Thursday, March 31, 2011

Хор Турецкого - Кошерное попурри


This is the Turetsky Choir, and Israel Matzav has their background.
Turetsky group sings Hebrew classics to large Russian audience.

A Tribute to Geraldine Ferraro


I cannot think of a more fitting tribute to Geraldine Ferraro - the former Queens Congresswoman and Vice Presidential candidate who passed away over the weekend - than this article by Anne Bayefsky.

At WEOG meetings, Western states hammered out shared policy on issues of common interest before stepping into the full morass of the U.N.’s top human-rights body. At that time, one quarter of all the resolutions adopted by the commission that were critical of specific states condemned Israel alone, while the commission remained silent on almost all egregious violations of human rights around the world. For 25 years, the formal agenda of the commission, which governed every meeting, had contained one item devoted to demonizing Israel and one item to human rights on the almost 200 other U.N. members.

This was the environment into which Ferraro stepped. In addition, she found herself in the middle of an attempt at U.N. “reform.”

The reform effort of that era came to a head in one memorable meeting of WEOG when it became clear that the Europeans had caved to Arab and Muslim states and were prepared to agree on proposals for “reform” that left the Israel-demonization agenda item exactly as it was. In walked Geraldine Ferraro. I don’t remember her staying long or saying much. She just said no. Such a reform sham was not consistent with American values and the United States would not be part of it. She couldn’t be bullied by the multilateral pressure to appear “cooperative.”

With extraordinary poise and straight talk she put everyone else in that room to shame. I remember having to restrain myself from jumping up and clapping in that stuffy chamber, composed almost entirely of men who had spent their careers clawing to the top of foreign offices by being exactly the opposite of Geraldine Ferraro.

In a twist of fate, only a day before she died, virtually the same scenario played out in Geneva 15 years later. A “reform” package was before the Human Rights Council. Again it was a sham. And again it left the same demonization-of-Israel agenda item in place. Only this time, President Obama and Eileen Donahoe, a former fundraiser and his ambassador to the council, desperate for the approval of an un-American audience, waved it through by consensus. Today among Democrats the moral courage necessary to withstand the U.N. hordes is in short supply. Ferraro will be missed.

I'd tell you that Ferraro had more courage and integrity in her pinky than Obama has in his entire body, but that wouldn't be anywhere near as much of a compliment as the story told above.

Labels: Anne Bayefsky, Barack Obama, Geraldine Ferraro

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:43 AM

Palestinian Incitement


Wafa, the official 'Palestinian Authority' website, publishes a list of items that it claims are 'incitement' by the Israeli media in the aftermath of the massacre of the Fogel family of Itamar (and in response to Israel's incitement index that measures 'Palestinian' incitement to murder Jews). Even assuming that all of the items were actually written and accurately translated into English (I have not checked either of those points), the collection shows more than anything else how lying (or clueless) the 'Palestinian Authority' is.

First and foremost, in a democracy people are entitled to their own opinions. That doesn't mean you're allowed to call to murder someone, but to say that Israel ought to take control of more land or build more housing units on land it already controls is not a call to murder someone.

Moreover, there's a huge difference between an opinion expressed on the pages of Yediot or HaModia (to cite two of the newspapers in the report) and one expressed in al-Hayat al-Jadida. The Israeli newspapers are privately controlled and therefore the government has no responsibility for their contents. The 'Palestinian' one is controlled by the 'Palestinian Authority' which is therefore responsible for its content.

Furthermore, most of the items there are not incitement. A warning about Arabs carrying weapons is not incitement - it's a call for caution and vigilance. If a police commander is warning about large warehouses of weapons in Northern Israel that are controlled by Arabs, that's not incitement - it's a warning for caution and perhaps a call for police action (calling for police actions is not a call for incitement - it's a call for law enforcement).

A claim that Israelis will pay in blood for (God forbid) the establishment of a 'Palestinian state' is not a call to murder 'Palestinians.' It's the expression of a political opinion (and unfortunately, probably true).

Calls to re-examine our relationship with the 'Palestinian Authority' are not calls for murder. They are calls for one political entity to examine its relationship with another political entity. It's not incitement.

I could go on but you get my drift.

The problem with this sort of thing is that it is likely to be waved around by members of the 'international community' who have not even read it as 'proof' that 'Israel incites too.' Goebbels would have called it a great lie. And unfortunately, it is one that is likely to grow on us.

Read the whole thing and figure out how you would answer these claims.

The bumper sticker at the top was popular during the Oslo terror war. It says "if there are no Arabs, there are no terror attacks." Is that incitement? I would argue that it's a statement of fact. In any event, it does not call for murdering Arabs, although it arguably calls for expelling them from the Jewish state if they cannot live in peace with us.

Labels: Palestinian incitement

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:38 PM

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Support Syrian Kurds


Caroline Glick makes a strong argument for supporting the uprising in Syria, and particularly Syria's Kurdish population.

THE ANTI-REGIME protests in Syria are a welcome departure from the grim choices posed by Egypt and Libya because supporting the protesters in Syria is actually a good idea.

Assad is an unadulterated rogue. He is an illicit nuclear proliferator. Israel’s reported bombing of Assad’s North Korean-built, Iranian-financed nuclear reactor at Deir al-Zour in September 2007 did not end Assad’s nuclear adventures. Not only has he refused repeated requests from the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect the site, commercial satellite imagery has exposed four other illicit nuclear sites in the country. The latest one, reportedly for the production of uranium yellowcake tetroflouride at Marj as Sultan near Damascus, was exposed last month by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security.

Assad has a large stockpile of chemical weapons including Sarin gas and blister agents. In February 2009 Jane’s Intelligence Review reported that the Syrians were working intensively to expand their chemical arsenal. Based on commercial satellite imagery, Jane’s’ analysts concluded that Syria was expending significant efforts to update its chemical weapons facilities. Analysts claimed that Syria began its work upgrading its chemical weapons program in 2005 largely as a result of Saddam Hussein’s reported transfer of his chemical weapons arsenal to Syria ahead of the US-led invasion in 2003.

The Jane’s report also claimed that Assad’s men had built new missile bays for specially adapted Scud missiles equipped to hold chemical warheads at the updated chemical weapons sites.

As for missiles, with North Korean, Iranian, Russian, Chinese and other third-party assistance, Syria has developed a massive arsenal of ballistic missile and advanced artillery capable of hitting every spot in Israel and wreaking havoc on IDF troop formations and bases.

Beyond its burgeoning unconventional arsenals, Assad is a major sponsor of terrorism. He has allowed Syria to be used as a transit point for al-Qaida terrorists en route to Iraq. Assad’s Syria is second only to Iran’s ayatollahs in its sponsorship of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Palestinian Authority.

...

The Kurds make up around 10 percent of Syria’s population. They oppose not only the Baathist regime, but also the Muslim Brotherhood. Represented in exile by the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria, since 2004 they have sought the overthrow of the Assad regime and its replacement by democratic, decentralized federal government. Decentralizing authority, they believe, is the best way to check tyranny of both the Baathist and the Muslim Brotherhood variety. The Kurdish demand for a federal government has been endorsed by the Sunni-led exile Syrian Reform Party.

This week the KNA released a statement to the world community. Speaking for Syria’s Kurds and for their Arab, Druse, Alevi and Christian allies in Syria, it asked for the “US, France, UK and international organizations to seek [a] UN resolution condemning [the] Syrian regime for using violence against [the Syrian] people.”

The KNA’s statement requested that the US and its allies “ask for UN-sponsored committees to investigate the recent violence in Syria, including the violence used against the Kurds in 2004.”

The KNA warns, “If the US and its allies fail to support democratic opposition [groups] such as the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria and others, [they] will be making a grave mistake,” because they will enable “radical groups to rise and undermine any democratic movements,” and empower the likes of Hezbollah and Iran.

Led by Chairman Sherkoh Abbas, the KNA has asked the US Congress to hold hearings on Syria and allow representatives of the opposition to state their case for regime change.

Opponents of regime change in Syria argue that if Assad is overthrown, the Muslim Brotherhood will take over. This may be true, although the presence of a well-organized Kurdish opposition means it may be more difficult for the Brotherhood to take charge than it has been in Egypt.

Aside from that, whereas the Brotherhood is clearly a worse alternative in Egypt than Mubarak was, it is far from clear that it would be worse for Syria to be led by the Brotherhood than by Assad. What would a Muslim Brotherhood regime do that Assad isn’t already doing? At a minimum, a successor regime will be weaker than the current one. Consequently, even if Syria is taken over by jihadists, they will pose less of an immediate threat to the region than Assad. They will be much more vulnerable to domestic opposition and subversion.

Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Syrian Kurds, Syrian regime change

posted by Carl in Jerusalem

President Reagan's Address to the Nation on U.S. Air Strike against Liby...


Here's what it was like when there was a real man in the White House, 25 years ago next month.

Responding to Palestinian Unilateralism


'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen has threatened to declare a 'Palestinian' reichlet unilaterally in September. But what will Israel do if the 'Palestinians' take that step? Here are some possibilities.

Jerusalem is weighing the annexation of the major settlement blocs if Palestinians seek unilateral recognition of statehood, an official in Jerusalem told AP on Tuesday.

The official said that "adopting unilateral measures is not a one-way street," and that it was not the only option being considered, according to the report. He cautioned, however, that he was not aware of how seriously the political leadership was considering such a bold move.

Other responses to Palestinian unilateralism could include reducing water access below agreed upon levels, as well as restricting the use of Israeli ports for Palestinian imports and exports, AP reported.

The Prime Minister's Office said that it had not heard of the plan, Israel Radio reported.

Message to Bibi: Stop talking and just do it already.

Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, unilateral declaration of statehood

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:59 AM

Assad in Syria: Too Little Too Late


Meanwhile, Assad is trying the formula that failed Ben Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt and Saleh in Yemen - buying time by dismissing his cabinet, a move scheduled to take place tomorrow, and promising some cosmetic reforms.

Abolishing the supremacy of the Baath Party and the emergency regime that has been in place since 1963 will do little to reduce his and his family's grip on the military and economic resources of the state. At the same time, he is trying to recreate the regime of fear that his father imposed in 1982 and which has given Bashar 11 years of quiet. He shoots and kills civilians, arrests hundreds, and mainly relies on the military, which, unlike its Egyptian counterpart, risks losing many of the benefits it enjoys because of its loyalty to the regime.

Sooner or later, he's toast. The only questions are how long it will take and who will take over.

Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Syrian regime change

posted by Carl in Jerusalem

10 Most Ignorant Politicians


10 Most Ignorant Politicians

Assad Learns Repug Secret Policy: Do Nothing

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, faced with perilous unrest, is reaching farther into the Arab despot bag of tricks, saying in his first major statement since protests began that “conspirators” are behind the tumult. "I belong to the Syrian people, and whoever belongs to the Syrian people will always keep his head high," Assad said Wednesday. But although the government has promised reforms, there was no mention of the country’s emergency law, which has been in place since 1963 and which Assad is expected to lift. Reporters on the ground say there’s widespread demand for reform but little of the fervor for removing the leader that protesters in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya have shown.
Read it at Al-Jazeera

Govt Shutdown Could Prove We Don't Need Govt

House Speaker John Boehner's challenge to convince his caucus to avoid a government shutdown begins with its second most powerful member: "Time is up here," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Tuesday. Cantor said any short-term spending resolution to avoid a shutdown is "unacceptable." Boehner, however, refused to rule out another temporary extension or a compromise that would settle for smaller cuts than what the GOP is demanding. Democrats, meanwhile, are resigning themselves to a shutdown.

Read it at Politico

Every August 750,000 govt employees strike for the whole month. The only noticeable difference: nobody collects the garbage.

USAF Deploys Low-flying armor Destroying Gunships

Obama meets with George W. Bush before Libya speech


President Obama’s speech addressing the U.S.’s attack on Libya yesterday was eerily familiar. Perhaps that’s because George W. Bush gave Obama some advice just before the President announced to the public that major combat operations in Libya have ended and along with coalition help, Libya will know freedom.

The Daily Caller has the exclusive secret video of Bush and Obama’s chat (filmed in what appears to be the historic John F. Kennedy West Wing Man Cave).

Enjoy:

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/29/fun-with-xtranormal-obama-gets-advice-from-george-w-bush-before-libya-speech/#ixzz1I5eHfzy9

Facebook Shuts Down Third Intifada Page

Breaking News: Facebook Shuts Down Third Intifada Group Honest Reporting, Alex Margolin

Despite previous statements saying they would monitor but not remove the controversial Facebook group calling for a Third Intifada, Facebook administrators shut down the group early Tuesday morning in response to enormous pressure from pro-Israel activists. All links to the group now go to users personal Facebook profile.

The group had been calling for a march on Israel to “liberate” Palestine beginning on May 15. It remains to be seen how Facebook will respond if similar groups emerge with similar message of a Third Intifada.

New media expert Andre Oboler, one of the first to discover the group was down, told HonestReporting that Facebook made the correct decision shutting down the group. “It’s about time,” he said. “Facebook needs to learn to distinguish between the right to ‘attack’ conceptual ideas, and the ‘wrong’ of attacking people be it because of their race, religion, nationality or political view. When they start to understand that, perhaps they will stop making so many mistakes.”

See our previous post on the issue for background on the issue.

Pam Geller

Glenn Beck: I Stand with Israel


Thank you, Glenn Beck, for this rational and reasoned stand for freedom, decency, and goodness. The fog of evil is so thick and Orwellian language of death so perverse, what a breath of fresh air.

Restating the obvious, "I stand with Israel." Israel, the struggle of good against evil.
Pam Geller

Thank You, CAIR

Yes, you read that headline right. I have been on the receiving end of a steady stream of emails going to Representative Gatto's office in support of my appearance to testify before the Alaska legislature tomorrow on anti-sharia legislation. If not for Hamas-tied CAIR's demand to remove me from the witness list, I would have never been on the receiving end of such utter goodness.

I am humbled and blessed by this outpouring of support, and it would not have been possible without the evildoers at the Brotherhood. Yes, thanks, bros :)

The people are so on to CAIR, even if the chattering classes and some of our political elites choose to be their abds.

Thank you for writing and calling. G-d love you.
Pam Geller

UPDATE: You can still contact Rep. Gatto’s Chief of Staff Karen Sawyer to request that I not be dropped as a witness. E-Mail: karen.sawyer@legis.state.ak.us

O'Reilly: Gender Apartheid etc. subjective not real

As promised, Bull O'Reilly had (unbeknownst to him) a heretic on, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community spokesman Harris Zafar, to refute Wafa Sultan's appearance on his show last night describing her life being raised as a Muslim woman under the sharia in a Muslim country.

As if the horror Wafa Sultan experienced was ...... subjective, or that the brutality, gender apartheid, oppression of women living in Muslim countries under the sharia is ..... somehow subjective, or the 96% of the women clitorectomized in Egypt is somehow .....subjective.

Obama Can Call Abbas Bluff by Ending Aid

From JPost:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is willing to give up hundreds of millions of dollars of US aid if that is what is necessary to forge a reconciliation deal with Hamas, the Associated Press quoted his adviser as saying on Monday.

Azzam Ahmed stated that "the Palestinians need American money, but if they use it as a way of pressuring us, we are ready to relinquish that aid."

What Ahmed is saying is that the Palestinian Authority would not be pretending to be moderate if it wasn't for American money - they would happily go publicly closer towards Hamas' extremism in the interests of "unity."

Abbas' condemnations of terror - as Arafat's before him - have never been sincere. They are part of the deal, the facade they must maintain in order to continue to get US and EU aid. If they were left to their own devices, the PA would cheer today's terrorist attacks in exactly the same way they cheer yesterday's attacks, naming institutions in honor of bloodthirsty murderers. Is there any moral difference between Samir Kuntar's bashing in the skull of a four year old girl and the vicious stabbing of the Fogel children? Yet Kuntar is a hero, a person that Abbas specifically went out of his way to meet in Lebanon.

If the PLO and PA need to be bribed to act like peaceful human beings, then what more do you need to realize that any peace agreement with them would be a sham? Perhaps one can argue that an artificial peace meant to pacify the West is better than none, but it is not a peace that Israel should be forced to give tangible concessions for.

In other words, a sham peace by the PLO must be reciprocated with a similar peace from Israel: a detente where there is no shooting but where Israel does not give anything permanent upin exchange for mere words.

So President Obama should call Abbas' bluff. Cut off the funds and see how peaceful he acts. If he immediately goes to Iran via Hamas to make up his budget shortfall, then the US will know exactly how pro-West the PA really is. And the true obstacle to peace will be revealed to the world.

(h/t David G)

New Study Debunks Islamophobia Myths

Last August I dug into FBI bias crime statistics to show that there is no significant Islamophobia in America,

The Center for Security Policy has just done the same thing, just more more formally and in a 40-page report. Of course, they have the ability to send their results to every member of the Senate.

The Center for Security Policy today released a revised edition of their groundbreaking longitudinal study, Religious Bias Crimes 2000-2009: Muslim, Jewish and Christian Victims - Debunking the Myth of a Growing Trend in Muslim Victimization, based on FBI statistics reported annually in the Uniform Crime Reporting Program. The Center's study contradicts the assertions that religious bias crimes against Muslims have increased, and that the alleged cause is widespread “Islamophobia” in America. In fact, the study shows that religious bias crimes - also known as hate crimes - against Muslim Americans, measured by the categories of incidents, offenses or victims, have remained relatively low with a downward trend since 2001, and are significantly less than the numbers of bias crimes against Jewish victims.

The Center's study also contradicts the assumption of increased hate crimes against Muslims which has been asserted by Senator Richard Durbin's (D-IL) Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, and is the topic of hearings being held today. Printed copies of the study were delivered to each member of the U.S. Senate early this morning.

According to the Center's analysis, in 2009, Jewish victims of hate crimes outnumbered Muslim victims by more than 8 to 1 (1,132 Jewish victims to 132 Muslim victims). From 2000 through 2009, for every one hate crime incident against a Muslim, there were six hate crime incidents against Jewish victims (1,580 Muslim incidents versus 9,692 Jewish incidents). Even in 2001 when religious bias crimes against Muslims increased briefly for a nine-week period, total anti-Muslim incidents, offenses and victims remained approximately half of the corresponding anti-Jewish totals.

The study provides hard data that disproves the counterfactual statements made by a small number of highly vocal Muslim lobbying groups, many linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as leftwing activists. Citing these false assumptions concerning America’s alleged “Islamophobia” and a supposed rising trend in hate crimes against Muslim Americans, these organizations argued against holding the March 10, 2011 House Committee on Homeland Security hearings on Muslim American radicalization, and have argued for today's hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution. The study shows that these arguments against the March 10 hearings, and for today's March 29 hearings, are not based on facts but rather on a political agenda.

NYTimes calls Hamas Missiles "Errant"

The travel section of the New York Times gives us this gem:

I had eagerly gone to every new Indiana Jones movie, but had never longed to venture on an archaeological dig. Nor had I been to Israel. So when my wife and I were invited by a friend to tag along for a week last summer, we more or less leaped at the opportunity. (Any lingering doubts were dispelled when we were told that the hotel room reserved for us in Ashkelon faced north, which meant that it was less likely to incur a direct hit by errant missiles occasionally fired from Gaza, about a dozen miles to the south.)

Errant? You mean, Hamas and Islamic Jihad aren't aiming these missiles at people, but they just occasionally fire them accidentally towards civilian targets?

Now it is true that there were not many missiles last summer when the author went to Ashkelon, but characterizing the Qassams and Grads (which have better targeting capabilities) as "errant" is outrageous.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

HuffPo's Fineman likes Bachmann's chances in Iowa because 'she speaks ab...

Israel Reporter's Car Stoning was Kafkaesque Experience

Well-known Israeli investigative reporter for the Maariv Hebrew daily, Kalman Liebskind, had a Kafkaesque story to report this week, and the subject of the article was himself.

“Driving down the road that leads to our home in Gimzu, I heard the first bang”, he wrote in Hebrew in his weekly column. “ My wife, Ilana, who was driving behind me with some of our children, had gotten a direct hit to the front window of her car. By some miracle, the window didn’t shatter, but the rock hit the part of the window that was a little over a foot from my son’s head. I could hardly believe it was true. Rocks? On our road? An asteroid hitting us seemed more probable than rock throwing 100 yards from our home.”

Gimzu is a middle class, religious Zionist suburban community (moshav) located near the cities of Modiin and Lod, not in Judea or Samaria.

He continues: “Everyone piled into my car and we drove out of the community. The instant we reached the place where the rocks had been thrown, we heard another bang. This time the rock hit the front fender, and this time we saw who was throwing the rocks, a youth who looked around 18 and was standing about 3 yards away. He ran off with an accomplice into the wooded area nearby. We discovered only later that two other women had had rocks thrown at them shortly beforehand.”

Liebeskind and his neighbors called the police, who took some time to reach the community, but then went out to the wooded area with them to search for the rock throwers. They came upon a campfire with about 20 Israeli Arab young men from Lod and their bearded teachers or counselors wearing Muslim dress and headgear. “If we want to, we can burn all of Gimzu” said one of them to the shocked Israeli Jews.

The Arabs informed the police that they had left a mosque in Lod after hearing a lecture on the Koran and continued on their way to make a campfire. They had vandalized the woods by spraying the trees with Arabic words. "The police did not question anyone and only arrested the rock thrower whom we could identify," LIebeskind wrote.

Later in the week, Liebeskind received a call from the Lod Police Department asking him to come in to help complete the investigation of the incident. To his astonishment, within a short time of arriving there, he found himself being accused formally, under “suspicion of threatening the Arabs with a weapon” and heard an officer tell him “you don’t have to respond. Anything you say may be used against you.”

“Where did this ridiculous idea come from?” he asked the police officers. It turned out that the Arab who had thrown the stones and his friends had filed a complaint claiming that Liebeskind threatened them. The journalist suggested asking 50 people in Gimzu to serve as character witnesses for him. "That's useless, they will be your friends and not objective," was the response. "And these Arabs who threw stones at me and know that I filed a complaint against them are objective?" he rejoined. To no avail. After an hour of questioning, he found himself measured, photographed, fingerprinted and freed under personal recognizance.

Humiliated, the journalist described himself as shocked by the possibility that the police might believe the offender's version of what had occurred to him.

He had found himself in a situation that has happened often to residents of Judea and Samaria, who often find themselves falsely accused in the mainstream media, including the newspaper for which Liebeskind works, of crimes perpetrated by Arabs, from stealing and destroying olive trees to burning sheep and throwing rocks.

(IsraelNationalNews.com)

A Kafkaesque Experience


What happens when an Israeli reporter's car gets stoned within the green line? Why he gets accused of threatening the stone thrower with a weapon, of course.

Read the story of Kalman Liebeskind here.

Exit question: Were he not a columnist who could write the story himself, would his own newspaper (Maariv) have published it?

The baby at the top was murdered by a stone thrower in 2002.

Labels: Israeli Arabs are a fifth column, Kalman Liebskind, Palestinian terrorism

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:37 AM

In Europe Palestinians Don't Need to Lobby


Allah Bless Hitler

Caroline Glick reports that the 'Palestinians' don't even need to lobby European countries to vote in their favor at the UN anymore. The local Muslims do a fine job of it for them.

Take British Prime Minister David Cameron, for example. When Cameron called Gaza “an open air prison” last year, it wasn’t because he had just spoken to Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas. And he certainly wasn’t acting out of conviction. Cameron surely knew that his statement was an utter lie. And he also surely knew that Hamas is a jihadist terror group that shares the ideology of its fellow Muslim Brotherhood spin-off al- Qaida.

But for Cameron, far more important than Gaza’s relative prosperity and Hamas’s genocidal goals was the fact that in the last British elections, the UK’s Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC-UK) successfully ousted six members of parliament who expressed support for Israel.

The Palestinians recognize that they don’t need to pretend to be good to get Europe to support them. After the people of Europe have been brainwashed by their media and intimidated by the Muslim communities, they have developed a Pavlovian response regarding Israel whereby every mention of Israel makes them hate it more. It doesn’t matter if the story is about the massacre of Israeli children or the bombing of synagogues and nursery schools. They know that Israel is the guilty party and expect the governments to punish it.

What the Palestinian silence on who committed what atrocity tells us is that in this new terror war, the Palestinians believe they cannot lose. With Europe in tow, Fatah and Hamas feel free to join their forces and advance both militarily and politically.

What could go wrong?

Read the whole thing.

Labels: European obsession with Israel

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:40 PM

Who Wants to Fight to the Last Palestinian?


Evelyn Gordon finds an unusual proponent of stopping Kassam fire by the 'Palestinians' on Israel.

After all, the rockets are usually fired from the heart of Palestinian population centers (something Hass neglected to mention, preferring to imply that Israel targets civilians deliberately). That makes civilian casualties from Israeli counterstrikes almost inevitable. Just this week for instance, an errant Israeli shell killed four Palestinian civilians; the target was a group of terrorists launching mortars at Israel “from a grove just beyond our house,” as the brother of one of those killed told the New York Times.

Since the cost of the rocket fire far outweighs its benefits, Hass argued, anyone who cares about real live Palestinians should be denouncing it in an effort to pressure Hamas and other terrorist organizations to stop it. Instead, she charged, pro-Palestinian activists have given it tacit consent:

In the binary thinking of those who oppose the Israeli occupation (Palestinians, Israelis and foreigners), public criticism of the tactics used in the struggle of an occupied and dispossessed people is taboo. It is as if criticism would create symmetry between the attacker and the attacked. To a large extent, this taboo has been broken with regard to the Palestinian Authority: Many opponents of the occupation have no qualms about portraying the PA as a collaborator, or at least as the captive of its senior officials’ private interests. But when it comes to Hamas’ use of arms, silence falls.

Don't hold your breath waiting for the shooting to stop. Most 'Palestinian' terrorists regard their own people as just so much cannon fodder.

Labels: civilian casualties, Gaza, human shields, Kassam rockets

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:50 PM

Hating Israel on Facebook


If we started a Facebook page calling for death to Arabs or Muslims, how long do you think it would last?

Let me give you an idea: When this video of the Fogel family massacre in Itamar was posted on Facebook and YouTube, it was down within three hours.

Can you say "double standard"?

Labels: anti-Israel media bias, Facebook, Fogel family massacre, Itamar, YouTube

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:35 PM

Why Does Arab League Protect Assad?


Can you guess why the Arab League hasn't denounced Bashar al-Assad for firing on his people? Really, this is the official reason.

Al-Ahram notes that the Arab League hasn't denounced the Syrian regime's violence against protesters. Why? "Syria is different from any other Arab country," says an Arab League official, because—wait for it—Syria is "a country under Israeli occupation." That's right, the Golan Heights—0.65% of Syria's land mass—is in Israel's usurping hands. So fire away at those protesters! Asad has a license.

Have you ever heard a lamer excuse?

Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Golan Heights, occupation

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:38 AM

Why Should US Execute Qaddafi?


A few years ago, in the context of Hezbollah’s war with Israel, I penned a piece re-examining the issue of assassination in American policy. The fact is that in many circumstances assassination is not illegal under international law. The moratorium on assassination is more a matter of choice. Certainly, fear that assassinating foreign leaders might open a Pandora’s Box of retribution is valid, although rogue leaders will try to assassinate Americans anyway. Still, targeted assassinations are not a policy to be embarked upon lightly or for any reason but to prevent (further) war.

When foreign leaders are, like Qaddafi, unelected and unstable dictators and military commanders, they are valid targets. Qaddafi certainly does not deserve immunity which is what, in effect, Obama now promises him. When terrorist leaders spark conflict, they should be held personally accountable. Qaddafi may be willing to fight to the last conscript, but he may be less enthusiastic about risking his own skin.

There is also the question of deterrence. While it’s conventional wisdom in certain circles that Israel lost the 2006 war, I quibble: By trusting in the international community, Israel lost the peace and allowed Hezbollah to rearm. This past fall, however, when I was in Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon and southern Beirut, locals were talking about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Lebanon. Ahmadinejad was his bombastic self, but what Lebanese were gossiping about was that Hassan Nasrallah did not take the stage with his patron. Whereas before 2006, the Hezbollah secretary-general appeared in public often, post-2006 he is simply too scared. It’s time to make Qaddafi fear for his life as well. By doing so, we might avoid far greater bloodshed both in Libya now and down the road. The point is not aggression, but deterring war and ultimately saving lives.

If only we had gotten both Ahmadinejad and Nasrallah during that trip.

Labels: Hassan Nasrallah, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Muammar Gaddafi, targeted killings

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:55 AM

Shameless Muslims Use Anne Frank to Promote GZMosque


They have no shame. None.

The latest sell on the Ground Zero mega mosque is that the Anne Frank museum will be going in next door in Mr. Rauf's neighborhood.

Anne_frank_pali_hateFirst off, it is not next door. Not nearly. The proposed Anne Frank Museum will be located on 100 Church Street. That is not next door to or near 45 Park Place. Funny how the Islamic supremacists say the Ground Zero mosque is not near Ground Zero, but the Anne Frank museum is next door.

So it is vile for the media (or whoever is behind this bogus meme) to attempt to use the holocaust to advance the Ground Zero mosque, especially since the leader of the Muslim world, Mufti al-Husseini, was an ally of Hitler's and was responsible for the deaths of over 400,000 Jewish women and children during the holocaust. (Scroll and read.) The Muslim world has never apologized for or owned up to their role in World War II. Unlike Germany and Japan, they escaped penalty.

Sick.

I hope the Anne Frank museum will be given additional police protection (like the Ground Zero mosque has gotten since last summer, and for what? I don't know.) Clearly, the Frank museum wil be at risk from the devout Muslims schooled in the virulent anti-semitism taught and mandated in Koran, the Sunna, and the canonical orthodoxy of shari'a. Khaybar, Khaybar ya yahud!

Photo top: Seen on NYC street, hat tip Urban Infidel

Incoherent POTUS in Libya


Observations by Truth Provider:

Here is the deal about Libya.

First Syria.

1) Has been subverting and meddling in Iraq since the beginning of the war there.
2) Supports and supplies Hezballah (a terrorist organization) in Lebanon despite UN Res. 1701
3) Supports and supplies Hamas (a terrorist organization) in Gaza.
4) Cooperates with Iran.
5) Long history of violence against its own citizens. In 1982 Hafez Asad the father murdered between 17,000 and 40,000 thousands in the Syrian city of Hama to quell a revolt.
6) 6) in the last few days Bashar Asad killed some 150 demonstrators in several Syrian cities.
7) Syria is of no economic interest to the west.
8) Political institutions exist for regime change.

Libya

1) Stopped its nuclear program.
2) Paid compensation to the families of the Lockerby Pan Am 103 victims.
3) No military threat to America and the west.
4) Major petroleum supplier to the west.
5) Rebels are disorganized. Tribal warfare. No political institutions to take over.
6) Strong presence of Al-Qaeda in the country.

Yes, my friends, Kadaffi is a madman, a terrible dictator, a goofball, call him any name you wish, but there are many cruel and crazy dictators around the globe who pose a much more serious threat to the west's interests.

If President Obama's reason (pretext?) for attacking Kadaffi and Libya was to protect the rebels and save lives, why are we not attacking Syria? Iran? Yemen? Congo? North Korea? Etc. etc.

So, when you listen tonight to the President's speech, do not be swept away by his usual spins. We have already listened to several contradictory statements from his administration and himself.

Also, do not listen to NPR's comments with its usual bias in support of whatever the President does.

Incoherent POTUS in Syria

Syria Regime Rocked by Protests - Farnaz Fassihi and Jay Solomon

Thousands of protesters demanding political liberalization marched in cities across Syria on Friday, an unprecedented display of public dissent that prompted violent clashes with security forces and left dozens dead and injured. Across Syria, security forces battled the crowds with batons and sticks, in some instances firing at the public and arresting dozens of people.
In Damascus, a vast pro-Assad rally took place. Hundreds of cars plastered with pictures of the president descended on the central Umayyad Square. Some U.S., European and Israeli officials saw the potential weakening of Assad's government - a close ally of Iran - as an important opening to significantly undermine Tehran's role in t he region. (Wall Street Journal)


See also U.S. Won't Back New Intervention in Syria - Jay Solomon
U.S. officials are virtually ruling out an international intervention to stop political violence in Syria, despite a widening crackdown against dissidents there. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington still held out hopes that Assad could be peeled away from Iran and pushed toward embracing political and economic change. "Many of the members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe he's a reformer," Clinton told CBS's "Face the Nation."
Earlier this month, as protests starting gripping Syria, Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who has held nearly a half-dozen meetings with Assad in recent years, said he thought Syria's president was an agent f or change. However, the State Department and French government intervened last month to block a scheduled meeting between the two men in Damascus. (Wall Street Journal)

Reuters and CNN Won't Tell of Gaza Beating Reporters

Gaza cops use ‘beatings, stun guns’ on women reporters J Post, by Khaled Abu Toameh (hat tip Marc)
Hamas security personnel raid offices of media organizations, including Reuters and CNN, confiscate equipment and documents.

A number of Palestinian women journalists complained on Sunday that they had been beaten and tortured by Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip.

They said the assaults occurred in recent days when they and their colleagues tried to cover pro-unity rallies in different parts of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas policemen used force to disperse the protesters, who were calling for an end to the dispute between the Islamist movement and Fatah. The rallies were part of a Facebook campaign organized by Palestinian youth on March 15.

At least eight journalists were beaten by the Hamas police officers during the rallies.

Some had their cameras and laptops confiscated, while others were taken into custody and made to sign a document pledging to refrain from covering such events in the future.

Later, Hamas security personnel raided the offices of a number of media organizations and confiscated equipment and documents. Among the offices targeted were Reuters, CNN and a Japanese TV network.

One of the female journalists, Samah Ahmed, complained that a Hamas policeman in military uniform stabbed her in the back as she tried to leave the al-Katiba Square, where pro-unity protesters were staging a sit-in strike.

She said that she and another female journalist, Asma al- Ghoul, were later also beaten with clubs before they were taken to detention.

“At the police station, they continued to beat us and curse us,” Ahmed told the Palestinian news agency Aswar Press. “When they realized that I was bleeding from the area where I was stabbed, the police interrogators sent me to hospital.”

She added that the Hamas police officers who accompanied her to the hospital forced the medical team to admit her under a different name and to list her as a victim of a traffic accident.

Jihan al-Sirsawi, another woman who works as a journalist in the Gaza Strip, said that the police officers who attacked the demonstrators beat her severely.

“They used electrical shocks against us,” she said. “They beat me so strongly that I lost consciousness and fell to the ground. I woke up only 15 minutes later.”

Two more female journalists, Manal Khamis and Dima al-Lababidi, also complained that Hamas policemen had beaten them up during the demonstration. Khamis said that the policemen confiscated her mobile phone and attacked her physically. Al- Lababidi accused the Hamas policemen of hitting her on the back with an iron chair.

The two said that the Hamas security officers also set fire to a tent that was being used by the journalists in the square.

Read the rest, though you don't have to. You know how it goes.
Atlas Shrugs

Losing Our Sons Trailer


Announcing the upcoming release of "Losing our Sons," a documentary film investigation into the first successful homegrown Islamist terrorist attack on American soil. This is the story of a young African-American man from Memphis who converted to radical Islam, went to Yemen for terrorism training, and came back to murder a young Marine in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Melvin Bledsoe's testimony at Peter King's radicalization hearings defined the issue, the enormity of the problem. From my perspective, the most compelling witness was Melvin Bledsoe. Amid the silliness of Baca, the deception of Congressman Hakim Muhammad Ellison, and fairy talemeister Jasser, Bledsoe had no agenda. He best illustrates the essential struggle.

Bill O'Reilly - Qaddafi Brutalities


I had to rub my eyes. Bill O'Reilly, patron of Muslim Brotherhood-tied CAIR, was covering a story of rape and brutality against a Muslim woman in Libya. Typical treatment of Muslim women living under Islamic law.

What was shocking was that O'Reilly had Wafa Sultan on to explain. I hardly watch O'Reilly, and I fell off my chair. I don't think he had a clue who she was. And did she school him. His responses were completely uninformed, but no matter, Wafa speaketh.

Wafa Sultan was born and raised in Syria. She is a medical doctor who trained as a psychiatrist in Syria, and is an American author and critic of Muslim society and Islam, having self-identified as a Muslim, but not religious. Her must-read book is A God Who Hates.

IDF Spokesman, Capt. Avichai Adraee on Hamas Rocket Fire


Captain Avichai Adra'i is not only impressive in what he says, but in how he says it. He knows that his audience - the entire Arab world - respects forceful speech more than the namby-pamby words given to Western reporters and diplomats.

And he lets them have it:

ELDER OF ZIYON

Monday, March 28, 2011

Al Qaeda Snatched Surface-to-Air Missiles from Libya

AL-QAEDA'S offshoot in North Africa has snatched surface-to-air missiles from an arsenal in Libya during the civil strife there, Chad's President says.

Idriss Deby Itno did not say how many surface-to-air missiles were stolen, but told the African weekly Jeune Afrique that he was "100 per cent sure" of his assertion.

"The Islamists of al-Qaeda took advantage of the pillaging of arsenals in the rebel zone to acquire arms, including surface-to-air missiles, which were then smuggled into their sanctuaries in Tenere," a desert region of the Sahara that stretches from northeast Niger to western Chad, Deby said in the interview.

"We have the same information," about heavy weapons, including SAM 7 missiles, a military source from Niger said.

"Islamists," what an asinine word.
Atlas Shrugs

Norwegian Lunatic Left Party Calls on World to Bomb Israel

The SV annual convention goes to vote. The deranged junior partner in the current government coalition will among other proposals vote on a motion to use armed force against Israel should it attack Gaza.
The motion is the blood money required to pay off SV card carrying members who find it hard to accept that they have taken the nation to war, again. Last time it did so was back in 1999, when the party backed the NATO bombing of Serbia. As a result, we got ourselves involved in a war crimes probe because of high number of civilian casualties and bombing illegal targets.
Therefore, the only way it can be palatable to bomb Libya for these morally deranged people is if Israel can be bombed too.
Here is the less than lucid reasoning behind the motion:

- The credibility of the world community in its confrontation with the Gadafi regime is undermined when there is no reaction against other states in the region who commit injustices against civil population. The greater world community must therefore also react against Israeli air attacks on the Gaza strip.



Wow, a declaration of war from the governments very junior partner! And not to mention that thus Israel has become the only country in the world who will be denied the right to defend itself in the face of constant terrorism, rocket attacks against its own population. With a stroke of the pen, the entire body of international Law must be changed to accommodate for this perverse view, and taken to its logical conclusion, Norway would be unable to defend itself from attacks. Or maybe, we ought to bomb ourselves for bombing the Libyans?
But at least now we don’t have to deal with the lies and hypocrisy of this lunatic fringe group, at least they have come clean and admit that they hate the guts of every living Jew to the extent that they would gladly help to blow the country to pieces.
Roll over Ahmadinejad, even your antics look comical in comparison.
I wonder if this kind of extreme agitation and war mongering is even legal?
Please somebody, come and help us, we are in the hands of very evil people.
Prof. M. McGonagall

The good news is that the comments to an Aftenblodet article about this shows universal derision for the SV party.

Still, I've seen some people mention that the coalition decision to bomb Libya would lead to absurd ideas like this, and it appears that they are right.These so-called pacifists turn into warmongers when it comes to the idea of Jews defending themselves.

(See also here for the latest in Norwegian anti-Zionism and anti-semitism.)

2011. Syrians Topple Assad Statue


This is supposedly a video taken in Daraa on Friday, showing people trying to topple a statue of Hafez al-Assad and hearing the sounds of shots by the regime.

It doesn't look like they succeeded in toppling the statue, and I am not sure what the photo of Saddam Hussein for the last minute of the video is meant to signify.

From Palestine Press Agency.

Arab Assault on Gas Terminal Failed This Month

From Al Ahram
Unknown attackers attempted on Sunday to blow up an Egyptian gas pipeline to Israel and Jordan, but the explosives failed to detonate, a security official said.

Six armed men stormed the gas terminal in the northern Sinai town of Al-Sabeel at dawn on Sunday and placed explosive devices there, the official said.

"They failed to detonate the bombs and fled the scene. Even the security guard was missing when police arrived," he said, adding police officers managed to remove the explosives.

Last month attackers used explosives against the pipeline, cutting off gas supply to Jordan and Israel for more than a month.

Are the Territories Disputed or Occupied?

Binyamin Netanyahu will be on YouTube answering the most popular questions submitted by people around the world. Although I am asking my question a bit late, here's what I would like to hear him address:

What is the Government of Israel's official stance on the legal status of the territories? Are they occupied, disputed, or something else?


Israel used to be adamant that they were "disputed" (except for Jerusalem which was annexed) but the recent governments seem to have gone away from that formulation. I would simply like a clear answer.
Elder of Ziyon

Arab Spokesman Says Resistance is a Right


Fatah spokesman Osama Qawasmi said "resistance is a legitimate right of the Palestinian people for liberation from Israeli occupation for and achieving their goal of independence and the establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem."

He said in a press statement issued by the Office of Information and Culture: 'Resistance and means to achieve the objectives of a comprehensive national goal is subject to its weapons and methods for a clear vision of strategic objectives and progress according to a unitary national and political goals agreed upon by the Palestinian people."

He goes on to say that Hamas' use of weapons has not been strategic and has hurt the goal of achieving a state, but in general there is a place and time for using terror against Israel.

I do not know if the "Office of Information and Culture" is a Fatah or PA organization.

Brits Hate Jewish Builders as Terrorists


Yes, it is trendy for oh-so-sophisticated British to say that Jews building homes - within their existing communities - as being as deadly to peace as wantonly killing demonstrators.

Years of Arabs repeating the mantra that "settlements are the obstacle to peace" easily gets into the heads of credulous leftists who are already looking for reasons to hate Jews.

Apartheid? Correction Ad

IDF Spokesman, Capt. Avichai Adraee Tells the Truth on Hamas Rocket Fire

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Obama's Trap in Syria

Obama's Trap in Syria

Joshua Muravchik

Joshua Muravchik, a fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, is the author of The Next Founders: Voices of Democracy in the Middle East.

But any U.S. response may be hamstrung by President Obama’s insistence on multilateralism in Libya. Getting the Arab League and U.N. Security Council’s approval on military action against al-Assad will be a no-go, says Joshua Muravchik.

Obama's Trap in Syria

Obama's Trap in Syria

Tomgram: Rebecca Solnit, The Earthquake Kit | TomDispatch

Tomgram: Rebecca Solnit, The Earthquake Kit | javascript:void(0)TomDispatch

The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب: Gates realizes that there are only three authorita...

The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب: Gates realizes that there are only three authorita...: "'Gates cited Syria, Libya and Iran as examples of 'authoritarian regimes (that) have suppressed their people and have been willing to use vi..."

Egypt’s First Vote by Yasmine El Rashidi | NYRBlog | The New York Review of Books

Egypt’s First Vote by Yasmine El Rashidi | NYRBlog | The New York Review of Books

What's Next? Minarets Over the White House?

VIDEOS: WOODSTOCK OF OLD MEETS MINDSTOCK OF TODAY

VIDEOS: WOODSTOCK OF OLD MEETS MINDSTOCK OF TODAY

Syrian security forces open fire on protesters


Israel Radio just referred to riots in the Syrian port of Latakia on Saturday, the first I have heard of riots there.

Here's an al-Jazeera report from Deraa on Friday, the place where the riots started.

Let's go to the videotape.

Israel Matzav: Today's viral video Qaddafi Gang Rape

Israel Matzav: Today's viral video

Attempt to Destroy Egypt - Israel - Lebanon Pipeline Fails

Al Qaeda Joins Libya Rebels to Fight Qaddafi


Libyan rebel commander admits his fighters have al-Qaeda links Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi's regime.
By Praveen Swami, Nick Squires and Duncan Gardham 5:00PM GMT 25 Mar 2011

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Mr al-Hasidi admitted that he had recruited "around 25" men from the Derna area in eastern Libya to fight against coalition troops in Iraq. Some of them, he said, are "today are on the front lines in Adjabiya".

Mr al-Hasidi insisted his fighters "are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists," but added that the "members of al-Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader".

His revelations came even as Idriss Deby Itno, Chad's president, said al-Qaeda had managed to pillage military arsenals in the Libyan rebel zone and acquired arms, "including surface-to-air missiles, which were then smuggled into their sanctuaries".

Mr al-Hasidi admitted he had earlier fought against "the foreign invasion" in Afghanistan, before being "captured in 2002 in Peshwar, in Pakistan". He was later handed over to the US, and then held in Libya before being released in 2008.

US and British government sources said Mr al-Hasidi was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, or LIFG, which killed dozens of Libyan troops in guerrilla attacks around Derna and Benghazi in 1995 and 1996

Before Peace Israel to Release Murderers


Mahmoud Abbas, that intransigent leader that the world considers "moderate," had added another condition for "peace" with Israel:

Abbas now demands that Israel release every single Palestinian Arab prisoner.

This includes, of course, the most heinous terrorists - those that have murdered and slaughtered Israelis - that have been captured by Israel. Abbas is not distinguishing between prisoners with "blood on their hands" and those who merely planned or facilitated terror attacks.

Abbas is saying that peace depends on Israel releasing murderers. Not only that, he is implicitly threatening to support terrorism against Israel until every last of those prisoners are released.

Yet this Orwellian doublethink, that Israel must reward murderers and release terrorists in order to gain "peace," will not register as anomalous at all in the world's media.

Palestinian Arab leaders have learned that no matter how outrageous their demands, they will be treated with deference and respect.
Elder of Ziyon

Listening Post - Military intervention, warmongering and the media

James Bays reports from near Ajdabiya

Update: Syria unrest - Al Jazeera

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Truthdig - Audio - Truthdig Radio: Dennis Kucinich Battles Libya Bombing

Truthdig - Audio - Truthdig Radio: Dennis Kucinich Battles Libya Bombing

BHO: Commander in Chief

USSS Barack Obama

Do Cameron's Views on Israel Match Obama's


The Economist suggests that David Cameron's views on Israel - which have turned sharply against Israel since he took office - are being coordinated with US President Barack Hussein Obama.

If Mr Cameron offers Israel mixed messages, he does so with the blessing of America’s president, normally reliable diplomatic sources claim. Faced with what they see as the intransigence of the Israeli government led by Binyamin Netanyahu, Europe’s big beasts and America are moving closer in outlook, according to those sources. Before the UN vote of February 18th, Barack Obama reportedly encouraged Mr Cameron and others to take a tough line on Israel. In phone calls to his European allies, Mr Obama is said to have expressed frustration at Mr Netanyahu’s approach to settlements, but to have explained he had “too many domestic fires to extinguish” to risk a bust-up over Israel.

The White House strenuously denies this account. Number 10 would only confirm that Mr Cameron and Mr Obama had been in “regular touch” over the peace process. Since these are private conversations, it is tough for The Economist to know exactly what was said. But, in private, European officials have told Israel that their pressure is choreographed with America.

This, rather than hypocrisy, might be the real story of Israel’s current relations with Britain and others. Impatience with Mr Netanyahu seems to be blurring the boundaries between Israel’s friends and critics. And Mr Cameron’s seeming disagreement with Mr Obama might actually be a form of diplomatic co-operation.

I cannot think of a bigger disaster for Israel short of - God forbid - a serious military defeat than Obama winning re-election in 2012.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Barack Obama, David Cameron

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:39 PM

The Biggest Threat Facing the Country Today Is Fast Creeping Ignorance | | AlterNet

The Biggest Threat Facing the Country Today Is Fast Creeping Ignorance | | AlterNet

Obama Respects Muslims who Burn Churches, Homes


Obama say. "Respect it! Or I will stage a kinetic military intervention!" Daisy the Khan say, "the era of extremeism is over!" Pamela Geller say, "Join SIOA Now!"

Africa Thousands of Christians Displaced in Ethiopia After Muslim Extremists Torch Churches, Homes by Diane Macedo, FOX News

Who Killed Mary Gardner in J-m? Herald Scotland

An unbelievable article in the Herald (Scotland) about the victim of the Jerusalem terror attack makes it sound like anyone could have planted the bomb:

A SCOTS Christian campaigner from Scotland who worked in the Third World has been killed in a bomb blast in Jerusalem.

Mary Gardner, 59, who previously taught in Orkney, was the only fatality. She was caught up in the explosion caused by a bomb placed in a phone booth as she stood at a bus station in the Israeli city.

She died in hospital from her injuries despite desperate efforts by paramedics following Wednesday’s terror attack.

The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Ms Gardner was killed by the blast across the street from the Jerusalem Convention Centre near the central bus station.

A spokesman said: “[Ms Gardner] was critically wounded as a result of the bombing, and rescue services transferred her to hospital, where doctors fought for her life for about an hour and ultimately were forced to declare her dead.”

Beautiful Jerusalem, where bombs just appear and explode spontaneously.

(h/t Tony H.)

West Experts Baffled: Muslim Brotherhood Runs Egypt

In post-revolutionary Egypt, where hope and confusion collide in the daily struggle to build a new nation, religion has emerged as a powerful political force, following an uprising that was based on secular ideals. The Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group once banned by the state, is at the forefront, transformed into a tacit partner with the military government that many fear will thwart fundamental changes.

It is also clear that the young, educated secular activists who initially propelled the nonideological revolution are no longer the driving political force — at least not at the moment.

As the best organized and most extensive opposition movement in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood was expected to have an edge in the contest for influence. But what surprises many is its link to a military that vilified it.

“There is evidence the Brotherhood struck some kind of a deal with the military early on,” said Elijah Zarwan, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group. “It makes sense if you are the military — you want stability and people off the street. The Brotherhood is one address where you can go to get 100,000 people off the street.”

“We are all worried,” said Amr Koura, 55, a television producer, reflecting the opinions of the secular minority. “The young people have no control of the revolution anymore. It was evident in the last few weeks when you saw a lot of bearded people taking charge. The youth are gone.”

In the early stages of the revolution, the Brotherhood was reluctant to join the call for demonstrations. It jumped in only after it was clear that the protest movement had gained traction. Throughout, the Brotherhood kept a low profile, part of a survival instinct honed during decades of repression by the state.

The question at the time was whether the Brotherhood would move to take charge with its superior organizational structure.

It now appears that it has.
But the more secular forces say that what they need is time.

“I worry about going too fast towards elections, that the parties are still weak,” said Nabil Ahmed Helmy, former dean of the Zagazig law school and a member of the National Council for Human Rights.

As I said, I am shocked. Only last month the NYT's own Nicholas Kristof waxed lyrical about the courage of the Facebook youth of Egypt and said we should be ashamed to even think that they would not be taking Egypt in a new, liberal, democratic direction.

And I, an anonymous blogger who does not have the prestige or experience of Nick Kristof and who has never even visited Egypt, had the audacity to respond:

Kristof is making a major mistake. He is confusing bravery for political maturity.

No one doubts the protesters' bravery. No one doubts their integrity, or their desire for change, or even their desire for democracy.

But there are serious doubts at their ability to translate the raw desire for freedom into a functional, liberal, democratic government.

It is hard work to create the institutions necessary. More importantly, it takes time - and time is not on the side of the protesters.

It is now fashionable to pooh-pooh the dangers of the Muslim Brotherhood in Kristof's liberal circles, but no one can doubt that the Islamists are better organized and much more politically mature than the Facebookers of Tahrir Square. It takes time to set up an organization, to define a clear agenda, to build a fundraising mechanism, to attract volunteers, to build a means to communicate with all the people - including in rural areas, and to do all the myriad details from physical buildings to a phone system to a mailing list.

True freedom cannot flourish until Egyptians have been exposed to a wide range of ideas on a level playing field. The existing Islamist groups are running circles around the "Egyptian youth" we hear so much about. Kristof is so caught up in the emotions of the moment that he cannot think outside Tahrir Square, to the 99% of the country that is not as emotionally invested in who their leaders would be. To them, the nice people with beards who build a free Islamic school for their kids are the only game in town.

Enthusiasm does not ensure effective state building and true freedoms. Kristof, instead of spouting straw-man arguments, should be advocating ways for his jeans-wearing heroes to channel their sparks of enthusiasm and bravery into the hard, thankless and often boring work necessary to build a new Egypt from scratch.

How dare I disagree with such an outstanding pundit and accurately predict nearly everything in this article written by his employer a month later? How could I have the chutzpah to mention that the New York Times is paying someone to spout wishful-thinking nonsense while I, and many others, could see what was to happen from thousands of miles away?

(I didn't see a partnership with the army, I admit...that is actually stunning and far more worrisome than what I had written.)
Elder of Ziyon

Two Planeloads of Basij Militia Arrive in Syria

The Beirut Observer last week reported that two planes filled with Iran's Basij militia were flown from Iran to Damascus last Saturday. (The story was picked up by Kol Israel Arabic.)

The purpose was to protect the Assad regime from continuing protests throughout the country.

Arabic news sites also mentioned a YouTube video showing a funeral for one of the people killed in Daraa this week, with the protesters chanting "Neither Iran nor Hezbollah ... only to be a Muslim who is afraid of God."

100 Syrians protested in front of the Syrian embassy in Dubai yesterday, saying that "Israel is more merciful than the Syrian regime, she [Israel] did not do what he [Assad] has done to us" and they accused Syria of importing Hezbollah fighters as well to quash demonstrations, also chanting "Neither Iran nor Hezbollah..."
Elder of Ziyon

Why Can't Arabs and Jews Get Along?

OnIslam, which is a breakaway website from Islam Online, has a fatwa section where someone recently asked this:

Can you answer the question why the Palestinians and the Israelis have been fighting for so long? What is it all about? Why do they seem to hate each other so much? Is it related to the Catholic/Protestant faith, Judaism and Islam?


The answer given is very illuminating.

It illustrates why real peace is impossible: because the other side doesn’t even know the basic facts about Judaism, Zionism and Israel. It is simply not possible to reach an agreement when one side’s entire conception of the others is, simply, filled with lies.

Elder of Ziyon

Elder of Ziyon: The Thin Jew Line (Daily Show)

Elder of Ziyon: The Thin Jew Line (Daily Show)

J Street Hypocrisy


From Sol Stern in Pajamas Media:

Ben-Ami’s paternal grandparents were, indeed, Zionist heroes. At great personal risk they moved from Czarist Russia to the Land of Israel as part of the First Aliyah (wave of immigration) of the late nineteenth century. They were among 66 Palestinian Jewish families who defied the warnings of their own community’s leaders and purchased a large plot of land from Arab effendis in 1909 on the sand dunes south of Jaffa. The families then conducted a lottery on the beach to distribute the plots on which they would build their individual homes — thus laying the foundation for Tel Aviv, the “first Hebrew city.” Two years ago Tel Aviv’s municipality celebrated the centennial of the city’s founding. Ben-Ami and his children took part in a ceremony reenacting the 1909 lottery on the beach along with other descendants of the original Jewish families.

Writing about the event in the New York Times, Ben-Ami hailed his grandparents’ generation of Zionist settlers who created Tel Aviv as a center of Jewish learning, culture, and commerce. But he then contrasted that noble achievement with the allegedly atavistic attitudes toward the Palestinian Arabs of the “Netanyahu/Lieberman government.”

Jews building cities on empty land that they legally bought were heroes when they were a certain kind of Jews doing it in the last century on the west side of an imaginary line that wasn't to exist for another 40 years.

Now they are evil.

Makes perfect sense.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Parshat Shemini 5771 ● Mikveh's spiritual effect ● Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh

Family Slaughtered in Israel - Doesn't BBC Care?


By Louise Bagshawe, The Telegraph 12:20AM GMT 24 Mar 2011

1954 Comments

Who is Tamar Fogel? The chances are that you will have no idea. She is a 12-year-old girl who arrived home late on Friday, March 11, to discover her family had been slaughtered. Her parents had been stabbed to death; the throat of her 11-year-old brother, Yoav, had been slit. Her four-year-old brother, Elad, whose throat had also been cut, was still alive, with a faint pulse, but medics were unable to save him. Tamar's sister, Hadas, three months old, had also been killed. Her head had been sawn off.

There were two other Fogel brothers sleeping in an adjacent room. When woken by their big sister trying to get into a locked house, Roi, aged six, let her in. After Tamar discovered the bodies, her screaming alerted their neighbour who rushed in to help and described finding two-year-old Yishai desperately shaking his parents' blood-soaked corpses, trying to wake them up.

I found out about the barbaric attack not on BBC news, but via Twitter on Monday. I followed a link there to a piece by Mark Steyn entitled "Dead Jews is no news'. Horrified, I went to the BBC website to find out more. There I discovered only two stories: one a cursory description of the incident in Itamar, a West Bank settlement, and another focusing on Israel's decision to build more settlements, which mentioned the killings in passing.

As the mother of three children, one the same age as little Elad, who had lain bleeding to death, I was stunned at the BBC's seeming lack of care. All the most heart-wrenching details were omitted. The second story, suggesting that the construction announcement was an act of antagonism following the massacre, also omitted key facts and failed to mention the subsequent celebrations in Gaza, and the statement by a Hamas spokesman that "five dead Israelis is not enough to punish anybody".

There were more details elsewhere on the net: the pain and hurt, for example, of the British Jewish community at the BBC's apparent indifference to the fate of the Fogels. The more I read, the more the BBC's broadcast silence amazed me. What if a settler had entered a Palestinian home and sawn off a baby's head? Might we have heard about it then? On Twitter, I attacked the UK media in general, and the BBC in particular. I considered filing a complaint.

Get Tough with Hamas Now


BY ISI Liebler, Jerusalem Post
These are indeed difficult times requiring painful decisions over issues such as how to placate the Obama administration in order to forestall a breakdown in US-Israel relations and avoid international efforts to force us to revert to the 1949 armistice lines.

But when it comes to matters of defense, there are clear lessons to be learned from the past.

Yet, in addition to Wednesday’s monstrous attack opposite the Jerusalem Central Bus Station, there is a horrible sense of déjà vu as we observe the rapid escalation of Hamas missile launches which had been reduced as a byproduct of Operation Cast Lead.

One is even tempted to compare the current situation with what happened 10 years ago when the crude and limited-range Kassam rockets were first launched against us and contemptuously dismissed by leaders as primitive missiles with little capacity to incur serious damage or casualties.

In a Jerusalem Post column at the time, I predicted that if we avoided tough measures to curtail these “primitive” rocket attacks, the international community would become accustomed to regarding Palestinian missile launches against our civilians as the norm.

When the government would ultimately be obliged to act, a world accustomed to Israeli passivity against such attacks, would accuse us of over-reacting.

Unfortunately, that is precisely what happened. Each time we responded, we were accused of disproportionality.

Moreover, the situation deteriorated to such an extent that we were left with no alternative but to mount a full scale war against Hamas in Gaza for which the international community condemned us.

IT IS thus alarming to observe the government again prevaricating, issuing empty threats and bombing primarily empty buildings in Gaza in response to increasing attacks.

This has climaxed in recent weeks, with 50 missiles raining down over the Negev over the weekend and the deployment of lethal Iranian grad rockets. Israelis living in the southern region were destabilized and a few were even injured.

Moreover, this is the first time that instead of trying to blame “unauthorized groups,” Hamas felt sufficiently confident to brazenly accept direct responsibility for the missile launches.

Yet, according to media reports, the security establishment relates to these outrageous breaches of international law and attacks on Israeli civilians as “low level confrontation” and reassures us that Hamas was not seeking a “major” conflict. And when civilians located adjacent to rocket-launching areas became casualties we once again apologize rather than condemning those responsible.

Obviously, the deterrent established in the wake of Operation Cast Lead “is eroding rapidly and we are again reconciling ourselves to large areas of Israel being subjected to “low level” missile attacks without reacting with tough military responses.

We should be under no illusions. Limiting our responses in order to meet Western expectations of “proportionality” serves no purpose. The lesson learned from Cast Lead was that any action we undertake to defend ourselves will at best be condemned as disproportionate but more likely as war crimes. One need only compare the absence of international criticism to the innocent casualties from Western bombardments in Libya in contrast to the cynical and hypocritical condemnations of Israel during Cast Lead, despite the far greater efforts of the IDF to minimize civilian casualties.

A MAJOR motivation for the attacks by the Iranian proxy Hamas is undoubtedly to divert attention from Iran’s internal problems and its ongoing nuclear project. There is also the desire by Hamas leaders to deflect domestic public opposition to their rule. But above all, Hamas is testing our resolve and seeking to identify to what extent we will remain restrained because of our concern not to antagonize or embarrass the Americans who are pressuring us not to be “spoilers” during this period of turmoil sweeping the Arab world.

This is surely one time when we must demand that our prime minister display decisive leadership, gather his cabinet and insist this will be one of the rare occasions when all ministers must display unity and speak with one voice, proclaiming to the world that failing to employ deterrence is a prescription for disaster.

The opposition should be co-opted to create a united front and there is little doubt that Kadima supporters will demand that the party support such a policy.

Our embassies must be instructed to inform all nations that we will remain neither passive nor act with restraint. If Hamas continues launching lethal missiles against our civilians, we will severely punish them. We should emphasize that we seek quiet and stability on our borders. But if our citizens are targeted once again, not by terrorist splinter groups but by Hamas, which has exclusive jurisdiction over Gaza, it will be made to pay a bitter price. We will resume targeted assassinations and, while endeavoring to minimize civilian casualties, will be obliged to inflict massive reprisals on its infrastructure.

WE MUST make it clear in advance that Israel will no longer adhere to the tit-for-tat formula and that we will respond with overwhelming force, not because we seek revenge but in order to deter future attacks. This is not behaving disproportionately but is rather striving to employ deterrence to protect our civilians and avoid a new full-scale conflict. Such behavior is fully consistent with international law and our obligation to defend our citizens from outright aggression.

The time to bite the bullet is now. If we fail to reinforce deterrence immediately, the long-term price may be far more severe than any worldwide condemnations that will result.

We will be adopting a moral position which will undoubtedly be condemned by those with no love for Israel. But any country seeking to deny our government the right to protect its civilians will stand exposed as malicious hypocrites.

Ideally, this strategy may serve to stabilize the borders and avoid another war. On the other hand, if Hamas has a desire for martyrdom, we will be obliged to once again confront them full on. I am no military strategist, but it would surely be preferable for us to face this situation now, before Hamas manages to acquire more deadly weaponry that will undoubtedly reach Gaza under a future Egyptian regime.

We would also be in a better position to confront the terrorists today, prior to the stabilization of the new Arab governments - which are likely to be even more hostile to us than their predecessors.