities." But the closest Robertson came to making any of these points in the taped package that aired last week was admitting that "we [he and his CNN crew] didn't go burrowing into all the houses," after pointing out (for the second time) that "we didn't see any military type of equipment" in the area Hezbollah chose to let them tour. Five days later, Robertson argued that "journalistic integrity" required skepticism: "When you hear their [Hezbollah's] claims, they have to come with more than a grain of salt, that you have to put in some journalistic integrity. That you have to point out to the audience and let them know that this was a guided tour by Hezbollah press officials along with their security, that it was a very rushed affair." While some viewers undoubtedly deduced out that it was "a guided tour" from the numerous sound bites from the Hezbollah press officer, it's not as if Robertson ever complained about his limitations or explicitly warned viewers that there was no way he could confirm any of the claims. Nic Robertson, of course, isn't the only correspondent going on these Hezbollah-arranged tours, as CNN's Reliable Sources noted yesterday. In a set-up to his interview with Robertson, Kurtz played clips of NBC's Richard Engel and CBS's Elizabeth Palmer relating their trips into the damaged areas, with Palmer providing the sort of disclaimer that Robertson failed to include last week: "This morning, Hezbollah showed journalists around the ruins of its former stronghold, but Hezbollah is also determined that outsiders will only see what it wants them to see." Now more of Robertson's live interview (10:15am EDT) on the July 23 Reliable Sources. This following is an excerpt from (transcript corrected against the actual broadcast): Howard Kurtz: "I want to go now to CNN's Nic Robertson, who joins us live from Beirut. Nic Robertson, we were speaking a moment ago about the way journalists cover Hezbollah and some of these tours that Hezbollah officials have arranged of the bomb damage in the areas of Southern Lebanon. You, I believe, got one of those tours. Isn't it difficult for you as a journalist to independently verify any claims made by Hezbollah, because you're not able to go into the buildings and see whether or not there is any military activity or any weapons being hidden there?" Nic Robertson: "Well, Howard, there's no doubt about it: Hezbollah has a very, very sophisticated and slick media operations. In fact, beyond that, it has very, very good control over its areas in the south of Beirut. They deny journalists access into those areas. They can turn on and off access to hospitals in those areas. They have a lot of power and influence. You don't get in there without their permission. And when I went in, we were given about 10 or 15 minutes, quite literally running through a number of neighborhoods that they directed and they took us to." "What I would say at that time was, it was very clear to me that the Hezbollah press official who took us on that guided tour - and there were Hezbollah security officials around us at the time with walkie-talkie radios - that he felt a great deal of anxiety about the situation....But there's no doubt about it. They had control of the situation. They designated the places that we went to, and we certainly didn't have time to go into the houses or lift up the rubble to see what was underneath." "So what we did see today in a similar excursion, and Hezbollah is now running a number of these every day, taking journalists into this area. They realize that this is a good way for them to get their message out, taking journalists on a regular basis. This particular press officer came across his press office today, what was left of it in the rubble. He pointed out business cards that he said were from his office that was a Hezbollah press office in that area." "So there's no doubt that the bombs there are hitting Hezbollah facilities. But from what we can see, there appear to be a lot of civilian damage, a lot of civilian properties. But again, as you say, we didn't have enough time to go in, root through those houses, see if perhaps there was somebody there who was, you know, a taxi driver by day, and a Hezbollah fighter by night...." Kurtz: "To what extent do you feel like you're being used to put up the pictures that they want - obviously, it's terrible that so many civilians have been killed - without any ability, as you just outlined, to verify, because - to verify Hezbollah's role, because this is a fighting force that is known to blend in among the civilian population and keep some of its weapons there?" Robertson: "Absolutely. And I think as we try and do our job, which is go out and see what's happened to the best of our ability, clearly, in that environment, in the southern suburbs of Beirut that Hezbollah controls, the only way we can get into those areas is with a Hezbollah escort. And absolutely, when you hear their claims they have to come with more than a grain of salt, that you have to put in some journalistic integrity. That you have to point out to the audience and let them know that this was a guided tour by Hezbollah press officials along with their security, that it was a very rushed affair, that there wasn't time to go and look through those buildings." "The audience has to know the conditions of that tour. But again, if
we didn't get all - or we could not get access to those areas without
Hezbollah compliance, they control those areas."
Contact the British Likud-Herut organization at likud-herut.org.uk
|
|
THE WAR -- A SYNOPSIS
Posted by Mordechai Ben-Menachem, July 25, 2006. |
|
Synopsis Let's take a moment to review where we are and what has occurred, and from this, perhaps we will have a better idea of what may occur. The war began when Hamas tunnelled under the fence, attacked an army post inside the internationally accepted, undisputed borders of the country, killed two and took a third prisoner (kidnapped). We began operation in Gaza, mostly because of Corporal Gilead Shalit. The government would, in my estimation, have continued its cowardice had they "just" murdered. Once these operation had begun, Hezbollah, the Barak-empowered organization sponsored by Iran and (mis)managed from Syria took a similar action. Crossed the international border, killed eight soldiers and kidnapped two into Lebanon. If the Gaza operation could have been waffled by the international apologists for terror, the Lebanese operation could not. It was clearly an act of war, over an international border, from a country with whom the entire civilized world had recognized that we had established an international border, with all that implies. Both incidents show interesting facts concerning the security value of fences -- a stupid waste of taxpayer's money and an asinine misplacement of expectations. This was followed by us beginning to bombard Hezbollah emplacements throughout Lebanon. Not just in the South, bombing gun emplacements, as had been done in the past, but real bombing, and massively. Clearly, the rules had changed with the kidnapping of two soldiers. By the way, the two taken to Lebanon are reservists, one is a father. After we began heavy bombing operations throughout Lebanon, they, Hezbollah, began shelling Israeli cities and towns throughout the North of the country, including both Holy Cities of Tzfat and Tiberius and also Haifa (our third largest city and a large industrial centre). In their first bombardment, they killed two citizens. It should be noted that while we constantly drop flyers all over Lebanon asking the civilians to please get out of the way (BTW, we also use Arabic-speakers to personally telephone Lebanese citizens to ask them to help themselves and please get out of the way). Hezbollah has done everything possible, including murder, to prevent them moving north as they try to use them as shields. One picture in the British Guardian showed a Lebanese family that had been decimated in their van. It later turned out that the van (and family) was destroyed by Hezbollah, not by us, though of course, the Guardian did not bother to retract. There have been very interesting economic phenomena. The price of oil on the international markets initially rose, but has remained steady. The price of the Sheqel initially dropped against the dollar and Euro, but has totally recovered and continues to rise. In other words, this war has not (yet) significantly impacted either the Israeli economy or the world's. Another interesting impact is on Aliyah. What is Zahal doing? IDF has been steadily advancing into Lebanon. We have declared that a new buffer zone will be implemented in South Lebanon. However, we have also declared that we have no interest in manning this buffer zone and we expect it to be manned by some international force -- this assumes that the Lebanese Army cannot and will not man it themselves as Hezbollah is significantly stronger than they are and they cannot stand before them. IDF has taken Bint j'Bail ("Daughter of the Mountain" -- a beautiful name for the place). This has always been considered the Hezbollah "capital" in Lebanon (as opposed to what many thought, that it was in the Bekaa). This town was heavily fortified. Heavily means, the entire town, almost every single home and building, had a bunker under it, some of them to fantastic depths and many reinforced with multiple meters of concrete. BTW, the Bekaa valley used to be one of the primary opium-growing areas of the world. One of the points of the 1982 war was to stop opium export (Assad's oil-equivalent). IDF has been bombing heavily with three objectives. A) Destruction of all Hezbollah infrastructures, particularly command and control. B) Interdiction of resupply of Hezbollah from Syria and Iran. C) Prevent them from spiriting away those two soldiers that they have to foreign parts as they did with Ron Arad 20 years ago (sold by Hezbollah to Iran for cash). In addition, of course, we have also been using airstrikes to take out rocket launchers in great quantity. (Katyusha rockets are generally launched from trucks with many tubes. While they can be set off to launch from a donkey, there is no way to aim without the truck.) One of the results of A has been that Hezbollah has had to resort to "Vietnam-era-like" warfare of using firebases. Once a firebase is destroyed, they entire ground structure is without of leadership. This has been very effective and has aided us in taking large quantities of captives -- it seems their motivation to die and get those 72 virgins is not quite as high as some thought. Nasrallah has been "apologising" to his people over the past day, they are not doing anywhere near as well as they expected. In the British parliament, it has been stated (this afternoon) that the constant shelling of northern Israel, with tens of dead civilians, has caused Israel "much discomfort" -- this goes well beyond so-called British understatement and can only be called gross stupidity. My assessment and opinion In principle, I think Zahal is doing a good job and that the government is doing a terrible job. The political function (to remind everyone, in a democracy, the army is under the control of the politicians and this is as it should and must be) began by being and has remained, much too slow to react and much too hesitant. Had they been decisive, the damage to Hezbollah could have been greater, in less time. For instance, there has been no serious damage, or at least not sufficiently serious, in the Bekaa. This provides Hezbollah, and particularly their leadership, with a fallback area. In the beginning, it was stated that Nasrallah was not a target. It seems that this was an honest statement, albeit a stupid idea. Today, it was announced that Nasrallah would be targeted and it was an objective to cause maximum damage to their leadership. Again, this should not, I feel be discussed, but simply done. Once significant leadership roles had been eliminated, then it could have been discussed. Our political leadership tends to try to play politics too much while at war -- talks too mach and does too little. I believe the war is going reasonably well, though there are points that I am not happy with. It must be remembered that Hezbollah has weapons that could strike us from being fired from North of Beirut. Making the South a buffer zone is helpful, very helpful. It takes the short-range rockets out of the reckoning and that is a large quantity (many thousands of their arsenal). However, a buffer zone by itself is not sufficient. It would, I think, be a mistake to talk about Hezbollah being 'smashed once and for all' -- no matter how much we mash them, it will not be 'once and for all'. The hydra will rear its ugly head again and again as long as their sponsors continue to facilitate this (Iran is the leader, Syria is the facilitator). Europe has, throughout this crisis period vacillated between stupidity and irrelevancy. As time marches on and they get closer to Arab control, they get weaker. Do not, in my estimation, expect them to play a relevant role on this stage. Will we "win" this war? I don't think there is a clear definition of win. And I think that that is the biggest problem of the war -- a lack of leadership has prevented such a definition from being determined. However, this war is not Israel-Hezbollah, or even Israel-Lebanon. This war is the first instalment of the war between the West -- US and Israel -- and Iran. Mordechai Ben-Menachem is at Ben-Gurion University. He can be reached by email at quality@computer.org |
|
IN NEUTRAL SWITZERLAND, A RISING RADICALISM
Posted by Manuel Vider, July 25, 2006. |
|
Dear Editor: Less than the expulsion of ALL Muslims living in the place that these conmotions happen, is there any other practical solution? This was written by Craig Whitlock, Washington Post Foreign Service, and it appeared July 20, 2006; A14. |
|
Islamic Extremists Newly Seen as Threat BERN, Switzerland -- For centuries, this Alpine nation has successfully relied on a strict policy of political neutrality to insulate it from the wars, invasions and revolutions that have raged outside its borders. These days, a new threat has emerged: one from within. As they have elsewhere in Europe, Islamic radicals are making inroads in Switzerland. Last month, Swiss officials announced the arrests of a dozen suspects who allegedly conspired to shoot down an Israeli airliner flying from Geneva to Tel Aviv. In a related case, a North African man has been charged with organizing a plot from Swiss soil to blow up the Spanish supreme court in Madrid. For years, even after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, Swiss officials assumed that their country was one of the last places Islamic radicals would look to attack. Long considered a slice of neutral territory in a world full of conflicts, Switzerland trades on its status as home to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other diplomatic institutions. As the global jihad movement becomes more decentralized and fragmented, however, Swiss security officials are warning that their country could become a target. In an intelligence report completed in May, the Swiss Federal Police reversed previous assessments that the domestic risk of terrorism was nearly nonexistent. The report concluded that Switzerland had become "a jihadi field of operation" and predicted that terrorist attacks were "an increasing possibility." "It would be dishonest to say that these groups are ready to act in Europe but that Switzerland is an island and that these groups could not be active in Switzerland, too," Jean-Luc Vez, director of the federal police, said in an interview here in the Swiss capital. "It is very, very important for us to say this to the Swiss politicians and the Swiss people." The changes in Switzerland mirror those in other smaller European nations that, until recently, didn't see themselves as likely targets for Islamic terrorists. In Sweden, another country with a long history of neutrality, prosecutors last month convened a top-secret closed trial of three terrorism suspects in the southern city of Malmo. Authorities have not identified the suspects or disclosed any evidence. But Swedish media have reported that the arrests were made at the request of British counterterrorism investigators. In Denmark, counterterrorism authorities say they remain on high alert after a Danish newspaper printed cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that spurred boycotts, death threats and violent protests in Islamic countries. And in the Netherlands, the Dutch government has classified the risk of a terrorist attack as "substantial," a threat level proportionally higher than in the United States, where homeland security officials judge the risk as "elevated." The Dutch government established its threat-ranking system in November 2004, when an Islamic radical killed the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh. Like Denmark, the Netherlands has contributed troops and other support to U.S.-led military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. But until the van Gogh killing, Dutch officials had played down the threat of terrorism at home. Since then, the number of Islamic radicals in the country has increased, as has the number of fundamentalist imams who are seeking to recruit new followers, said Tjibbe Joustra, the Dutch national coordinator for counterterrorism. He said international conflicts such as the war in Iraq are fueling the problem, although the Netherlands has also been polarized over its difficulties in assimilating Muslim immigrants. "I'm afraid we are seeing an increase in radicalization in the Netherlands," Joustra said in a telephone interview. "In their search for motivation and their search for reasons to radicalize, they are no longer looking so much at national issues as international ones." Jacques Pitteloud, a former coordinator of the Swiss intelligence agencies, said that in the past Swiss officials were primarily concerned that outside radical networks might try to use the country as a logistical base to raise money or support operations elsewhere. Most terrorism suspects arrested or questioned after Sept. 11, 2001, were foreigners just passing through. That has changed recently, he said. Most of the suspects in the Israeli airliner case, for example, are immigrants who were granted Swiss residency. "We might be facing a new era in homegrown terrorism," said Pitteloud, now the director of the Center for International Security Policy, an arm of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. "We don't feel like we are a primary target, but in the end, Switzerland is a symbol of quite a lot of things that radical Islam hates." Officials worry about attacks on foreign embassies and institutions in the country. An estimated 350,000 Muslims live in Switzerland, constituting about 5 percent of the population. Swiss officials said they have done a better job integrating foreigners into the population than other European countries and have fewer radical mosques and organizations. But "we have seen early signs now of anti-Swiss propaganda on the Internet," Pitteloud said. "We have our fair share of radical Islamists, there is no doubt, many of whom we don't know what to do about because many of them are refugees and we can't just kick them out." Swiss lawmakers are considering a proposal that would allow police and the domestic intelligence service to tap the phones of suspected radicals or access their computers, even if there is no evidence of criminal wrongdoing. A similar measure was rejected last year in the Swiss parliament. Andreas Wenger, director of the Center for Security Studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, said the warnings from Swiss intelligence and security services have been slow to register. "Part of the political spectrum in Switzerland still has the feeling that because we are neutral and not associated with great power politics, that we are less likely to become a target," Wenger said. "The public perception is behind other European countries, most definitely." Vez, the federal police chief, said domestic spying restrictions have hurt Switzerland's ability to swap counterterrorism intelligence with its allies. "The biggest problem has been the sharing of information with our partners in Europe," he said. "Intelligence-sharing functions like a market. 'If you want something from me, you have to give me something.' " Switzerland effectively had to build a counterterrorism program from scratch after the Sept. 11 attacks. It keeps a national database of radical suspects, but the watch list is not easily accessible by many police agencies. In October 2004, Spanish authorities announced that they had broken up a plot by a cell of Moroccan radicals to drive a truck bomb into the National Court building in Madrid. They identified the leader of the cell as Mohammed Achraf, 31, who had sought asylum in Switzerland and been jailed two months earlier in Zurich on minor charges. Spanish authorities said that Achraf organized robberies in Switzerland and funneled cash to Madrid to finance the plot, and that he continued to plan the attack even while he was locked up in a Swiss jail. Swiss officials said they didn't realize at first that Achraf, who used several identities, was a suspected radical or that he was under investigation in Spain. Achraf has since been extradited to Madrid. He was indicted in March along with 31 other defendants. In June, Swiss prosecutors said Achraf had been in contact with a member of the cell that had "the serious intent" to shoot down the Israeli plane. Investigators have released few details about the alleged plot, and it is not known whether it had progressed beyond the planning stages. Swiss and Israeli news media have reported that the Israeli airline El Al canceled flights from Geneva to Tel Aviv for a week in December 2005 after it was warned by Swiss counterterrorism officials. Prosecutors said that the cell consisted of about a dozen members and that it committed robberies throughout the country and transferred money to other cells in Spain and France. Cell members in those countries were arrested about the same time as part of a coordinated international investigation. Seven suspects in Switzerland are being held in preventive detention, while four others have been released, said Hansjuerg Mark Wiedmer, spokesman for the Swiss Attorney General's Office. None of the suspects has been publicly identified. Under Swiss law, they can be held indefinitely without facing formal charges since they represent a flight risk, Wiedmer said. Hans Hofmann, chairman of the intelligence oversight committee in the Swiss parliament, said the arrests showed that the country was vulnerable. "Swiss intelligence is realizing that you can't just sit back and cross your arms and say, 'We're not a target because we're a small country,' " he said. "Switzerland is no longer able to exclude itself from the rest of the world in the face of a globalized threat." Special correspondents Shannon Smiley in Bern and Silke Lode in Berlin contributed to this report. Contact Manuel Vider at mardoqueo_morde@yahoo.com |
|
ISRAEL AT WAR -- VISITS TO NORTHERN ISRAEL
Posted by Nurit Greenger, July 25, 2006. |
|
This report called "Israel at War" comes from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (www.ifcj.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Israel_War_Blog). |
|
When rockets began raining down on Israel last week, The Fellowship went into action. Staff from our Israel office has been traveling through northern Israel to provide emergency assistance to the cities under attack and express solidarity with the Israeli people. In each of the cities we've visited, the reaction and appreciation we've received has been extremely heartfelt and moving. Below we're posting regular updates from our Israel staff to give you a glimpse into every day life in Israel during a time of war and to let you know how your support has been helping Israel through this crisis.
Contact Nurit Greenger at 4nuritg@gmail.com |
|
SEND SOLIDARITY MESSAGE TO SUPPORT TO ISRAEL
Posted by Nurit Greenger, July 25, 2006. |
|
Friends, YNET, Israel's online newspaper, is making it possible for people all over the world to post a message of support for Israel. If you would like to send a message of support that will be read all over Israel, click here. Contact Nurit Greenger at 4nuritg@gmail.com |
|
ISRAEL IN CRISIS. COLEL CHABAD IS HERE TO HELP
Posted by Arutz-Sheva, July 25, 2006. |
THE JEWS IN SAFED ARE HIDING IN THEIR BOMB SHELTERS, PRAYING FOR AN END TO THE RAIN OF ROCKETS. COLEL CHABAD VOLUNTEERS ARE GOING DOOR TO DOOR RIGHT NOW TO MAKE SURE THEY HAVE WHAT TO EAT ... ... AND EVACUATING CHILDREN TO SAFETY AT CHABAD SUMMER CAMPS IN THE SOUTH OF ISRAEL. YOUR EMERGENCY DOLLARS ARE TREMENDOUSLY PRECIOUS BECAUSE THEY MEAN... 
- THE SAFETY OF SUMMER CAMPS (SAFE PLACES WITH WHOLESOME FOOD, PLENTY OF ACTIVITIES AND COMPASSIONATE COUNSELORS) FOR HUNDREDS OF CHILDREN. THIS IS A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS PURE AND SIMPLE. ANYONE IN NEED IS BEING HELPED REGARDLESS OF BACKGROUND OR RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION. COLEL CHABAD VOLUNTEERS ARE LITERALLY RISKING THEIR OWN LIVES TO HELP THESE PEOPLE SURVIVE! BUT THEY NEED YOUR HELP. EVERY TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DOLLAR IS NEEDED. THANK YOU FOR YOU IMMEDIATE AND GENEROUS RESPONSE. To Donate:
Click here.
The Arutz-Sheva website address is www.IsraelNationalNews.com
|
|
FAILURE TO SOLVE 'PALESTINIAN' QUESTION EMPOWERS IRAN
Posted by Sanda Abramovici, July 25, 2006. |
|
This was written by Mark Steyn, a Canadian and US columnist. He is a regular contributor to The Australian's opinion page. He will address the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney on August 14 and the Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne on August 17. It appeared in Jewish World Review (jewishworldreview.com/0706/steyn072406.php3) July 24, 2006. If only they had refused to indulge Arafat The myth that the Muslim world's problems are directly linked to the Palestinian question has gone up in flames, argues Mark Steyn. |
|
A FEW years back, when folks talked airily about "the Middle East peace process" and "a two-state solution", I used to say that the trouble was the Palestinians saw a two-state solution as an interim stage en route to a one-state solution. I underestimated Islamist depravity. As we now see in Gaza and southern Lebanon, any two-state solution would be an interim stage en route to a no-state solution. In one of the most admirably straightforward of Islamist declarations, Hussein Massawi, the Hezbollah leader behind the slaughter of US and French forces 20 years ago, put it this way: "We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you." Swell. But suppose he got his way, what then? Suppose every last Jew in Israel were dead or fled, what would rise in place of the Zionist entity? It would be something like the Hamas-Hezbollah terror squats in Gaza and Lebanon writ large. Hamas won a landslide in the Palestinian elections, and Hezbollah similarly won formal control of key Lebanese cabinet ministries. But they're not Mussolini: they have no interest in making the trains run on time. And, to be honest, who can blame them? If you're a big-time terrorist mastermind, it's frankly a bit of a bore to find yourself deputy under-secretary at the ministry of pensions, particularly when you're no good at it, and no matter how lavishly the European Union throws money at you, there never seems to be any in the kitty when it comes to making the payroll. So, like a business that has over-diversified, Hamas and Hezbollah retreated to their core activity: Jew-killing. In Causeries du Lundi, Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve recalls a Parisian dramatist watching the revolutionary mob rampaging through the street below and beaming: "See my pageant passing!" That's how opportunist Arabs and indulgent Europeans looked on the intifada and the terrorists and the schoolgirl suicide bombers: as a kind of uber-authentic piece of performance art with which to torment the Jews and the Americans. They never paused to ask themselves: Hey, what if it doesn't stop there? Well, about 30 years too late, they're asking it now. For the first quarter-century of Israel's existence, the Arab states fought more or less conventional wars against the Zionists and kept losing. So then they figured it was easier to anoint a terrorist movement and in 1974 declared Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organisation to be the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people", which is quite a claim for an organisation then barely a decade old. Amazingly, the Arab League persuaded the UN, the EU, Bill Clinton and everyone else to go along with it and to treat the old monster as a head of state who lacked only a state to head. It's true that many nationalist movements have found it convenient to adopt the guise of terrorists. But, as the Palestinian movement descended from airline hijackings to the intifada to self-detonating in pizza parlours, it never occurred to its glamorous patrons to wonder if maybe this was, in fact, a terrorist movement conveniently adopting the guise of nationalism. In 1971, in the lobby of the Cairo Sheraton, Palestinian terrorists shot Wasfi al-Tal, the prime minister of Jordan, at point-blank range. As he fell to the floor dying, one of his killers began drinking the blood gushing from his wounds. Doesn't that strike you as a little, um, overwrought? Three decades later, when bombs went off in Bali, killing hundreds of tourists plus local waiters and barmen, Bruce Haigh, a former Aussie diplomat in Indonesia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, had no doubt where to put the blame. As he told Australia's Nine Network: "The root cause of this issue has been America's backing of Israel on Palestine." Suppose this were true: that terrorists blew up Australian honeymooners and Scandinavian stoners in Balinese nightclubs because of "the Palestinian question". Doesn't this suggest that these people are, at a certain level, nuts? After all, there are plenty of Irish Republican Army sympathisers across the world (try making the Ulster Unionist case in a Boston bar), yet they never thought to protest against British rule in Northern Ireland by blowing up, say, German tourists in Thailand. Yet the more the thin skein of Palestinian grievance was stretched to justify atrocities halfway around the world, the more the Arab League big-shot emirs and EU foreign ministers looked down from their windows and cooed, "See my parade passing!" They've now belatedly realised they're at that stage in the creature feature where the monster has mutated into something bigger and crazier. Until the remarkably kinda-robust statement by the Group of Eight and the unprecedented denunciation of Hezbollah by the Arab League, the rule in any conflict in which Israel is involved - Israel v PLO, Israel v Lebanon, Israel v (Your Team Here) - is that the Jews are to blame. But Saudi-Egyptian-Jordanian opportunism on Palestine has caught up with them: it has finally dawned on them that a strategy of consciously avoiding resolution of the Palestinian question has helped deliver Gaza and Lebanon and Syria into the hands of a regime that's a far bigger threat to the Arab world than the Zionist entity. Cairo and co grew so accustomed to whining about the Palestinian pseudo-crisis decade in, decade out, that it never occurred to them that they might face a real crisis one day: a Middle East dominated by an apocalyptic Iran and its local enforcers, in which Arab self-rule turns out to have been a mere interlude between the Ottoman sultans and the eternal eclipse of a Persian nuclear umbrella. The Zionists got out of Gaza and it's now Talibanistan redux. The Zionists got out of Lebanon and the most powerful force in the country (with an ever-growing demographic advantage) are Iran's Shia enforcers. There haven't been any Zionists anywhere near Damascus in 60 years and Syria is in effect Iran's first Sunni Arab prison bitch. For the other regimes in the region, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria are dead states that have risen as vampires. Meanwhile, Kofi Annan in a remarkable display of urgency (at least when compared with Sudan, Rwanda, Congo and others) is proposing apropos Israel and Hezbollah that UN peacekeepers go in to keep the peace not between two sovereign states but between a sovereign state and a usurper terrorist gang. Contemptible as he is, the secretary-general shows a shrewd understanding of the way the world is heading: already, non-state actors have more sophisticated rocketry than many EU nations; and if Iran has its way, its proxies will be implied nuclear powers. Maybe we should put them on the UN Security Council. So, what is in reality Israel's first non-Arab war is a glimpse of the world the day after tomorrow: the EU and the Arab League won't quite spell it out but, to modify that Le Monde headline, they are all Jews now.
|
|
DEFEATING THE BARBARIANS AT OUR GATE
Posted by Isi Leibler, July 25, 2006. |
|
This war could have been avoided had we not continued to bury our heads in the sand as we watched the Katyusha missile infrastructures being built by Hizbullah on our northern border. For over a year, Kassam rockets rained over us and although we threatened reprisals ad nauseam, all we did was bomb empty fields and abandoned buildings. History will surely now condemn the unilateral Gaza disengagement and the precipitous withdrawal from Lebanon as unmitigated disasters, both from the military standpoint as well as from the vantage of psychological warfare. All we did was succeed admirably in convincing the jihadists that we lacked deterrent capabilities and were at the point of unraveling in terms of national morale. But this is not a time to indulge in recriminations. Today we must set aside our differences and unite behind our leaders, making them aware that if greater sacrifices are required in order to defeat the barbarians at our gate, they have our full support. PRIME MINISTER Ehud Olmert is a civilian without military experience. And "peacenik" Minister of Defense Amir hardly radiates the charisma of a warrior. But David Ben-Gurion, Levi Eshkol, and Menachem Begin also lacked military backgrounds but emerged as outstanding national leaders in war as in peace. Besides, most Israelis of all political persuasions would agree that since the outbreak of hostilities, both Olmert and Peretz have performed in an exemplary manner and emerged as true national leaders. The prime minister's recent Knesset speech to the nation was Churchillian, and will go down in history as one of the most stirring calls to the nation from any Israeli leader. Clearly the present campaign to root out Hizbullah has created a greater sense of Israeli unity than at any time since the Six Day War. Aside from a handful of fringe extremists and eccentric Ha'aretz op-ed writers, there is a genuine consensus that this is truly a classic case of a just war. Our adversaries no longer even bother to go through the pretence that the conflict is related to land for peace. Hizbullah and Hamas, backed by the Iranians and Syrians, seek the elimination of Jewish sovereignty - nothing less. WE ARE NOT attacking Lebanon. We are attacking Hizbullah, which has stuck itself like a leech on the Lebanese people. They are terrorists armed with lethal hi-tech weapons who believe they are sanctified to ravage our sovereign territory in order to kill and kidnap civilians and soldiers. No other country could remain passive in the face of such provocations, combined with the daily launching of missiles on civilian population centers. By any terms these are acts of war. As Olmert put it in the Knesset, "No more!" And whereas decent nations at war may seek to minimize casualties of innocent non-combatants, to relate to "proportionality" in this context can only be described as playing foul. Playing foul are those repeating the perennial mantras of "cycles of violence" and spouting generalizations based on moral equivalency which fail to distinguish between aggressors and victims. Playing foul was Kofi Annan scolding us, and the UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel for "disproportionate use of military force" - a resolution which was only averted by the US veto. Playing foul were the Russians, the French and other Europeans demanding a halt to the "inflicting of suffering on innocent Lebanese civilians." Playing foul was the EU President deploring the destruction of civilian infrastructure and condemning Israel's "unjustified air and sea blockade," even hinting at economic sanctions. TO HIS CREDIT, President Bush stood by Israel from the outset, adamantly reiterating our right to defend ourselves and refusing to support a cease-fire which would have enabled Hizbullah to retreat and regroup in order to confront us again at a time of its choosing. We should not be under any illusion that the hostile attitude displayed against us by much of the world will change overnight. But now, for the first time, even countries that until now displayed bias and applied double standards in judging us are following the American lead. Perhaps recent events may finally be making some of the Europeans aware of the stark reality that they and we Israelis are on the same side, on the front lines facing the authentic cut-throat jihadists, the advance guards of Islamic fundamentalism seeking to conquer the world and transform it into a caliphate. The first major breakthrough came with the statement of the G8. For the first time Russia and France endorsed a resolution which clearly distinguished between the aggressor and victim. Hopefully it may represent the turning point of a growing realization that the only real beneficiaries from this violent upheaval are the Iranians, who are orchestrating the conflict to promote their own objectives. THE PEOPLE of Israel are already displaying qualities of fortitude and determination that their enemies mistakenly believed had been eroded by soft living and consumerism. Now is the time for us to reinforce our unity and national consensus. So long as the government remains firm on its objectives - the dismantling of Hizbullah and the return of the hostages - we are entitled to expect our politicians to set aside their differences. Now is the time to demonstrate our united resolve, with leading opposition politicians, including Binyamin Netanyahu speaking to the world, with one voice in support of the efforts of our prime minister. Now is the time to promote the most talented and articulate Israelis to present our case to the world, even if that requires some of the currently ensconced bureaucrats to temporarily step aside. Now is also the time to repair our relationship with Diaspora Jewry and welcome their input into the war of ideas in which we have been losing ground over these past years by being falsely portrayed as brutal occupiers. This could represent the beginning of a campaign to reverse the global tide of media demonization and bias confronting us. HISTORY MAY make us grateful that the Hizbullah offensive took place now rather than in a few years' time, when the price in blood would undoubtedly be much higher. Our challenge is to guarantee that the bloodshed and the sacrifices our people are currently making will not be in vain and will result in a more secure Israel. That means finishing the job, as Prime Minister Olmert has promised to do The writer chairs the Diaspora-Israel Relations Committee of the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs and is a veteran international Jewish leader. Contact him at ileibler@netvision.net.il |
|
THE THIRD FRONT
Posted by Fern Sidman, July 25, 2006. |
|
While Israel is engaged in heavy fighting with Hezbollah terrorists on the northern front and Hamas terrorists on its southern front, it would appear that Israel's proverbial nemesis, better known as the media, has opened a third front with its incessant assaults on Israel. While the media may not be launching Katyusha or Kassam rockets aimed at Israeli cities, the rockets that the media launches are instrumental in degrading Israel in the war of public opinion. Case in point would be the drastic difference in the content and modality of reporting between the two major cable networks, CNN and Fox News. To the average viewer, it would appear that CNN and Fox are reporting the news from two different planets. While it is true that the Ted Turner owned CNN, has its own left wing agenda along with the perfunctory anti-Israel bias that goes with that territory, and Roger Ailes' Fox News has a more conservative, pro-Republican platform, the stark and extreme contrasts cannot be missed. To state that their coverage of the current war between Israel, Hezbollah and Hamas is diametrically opposed would be a gross understatement. One need only press the button on their television remotes for a period of an hour or so, to gain tremendous insight into the world of media propaganda, distortions and lies. For a truly mercurial experience, just spend an evening with Anderson Cooper and Larry King of CNN and then visit with Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly over at Fox. The story according to CNN is the following: Israel is murdering Lebanese children and civilians en masse, Israel is not making a dent in Hezbollah's power, Israel is not forthcoming in opening up a corridor for humanitarian assistance to Lebanon, Israel is causing a refugee crisis amongst the Lebanese population, Israel is using phosphorus in its weaponry, Israel refuses to agree to a cease fire, Israel's retaliation against Hezbollah has been "disproportionate", Israel refuses to engage in negotiations with Hezbollah over a prisoner exchange. CNN's conclusion is: World opinion will turn against Israel because of its actions. One can only scratch their heads and ask, is there a pattern developing here??? As we watch Anderson Cooper taking us for tours of hospitals in Lebanon showing the burnt and mangled faces of Lebanese children, while giving platforms to Hezbollah supporters who spew forth their party line which includes accusations against Israel for starting this conflict by occupying Palestine, to scared and trapped Americans who blame Israel for the destruction of Beirut. Repetitive images of Israeli tanks and gun ships shooting missiles into Lebanon fill our screens ad infinitum, while there is never a image of a Hezbollah terrorist shooting a Katyusha rocket into Israel. If this weren't enough one sided and biased journalism, we are also treated to an hour of Larry King, who gives more than ample time to Hezbollah journalists, Syrian ambassadors, and a whole host of other Israel bashers. King allows them to make hate filled speeches riddled with inaccuracies and grandiose distortions about Israel and her role in this current conflict, while never challenging them in any kind of meaningful and significant manner. In marked contrast to CNN's coverage of the war, there is a definitely a more "fair and balanced" coverage on Fox News. While far from being totally fair and balanced Fox News takes pains in researching new details from their reporters in the Middle East and presenting a more even handed account of the situation in Israel. From Sean Hannity to Bill O'Reilly to Greta Van Susteren to Sheppard Smith, one can see that these journalists are dedicated to digging out the truth by ask searing questions concerning the facts of the situation, which are so very often buried under the propaganda and lies of Hezbollah and other Arab spokesmen who are allowed lengthy platforms for their vituperative and vitriolic rhetoric against Israel. There is no question that Fox News is far from perfect and has on more than one occasion fallen prey to the CNN and New York Times syndrome of making Israel the scapegoat for the world's problems, but by in large, Fox has made a concerted effort, thus far, to reporting the news with a high degree of accuracy. That is all that we can ask from the media. In general, they always have been instrumental in generating negative feelings towards Israel and have been the biggest asset of the cause of Hamas and Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations in the region. Right now, they represent the third front that Israel must contend with. An enemy that is funded not by regimes predicated on terror but on corporate dollars. It is an enemy that never runs out of rockets or mortars or missiles, for their verbal missiles and subliminal messages are in infinite abundance and these fatal weapons shape a public image of Israel that is more deadly than rockets because they pervade the hearts and minds of their viewers. For the Jewish people, this is an old story. Since Guttenberg invented his first printing press in the 1600s, words and thoughts have always been published against Jews. The media of today bares little difference to its more in-your-face predecessors. While the facts may be different, today's media is just re-hashing the same kind of Israel hating messages that is has done for close to six decades. The media is a persistent and resilient foe, almost an implacable one, yet despite this most formidable enemy, we have borne witness to our continued existence as a nation. As with the Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, the Turks, the Nazis, the British, the Soviet Union, the PLO, Hamas and Hezbollah and all the other enemies that I may have forgotten to list, those who sought to vanquish and eradicate the Jewish nation and the Land of Israel, we tell them and the media that they have not succeeded in our destruction and with G-d's help they never will. Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are one in the same and they are a permanent part of and endemic to our society. With G-d's help, we will deal with the media as we have with our other enemies and may we take comfort in the fact that we are a people who fears and obeys only the Almighty G-d of Israel and does not fear the words of mortal enemies. World opinion will always be against the Jewish nation, and fearing it and cowering over the words and threats of world leaders is a futile exercise and a colossal waste of precious time. Let us utilize our precious time in appealing to the Holy One Blessed Be He, who girds His nation Israel with strength, crowns His nation Israel in glory and gives strength to His weary nation. For in the end, the media is just another enemy in a huge litany of enemies. Let us turn to Hashem Yisborach at this critical juncture in time, for it is He who marches into battle with us and it is He who will conquer our enemies, if we only recognize His dominion and His glory. And to the media, we say, just take your place on the back of a very long line. You're not our first enemy and you won't be our last. May we our prayers reach the Almighty G-d of Israel and may we be zoche to the see our redemption, speedily in our days. Contact Fern Sidman by email at ariellah@aol.com |
|
HOW TO GUARANTEE A PRO-ARAB OPINION
Posted by Dr. Jerome S. Kaufman, July 25, 2006. |
|
If one wants to be guaranteed a Pro-Arab opinion just have as your guest, Edward Djerian, former ambassador to Syria who spent his political career in the State Department favoring the Arab position against Israel. What prompted this discussion is Djerian's recent oft-repeated supposedly profound Arab propaganda statement - "There is no military solution in the Middle East." That is, of course, because thank G-d, Israel, given free rein, would conceivably win any military solution, resoundingly defeat their enemies and obtain some genuine peace in the region providing they were not once again, forced to return territory vital to their and the world's security. It also ignores the fact that this has never been American policy. In fact quite the opposite is used and found to be successful - defeat your enemies to the point of surrender and then dictate a peace that would be disrupted at the enemy's great peril. Not coincidentally Djerian, along with Martin Indyk, both examples of the classic State Department school favoring close ties to Arab states, are now part of the Baker Institute in Houston Texas, founded by James Baker, former Secretary of State who worked under President George Bush during the first Gulf War. You will remember it was he who pressured Israel to absorb over 30 missiles fired deliberately into Israel by Saddam Hussein. This faulty strategy of enablement set the groundwork allowing Hussein to remain in power and has directly resulted in the current Iraqi debacle that has fallen upon the shoulders of George Baker's son, President GW Bush. Other luminaries of the time and same political persuasion like Dennis Ross have also assumed the mantle of network Middle East experts but cleverly changed their chameleon-like political colors depending upon how much money they can make with public speeches and selling books while attempting to regain political power under any new administration. Hopefully the media will become more aware of who they are interviewing as "experts" and not hire these people, that is unless their political bias fits in with the that of the involved media. So, what else is new? Jerome S. Kaufman is National Secretary of the Zionist Organization of America. and host the Israel Commentary website (http://www.israel-commentary.org). |
|
ISRAEL HAS NO MORE OPTIONS
Posted by Daniel J. Teeboom, July 25, 2006. |
|
Through combination of Western appeasement of Islamic Fundamentalism and political pressure on the Jewish State, peace in the Middle East is no longer possible. A Dutch parliamentary commission decided in November 2004, right before Theo Van Gogh was murdered, to ban Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. This would have far reaching results for Hezbollah in Europe, and its relationship with the EU. Bert Koenders, an expert for foreign affairs for the Dutch Labour party, made it known how unhappy[1] he was with this decision. According to him it would have been much better to involve[2] Hezbollah in Lebanese politics, instead of banning it. A rapport of the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR),[3] which was published about a year and a half later, reached a similar conclusion: Do not fight the Islamic terror organisations, but give them political power and money instead. As a result, the theory goes, they will become more moderate. The so called experts thought the same after the election victory of Hamas, which according to them would surely force Hamas to abandon its radical ideology. The reality was of course different, but most experts on the Middle East here in Europe, do not let their opinions be influenced by something as trivial as that. Nothing came of Hezbollah ban, the party of Allah is still recognized by the EU as a legitimate Lebanese party. Albeit a party with an army, 10.000 rockets and 100 million dollars of aid per year from Iran.[4] Obviously it was not Hezbollah that got involved in Lebanese politics, but Lebanon which got involved with the politics of Hezbollah. Many European leaders complain that Israel's response to the kidnappings is far from proportionate. They could well be right because Israel has no other option except to strike with full force. The Israeli's might have won many wars but through a combination of Western pressure and Islamic terrorism, those victories have lost their value. Israel appeared invincible after the Six Day War, and the Yom Kippur war more or less confirmed this notion. The largest and most powerful Arab country, did not decide to make peace because of its love for Israeli's. It agreed to make peace because it could not defeat Israel militarily, nor did it have any hope to force Israel's hand through a combination of diplomacy and terror. The Camp David accords were signed at a time when Israel was still supported by the entire Western world. This has now changed. A country which is not supported by what should have been its natural allies, appears weak and vulnerable. Would Egypt have agreed to a peace deal had it known that it could get the entire Sinai back through terrorism? The flow of condemnations from the UN and the constant pressure from the EU, give Muslims the hope that Israel can be defeated through a combination of political manipulation and violence. It is this knowledge that attracts recruits for Hamas and Hezbollah. Not despair but hope is the reason why the violence never ends. Nobody blows himself up for a compromise. Israel planned to trade most of the the occupied territories for peace. But terrorism combined with international pressure has forced Israel to abandon this plan and give up land unilaterally. As long as Israel keeps land occupied it is losing international support, and eventually will risk sanctions. The retreats from Gaza and South-Lebanon have demonstrated that giving up land leads to war, while the Oslo-peace accords have shown that negotiating with terrorists results in the same. Terrorists are not interested in peace - there would be no need for terrorism if they were - and therefore feel no need to keep their promises. Many people in Israel already knew this, which explains the furious opposition to negotiations with the PLO in the early 1990ies. It is very bitter that Israel lost so much European support after agreeing to negotiate with the PLO on the insistence of the EU. Israel is back where it started in 1948. Peace is impossible and negotiations lead to nowhere. What is left is only the use of force. But this is not without problems either. Israel is expected to fight without killing and this is clearly not possible. Muslim fundamentalists are simply not impressed by blowing up empty buildings. Neither do they care if their activities ruin the country from which they operate. Anyway they get their money from Iran. Basically Israel will need to kill a lot of Hezbollah terrorists in order to win this conflict, but the West will not allow this. Doing nothing would surely have been fatal, but this counter offensive in Lebanon could be very risky indeed. If Israel cannot, or is not allowed to, break Hezbollah then the North of Israel, including Haifa, might suffer missile attacks for a long time to come. I am sure that terrorists in the West-Bank are taking notice as well. Israel might very soon be confronted with a situation where missiles strike anywhere in the country at anytime. It is possible that the people who work on the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy and folks like Bert Koenders[5] are actually very stupid. It is possible, though very unlikely. But why else would they want to give a Taliban like organisation the chance to turn Lebanon into an Afghanistan clone? Why do they invest so much effort to legitimize extremely violent and anti-Semitic organisations? Are they anti-Semites themselves? I prefer to resist this conclusion. But I do think that these people and their views are telling us something about the mind of another schemer, a man who tried to neutralize the terrorists of his time by also giving in to their demands. This man was Franz Von Papen and his 'brilliant' plan to moderate the extremists, was to ask Hitler to become chancellor of Germany. We all know what happened as a result of that. Franz Von Papen surely never intended for his actions to lead to a Second World War. Nevertheless it did and he was forced to give accountability for his actions in front of a court of law. Bert Koenders and the people of the Scientific Council for Government Policy are partly responsible for this war. When will they be held accountable? 1. frontpage.fok.nl/nieuws.fok/47879 2. www.marijelaffeber.nl/verslag%20libanon%20bijeenkomst.htm 3. www.wrr.nl/english/content.jsp?objectid=3496 4. www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/18/60minutes/main550000.shtml 5. www.parlement.com/9291000/biof/02611 Contact Daniel Teeboom at d.j.teeboom@orange.nl or go to his website: www.hetvrijevolk.com |
|
CONFESSIONS OF A HAIFA RESIDENT
Posted by Professor Eugene Narrett, July 24, 2006. |
|
Dror Vanunu writes: "This is the translation of a letter I got today." |
|
Friends and family members are being injured and killed
During 5 years you coped with bombs -- and I didn't care
People from Gush Katif and the Shomron!
|
|
GOD BLESS ISRAEL
Posted by Mark A. Thomas, July 24, 2006. |
|
I believe the people of Israel are honorable people. I pray for only
God's very best in this difficult time. Many of us in America are
behind Israel 100%.
Best Regards to you all and those that work on your web site. Mark Contact Mark Thomas at MAThomas@TampaBay.RR.com |
|
URGENT: KEEP THE PRESSURE ON THE WHITE HOUSE TO SUPPORT ISRAEL
Posted by Nurit Greenger, July 24, 2006. | |
|
Whether you are a Democrat or Republican, I ask you to do what is right-- defend Israel, who was attacked without provocation by a force dedicated to destroying it and annihialting all Jews--completing with Hitler did not do. Contact the White House and Secy Rice with messages of appreciation and continued support. Thank you. | |
|
A quick note -- the following info from Britain is most instructive -- I am sure it says it all. On Monday, after fighting that has killed hundreds of civilians, Menzies Campbell, the leader of Britain's opposition Liberal Democrats asked Prime Minister Tony Blair to suspend arms exports to Israel. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said, "attacks in Lebanon are inflicting collective punishment on the Lebanese people," and the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator has described attacks on Beirut as a violation of humanitarian law," Campbell wrote. What we must do? We must launch an immediate counter offensive. We remind Bush what happened to have caused the crisis and we thank President Bush and Sec. Rice for their stunning and courageous support for Israel under the growing international pressure. Your help is helping Israel. Copy of message below; write, send and forward to your list. President Bush Fax: 202-456-2461
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
From:
Contact Nurit Greenger at 4nuritg@gmail.com |