Monday, December 29, 2014

Rewriting the Past: Churchill and Islam



Dominated by political correctness, the media is determined to present Islam in a positive light. Today’s UPI article claims that Winston Churchill was attracted to Islam that he considered conversion. and that if not for the intervention of his family, he may very well have. Since UPI is  a major news wire,  it is not surprising that the story was featured in newspapers from Great Britain,  Sweden, Holland, the U.S, Middle East Forum, Russia,  India, the Middle east South America, and even the Jerusalem Post.

Churchill's purported love affair with Islam is based on a letter to Churchill from  Lady Gwendolyn, Churchill’s  future sister in in law, found recently, in which she expressed concern about his attraction to Islam and expressed her concern that he might convert.  Churchill appears to have had an interest in the culture of the middle east but deplored Islam. After serving in the British army until 1897, he returned to England and wrote memoirs of his experiences in which he expressed his opinions about Islam in no uncertain terms. Unfortunately Churchill’s views are relevant today. His writing needs no paraphrasing.  Here are his opinions in his own words

The Effect of Islam on its followers

“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries [devotees] Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia [rabies] in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident [short-sited] habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. ...Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde[backwards] force exists in the world”

Enslavement of women

“The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property – either as a child, a wife, or a concubine – must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.”

The Danger to the West

“Far from being moribund [pointless], Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity were sheltered in the strong arms of science – the science against which it had vainly struggled – the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.”

Contrast between Islam and Christianity

“It is, difficult if not impossible for the modern European to fully appreciate the force which fanaticism exercises among an ignorant, warlike and Oriental population.... Christianity, however degraded and distorted by cruelty and intolerance, exerts a modifying influence on men's passions, and protect them from the more violent forms of fanatical fever, as we are protected from smallpox by vaccination. But the Mohammedan religion increases, instead of lessening, the fury of intolerance. It was originally propagated by the sword, and ever since, its votaries have been subject, above the people of all other creeds, to this form of madness.”

Religion and war

“In a moment the fruits of patient toil, the prospects of material prosperity, the fear of death itself, are flung aside. The more emotional Pathans are powerless to resist. All rational considerations are forgotten. Seizing their weapons, they become Ghazis--as dangerous and as sensible as mad dogs: fit only to be treated as such. While the more generous spirits among the tribesmen become convulsed in an ecstasy of religious bloodthirstiness, poorer and more material souls derive additional impulses from the influence of others, the hopes of plunder and the joy of fighting. Thus whole nations are roused to arms. Thus the Turks repel their enemies, the Arabs of the Soudan break the British squares, and the rising on the Indian frontier spreads far and wide. In each case civilization is confronted with militant Mahommedanism. The forces of progress clash with those of reaction. The religion of blood and war is face to face with that of peace. Luckily the religion of peace is usually the better armed.”

A warning

These words written by Churchill over 100 years ago warn us of the dangers the world would face were if Muslims became armed to the degree that others are.  The west, would never be as single-mindedly  dedicated to war, never reach the altered state that Islam provokes. Many people know that Churchill was the first to see the dangers of Naziism and Stalinism  But how many people would have guessed he also warned us of the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism?

Political Arrest in Britain
Paul Weston , chairman of the Liberty Party was arrested this year [4/26/2014]b for the crime of quoting what Winston Churchill,said in 1899 about  Islam:  No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.” A British political candidate running for elections was arrested in mid-speech simply for publicly for  quoting a former Prime Minister.  Orwellian in its attempt to rewrite the past  by erasing a statement that does not fit today's narrative about Islam.  The UPI ‘news’ publicizing Churchill’s love affair with Islam is of the same genre. It exaggerates a number of events and ignores the majority of information on the subject.
When reading ‘news’ especially news that did not occur the day it was written,  caveat emptor,  I was fortunate as I learned this in sixth grade when my social studies teacher asked this question : How can you tell the New York Times is biased? None of us knew, Look in the box on the front page. “All the news that’s fit to print” I read as I heard her say. Who decides?
A critical mind protects against baseless extremism. Unfortunately, there are fewer teachers who encourage this today

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Is Israel too Moral to Win?


I wrote this in response to an article in Times of Israel by Gabriel Weber who is a youth worker for LJY- Netzer the youth movement of Liberal Judaism. His article “Self Defense shouldn’t be fun” was a critique of Israeli soldiers who were happy rather than heartbroken at the death of our enemies.

Gabriel Webber  is convinced that according to Judaism we should never hate our enemies and that  he has the right and obligation to tell Jews not only how they should act but what they should think and how they should feel.  This summer he was a youth leader teaching another group of kids the same.

This is not Judaism. It is rose colored delusional thinking  of those who have redefined what was once Judaism into a soppy, naive, religion that would have us holding hands and singing Kumbaya and then our new national anthem which would be “All you need is love.”  If this were our creed , we would be long  gone.

Jewish leftists typically choose only what they believe is the “ethical part of Judaism” Gabriel Weber uses the custom of removing  not drinking some wine on passover as described in the Talmud as a case in point. However,   one out of context quote does not a Talmudic scholar make. The Talmud tells us we are not permitted to stand by while Jews die as Jews died in Protective edge because IDF’s in agreement with Gabriel Webber’s values. The IDF regularly aborts missions when Palestinian civilians are present. In protective edge ground soldiers requested cover for but did not get it because Palestinian prisoners were present.

Judaism teaches us about balance in life. There is a time for war and a time for peace, a time for love and also a time for hate. Wars are not won by people who are in a constant state of empathy with their enemies. Israel put this misplaced need for moral superiority first and gave up the element of surprise in Protective Edge by broadcasting what they were going to do to Palestinians in Gaza and by treating every Gazan not dressed as a terrorist as an innocent civilian, ignoring the reality of both collaborators and plain clothes terrorists.

War is the time to hate and to lust for the complete annihilation of an enemy that will destroy you. “Harden your heart”, God told Joshua before he went to war.
“Regarding he who comes to kill you, get there earlier and kill him.”

Judaism is not psychology. It teaches us there is good and evil and that irreparable evil must be completely destroyed
“ Blot our any memory of Amalek.” One does not accomplish this by sadness , self control and being regretful or heartbroken. The reason we do not go to war on a whim is because war is a horrible, revolting, disgusting thing. BUT when we do fight and  when we do send our sons and daughters to fight we have no obligation to carry a burden of guilt and regret, That is a recipe for failure.
In such times empathy and love are for our soldiers, our kids, our injured. Those who killed them deserve painful deaths.

I pity any person who is heartbroken at the few Muslims killed in the current Intifada. Save your tears for the three month old baby, for the three Rabbis whose tefillin and siddurim were blood soaked, for the young woman killed at a bus station and for the deaths you do not know about because the Israeli press like Gabriel Webber is more focused on the bad things we are doing to our enemies. Thank our God that those who prayed at the synagogue in Jerusalem where Rabbis were killed, orthodox men uncontaminated by the western weakling mentality, did what any sane person should do after such an incident They bought guns

. Some years ago, two young Jewish boys Muslims stoned to two young boys to death in a cave near an Arab village. The press never reported it. Do you think what those “F***cking Muslims did does not P***ss me off.  If I could manage to kill one of them, I would take pleasure in it. 

Next week we will celebrate Chanukah.  Had Gabriel Webber lived then , he would have blamed Matityahu and his sons for taking pleasure when they decimated the people who tried to turn our holiest place on earth into a pigsty. 

Mr. Weber’s perspectives matches those of the so called Centrist/lefts in Israel who, despite all evidence to the contrary, will continue to believe fury against one’s enemies is never appropriate and that the only justified wars are in self defense.

There is a way to end the status quo of fighting the same war again and again. Rather than aiming for a few years of peace before the next war, destroying infrastructure, tunnels, ammunition, we must commit ourselves to win and I quite Mt Weber “:belligerently go get ‘em.” We have to be willing to fight offensive wars, to surprise the enemy, to kill= civilians, and let go of the moral obsessions and fear of being violent that thousands of years of statelessness have taught us.

The Passover custom of removing ten drops from our first cup of wine has nothing to do with attitudes Jews should have when going to fight wars. We do not SPILL wine as Gabriel Webber says. We remove ten drops from the first of four cups. How many drops are there in four cups? Nor much sadness for the Egyptians in the Haggadah. In the Haggadah the Jews were not fighting, they were watching Good’s miracle.  A few pages later in the Haggadah we read about  a contest between Rabbis about who could use the words in a phrase describing the plagues to justify the most harm to the Egyptians.

We will survive this challenge to Israel as we have survived all manner of horrors until now. As for self righteous, liberal Jews who know how all of us should behave, the sooner they assimilate, the sooner we will win our war and have our peace.

Friday, November 14, 2014

The Temple Mount -- Not Negotiable


Netanyahu -- Protect the Temple Mount or Give Someone Else a Chance


When one side in a disagreement capitulates to violence, the violence will be used again, more widely and with greater intensity the next time there is a disagreement. Israel continually capitulates (after confusing everybody by repeatedly saying it will do the opposite). Every day this week Israelis in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas were killed. The only response that will end this is consistent harsh sentences for any person who murders people and terrorizes a country. It is easier in the short run to give in. A short period of deceptive calm may follow. Violence will increase as it has over the years in Jerusalem.

Israel's unwillingness or inability to stand its ground, to communicate clear and consistent objectives, and to do what it says it will is both perplexing and infuriating to many like myself who love the country. How dare Netanyahu call himself a representative of the Jewish people and prohibit Jews from visiting, let alone praying there. The Waqf has behaved dishonorably and has broken the agreement from 1967 that all religions would be able to pray there.

When world news media has amnesia about what the Temple Mount is to Jews, when police responses to Mototov cocktails and barbed wire in our holiest of places are called incitement by Hamas, Abbas and Jordan, I am not surprised. When my own Prime Minister accepts this narrative, when he responds to daily murders of Jews by violent Palestinian mobs, to the near death of Glick, to the murder of a three month old child and others every single day by behaving as if this is our fault I become ashamed and disgusted.

Israel demanded that Abbas recognize Israel as a Jewish state. A Jewish state means very little if the Prime Minister of that state does not have the mettle to protect its holiest place on earth. Shame on you Benjamin Netanyahu. Either protect the Temple Mount or retire and give someone else a chance.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Israel Guilty of Crimes against Humanity

Can the Whole World be Crazy? Of Course.


The UN Investigation into crimes against humanity found Israel  guilty of massive disproportionate destruction.  According to the UN, the 2,100 Palestinians killed, mostly innocent civilians and children, prove disproportionate, massive destruction that Israel must account for. This narrative parrots the story sold to the media by Hamas -- a terrorist organization.

The Human Rights Commission is an insult to human rights and to investigations.  Information countering these claims is widely available.  The 1,200 innocent civilians Israel supposedly killed (after 900 Hamas military deaths) included 150 opposition party members, 50 protestors and 38 collaborators. This does not count deaths from over 1,000 Hamas IEDs and 850 of their missiles that exploded in Gaza, and violators of Hamas rules such as curfews.

Israel achieved what no other army ever does -- it killed almost no civilians in what was  one hell of a pinpoint operation, putting  Palestinian lives above the military advantages of surprise attacks. What did the world do? It ignored this. Hamas deliberately aimed at Israel’s civilians -- ignored. If it were not for Iron Dome Israel might not exist-- ignored. The 93% overlap between Hamas and UNRWA -- ignored. Hamas now boasts that the  tunnels under Israel are rebuilt -- ignored.

The Temple Mount, the holiest Jewish site on earth is covered with garbage, the remains of molotov cocktails, barbed wire, rocks, and fires. A few days ago a swastika was painted on the Temple Mount. When  Israeli police stop this, according to the UN, this is incitement.  Do Muslims do this at Mecca?

This description of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is similar to others. The singular focus on this part of the world creates an impatient need for solution. Negotiations, Nobel prizes, land for peace, concessions, protective measures, pressure on Israel have all failed  and will never succeed.  This is why. This is not some squabble between grade school children, although the "adults" in the West prefer to portray it that way. There is no solution because the Muslims will not stop until they have all of Israel and Palestine, and the Israelis are not going to commit suicide. 

Imagine Israel did everything asked, stopped building, withdrew from the west bank, ended the “occupation,” gave Palestine a harbor and airport, and created a corridor between Gaza and the west bank.  Would there be peace? Of course not. Ask Hamas and the PA.  Check their charters. Listen to what they say, especially in Arabic. They will never stop fighting until they conquer all of Israel and Palestine -- Hamas through war and the PA by getting what they can politically first.  Abbas postures as a moderate to the world, but every time he negotiates,  he reassures Palestinians:  “Don’t worry, this is only the first step. We will have it all".

Obama and Kerry are selling the idea that because of ISIS, it is especially important to achieve “peace” at this time, through a two state solution.  Actually, this is the worst time to create a new Islamic-fascistic country with violent young people who see no future, a breeding ground for terrorist extremists where ISIS already has a foothold, with  weak leadership and a disgusted population. Why do this when there are so many other countries that want a Sharia lifestyle ruled with stoning, amputation and genital mutilation.

There is one solution that would work. UNHRC does it and the world badly needs it today --  population exchange.  Christians, Yazidis, and Kurds desperately need a home to escape slaughter. Relocate these people to Israel.  Relocate Muslims to any number of Muslim countries.

Stop the slaughter and end the war. Does the world truly want that or is there something they derive from an insoluble status quo of perpetual war?

Can the entire world be nuts?

Of course.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Yes, The Entire World Can Be Crazy

According to Ban Ki Moon the  investigation of Israel’s war crimes, based entirely on information provided by Hamas, confirms  Israel’s responsibility for massive, disproportionate destruction as the 2100 people killed were "mostly civilians" [according to Hamas] while Israel lost  70 people, of which 64 were soldiers

Substantial evidence counters the accusation that Israel killed civilians unnecessarily. In fact most were killed by Hamas,   Of the innocent civilians [not the 900 combatants] Israel allegedly  killed,  750 died of natural causes, 150 were PLO members, killed by Hamas, 400 were opposition party members, 50 were protestors, and 38 were collaborators. This does not count Gazans killed by missiles and IEDs that exploded in Gaza, or those who violated curfew, forced to stay in homes. All of this ignored, Israel's overzealous efforts to protect Palestinians to the point of giving up the advantage of surprise, , Hamas's intended genocide. Ignored. Overlap of 93% between UNRWA and and Hamas in Gaza, ignored,  the fact that Hamas has already rebuilt tunnels under Israel, boasts of it and is using humanitarian aid deliveries to do that. Ignored, Evidence that much of the property  destruction in the war was done by Hamas even after published by the New York Times, hardly pro-mIsrael paper. Ignored

Blaming Israel for provocations at the Temple Mount, after it has been repeatedly littered with garbage, stones, remains of Molotov cocktails, barbed wire, when fires have been set there simply because Jews wanted to come to our MOST holiest place [not third] is unconscionable. Yesterday a swastika was painted on the holiest of all places for Jews. Do Muslims do that at Mecca?

The true barriers to this magical peace the world insists on are unrelated to any of these things,   Imagine for a moment Israel showed “courage initiative” , took risks for peace, and  did  everything asked- stopped building, withdrew from the west bank and Gaza, gave Palestine  an airport a naval  port, and a  link between  Gaza and the west bank, would there be peace? Of course not. Ask Hamas. Ask Abbas. Hamas will never stop fighting. Their charter says this and they say this continually. The PA will not either. Abbas is billed as a moderate but differs from Hamas only in strategy: Get what you can politically and take the rest militarily. He doesn't say this to the world. but in Arabic he  constantly reassures Muslims when he negotiates,  telling them this is only a first step.

This is not some squabble between grade school children, although the 'adults' in the west prefer to portray it that way. There is no solution because the Muslims will not stop until they have all of Palestine and Israelis are not going to commit suicide.  It is not a matter of a Palestinian country. That has been offered and rejected again and again, Sisi offered a space along the ocean that is much larger; they said no.

Individual Palestinians are sick of this, they don't love Israel but they know they had a better life before this peace nightmare began. People in Gaza know they had a better life before Israel withdrew with every intention of giving everything they are asking for now until they voted for a terrorist government - Hamas .

The west seems committed to the belief that Hamas and ISIS have nothing in common. This is as absurd as saying Al Qaida and Hezbollah are as peaceful as the Koran is. The difference between ISIS and Hamas is only this:  Hamas's goal is a caliphate in what is now Israel and Palestine and ISIS wants the same thing in Iraq, Syria, part of turkey and part of Lebanon.

There is one solution that would work, a solution that UNHRC often does - population exchange. There is no lack of Christians, Yazidis, Kurds who need a home in order to escape slaughter,. Send them to Israel and send Muslims who want to live in Sharia-land to any one of the many countries that already are ruled by these revolting laws, instead of creating another Sharia country and leaving innocent people to be slaughtered. Israel isn't the problem. It could be the solution.

Netanyahu and his predecessors have done everything possible to balance what the world wants with what Israelis want, to the point of angering Israelis by compromising.  After a report like this, after the US has joined the chorus of Israel bashers, after the whole world voted to recognize Palestine and its terrorist government, believing that because of ISIS, it very important to add another fascist theocracy, another fertile breeding ground for terrorist extremism to the mid-east, Actually, this is the worst time to close the door on a democracy and  invent a  new theocracy whose laws include stoning, amputation and genital mutilation, a state that has weak leadership, an angry population that sees no future and powerful bombs,

Can the entire world be nuts?
Absolutely.

Why Israel should change its name to Palestine

 It was only after the United Nations recognized a Jewish state that the Ben Gurion used the name Israel . Perhaps, we should  change it back to Palestine,. Why? Here are twelve reasons:


1. As anybody in sales or marketing knows, if you have  a product that people don’t like, rename it.

2. International conflicts would become internal criminal proceedings; police would replace the United Nations.

3. Housing and property disputes would be resolved in civil courts. There would be no    more murders of Palestinians for selling land to Israelis  because everybody would be Palestinian.

4. The press, pundits, the United Nations, Obama,  Syria, Europe commentators to all news and human rights organizations  could move on to world problems that need handling line... world hunger?  ISIS, Ebola , murder of tens of thousands of people im Syria, collapsing world economy, world hunger.

5. Clarity of  who is in charge-  All 75  Jihadist parties could try to gain seats in parliament peacefully through the democratic process.

6. Freedom of  movements for all[except criminals].

7. Standard of living of  former Palestinians would increase dramatically.

8. No boycotting of Israel, as everything is made in Palestine.

9. Other Palestinian states in the neighborhood could decide they want to be part of  Greater Palestine.

10. Israeli economic skills, and weapons. weapons of mass destruction, combined with the ferocity of Palestinian non-negotiable demands and persuasive PR would make an impressive addition to international politics.

11.  All Palestinians would continue to be eligible for UNWRA benefits, of course, including  healthcare housing, food, until the end of time.

12. Until 1948,  Israel was called Palestine anyway, so it isn’t really anything new.


Saturday, October 18, 2014

From Israel 10/18/2014








Israel provokes violence 10/18/2014


A funeral in Nablus was held for a 6 year old girl whose death provoked angry demonstrations across the west bank. Israeli police were ordered to not t respond to prevent an already volatile situation from deteriorating further.  The settlers who had killed the  young  girl were  arrested and detained in Jerusalem this morning  after the child’s picture hit international news.

Mahmoud Abbas attended the funeral as did President Rivlin, Tzipi Livni and members of Meretz along with the international press. In his speech before the  funeral, Abbas decried the cruelty of Israeli settlers. “They rip away the homeland of the Palestinian  just as they did when they killed this innocent child.  As his  voice faded, the  child’s mother wailed as she walked towards the tiny shrouded figure,that had been lifted above the crowd. The mothers shrieks continued and she had to be pulled away from the corpse. She fell to the ground in grief. The sound of Cameras clicking was suddenly interrupted.

“Mama, Mama,”  It was the unmistakable voice of a little girl, THE little girl whose pictures were plastered on every building in the city and every newspaper,  very much alive running to her mother who looked at her in horror . The child held her arms out to be hugged but instead received two sharp slaps on the face,“. You were supposed to be a Shaheed” she spat. :” You have dishonored your family. You are not my daughter:”  She turned her  back to the child.

Men moved towards the little girl, who tried to avoid their grasp. Even at the age of five she knew they would kill her. Her  efforts were to no avail., They had almost squirreled her away when a shrill voice cried out

“Noooo,” a woman threw off her veil revealing a hideously burned face,  “Pigs. Dogs., you. will not do this to my sister. Hands grabbed her pulling her  into the crowd but she continued to should in fury. The angry crowd began throwing rocks and   but were subdued by Israeli police and taken the men into custody along with the girls mother and the sister who immediately requested and were granted asylum.

A western journalist managed a brief conversation with the scarred woman and learned that she had been  cut and burned after she was raped and dishonored her husband.
The journalist barely audible spoke if human rights violations hidden from the west.

President Abbas denied any connection between Islam and the husband;’s actions assuring all that anybody doing such an act in Palestine was punished to the full extent of the law. “ This is an Israeli plot to deprive the Palestinian people of their land. “

The NY Times’ article on the event read. “Settlers kidnap little girl, provoking riots against the occupation in Nablus.”

Sunday, October 12, 2014

The Price of Israel's Resounding Silence

Delegates from 50 nations  and 20 regional and international organization pledged  5.4 billion to rebuild Gaza. At the UN Netanyahu seemed very sure of himself when he told the world that rebuilding Gaza and Israel’s security must be linked. Yet  when Nations met to pledge funds, Israel did nothing to link international assistance for rehabilitation of Gaza to disarmament and it is this forum that counts

This major mistake is not a surprise. Israel is consistently passive  in international discussions, and usually says nothing until forced to. This strategy has consistently created vacuums of opportunity that Palestinians have milked for all they are worth.

In this case, nobody from Israel told the attendees  how many people were actually killed by whom, how much destruction there actually is even though these figures are known to Israel.  More important,  nobody told the attendees that demilitarization must be tied to funding not  as a vague principal but via specific rules, that if this was not done, all the donations in the world would be a waste and Israel could not  cooperate. Instead Qatar just about announced its intention to fund Hamas’s future military campaigns. The west's lingering discomfort about money being funneled from Abbas to Hamas was shoved under the rug after a few pronouncements.

Netanyahu ,in keeping with his one speech solution to crises, was silent as usual.  Lieberman, an odd foreign minister who proclaims all of his policy statements only in Israeli media behaved as usual and Livni still stuck in the mentality of... "If only we were nicer" they would have invited us, took the opportunity to blame Netanyahu as usual

This ‘ but we weren’t invited’  is nonsense.   Israel had and still has an opportunity in or out of the conference to male sure those assembled  know that no  plans  they make can occur without Israel cooperation and and cooperation isn't free. Demilitarization is a necessity, and there most likely are others preconditions.

If the past predicts the future,  Netanyahu will continue to say nothing until someone starts nudging about 'peace' talks again. By then Hamas will be re-armed, and commitment to the 1967 border solution will be accepted as truth by all.  Abbas will come in with his set of demands and Israel will be reasonable.

The speeches after the war about how weak Hamas was now, how its infrastructure and leadership had been hit , sound hollow now. Before the war, Hamas was a desperate group in danger of falling apart , not able to pay workers. Now its in a  terrorist’s candy store. Can’t you just see Haniyah’s mouth watering at the thought of all of those lovely weapons. Abbas has gone from a doddering fool to a statesman and Israel is in deep trouble as are the Jews world-wide.

The stakes get higher, the options fewer and the danger to Israel's survival greater.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

What if Israel took risks for peace?

Israel is constantly castigated, threatened with sanctions, and vilified for its cruelty to Palestinians, for refusing to allow them to have their own homeland, for building apartheid walls, for insisting on a military presence in the west bank, for cruel senseless murders of Palestinian children, and for land grabs.  Could the entire world be wrong?

Why doesn't  Israel do what the world knows is the right thing to do and make peace?  The situation of Israel in the world today, the reasons for these demands and their likely outcome point to the answer.

Israel in today’s world

In today’s world represented by the UN, Israel has a status different from that of any other country. The UN, like the news media, gives Israel a level of attention no other other country gets,  disproving the mantra that all publicity is good publicity.  Israel is held responsible for all problems in the  Middle East. According to American Middle Eastern scholars and advisers, the  Israel-Palestinian problem is the cause of hatred for the west,  If solved, antipathy of Muslims to the United States would become less intense and might even disappear. 
There are Israelis and Jews who share this  belief that if Palestinians had a homeland Israel would become an accepted  member of the world community.  Hostility would morph into friendship. Israeli leftists and moderates demand compromises and concessions, clinging to the belief that if would Israel behave properly, it would be accepted into the world community.

What is asked of Israel?


What does Israel have to do in order to be accepted into the cabal?  Nothing much. Solve the Palestinian problem by evacuating settlements.  Give the Palestinians the state they deserve. A seductive proposition, because being a country accepted by others would be Nirvana. If only it could be.

Would it work?

Nevertheless, however appealing a dream, basing it on a delusion is worse than futile. A sober look at how Israel is treated now, could keep us from making an irreversible mistake.  With a few exceptions, the entire world condemns  Israel for human rights violations.  In the Operation Protective Edge human rights investigation violations are based on figures and information provided by Hamas and aren't questioned. The pictures in the news were heart wrenching. So were the film clips in the movie “Wag the dog."

A UN investigation is an oxymoron. The Protective Edge "investigation"  is a celebration of Israel’s culpability. Watch some of it on Youtube if you have a strong stomach.  This is theater. There are no criteria or standards. There is no attempt to compare alternative versions of what happened  to determine what Israel or Hamas did, no attempts to determine whether genocidal acts were committed against Israel, no attempts to delineate specific crimes against humanity Israel is purportedly guilty of and provide supporting evidence beyond opinions.

An investigation would concern itself with questions like: Are the published numbers of dead and wounded accurate?  Is the breakdown of civilians and terrorists accurate?  Were the Palestinians  who were interviewed able to speak freely? What do Palestinians say when they are free to speak? Are the photographs valid?

Israel’s special treatment.

The scenario in the UN today is this: Israel has the honor of being the only nation on earth blessed with its very own human rights committee to constantly monitor Israel (and only Israel) for human rights violations.  When compared to human rights violations elsewhere --  Iran, Syria, genocide against Christians, Kurds, Yazidis  and ISIS -- anything Israel did is trivial.   The threat of nuclear weapons in Iran, chemical weapons in Syria, ISIS’ severing heads with continued expansion and support for ISIS in the Arab world,  these all receive minimal coverage. Israel even gets more coverage then the danger of an worldwide Ebola pandemic.

In Europe, Islam is bringing in the new Islamic world order. For Jews, the result has been migration from France, where Jews’ lives are endangered, along with anti-semitic posters and statements eerily similar to those that preceded WWII. Jews have been denied access to stores and Muslims have surrounded synagogues with the purpose of destroying them and everyone in them. European leaders commiserate and apologize, but don't take this seriously enough to do anything about, such as stopping BDS, or not voting for a recognition of  Palestine, when Palestine's leaders openly proclaim  genocide for Jews. Instead the EU threatens to cut ties with Israel if Israel’s actions do not promote “peace”.  In the US,  people have been murdered because they are Jewish. Police refuse to label these crimes as hate crimes. People who do acknowledge anti-semitism  call it "overflow" from critique of Israel's policies. Jews should eliminate the "root cause" -- Israel's occupation. Do this and everything will be candy cane and lollypops.

The likely results of taking risks for peace


What if Israel followed this advice and took these  “risks for peace?” What if Netanyahu in his speech at the UN announced that all Israeli settlements are being evacuated starting today?  Would Abbas walk up to the podium and hug Netanyahu or would he call this a trick to deprive Palestinians of all that they deserve?  Would anti-semitism in the West vanish? Would the war crimes investigation against Israel stop?  Would Abbas recognize Israel’s right to exist? Would Erdogan’s anti-semitic speeches stop,  or would more demands follow-- Palestinian right of return to pre-1948 homes all over Israel? Would Israel's response to Hamas rockets coming from the now Palestinian west bank and Gaza be called disproportionate?  If the world’s demands of Israel defy rationality today,  why would that change if Israel took “risks for peace”?

What does everyone mean when they demand risks for peace or  proportionate responses?  What does "Israel ha a right to defend itself" mean if  defensible borders ate ignored? What support is there for the belief that Palestinians would be satisfied with the west bank and Gaza?  If we believe ISIS when they say that their goal is to establish a caliphate, why don't we believe Hamas when they say their goal is to establish a caliphate in ALL of Palestine including the part now known as Israel? These are issues the world steers clear of. For Israelis, Jews and anybody concerned with the survival of Israel they are critical.

What’s at stake

What if this experiment -- Palestinian state for peace -- fails?  It cannot be undone. What if Israel cannot defend herself?  Which countries will have her back? The West has no answer. Islamic terrorists fighting to end Israel and the Israeli "occupation" do have answers.  In the words of Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki, speaking for Mahmoud Abbas in Al Jazeera [9/23/2011]

               While the agreement is based on the borders of June 4, 1967, the President,  Mahmoud Abbas understands and everybody knows that it is impossible to realize the inspiring idea this great goal in one stroke. If Israel withdraws from Jerusalem, if Israel uproots its settlements, 650,000 settlers, if Israel removes the security fence, what will be with Israel? Israel will come to an end. If I say I want to remove it from existence, that would be great, great but hard. This is not a stated policy. You can’t say it to the world, but you can say it to yourself. 

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Israel's policy of sweeping things under the rug

We wouldn't  want to upset people

This has been an Israeli policy when there are attacks.  In Jerusalem, buses on certain routes were stoned every day for over a month after the Protective Edge cease fire.  A bus of 13 year old girls on a trip to Hebron that had been cleared by the PLO, was surrounded and hit by stones and Molotov cocktails. The only thing that prevented the deaths of everyone was bulletproof glass and the driver's quick reflexes.  A mother and her two daughters were riding in a van when they were surrounded and attacked by a band of Muslim men.  By some miracle they escaped.  The Mount of Olives Jewish cemetery was vandalized.  Riots at the Temple Mount are a regular occurrence.  The solution to the riots was the dismantling of a bridge that allowed Jews to reach the Temple Mount. If you read about these events at all in an Israeli paper, you will see a short article. Rarely if ever will the common  thread be noted and described.

Since the ceasefire on August 29th, Israel has been attacked multiple times. On September 15th, a rocket was fired from Gaza, and fell just outside the fence of an Israeli community. On September 28th, a man armed with a knife was caught seven km inside Israel.  The following day riots near the  Gaza fence distracted Israeli soldiers, allowing one man to break through the fence and get 9 km inside Israel.

Despite claims that Israel destroyed Hamas’ weapons cache, and Benny Gantz’s claim that the IDF had destroyed rocket production capabilities, on Friday October 3rd terrorists fired a rocket into the sea in a test of Hamas' capabilities.  Hamas has managed to rebuild weapons and has also received large quantities from Iran.

In addition to questions about the appropriateness of Israel’s tactics there is another even more obvious question.  Why does Israel keep these events secret, dismiss attempted terror attacks as misfires, not count some attacks,  and not call Abbas and Hamas on their failure to control Palestinians and their violation of the ceasefire agreement.  In a similar situation, Abbas would not have remained silent. Abba Eban said “the Arabs never miss an opportunity.” Israel it seems is committed to missing as many opportunities as possible.

In Jerusalem, on one specific route, buses were hit with rocks every day. After a month of this the mother of a girl who rode the bus every day complained to the mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat.  He said events were not made public or were kept low profile to prevent people from getting upset. The girl’s mother said “I used to accept that policy. Why upset people? I don’t support it now. Failure to act is too dangerous."

Failure to let people know about terrorist attacks so they won’t get upset  is a very shortsighted policy. It encourages complacency in Israelis, removes pressure to respond, and allows terrorists to get away with their potentially lethal attacks.  Rewarding terrorism encourages them to implement more extreme attacks to  test the limits of what they can do.  Israel’s silence misleads the world  into  believing that the ceasefire agreement is being kept by both sides when it is not. Any leverage Israel could have gained from  Hamas’ breach of the agreement is lost.

One can speculate on the reasons for this policy, but that does not change the damage to Israel that results. Unfortunately, this type of response from Israel is not uncommon.

Monday, September 29, 2014

They Don't Like Us No Matter What We Do

Netanyahu spoke at the UN today.  It was a good speech. What he said and didn’t say, or could have said didn’t matter.  Abbas didn’t have to hear the speech to decide what he would say about it. The audience had already decided what their opinion was In any event.  The one speech solution to international ostracism is not a winning strategy.

The world didn’t care about the speech,  except in Israel, where criticism was passionate.  The speech wasn’t "hopeful" enough. It was  “tired, worn-out and frustrating” and proved that Netanyahu is not a leader. The "smart" thing to do would  have been to extend his hand in peace, by announcing a "daring diplomatic plan" (read give something and get nothing in return)  for peace to "show" the world how different he  is from Abbas.  Unforgivable. He missed an opportunity to call for  a regional peace conference.

These Israeli moderates belong in a shtetl. Abbas should have been nailed on one lie after another.  He lies in what he tells the west in contrast to what he says to Palestinians in their Arabic press. He supports suicide bombers by payments to their families, despite claims to the contrary.  He incites anti-semitism by promoting the "sesame street" kill the Jews show that airs for Palestinian children, complete with blood libel episodes performed by cute cuddly animals.  He refuses to allow a single Jew to live in his apartheid Palestine, while calling Israel an apartheid state.  He claims to be able to keep his people from trying to kill buses full of children, but he does not control them.  He gave pictures of supposed war crimes to the news during Protective Edge, but they have been shown to be taken from wars in other parts of the world, or staged, or photo-shopped.  Netanyahu should have raised his voice and been much less reasonable.  He should have showed pictures of dead Jews, the close to a thousand Israeli civilians murdered since 2005. He should have had the guts to stand there and call Abbas a liar.

The world has proven anti-semitism is real, by demonizing us and blaming us for everything bad that happens in the world.  They take the words of terrorists as truth, and have special permanent committees whose sole purpose is to torture us.  They dare to call us Nazis, and call the wall that protects us from suicide bombers an apartheid wall.  This should be a time when Jews support each other. We have enemies --  almost the entire world --- and we no longer have the luxury of self delusion. All parties, including just about every member of the Knesset are guilty. None are able to face reality and lead.  But the Labor party’s crimes are unforgivable. To blame Jews for the genocidal intentions of our enemies or to blame  the "bad Jew" Netanyahu for  not caving in  even more is  self serving, petty and pathetic.  These poor excuses for Israeli leaders are still  deluding themselves into believing it's OUR fault, or Netanyahu fault,. If we just do it right this time, compromise, be nicer,  goyim will love us.

The truth is frightening. Wallowing in guilt and blame is more pleasant than accepting this simple fact. No matter what we do they will hate us. We have been their symbol of everything evil for thousands of years. They say we were Christ killers, and the cause of the black plague. Our Rabbis, the Elders of Zion, supposedly controlled the world (many people think they still do). They say we are the Illuminati, and the bombers of the World Trade Center.  We supposedly control the US, the world financial system, the media, entertainment and politics, for our own nefarious purposes.

This is a tough pill to swallow.  Unless we want to commit suicide we have no choice. We don’t have  a solution but we do have a guarantee we’ll never find one if we continue to blame ourselves or other Jews or bury our heads in the sand. We didn’t fight for Israel in order to lose it this way. For God’s sake WAKE UP!

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Is Israel the Cure for Antisemitism?

Talk to any Israeli about anti-semitism in Galut and you will get the same response. Jews victimized by anti-semitism should move to Israel. This is a virtual mantra but does it solve the problem of anti-semitism?

France is only one country in Europe where anti-semitism is spreading. There are half a million Jews in France. What if they all came to Israel and brought the rest of Europe’s 1 million Jews. What if anti-semitic trends in the United States increase and match Europe and 6 million Jews from Canada and the US relocated to Israel. If that happened South America wouldn’t be very safe -- add another 400,000. In Asia, the 20,000 Jews  in Georgia,  China, India  and Japan  seem safe at the moment, but increasing numbers of fundamentalist Muslims in Singapore, Yemen, and Kazakhstan could endanger another 8500 Jews. Iran's 10,200 Jews might finally leave this time. Growing Muslim populations in Africa would endanger another 5,000 Jews.  The Jews in South Africa 70,000 are already in danger. Australia and New Zealand share the western policy of appeasement  so add another 120,000 Jews.  That’s eight million new olim (Jewish immigrants to Israel) -- about 2 million more than the current Jewish population of Israel.

Of course they wouldn’t all come. Many would choose to assimilate.  In the  US, where the number of Jews based on Jewish parentage is over 5.5 million, about 50% consider themselves Jewish basd on ancestry only.  If  about half of the world’s Jewish population assimilates, there are only 4 Million Jewish olim.

Let’s assume that somehow this mass migration occurred successfully; that Jews from the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South America, and Europe brought money and skills  and businesses. Some South Africans might do the same; others would lose their property, but there would be more than enough to support poor Jews. Let’s even imagine that the impossible happened and the vastly different viewpoints about the Jewish state were reconciled.  Would mass aliyah be a good idea?

All Jews would now live in one tiny place. Would our survival chances improve?  “Come to Israel” was an easy thing to say after the Holocaust, when we assumed there would never be another, when we thought that  a country of our own would  solve our problems. Today, as we experience the imaginary line between anti-zionist and anti-Israel,we know better.

Israel was supposed to solve our problems because having a country would change US. The new proud Israeli Jew wouldn’t stand still while goyim took advantage of him. He would stand up to his enemies and no longer depend on other countries for survival.. How naive that seems today!

There was no reason for Jew hatred to go away, and it didn’t.  Anti-semitism survived for thousands of years by adapting as we did, From Christ Killers, we became icons of all evil, the plotters controlling the world and the Imperialist colonialist oppressors. But after the Holocaust we thought it would never happen again. It was only a break.

We take ourselves with us wherever we go. Whether we are in Israel or galut, we don’t stand up for ourselves.  We explain, debate, justify, and put others’ survival above our own.  We don’t claim the power we have, in order to thrive or even survive, or to unite against our enemies. Instead, we take our internal disagreements to a world stage eager to listen. We talk about whether we deserve to survive instead of what our plan is.

Imagine a different scenario, no more bizarre than plans to put every Jew on the planet into a ghetto called Israel.  Instead WE change and take a firm, consistent, stubborn, relentless stand against those who dare treat us even slightly less than the way we deserve to be treated. Theodore Herzl said about the Arabs “ they never miss an opportunity”. That should become our mantra

If a store in Belgium welcomes dogs and not Jews, our “international Jewish conspiracy” sends 10,000 Jews and their Jewish dogs to the store. If Starbucks closes stores in Israel to open coffee houses in Dubai, the Jewish BDS movement springs into action, Starbucks stock plunges, Dunkin Donuts rises. Countries that boycott fruit, or require specified labels, suddenly run up against shortages of generic drugs, medical advances, and...experience a tremendous shock as the consequences of BDS sink in.

Jews have the power to do this and more. There is nothing complicated involved. All we have to do is
-  Accept reality: goyim don’t and won’t like us.  No amount of trying to please will change this.
- Use our vast resources to demonstrate our power.
- Work together.

Sound impossible? Under the threat of another Holocaust think again before dismissing simple solutions.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Dangerous Help from World Powers


Free Advice to world Powers

As you prepare to fight the ISIS menace, gather coalitions of Muslim nations, donate weapons, call a temporary truce with your enemies, here are some tips about what NOT to do to save yourself and the planet from destruction.

Tip#1 Don’t arm allies in unstable non-democracies

Guns,  missiles and atom bombs, have no IDs or passwords, We are suffering the consequences of this strategy all over the middle east. Iran has an atom bomb today because  the US helped Persia a former ally of the US get it. ISIS has arms from Iraq because the US left them there along with an unstable weak government,  ISIS has arms in Syria because the US gave arms to anyone fighting Assad.  As for $IB dollars the US gave Morsi of the Muslim brotherhood, or the weapons Stevens of Benghazi was passing on to who knows who, we don’t knot their exact location but it’s safe to assume that they are somewhere in the middle east and not where we want them to be.

Tip #2: Beware the distinction between moderates and extremists

Distinctions between moderates and extremists are used to justify arming alleged “freedom fighters” are not benign. They exist in the minds the west, to justify alliances. They may mimic the speeches of these groups but rarely their actions

Danger #3: Don’t create vacuums

Because fascist governments are bad, westerners tend to believe that arming freedom fighters is always good. Next time you find a fascist regime in a part of the world that has been  ruled that way for centuries, consider not getting involved. Fanning the flames of a conflict for to control governments will backfire big time. Topple a facist in a country with  no experience in  democracy and you will probably get fascist dictators that are even worse

The U.S, is getting ready to make these mistakes again  by giving arms to any group that will fight ISIS.  Even if they succeed watch morph into ISIS2.0.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Israel’s Diplomatic Failure in Operation Protective Edge

In Operation Protective Edge, Hamas weakened Israel  by milking PR and playing power politics. The  joined the  Egyptian instigated Palestinian unity coalition, headed by Abbas , a moderate Muslim invented by the west and in so doing gained legitimacy that lend credence to their actions against Israel. They controlled media reporting in Gaza,  threatening journalists. The world read that thousands had been killed. mostly civilians, and saw pictures of dead babies and mothers screaming in grief  and accepted claims of Israel’s brutality.

Hamas controlled the playing field and called the shots.  They successfully terrorized Israelis, aiming at Tel Aviv, Israel’s international airport, Jerusalem in nonstop barrages of missiles. They called ceasefires, allegedly for humanitarian aid, obtained material to build missiles and then broke off ceasefires. Leveraged UNRWA, whose leadership in Gaza is Hamas, to store weapons in schools and hospitals and fanned the flames of UN’s anti-Israeli predisposition with indignant claims that Israel had bombed the UN.
UNRWA consistently returned weapons to Hamas -  “ the authorities in charge” - so often , that even Ban Ki Moon got angry. When Hamas’s manipulations emerged after the fact they were for the most part ignored

When Israel assassinated Hamas leaders, they graciously agreed to negotiate, knowing that Israel would agree. Like Yasser Arafat at Camp David, everything they asked for was considered. Fishing zones were extended, border crossings were opened. Across the globe, countries worked to cement the ‘deal’ to get Hamas an airport and seaport that are suitable. Israel allowed the UN and even Abbas to be its proxy to check goods imported via air sea and land outside of Israel for ‘dual purpose materials and bombs.’  In exchange Abbas assured Hamas’s agreement to stop attacks.

Hamas, now politically legitimate, declared victory. People call Mashal a deranged man. I think not.  Not two days after the agreement in Cairo, he declared victory, demanded world responsibility to rebuild Gaza, reiterated his demands for an airport, a seaport, an end to the siege, and the release of prisoners.

Less than a week ago, when Israel compared Hamas to ISIS, he was insulted and told the world that Hamas is  a liberation movement -- not genocidal terrorists.  He also made no secret of  his genocidal goals. On Palestinian TV he said  Hamas’s victory is a success bringing Hamas closer to its real goals -- conquest of all of Israel and eradicating Israel.  Hamas promises to re-arm, and if the future is any predictor of the past, with the help of Qatar, the next round will be worse than the last one.

At the same time, Abbas is terrorizing Israel via threats to go to the UN with an “unconventional proposal” to the UN that includes a timetable for Israel’s withdrawal from the west bank to pre-67 borders and the establishment of a Palestinian state in the west bank with Jerusalem as its capital.   If the request is turned down, (i.e. via US veto) the PLO will charge Israeli leaders with war crimes in the International Criminal Court.  He believes the time is right. Israel caved in to the US and dropped its demand on demilitarization of Hamas. Afraid of losing allies, Israel is vulnerable to pressure.

Abbas’s “unconventional” diplomatic surprise, published in world news as an alleged attempt to make the US unhappy is nothing of the kind. The Obama-Netanyahu i.e. Israel-American relation in tatters and the fear of losing US support emboldens him. He says he will present his plan to the US. In all likelihood, he has already. Knowing the west will be more supportive than his fellow Muslims, he will use this pressure to
get Israel to fall in line. While his words don’t, his undertone threatens when he says he hopes Arab countries will support his “unconventional solution”.

Palestinians understands that international diplomacy is about power -- Israel does not. As a result we miss opportunities all the time. We have rewarded our enemies when they take advantage of us, and we taught them how to do it. Books have been written on the reasons for Israel’s puzzling foreign policy (or lack of it) -- Israel is suffering from PTSD, a  battered child mentality, the stockholm syndrome, obsessive approval seeking, the assumption that it needs a patron.

Enough therapy. Israel is facing and will continue to face an increasingly serious existential crisis if it continues to let its enemies define the playing field.

Soon -  part II - Diplomatic chess: Israel’s next moves

Monday, August 18, 2014

The Price of US Aid

  Israel does not need US aid. We pay for it in unnecessary wars,  in the subservience of always having to ask permission, in obeying bad advice, in twisting our minds until we believe the advice is correct, no matter how damaging it is for us.  We have convinced ourselves that we cannot exist without America as our patron. We have deluded ourselves into believing that the US has our best interests at heart and that there is a special relationship between US and Israel. This borders on insanity. There are no BFFs international politics. If there is some relationship that binds us to the United States, it is a very dysfunctional one that has more than a little resemblance to relationships between battered children and their abusers. These children almost always adopt the beliefs of those who hurting them and  delude themselves into believing that if they try harder, are better,  they can please whoever controls their lives and things will be fine.
   Netanyahu has his faults. Nevertheless, the desperation with which pundits and MKS obsess about “US-Israel relations at an all time low” because Netanyahu angered Obama, is more than a little strange. As they say in Washington, people seem quite willing to throw Netanyahu under the bus and trade him in for someone with better manners, [who will say 'thank you' as Shelley Achamovitz says] someone with milder  politics who is better at compromising. We may have to give some of Israel away but we would satisfy our Patron and know we are protected.
   Do you see the insanity in this way of thinking,  how self destructive and exhausting it is. Forcing yourself to believe in what down deep you know is a lie, takes a lot of energy.
   Obama will never be a  friend of Israel. He has proven this again and again. Americans notice; we do not. He displayed an inexcusable contempt for our leaders that other countries would not have accepted, brought the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Egypt, leaked information to the press to prevent Israel from attacking Iran,  fomented the Arab spring, filled high level positions in the White House [such as head of homeland security] with people who have Muslim Brotherhood ties, publicly announced that settlements on the west bank are illegal without bothering to mention this to Israel, has consistently  failed to respond to anti-semitism in the US when hate crimes there are 10X as a high as any other group, sent his people on witch hunts and chastised us as if we were in grade school every time Israel dared to criticize him. At the same time Abu Mazen fed John Kerry lies [during the last round of ‘peace’ negotiations’] about UN organizations he planned to join and was treated like a statesman based on myths of how moderate he was. This granted him the credibility that allows him to hold the criminal court in Hague over our heads time and again. 
  In the current negotiations, the United States  even tried  to dump Egypt as a mediator for Qatar and Turkey.  Is this the guy we should be trying to please?  Consider how much power  Israel’s obsession with gaining his approval gives Obama. He can manipulate Israeli elections to replace Netanyahu and his hard liners with more polite, pleasant, obedient “reasonable” Israelis.  He may be succeeding.
   For the future of our country, our survival and the survival of our children,  it is time to stop thinking about approval and do the right thing for ourselves. The odd thing about approval, as any schoolteacher knows, is that the more you show your need, the more you try, the less you get. Approval seekers who do favors are never thanked whether in kindergarden or international politics. They get a reputation for being weaklings and attract bullies like a magnet.
   It’s hard to give up the fantasy that you must have a protector and grow up but we are, after all, 65 and it’s time. We do not need their money anymore. [Even if there was a shortfall, it could be more than compensated for by arms sales the US did not permit before]
   The best thing Israel could do for itself would be to graciously announce that while we are eternally grateful for all of the invaluable generous help we have gotten from the United States,  we no longer feel right taking money when the US economy could use it. [What are friends for, after all! - wink]. ‘Of course,’ we say, ‘this will change nothing about our relationship, our very special relationship with the United States.’[knowing that , of course it will.]  We are then free to negotiate in our own best interests, rather than the interests of an American president who sees no reason for [the moderate] Abbas , a man who would not allow one Jew into a Palestinian state if he got one, to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and who pressures Israel to negotiate with Hamas [supposedly a terror  organization for the US] as a peer.
Dayenu! 

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Does the World Need the United Nations?

 


The United Nations is the greatest insult to most basic human rights.  Its existence is not benign. Had it existed in the 1930’s,  , would the UN have stopped Hitler’s genocidal plan?  If it were like the UN of today it would have supported Germany’s seemingly hostile actions -- a justified response to what the Allies did to Germany in WWI.  Hitler’s goal -- a healthy, proud, economically productive Germany  would be praised, goals of extermination of the entire world’s non-aryan population would have been dismissed, and his claim to the Sudetenland validated as Germans were clearly  the indigenous people. Solve that root problem and there would be peace.

Intense UN pressure and threats of BDS would have forced the US to surrender immediately after dropping the bomb on Hiroshima -- a flagrant violation of human rights and a disproportionate response to the  Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Germany and Japan could have won the war.

This imaginary scenario is now being played out by ISIS and other affiliated jihadist groups like Hamas. In a rational world, jihadists would have a more difficult time pulling off a worldwide genocidal agenda. Unlike Hitler, who had no history, centuries of Islamic history document the brutal murders of people refusing conversion.  Stoning, decapitation, cutting off limbs, and burning and burying people alive in the name of Allah are not only permitted, they are mandated.

Until recently murders in the name of Islam averaged about 1200 a week. ISIS is changing this.  Forty to seventy thousand Iraqi Yazidis are trapped on Mount Sinjar in Iraq without water or food. 70% may already be dead. ISIS captured the Mosul dam threatening lives of 500,000 people in Baghdad. The 300,000 Christians of Iraq are gone -- murdered, died trying to escape, refugees -- nobody knows.  In every town ISIS captures non-muslims are slaughtered.

Their plan to turn the world into a seventh century caliphate is not some twisted religious fantasy. ISIS has a well thought out campaign with long term goals, short term objectives, clear military tactics, efficient organization that easily accommodates large numbers of new members and recruiting methods that leverage today’s most advanced technologies.  If not stopped, in the next five years ISIS plans to conquer the Middle East, parts of Europe, North Africa and India. They are ahead of schedule.  People currently living in these areas will be given a choice: convert to Islam or die.

When this gets to your neighborhood, will you choose Islam or death? If you choose death it will be neither quick nor humane. Imagine your and your neighbors, hands roped together on the ground as a black masked jihadist shoots you and dumps you into a mass grave, possibly still alive and bleeding to death or suffocating.  Imagine your family on a mountain surrounded by the jihad army. Like Yazidi,  you watch your children die of thirst before you succumb. Imagine slow death as stones are hurled or watching your neighbor’s head sawed off knowing you are next, knowing your own sons are being  brainwashed and will fight for the cause until everyone on Earth worships Allah. The perfect world survivors live in will be a paradise free of disgusting western vices like video games.

ISIS activism in the west is increasing rapidly. This week saw  a  pro-ISIS demonstration in the center of London, ISIS demonstrators calling for death to the Jews at the Hague,  and over a hundred German ISIS demonstrators attacking Yazidis who protested the slaughter of their people.  Brazen displays of brutality -- an Australian child holding the severed head of a Syrian soldier -- should send chills up your spine.

The UN was founded to protect humanity from genocide before it becomes a threat to all mankind.  Where are they?  What could possibly be more important than terrorists with a  highly functional army of dedicated soldiers, spreading rivers of blood in their path as they take over banks and weapons, who recognize no borders other than those of their future world caliphate, whose jihadfest grows every day, who are absorbing and consolidating all of the Sunni terrorist organizations?


Israel, of course. The cruel, genocidal Nazi Jewish imperialist colonialists who control the world ruthlessly, killed 1800 “innocent” people in Gaza. Pictures of dead babies, brokenhearted parents, rubble where houses once stood cry out for justice. Never mind those stories about rockets and tunnels and Israel’s right to exist. The real cause of all this carnage is Israel’s occupation, their obstinate refusal to give Palestinians their rightful homeland.

Could the whole world be wrong?  These people, who are squeezed into a tiny piece of land smaller than the state of New Jersey, are the really dangerous ones. Hitler didn’t finish the job.  The UN will do it for him. 

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

On the Wests Inability or refusal to understand Arab communications



The west is convinced Israel is an apartheid state, that builds apartheid walls and refuses to realize that a fair deal for Palestinians would result in peace

Anerican Universities teach America's next generation that Israel deserve BDS, that Natanyahu is a crazy fanatic , that limiting about Iran's nuclear power is unfair since Israel has nuclear weapons., that demanding that Palestinians recognition Jewish state is racist., that Israel tortures Palestinians in ways that are match South African apatheid. Israel has no business being there at all. and if Palestinians  say awful things about  Israelis, or become suicide bombers, this shows how very cruel Israeli occupation is.

As a Israeli American, the naiveté of Americans about Arab communication astounds me. Israel is not Europeans and has more diversity than any other. Over half of the Jews in Israel are from Arab countries and have experienced Muslim culture; Arabic is the first language for these immigrants.  They understand rich layered nonverbal nuances, indirect seemingly evasive and contradictory responses that are so very different from direct western approach. Many Israelis read and listen to news from Muslim countries and read their newspapers. Word of mouth does the rest. We know what they say when they think the rest of the world isn't listening.

There is a lot to admire in the PR skills of Muslims. They assume westerners do not understand or read Arabic and for the most part are correct. Arab leaders tell the west one thing and say the opposite in their own countries.  Since most westerners are be oblivious to these contradictions, there  is almost no attempt to hide or disguise meanings in the internal Arab press. On the same say that Arafat stood on The White House lawn and shook hands with Menachem Begin, he went on Palestinian TV to make sure his people knew this was just the first step towards reclaiming "all of Palestine."

At times, real intentions break through as they did during the Arab spring or in Ahmedinejabs speeches in the United States. When you will hear.. Death to America along with Death to Israelis. Kill Americans, Kill Israelis. What is it about kill that you don't understand

How do you manage, with all of your intelligence to miss this, to  hear  Palestinians on the west bank say“ we want peace”  in English, but not hear them chant “ we love death”   at the same time in Arabic.   How is it that the NSA satellites managed  not hear Iran’s former Atomic Energy director Abbasi’   on Iranian public TV say that Iran had concealed information on its nuclear program for years to prevent Western intelligence from using  information to sabotage nuclear development as they did in 2006.

American strategists' views on Israel-Palestine and the interests of  U.S. betray a odd misunderstanding of  Muslims and the goal of Islam. The West and the US are either unable to or unwilling suspend their western assumptions long enough to hear communications from leaders of Arabic countries at face value  They deny what they hear, pass it off as internal propoganda or believe Israeli cruelty justifies what they say. They assume we are to blame and that if the Palestinian Israeli dispute were solved  problems would disappear. Experts who inform U.S. strategy actually  base the policies they recommend on the public statements of  Arab terrorists in English.

A clear enemy of the US  El Quaida is especially relevant.  Ossama bin Laden, the son of an Egyptian billionaire says that his identity was shaped by the Palestinian-Israel conflict. This is odd as Egyptians do not tend to champion the Palestinian cause but is not questioned by foreign policy advisers. The west hears that Islam is a peaceful religion, and that they want nothing other than to live with everybody in peace,. You these statements are taken at face value Why? and I quote “because they said so-- straight from the horses mouth -- both of them so it must be true." Right? Anybody resident of the middle East would find this shocking.

    If you accept what you are told at face value, it is not surprising that you conclude that Israeli concessions could result in peace, despite historical evidence to the contrary

    Are you really that naive? Don’t your political strategists know how to play poker?  When you buy oil do you just pay the first price quoted, not realizing that the stated price is a starting offer, that there are many layers of lies and somewhere between one of those lies and another you settle on some agreement. Never ever do you take that statement at face value.

    Despite evidence to the contrary, westerners refuse to believe the a bible, could sanction lying? Why? Because they are constantly told by people who proclaim themselves to be Moderate Muslims ( and therefore must be) that Islam is a peaceful religion. They are able to not only get away with this, but convince westerners that they are the true victims, that they are violent because they have no other option, that they and only they have a right of return generations after a war ended.

    Success  makes such a  lie all the more delicious, masterful, a gem to be proud of.  The Westerner who believes this nonsense earns no respect. He is an easily manipulable  idiot, laughed at and all the more despised for this weakness.  They know that a suit, a tie and good English will convince you they are moderates, and leaving the, freedom to say what they wish in Arabic. They find this more absurd then we do.

    When Abbas, during Israeli-Palestinian negotiations publicly told Kerry that the organizations he had joined were not UN related and then went on Palestinian TV and announced that they were the next day, he gained honor from his people because he had humiliated America by humiliating Kerry. This  insult was not aimed at Israel but at the US. With all of your intelligence experts and their ability to understand foreign languages. How did you miss this? When Abbas continued to rub it in by ignoring you, other than to make demands , you stepped into his shoes, played  his role and offered something of your own - a deal you knew Israel would not refuse. Pollard. Israel knew what Abbas was up to but predictably put Pollard's release first and agreed to release the Arab terrorists, even though Pollard told them not to.

    Despite the fact that the Oslo established recognition of Israel as a precondition to an agreement. Abba refused to acknowledge that part of Oslo, but demanded the part he wanted retreat to the pre-67 borders. Instead of standing by the Oslo terms Kerry told Israel that Abbas's refusal to recognize Israel was not important. Israelis living in  citizens in the South were again being hit by rockets from Gaza after the failure of the last US peace effort in 2012  to the failure of  the U.S. and Morsi to fulfill their obligations, and because Israel made ‘peace’ with Abbas who was promptly replaced by Hamas, Kerry pressured ranted on about Israel's unhelpful actions and said, besides Arafat  said he recognized Israel years ago. Would Yassir Arafat lie? Are you unaware that the gun-running tunnels have made the entire Arafat families billionaires?

     The U.S, must have missed the Television interview with Arafat’s bodyguard of many years, [also on public TV [translated on-line on Memri-TV.] The interviewer asked the bodyguard whether Ariel Sharon who called Arafat was a pathological liar was correct. Did he lie in your presence? asked the interviewer. Oh yes, said The bodyguard. who said that that  Mubarak --the middle Eastern leader that the west views as the icon of moderation in the Arab world, --  would call Arafat after a bombing in Tel Aviv and tell him to “denounce it or they will screw you.”  The bodyguard then went on to say what many have said before and somehow Westerners cannot manage to grasp. Lying to nonbelievers is not only permitted but required to advance the cause of Islam by  gaining the trust of non-believers, drawing out their vulnerability defeating them. 

   In the end the west will suffer because of their refusal or inability to grasp this. Israel has tried to communicate this to the US to deaf ears. The long range missiles of Muslim countries are collecting are not for Israel. Their hate for the US will not change if Israel and the Palestinians reached some agreement.  Very possibly, if Israel we were no longer a distraction hatred directed at the US would reveal itself in full force.

   The US and the west are committed to the belief that problems in the middle east are Israel's fault and that if only Israel retreated to suicidal borders, hostility to the US would fade.   “Appeasementitis” is a contagious and destructive disease - that causes powerful nations to  gives absurd levels of power to people that have none.

   The west refuses to believe that the motives and goals of Muslims as dangerous and the Muslims milk this fiction. International theater substitutes for action as Iran develops nuclear arms. If Iran succeeds, other countries with follow. Despite their vast oil reserves, they will all say they are building nuclear reactors as energy scources.

   Muslim countries bury their hatchets annually to review their plans to Islamize the west. Stage one, known as stealth jihad,  leverages democracy as a tool to spread Islam, develop respect for and fear of Islam, and irradiate criticism or acts against Islam in western countries, while verbally diminishing the power of competitive religions. In the west, they are succeeding, If you have any doubts, go to a college campus, search youtube for anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim.

   At this juncture Israeli politicians are still largely European. They hang onto a delusional belief that the west and the United States in particular are their best friends, as if international politics were a high school dance where special relationships develop. They have convinced themselves that Israel cannot survive without the United States-- and endlessly speak about  common interests and special relationships. But this is changing.

  President Obama and his band of  Muslim Brotherhood white house advisers have forced Israelis to to accept reality.  The next generation of Israeli leaders will not take alliances with the west as a given. They will not have any desperate need for a ‘sponsor’. If it were up to me, Israel would forgo US financial and other “help” today.  Politicians , in any country, do not act quickly. It will take longer but Israel will go its own way

  Abbas and the Arab world are suspicious about your motives. So is Israel. Not only because the US pressures Israel's to accept suicidal borders, not only because the US no longer sees recognition of Israel as important, not only because it was President Obama who publicly announced that our settlements are illegal without so much as a word to Israel. When a country funds all sides in a conflict, they are not qualified to be peace brokers.

  If the US continues to stifle their economy, hide the reality of economic success in China,  cripple innovation in the name of a clean planet, allow the Sierra Club lobby to destroy its coal industry, and cripple oil mining, force businesses into insolvency through regulations, reward those businesses that are the worst performers under the guise of economic stimulus, and  too big to fail absurdity, sell its gold mines to China, it will go down.

Israel is diversifying its investments, economically, and politically in the face of western decline so as not to go down with the ship.



Friday, April 4, 2014

Winning the war of International Diplomacy


Peace talks after Kerry: Getting Abbas back to the Negotiating Table. What's wrong with this Picture?

4/4/2014
                                                       From JerusalemPost Staff. Reuters 4/4/2014
After the negotiations fell apart and the United States threatened to cut off aid to Palestine,, it should have been evident that Abbas would try to get this money by asking to resume negotiations and apologizing [in some form] to the US.  He did. Before leaving, Kerry called Livni and Erakat together. Abbas had published a set of demands that included freeing a group of high profile prisoners, including Marwan  Barghouti, jailed a decade ago over his role in suicide bombings. and  lifting a blockade  on the Gaza Strip. Israel said nothing.

Once again we see Kerry taking complete charge of negotiations, and the negotiator (Indyk) trying to convince the Palestinians to return/ address their demands. Both parties are castigated and held equally responsible for the sorry state of things and chewed out like two kids fighting in a playground, The assumption is that Israel will of course as usual return and pick up things as if nothing had happened.  This would not have occurred if  Israel had taken the initiative after Abbas lied to Kerry and Israel and applied to UN organizations.



We, Israel should have been the country calling a press conference, stating  disappointment, that most unfortunately but realistically Abbas’s credibility as a negotiating partner is questionable and laid out Israel's requirements for continued negotiations that are not a negotiating theater. Continually acting passively in international politics, weakens us, makes it easier for countries to demand too much and easier for them to use us as a punching bag

.

Were I in charge,  I would have said that should these negotiations resume, the  presence of Hamas at would be  essential Hamas's cooperation or lack of it would determine whether any agreement are reality or worlds on a piece of paper,  and direct negotiations with them are the only way to make progress. Without that there is too high a risk of creating a situation like Gaza in the West Bank. I would have stressed how difficult it was for Israel to accept the necessity of negotiating with terrorists but being serious about peace requires this.



Many Israel’s will read this and believe I have lost my mind. We tend to view negotiation as serious and assume they, require honesty and not game playing,  This could not be further than the truth, International politics is a war no less than one fought in the battlefield; you plays to win and use strategic maneuvers to make your goals reality.  In this case we had nothing to loose, If Hamas refused, we had gone all out, further than the US and declared our willingness to actually speak to terrorists. If Hamas did by some miracle come, the odds of coming to an agreement are infinitesimal. Even if we were pressured to continue negotiations, and gave in this would establish our right to make demands and allow all agreements made be pending Hamas's agreement.


In a case like this, in my opinion,  a broader demand is effective and less likely to generate petty disagreements that escalate and lead nowhere.  Nevertheless, there are other demands that could have been made of Abbas: That he withdraw membership from the UN groups he has joined, , that he negotiate directly without a go-between to demonstrate this is not an effort to gain US aide,  The precise demands are less important than the need for Israel to take the initiative.



Our country has continually put itself in a weak position, given into pressure and and when pushed too far blamed and vented publicly and without strategic considerations. Swinging between weakness, giving in to demands and aggression confuses people. When we do not clearly communicate our case to the world, our enemies gain.It pains me to watch the leaders of my country do this when there is no reason for them to.  A confident assertive take charge attitude that we bring to every other part of life is sorely needed here.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

When they say NO JEWS ALLOWED maybe they mean it!

 

 Michael Welner, a member of the White House Press Corps was denied entry into Saudi Arabia. The only Reporter denied entry, Welner is Jewish but not Israeli and has never been in Israel. The event should not have been a surprise has Saudi Arabian Law specifically states that  visas will not be issued to four groups which include Israelis and also Jews. Until a short time ago these restrictions were even posted on the Saudi Arabian website.  It would be for the state department not to know about this.

 
   Saudi Arabia, you may recall was recently invited to be a member of the security council. By refusing entry to a Jewish reporter with a law publicly specifying this discrimination, the country is in violation of United Nations human rights regulations. The White house expressed 'disappointment' but concurred with the action by having having the meeting in Saudi Arabia when it could have been held someone else.

    When Abbas adamantly says that he will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state and at the same time uncompromisingly demands that Palestinian land be 'Judenrein' (as in the case of Gaza), maybe he means it as more than a word game. When as American President, for the first time, decides that Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is not necessary demanding that Israel give in on this issue when all Muslim states are not open to compromise, one would think people would become puzzled and perhaps consider the possibility that this is not a word game but a statement by a Abbas that he will never stop trying to exterminate Israel. If for one milisecond you put yourselves in Israel's shoes as the entire Arab league gathers to affirm this refusal to recognize your right to exist should scare the living daylights out of you.

    Yet nobody in the rest of the world seems at all disturbed about this, or by the fact that five, yes five. resolutions against Israel are scheduled for a vote tomorrow, while human rights abuses continue in Saudi Arabia and numerous other Muslim countries, when Syria is deliberately starving Palestinians to death, when Egypt is hanging hundreds of people, when Russia just annexed Crimea, China took a bunch of Islands from Japan. If the world believes that Israel's actions are the most important evil in the world to address, that is the best argument for the necessity of a Jewish state that exists.