Wednesday, March 30, 2011

RE POST: FEAR AND LOATHING IN ISRAEL

By Simon Fischler

Two days ago Bradley Burston of Haaretz took the time to write an article about how wretched Israel has become.

He painstakingly moved from the Dubai assassination of a murderer, terrorist and weapons smuggler to the treatment of the Turkish ambassador of Israel in the Ayalon affair.

Throughout the whole article Mr. Burston explained why those who hate Israel are essentially right to hate us today because of how disgusting a nation we have become. If we aren’t killing nice Arabs in Dubai, we are embarrassing nice diplomats from Turkey, or offending the great nations of the EU.

The problem is Bradley Burston got it all wrong!

What happened in Dubai is what the Arabs should always expect from Israel. She will go to extremes to protect citizens, to collect on the losses of our boys, a fact made very clearly on several famous occasions. We should not be embarrassed about this at all. We should in no way be embarrassed that Israelis were willing to take upon themselves a mission so dangerous to protect their fellow citizens.

If Dubai wishes to open its doors to people who are smuggling weapons into the Gaza Strip from Iran to kill Israelis and the soldiers of the IDF, they now know they may find these people dead the next morning. There is a price to pay for accepting terrorists into your territory.

In fact what is embarrassing is Mr. Burston and how he still thinks Israel will somehow be approved by the world if we just behave ourselves and do what they want us to do. He is suffering from Camp David and Taba amnesia!

When it comes to Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon’s treatment of Turkish Ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol I am a little amazed at Bradley Burston’s take on it. 

Granted I do not favor the embarrassment of foreign diplomats, but again it seems Mr. Burston is ready to sell the country of Israel out for a wink and a smile from the Turkish government. 

Since Israel’s defensive war in Gaza, the Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been prancing around the world condemning Israel for the same practices his government has carried out against Turkish Kurds for decades. He has on numerous times been blatantly anti-Semitic and then tried to embarrass Israeli President Shimon Peres in Davos, Switzerland last year by orally attacking him on stage in front of the international media.

Apparently the behavior of the Turkish government and its leadership towards Israel and Jews is fine with Mr. Burston. They can say and do whatever they wish towards Israel. In his mind it is only Israel that needs to consider her relationship with Turkey, not Turkey and her relations with Israel. 

Israel has, if anything, been too passive in this tense diplomatic period with Turkey. But instead of Mr. Burston seeing how restrained his country has been, he decided to self-loath. 

He also forgets his history, because Turkey condemning Israel for defending herself against Hamas’ continual bombardment of the Negev communities is the apex of hypocrisy. After all it was the Turks who killed more than a million Armenians just for being Armenians. 

This is why the left, which Bradley Burston laments so much in his article, has lost power in Israel. Israelis, especially ones like me who are liberal and favoring peace, are sick and tired of hearing all the whining from the left. We are tired of hearing about how we need to sell out our country for peace. We are tired of hearing about how things would be fine if there weren’t any settlements (there were no settlements before 1967 and things weren’t fine then either). We are tired of blaming ourselves for the mistakes of the Palestinians and the Arab world!  

Monday, March 28, 2011

JUST WHO'S KIDDING WHOM?

By Schmoel Yitzhak


The United Nations doesn't get it.


The European Union doesn't get it either nor does the United States of America. 


None of them do although it's as obvious as the Hebron Massacre, the Holocaust and the Argentine explosion that wiped out Jews.


We don't want to kill them; they want to kill us; always have and always will. 


That's part and parcel of militant Islam's blueprint, no more, no less. Kill Jews; wipe Israel off the map.


In the most simplistic -- yet realistic -- way it helps explain why the next Arab-Israel war will happen or, if you will, has happened already. The mortars and rocket missiles that regularly fall in Israel are not make-believe but they are getting bigger and more lethal. 


Except that the United Nations doesn't think so; nor does its peace-process-pushing EU nor Barack Obama for that matter. If they really cared they would do more than wring their hands and turn the other way while another barrage is launched from Gaza.


With Iran's blessings, Hamas sanctions rocket and mortar assaults that have reached as far north as the city of Ashdod and soon could conceivably reach the geographic heart of Israel. 


Does the UN get it?


Nah, and the proof is in its abject inaction. Does the EU care?Nah, it just yawns. Uncle Sam? Forget about him. 


Think about it, the truce engineered by America, the EU and UN following Operation Cast Lead was supposed to result in a cross-border peace.


Some peace.


Yet when the rockets sail into Israel, the UN, EU, White House and all the assorted pseudo-peacemakers react as if the Jew-killing explosives never explode. 


Judging by Obama's view of Israel, you would think that every time a Jewish home is built in Judea and Samaria, it sets off time-bombs in Tehran, Gaza City, and all points East and West in the Arab world. 


That's how skewed, how backward the view of Israel from the White House of the Chief Executive Muslim, or Parliament in London or the clowns of Paris.


How could Benyamin Netanyahu possibly trust the British to be even-handed in any potential peace parley? Not after England's long history of anti-semitism right from the infamous pre-World War II White Paper to the present biased behavior against the Middle East's only democracy.


And the French? Check out details behind Vichy's treatment of its Jews after the Nazi invasion of France and you'll find that the supposedly savoir faire francophones were as despicable in their treatment of haven-seaking Jews as were the Germans.


Pray, is there a single European country to be trusted when it comes to mediating an Arab-Israeli peace pact? You'd have a better chance of finding a needle in a haystack.


Even if such a Utopian find were made, does anyone think there's a nation in the civilized world capable of extracting compassion for the Jewish plight. Does the massacre of 6,000,000 Jews have no meaning at all in European capitals or is it best forgotten by the EU membership? 


At one time in the dim, distant past one might have suggested that Uncle Sam could mediate a permanent Arab-Israeli peace agreement. That was before Americans elected a president whose Muslim background is so ingrained in his mind that his sense of Israel seems to have been crafted in Ramallah rather than on Pennsylvania Avenue. 


This is the president who views a trip to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv -- and we should only hope -- Sderot as glowingly as a voyage to Hades. Some ally! Never even a thought about setting foot on Israeli soil.


Writing in the New York Post, Middle East commentator Richard Lowry pinpointed the futility of expecting anything positive from lObama or his Arab cohorts.


"Obama came into office ready to deploy his charm and fulfill the millennial promise of the peace process once and for all," asserts Lowry. "He couldn't even get the Palestinians to sit down to negotiate with the Israelis, in an unintended 'reset' to the situation decades ago."


He couldn't get them to sit down to negotiate because the Arabs don't want to talk genuine peace because that would negate their goal of eliminating Israel as we know it today.


And judging by the reaction of the UN, EU and the USA to the constant Hamas-directed bombing of Israel, the anger of our "Allies" only surfaces when Jewish apartments are built in the West Bank!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

THE LIES AND INUENDO OF AMIRA HASS

By Simon Fischler


Many in the Israeli left today ask how it is they have been unseated from power, have lost their grass roots support and have been marginalized.

I suggest the Israeli Left check yesterday’s Haaretz and read the Amira Hass article “The Sanctity of The Soaring Qassam.” This should clear things up for them real quick.

Ms. Hass spent all of her ink blasting the Government and citizens of Israel for defending themselves against the new onslaught of rocket attacks emanating from the Gaza Strip.
According to Ms. Haas Israel should have let Hamas and its underlings shoot rockets into Israel as long as no one got killed,

What is really important with someone like Ms. Hass is the manner in which she talks about Israel and her citizens.

It would be one thing if Amira Hass chose to be critical of Israel and her government --backing herself up with facts, but that is too much to ask of her.

Instead what Ms. Haas did was to spew distortions and half-truths about the IDF’s actions in the Gaza strip. Especially insidious was Hass’ implied accusation that Israel intentionally targeted innocent civilians.

This is nothing new for her. Amira Hass was sued in June 2001, when she falsely wrote an article in Haaretz claiming a Jewish settler had defiled the body of a terrorist after the man had been killed. She was convicted of defamation and assessed a fine of 250,000 Shekels.

250,000 NIS obviously didn’t teach Amira Hass any lessons at all, as she continued her fabricating ways. Worse, she totally overlooked all that Hamas does to endanger the lives of fellow Palestinians in Gaza and the Israelis who live on and near the border of the Gaza strip.

More than anyone Ms. Hass must be aware of Hamas’ intentional use of Palestinian children as human shields. She must also be well aware of the fact that Hamas is carrying out war crimes every time they shoot a rocket into Israeli communities.

But these facts obviously do not matter to Ms. Hass, because they don’t jibe with her absolute determination to impugn Israel and the majority of Israelis’ belief that we have the right to defend ourselves against the never-ending attempt by the Palestinians to injure, maim and kill us.

The fact that the Palestinians haven’t succeeded is no doubt a source of annoyance for Ms. Hass, although she’d NEVER admit it. No, the Palestinians -- poor oppressed people that they are (in Ms.Hass’ eyes), have NEVER done anything but try to survive, right?

Meanwhile, for Amira Hass it sounds suspiciously as though the only good Israeli Jew is a dead one.

It is attitudes like hers that have marginalized the Left in Israel. Why? Because the majority of Israelis are fed up with the lies being directed against the country and her children who defend it.

Israelis are also fed up with self-hating Jews like Amira Hass who will do virtually anything to demonize Israel while overlooking the undeniable facts that clearly show the Palestinians are at fault for the continuation of this conflict.

Most Israelis know, however, that when Amira Haas writes the fabrications, they are intended to demonize Israel in the eyes of American Jews who read Haaretz and lack knowledge of her and this conflict. It is done with the deliberate hope of converting English-speaking Jews into Israel nay-sayers.

If the left ever wants to attain power again it must go back to its roots, which are based in the combination of democracy and Zionism. They must reject “peace at all cost” and remember the concept of “fair and just peace.” The Left must show Israelis that they reject the defeatism and warped judgment of people like Amira Hass.

If the Israeli left wishes to gain power again their leaders must be brave enough to condemn people like Amira Haas for their unjustified, seditious and distorted views.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

ARAB MORTARS DO NOT HAVE KITCHEN PESTLES

By Schmoel Yitzhak

In real life there are two kinds of mortars.

The common kitchen version doesn't hurt. It's a thick bowl of porcelain in which substances are pounded with a pestle.

Likewise, the pestle is an instrument for pounding substances in a mortar. Pestles don't hurt either, unless you bop someone in the head with it.

The other kind of mortar can be dangerous in the hands of Arabs.

As employed by Hamas and its murderous sub-divisions, the common military mortar is a short-barreled cannon for short-distance firing of heavy shells.

When those shells explode they kill anyone around the blast and if Hamas has its way, the more Israelis murdered, the better.

By all rights, mortars should only be used by nations at war with one another and certainly not directed at civilian targets.

That's why Israel -- right or wrong and it sure is debatable now-- removed all established towns and hamlets where Jews lived in Gaza. At the time, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon believed -- again, right or wrong -- that such a peace-seeking, humanitarian gesture would inspire the Arab (Palestinian) side to respond with equal warmth.

Despite considerable resentment of Sharon's decision among rank-and-file Israelis, Arik steadfastly ordered his countrymen out of Gaza and transplanted within Israel. Period. End of story.

He hoped.

Whether Sharon was turning senile -- as some believed at the time -- or was naive beyond belief no longer matters.

His vision of a reciprocal peace gesture from the other side was greeted not with gratitude but rather the brand of vicious cynicism so much a part of Arab thinking.

The first thing the Palestinians did was destroy virtually everything in sight that was left by the Israelis. Even when a group of wealthy Americans -- including New York Daily News publisher Mortimer Zuckerman -- pledged millions of dollars to help turn the abandoned, immensely productive Jewish-built Gaza hot houses into successful industries, the Arabs promptly wasted them. ,

Hey, that was the Palestinians' problem if they didn't want to exploit a perfectly useful gift on which to build their economy.

Yet, beyond such wanton destruction, there was a problem that now has become more than a PROBLEM but rather a war.

The hot house razing also had a message that neither Sharon nor other peace-seeking Israelis fully expected and that was simply this; any positive, Israeli gesture of amity would be greeted in return with Grade A hostility. The hot house razing was a mere portent of pernicious things to come. And -- brother and sister -- they came; in spades.

Wiping out the hot houses with bulldozers and hammers was mere kid stuff. Once Hamas annexed Gaza, rocket sites were established and the bombardment of Sderot, the Negev and cities such as Ashkelon had begun.

This must have amused the United Nations, European Union and other Arab-loving outfits that have poured billions into Palestinian pockets because they ignored Hamas' declaration of war. (No, it doesn't have to be a statement on paper; regularly exploding sharpnel that kills innocent Israelis is a war declaration enough.)

The Israeli response -- with typical American pressure for "restraint" -- was very, very mild in terms of what any other nation would do. Patience was Israel's byword and that -- as we know -- was interpreted by the Arabs as a sign of weakness.

Soon the Israel-bound rockets were accompanied by mortar fire until the Israeli government said, in so many words, "Enough, already!" A more vivid translation is Operation Cast Lead.

The Israeli Defense Forces easily could have marched through Gaza the way General Sherman demolished the Civil War state of Georgia. Unfortunately, extreme pressure from the usual suspects -- Uncle Sam, European diplomats, et. al. -- halted the Israel offensive under the guise of a peace-producing cease fire.

Could the Jerusalem high command have ignored the insistent demands from America that it stop its tanks in their tracks?

Absolutely, just as it could have done likewise as the IDF's offensive had moved forward in Lebanon. But the promise of real, unadulterated peace was so intensively promoted by America that Cast Lead was aborted and residents of Sderot, Askelon and Beersheba, among others, could breathe easy again; or so they hoped.

As is now patently apparent, they were fooled. Jerusalem was duped along with every Israeli leader who signed on to the Cast Lead cease fire.

All the Arabs wanted was -- as always when they're on the run -- an opportunity to regroup. When the Israeli's foolishly abandoned the Philadelphi Corridor, it meant that smuggling -- in or out of tunnels -- would be the order of the day; and so it was.

Which brings us to the here and now. Incessant mortar fire is back in full force and Hamas makes no bones about it either. In response, Foreign Minister Lieberman has protested to the United Nations. Based on past performances, Lieberman's plaints will produce -- at best -- a yawn at UN headquarters no matter how many Jews are slaughtered.

So far, the Israeli response has been a case of "deja-vu all over again." The IDF pounds Gaza with a day of tank fire and helicopters sporadically strafe Hamas operatives. It's a reasonably humanitarian response but, alas, it won't work.

The Arabs laugh at such lukewarm retaliatory moves. For one thing, it has enabled them to not only restock their armories with more lethal weapons -- Egypt no longer is a smuggling barrier -- from countries such as Iran but Hamas is actively preparing for another war.

Sorry, but Benjamin Netanyahu unequivocally must know that tepid counterattacks simply invite more rocket and mortar fire.

Ah, but what to do? For starters, Bibi might imagine what would happen if America's northern or southern neighbors, Canada and Mexico, would -- unprovoked -- begin shelling Texas and Minnesota, respectively with rockets and mortar, killing American citizens left and right. Congress would quickly convene, declare war, get UN approval and send in the troops.

Naturally, the GIs would be accompanied by Uncle Sam's air force and navy if necessary and the war would be over in less than a week.

As for the proper, realistic response, my suggestion is simple:

1. Netanyahu -- or Lieberman -- should first make their declaration to the UN, EU and the United States that enough is enough; 2. A similar warning should be delivered to the Arabs; "Any more shelling of any kind will be greeted by an all-out attack that will destroy all Hamas military establishments and bases for mortar-rocket strikes against Israel as well as electric plants, etc. 3. A grace period of several days will be granted for Hamas to get its house in order before such an operation is set in motion; 4. If rockets and mortar fire continues, AND neither the White House, EU, UN, et. al. decisively neutralize Hamas, then LET THEM HAVE IT.

And if you're still wondering why: just remember that Hamas is not hurling kitchen mortars nor Toys 'R Us rockets at innocent Israelis!

Those mortar shells actually hurt when they explode and, yes, kill Jews!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

by Shirley Walton

My son made Aliyah in 2001. Ever since I have been coming to Israel twice a year -- mostly two months-plus at a time. The reasons I come here and stay for prolonged periods?

Reason Number One: I have three of the most beautiful grandchildren in the world who live here, and while they are young (and I’m not totally demented), I want to spend as much time as possible with them. My presence as Safta might even help them later in life, albeit in ways I’ll never know or appreciate. But it certainly helps me!

These beautiful Israeli grandchildren don’t help me to “stay young” -- a mistaken euphemism often bruited about. Their youth and energy exhausts me completely, each and every day. In fact, I feel 20 years younger when I’m not around them, or my two other young grandchildren in Portland, Oregon! No, it’s the love and questionable “wisdom” I’m able to share with them that is so fulfilling. I literally feed off of it; the love, warmth and sense of family quite simply fills my heart and soul.

Reason Number Two: The reason which equals in importance my three beautiful grandchildren is that I come to Israel because I love her -- every maddening, frustrating, confusing, glorious inch and moment of her.

As a person who majored in ancient history in college, I have always wanted Israel: to see her, to smell her, to imagine the eons of history marking the stones and hills; literally to inhale the long history of humanity that exudes from the air of Jerusalem, Masada, Gamla, the Galilee.

I will never forget the first time my son Simon and I drove up from Eilat to Jerusalem. We took a less-used road which actually cut through a part of the “West Bank”, into the hills surrounding the ancient city. As the trees began to appear, and the Negev turned into the rocky, cave-pocked hills, I could almost see the shepherds of ancient Israel wending their flocks toward the valleys, the hermits and recluses of old wandering through the stones.

With each visit I learned more and more about the curious and convoluted nation that is modern Israel. With each visit I think I know more and more; and then, usually with each visit, I’m suddenly brought up short with the realization I’ve only begun to learn the tiniest bit about the nation, the culture, the politics, the swirling, catalytic construct that is Israel.

Today I learned a tiny bit about how my son and I truly are of different cultures. He really is an Israeli today; I’m still just a visiting American tourist!

Some of the things -- political, social and cultural -- I’ve learned about Israel since I started coming are obvious: it’s a strange and wondrous mix of First World overlaying Third World underpinnings (i.e., the Weizman Scientific Institute in Rehovot sits less than 2 kilometers from a field of sheep with an aged Beduouin woman’s blue-fabric tent nestled near a market and across the street from an outdoor sports complex); a curious melange of Ashkanazi (European Jewry), Mizrahi (Middle Eastern, Sephardic Jewry) and Arab/Beduouin/Druze/Ethiopean/Yemeni food, tastes, styles and architecture, mixed with Bauhaus and Los Angeles/Los Vegas somewhere in there, too.

I visit the “canyon” (local mall) and watch the young women chattering by, looking for all the world as though they could get hired as extras on the set of a movie about a “cathouse.” They are busily proving that Israel is a nearly perfect model of consumerism, as shopping could easily be the national pasttime!

But my son made it clear to me today that I would be misjudging Israel and her people if I casually classified them as a nation of “mall rats” and shopaholics. He reminded me that every single one of these kids had or would enter national service at the age of 18, meaning they would serve in the IDF for two (women) or three (men) years, or perform the equivalent term in community service (except for Israeli Arabs who are exempt).

Those chattering, nattering, apparently empty-headed young women had carried an M16-A4 automatic assault rifle for two years; had “manned” checkpoints into a settlement; removed Israelis from Gaza in 2005; lost a friend in Lebanon (2006) or participated in Operation Cast Lead (2008).

In the States we are currently besieged with young people returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome), yet the occurrence of PTSD in Israel is insignificant compared to the percentage per population occurring in the States.

Why do you suppose that is?

Israelis -- young and old -- have spent their lives under physical, cultural, social and political conditions which we Americans cannot possibly understand: a democracy surrounded by autocracies; judged by the rest of the world as genocidal and apartheid; a tiny nation which has won four major wars (or is it five, six, seven?), yet is expected to treat with her vanquished enemies as equals; an ancient nation which is only 63 years old; a nation of defenders in the guise of shopaholics; Beduouin tents abutting scientific institutes -- the Third World shoulder to shoulder with the First.

My son understands this; my son lives this and attempts to live his life in this swirling, confusing nation known as Israel with understanding and ethics.

I am still just an American tourist trying to let go of my tendencies to judge and, too often, misjudge.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

HATE AND IRRATIONALITY

By Schmoel Yitzhak

Two words -- HATE and IRRATIONALITY -- are all you need to have when it comes to summing up what Israel is up against.

Apart from oil, hate is the basic product which Arabs are best at delivering.

To be more precise, hatred of Israel is now being peddled so freely and often by Islamics it is inconceivable that the venomous assaults will ever terminate

The reaction to such negativism by supposedly fair-minded bodies such as the United Nations is without precedent.

Never has it been more evident than in the slaughter of an innocent Jewish family in the Israeli hamlet of Itamar.

In Gaza, the death of a five Jewish family members -- including three children, one of whom was three years old and another just a month old -- was triumphantly hailed by the Arabs with holiday jubilation.

Celebratory candy was doled out by Hamas. Arabs in Rafah city rushed into the streets as if a grand military triumph was taking place. This gleeful commemoration was in honor of terrorists who killed an eleven-year-old who was reading in bed. The Arabs are lionizing someone who slit the throats of a baby and children.

And they are celebrating only because the innocent victims are Jews.

Don't for a moment forget that fact because the UN, European Union leaders and most of the allegedly civilized world are forgetting about it as quickly as possible.

That, of course, includes the loathsome, Israel-bashing British Broadcasting Corporation, CNN, The New York Times and -- bet on this -- Barack Obama.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was correctly enraged because Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas refused to properly and swiftly condemn the attack.

Bibi urged -- demanded? -- that Abbas curb the dehumanization of Jews in the Palestinian media and schoolbooks "once and for all."

It's a reasonable request; or at least it would have been had the object of Netanyahu's bid been rational. But you'll get none of that in Ramallah, Gaza, on The Times editorial board, in the White House and among BBC producers. I know this and author Tom Gross knows as well.

"The Palestinian Authority continues to lionize Palestinian suicide bombers in its media and at schools," writes Gross, "and name public squares after them. Israel argues that this only services to encourage attacks like the one perpetrated in Itamar."

Of course it does but my point is simply that it is pointless to expect otherwise from the Arabs. Their hate for Jews is palpable from Gaza to Saudi Arabia, across the Muslim world, across the Atlantic and even in Berkeley, California where Israel supporters are harassed on college campuses while University leaders claim that such incitement falls under the banner of "free speech."

PLUS -- and let's not forget this -- a group of Quisling Jews within the Israeli media can be lumped into this despicable group. That means those Haaretz columnists who write as if they are directly -- not to mention handsomely -- funded by Al Jazeera.

One of my friends succinctly addressed the Haaretz position thusly: "What can one say when a Haaretz journalist -- even before the funeral of these innocents -- has nothing better to write except that we have to fear a pogrom my Jewish extremists?"

Expecting anything but an irrational, Jew-hating response to the Itamar massacre is simply the height of naivete.

How can Israeli citizens have any faith whatsoever that the Middle East's only democracy will get a fair shake anywhere from the White House to United Nations Plaza? Not when a group such as the UN's Human Rights Council has included -- until recently -- Col. Muammar Qaddafi's regime?

What's worse is the fact that the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad is now running for a seat on that very same Human Rights Council.

No matter that Assad operates one of the most notorious police states in the world. Why would that bother the UN which is more interested in assailing apartment-building in Israel.

Fortunately, fair-thinkers such as Hillel Neuer are exposing the folly of Assad's bid.

Executive Director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights group, Neuer is outraged by the Syrian move.

"Assad's regime denies the Syrian people the right to free speech and freedom of assembly, jails journalists and tortures dissidents," argues Neuer. "It sponsors some of the world's most vicious terrorist groups and has assassinated numerous journalists and opponents in Lebanon.

"The UN and cause of human rights will be severely damaged if Syria's Assad regime wins a seat."

Based on the aforementioned facts you can bet that the UN rights council will welcome Assad.

After all, the United Nations has become the hotbed of hate and irrationality.

Some day even Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton may even make this discovery!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

HOW TO COUNTER ISRAEL APARTHEID WEEK AND BDS

By Simon Fischler


Taking up the fight against Israel Apartheid Week and the BDS movement is of utmost importance for Israel supporters around the world.

But first, supporters of Israel must realize this is not a clean fight. No, this is a dirty street fight with our lives on the line, and we must be ready to protect ourselves and our nation to the end.

For pro-Israel students and activists around the world who wish to combat the RACIST and ANTI-SEMITIC Israel Apartheid week I have some ideas that might be useful.

On every campus hosting Israel Apartheid Week, pro-Israel students should dress up as suicide bombers; then burst into seminars, lectures, classes, cafeterias and the BDS fake check points. They should then simulate an explosion, using party poppers and confetti “bombs” ... splattering harmless red shreds all over the assembled. After this the students can then explain why the wall should be called the WALL OF LIFE.

Along with the fake suicide bombers pro-Israel activists and students should also form Qassam rocket teams. Using padded hockey sticks, umbrella’s, nerf rockets -- what ever can be used, these teams should hurl the objects into University Quads, student unions and lecture halls playing the sound of the Red Color warning system (the system used to warn Sderot citizens of rocket attacks.)

Enormous posters (which will necessitate funding) should be put up on all campuses hosting an Israel Apartheid week. These poster will show a before and after scene.

The before posters will be pictures of life that proceeded Yasser Arafat’s rejection of Palestinian Statehood and peace in 2000 at Camp David and Taba. That is, before Arafat decided to rip up the Oslo accords and then defecate them out onto the Israeli peace-camp and the Barak Government. Before Arafat decided to start a guerilla war against Israel’s citizens. These pictures will show Palestinians freely working in Israel, no checkpoints and Israelis freely enjoying shopping in Palestinian cities.

The After pictures will show pictures of the aftermath of the Park Hotel bombing, Sbarro bombing and all the other bombings on buses and so on.

Pro-Israel activists must show that Israeli Arabs enjoy all the benefits of Israeli democracy. Large placards with all the Israeli Arab Knesset members should be posted, with the sentence “THIS IS APARTHEID?” around the IAW and BDS stands and activities. Another good example would be the Knesset allocation of two hundred and fifty million shekels to the Arab communities this year. Pictures of any Israeli Emergency room will suffice to shoot down any comparison to an Apartheid state. There is so much information that totally negates the claim that Israel treats her Arab citizens unfairly.

It must be made clear that the supporters of Israel Apartheid Week and the BDS movement are in no way defenders of equal rights, liberty or justice. Both speak for and advocate the destruction of the Jewish Democratic nation State. Both say the Palestinians deserve an Arab, Muslim nation state, but the Jewish Nation does not deserve self determination in its own land. This policy is as cruel and anti-Semitic as it gets, as well as being racist. Quotes from Omar Barghouti and the rest of the BDS movement heads stating openly that their goal is the destruction of Israel are easily found and should be distributed with the question “WHO’S REALLY THE RACIST?” underneath them.

Here is the deal: we need to fight the IAW and BDS; they need to be exposed in their true colors, as anti-Semitic racists who want to commit genocide against the Jewish Nation state.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

INSTRUCTIVE LESSONS FOR ISRAEL'S LEADERS FROM DIVERSE POINTS

By Schmoel Yitzhak

* FRENCH-CANADIAN SHOE STORE OWNERS IN MONTREAL SET ISRAEL-HATERS STRAIGHT:

A group of leftist Israel-haters in Montreal have targeted a small shoe store owned by a couple of French-Canadians with no political affiliation one way or another.

The store -- Boutique Le Marcheur -- sells the Israel-made BeautiFeel brand of shoes which account for about two percent of the firm's annual sales.

Apparently the Freedom of Sales theme does not work for a lefty outfit called the Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU) -- that's a macabre joke right there -- which loathes the idea of Israeli shoes being sold in Montreal.

Since last Autumn members of PAJU have staged anti-Boutique Le Marcheur demonstrations on weekend. The protesters arrive armed with banners and pamphlets determined to force owners Ginette Auger and Yves Archambault to stop selling made-in-Israel footwear.

"They come here on our best day of the week, during the best part of the day," said Archambault. "It intimidates passersby. It intimidates our regular customers."

The family-run business easily could have capitulated to the weekly assaults which include crowding the sidewalks and trying to discourage shoppers from entering the store in other hostile ways.

"They (PAJU) figured that the small shoe store was a soft target," wrote Grahame Hamilton for Canada's daily newspaper National Post. "But they didn't reckon on the resolve of Yves and Ginette. After twenty-five years in business, they were not going to be pushed around."

(FAST MEMO TO BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Notice the phrase, "Not going to be pushed around." Please take note of that when Barack Obama, the European Union or any of the other Israel-haters try imposing their will on you and your country.)

As easy as it might have been for Auger and Archambault to remove a line that brings in a such a small amount of income, they were resolute in standing for the rights; and so they did.

"Nobody has the right to tell me what I can sell in my store," asserted Archambault.

Auger: "Maybe next someone will complain about products from Germany or China. Where does it end?"

Fortunately, the shoe-selling couple have received some surprising support.

"Politicians from all levels of government have come out in support of Le Marcheur," noted Hamilton. "And the Montreal city council passed a resolution denouncing the boycott."

Still, Ginette and Yves have lost business because of the boycott. Luckily, there have been enough Israel supporters who have staged counter-protests and have "made a point of shopping at Le Marcheur," added Hamilton.

Opponents such as Quisling Jew, Bruce Katz, continue to rail over the couple's decision but they have an unequivocal answer for him and other lefties in PAJU.

"They more they (PAJU) do it," concluded Ginette, "the more I want to continue to fight!"

And so this should be Bibi's clarion call to the United Nations, the EU, and the others who continue heaping injustice on the only democracy in the Middle East.

CONTINUE TO FIGHT!

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BRITS, KRAUTS AND ISRAEL:

Listening to Germany's Frau Merkel telling Israel what to do about building living quarters in Judea and Samaria makes me livid.

After the Nazi extermination policy, there should never be a Germany leader with the chutzpuh to tell Jews where they can live and what they can do in their own state.

The Brits have been Anti-Semites of another breed. They speak the King's English and pretend to be fair-minded -- until you check the records.

You know the story; White Paper, Lord Moyne and that sort of stuff.

Less known is the invidious manner in which Great Britain obstructed Jews from escaping Nazi Europe for a safe haven in (then) Palestine.

In an excellent -- and revealing -- article David Krakow spells out details of how outrageously hostile England was to Jewish refugees.

"The first battle casualties inflicted by the British at the outbreak of World War II on September 1, 1939, were Jews killed and wounded by British Marines who had stormed the Mossad ship Tiger Hill, carrying 1,417 Jewish escapees from Europe," explained Krakow.

Britain's callous blockading of Jewish escapees defies credulity.

"While they blocked the escape of Hitler's victims," added Krakow, "the British brazenly feigned ignorance of the extermination of the Jews as did virtually everybody including the United States."

And, as we have learned so well, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Democratic president, was as guilty in his own way as any of the more obvious who turned their backs on Jews during the Holocaust.

Thus, is it any wonder that the current Democratic president boycotts Israel by never setting foot in what is his foremost ally in the Middle East.

Brits, Krauts, Obama; by their actions to we know them!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

ANTI-SEMITISM WEEK

Anti-Semitism week has opened at Universities across the globe. Oh, wait a second, I’ve made a mistake; what they’re calling it at these great institutions of knowledge is “Israel Apartheid Week.” 

Organized by pro-Palestinian groups, the activities taking place at universities of the West (largely Britain, EU countries and the US) are an overt attempt to equate the only openly democratic country in the Middle East, Israel, with South Africa when it was a totally apartheid nation. In reality, however, these events are not really protesting Israel, or encouraging sanctions against Israel because they honestly think Israel is a nation of apartheid; they are making thinly veiled protests against Israel because it is the Jewish State.

The trailer for Israel Apartheid week is as much of a joke as the actual week itself. In the trailer you see beautiful landscapes of what is called the West Bank. Then all of a sudden this Barrier appears simply for no reason whatsoever. At the end of their trailer they list their three demands: End of Occupation, Full Equality for Palestinian Citizens of Israel, Right of Return for Palestinian Refugees.

All three demands are glaring proof of the fallacy of Israel Apartheid week. All three demands are proof that this cause is not beneficial to peace, not just, but is racist and Anti-Semitic.

Any one who denies that Israel had to build the Wall of Life is supporting suicide bombers and the innocent killing of Israeli citizens. Since that barrier has been finished there has not been one suicide bombing in Israel. The Palestinians chose to strike down peace with Israel at Camp David and Taba, the Palestinians chose to go to war with Israel. The Palestinians chose to go to war in our cities, blowing up men, women and children.

You want us to tear down the barrier that keeps our children alive; I want you to invite a rapist into your daughter’s bedroom. 

Israeli Arabs have far more equality than all the Arabs in the Arab world, FACT. Israeli Arabs were the first to shoot down an idea by the much-hated Avigdor Lieberman to exchange the Israeli Arab towns in the Arab triangle with the Jewish Settlements that will remain part of Israel in a peace agreement. Understand, what Lieberman proposed would not have stripped them of their land, houses or property. What it meant was exchanging their citizenship from Israeli to Palestinian. They screamed this down louder than a newborn boy at his circumcision.

Why? They know better than all of these radicals what it would be like to live in a Palestinian State. They know better than all these radicals what it is like to live in other Arab countries: no democracy; no freedom of speech (which the Israeli Arabs take ridiculous advantage of).

That goes for Jordan and Lebanon, the two most progressive of the Arab countries. Do you think you can get away with condemning King Abdullah? No way; you’ll find yourself in a dark prison cell before you can say Jumpin’ Jiminy. Do you think that in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria or Jordan there are satirists, comedians and political analysts who would dare say some of the things that are said on TV or in the pages of Haaretz every day, criticizing and satirizing the Israeli government? Never.

Israeli Arabs vote in Israeli elections, can live where they choose and can scream bloody murder at the state that protects their lives like no other European, American or Arab State would. The Netenyahu government just approved and passed in the Knesset 100 million shekels just for the Israeli Arab sector. Israeli Arabs have far more equality than most African Americans and Latinos have in the United States of America, FACT.

The Palestinian Right of Return is the biggest fallacy of all. Anyone -- and I mean anyone -- who supports this idea does not support true peace, is Anti-Israel and an Anti-Semite.

If you support this then you are supporting the destruction of the state of Israel, FACT.

If you support this then what you are saying is that the Jews, who have lived in Israel for thousands of years, whose home this country has always been have no right to Self-determination and freedom. What you are saying is that it makes no difference that 900,000 Jews were expelled from Arab countries to the 700,000 Arabs who left mostly of their own will from Israel. What you are saying is that the Palestinians should get their own state and the state of Israel on top of that. Anti-Semitism at its best. 

No Israeli government will agree to the Palestinian Right of Return, nor should any Israeli government agree to this. The responsibility rests on the shoulders of the Palestinian leadership of that time and on the shoulders of the Arab nations who attempted to annihilate the newly-formed country of Israel.

What is even more sick and what proves that this week and the people who join it are nothing more than racist, anti-Israel and anti-semitic is the long list of places where they could better be aiming their vitriol:  all the other places on our globe where people are truly treated inhumanely, genuinely lack freedoms and suffer from great injustices, as well as genocide on a massive scale.

What about Tibet? The Chinese have destroyed Tibetan culture, forcefully removing whole villages and towns and replacing them with Han Chinese, to totally change the demographics of the Country. This was a country before the Chinese hostilely invaded it --unlike Palestine which has never existed. 

Where are the screams over Darfur? More than 100,000 black Africans have been killed by the Janjaweed, an Arab Muslim militia that kills and rapes women and children and destroys the villages of these black Africans, most of them Muslim themselves. 

What about the Kurds? They have been fighting for their freedom long before the Arabs knew about Palestinian Nationalism. The Kurds have done far more to build the foundations of a state than the Palestinians. The Kurds have a culture that goes back into history long before there was an idea of a Palestine; this is a FACT. 

What about the Basques? Just because their land happens to be in France and Spain, does this mean they deserve a state less than the Palestinians? Again, the Basques are one of the oldest peoples of Europe, with a culture and history started long before the idea of Palestine. Why isn’t anyone screaming bloody murder for a Basque State in Europe?

In all cases above these people do not have equal rights in the countries they live in. On many occasions they have been persecuted and killed.

Why aren’t the radicals going after Spain, France, China, Sudan, Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria? For that matter, why aren’t they protesting the actions of all of the Arab nations surrounding Israel, most of whom have rejected the Palestinians at one time or another, forcing them back into the refugee camps of the West Bank?

These protesters are not interested in delegitimizing the aforementioned countries because none of them is the only Jewish state in existence on the planet. Ironically, none of the nations being persecuted and deprived of their freedom are fighting against the Jews; only the Palestinians -- a people who, before the state of Israel existed, did not consider themselves Palestinians but Syrians -- are trying to destroy the Jews.

Of all these persecuted nations mentioned above not one was offered a state similar to the one the Palestinians were. This is extremely important to remember: Israel agreed to give back 93-97 percent of the West Bank (really Judea and Samaria), all of Gaza, East Jerusalem and the Muslim and Christian quarters of the Old City. It was the poor, “occupied” Palestinians who chose to continue being stateless, if they could not destroy Israel demographically. FACT!

Israel Apartheid week is nothing more than an Arab-sponsored, colonial hate-fest; anti-Semitism at its best and most insidious. No matter how much they attempt to rationalize and justify their actions, it will never change this fact.

The people who brought us Israel Apartheid week and their supporters claim to be seeking freedom, human rights and justice. However, make no mistake: what they are truly seeking is a racist policy of Arab and Muslim imperialism, the unjustified criminalization of Israel and ultimately the destruction of the state of Israel.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME STILL SMELLS LIKE ANTI-SEMITISM

By Simon Fischler

We knew sooner or later that one of the Arab or Muslim dictators facing the liberation movements in their countries would pass the blame off on the Jews.

Today we can thank Yemeni President Ali Saleh for blaming the Arab and Muslim revolts in the Middle-East on a Zionist conspiracy. As he said, there is “a room in Tel Aviv where Zionists are controlling everything” happening on the Arab and Muslim street!

If only we were that powerful; there might actually be true democracy outside of Israel in the Middle-East.

I guess Mr. Saleh is right: these revolts probably have nothing to do with the fact that every Arab and Muslim country is run by dictators who do just about everything to oppress and deny their citizens the rights we in the West and Israel (including Israeli Arabs) take for granted.

You’d think that the diplomats in EU and the Obama Administration would have awakened to realize that the problems of the Middle-East have nothing to do with settlements or the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

WOW. It is a real shock that the real problems in the Arab world revolve around a fanatically patriarchal, chauvinist culture that denies women and gays any rights and oppresses even the must normal of civil liberties.

For some reason though, the diplomats in the EU and in the White House seem incapable of stopping their mantra against Israel, joining the demented accusations that periodically spew from the Muslim Middle East.

Nothing new with that; all one needs do is to look around and see what is going on in the Western world today.

We have an Idiot fashion designer wishing for Jews to be gassed and praising Hitler. Thanks to John Galliono for making the world’s true thoughts very clear.

We have megalomaniac, idiot, actors tossing their Anti-Semitic views around. Thank you, Charlie Sheen.

Saddest of all, Pete Seeger has turned his back on Israel and joined up with the Hitler youth at BDS. Pete (92 years old, so one can only hope he’s too demented to realize he’s being scammed), the only peace BDS seeks is one that annihilates Israel and the Jewish nation’s right to self determination.

Of course, all of this is leading up to “Anti-Semite” week. Wait, excuse me, I mean Israel Apartheid week which starts on March Seventh.

This festive week is when all the Jew-hating anti-Semites come out to party in the hopes of destroying the Eighty Percent Jewish Nation of Israel. This is the week-long trashing of the only democracy in the Middle-East; the one that affords all of its citizens -- including Israeli Arabs -- the rights that we are all witnessing do not exist in the Arab Muslim world.

What a good and noble cause that is!

Please do not tell me that you have Jewish support for Israel Apartheid week, because if you do, those Jews are what we call SELF-HATING Jews- the worst Anti-Semites there are.

One can only hope that this despicable week of Jew and Israeli hating will be met with fierce opposition by the brave people who have not caved into the fear mongering, people like Alan Dershowitz and Bernard Henri Levi and all the other supporters of Israel.

Also, please do not tell about how we Israelis are missing an opportunity with PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

The second the Pali-Leaks broke, giving information about what the Palestinians supposedly would be willing to give up for peace, Abbas and friends in the PA quickly denied it and accused Al Jazeera of releasing the information in the hopes of either bringing down the PA or having its leadership assassinated.

Sounds like Abbas has done a real good job of getting the Palestinian Street ready for peace, doesn’t it?

For that matter, all one needs to do is listen to Palestinian radio, watch Palestinian TV or open a Palestinian child’s school book to see inflammatory anti-Israel incitement. Remember, we are talking about the moderate Palestinian Authority in the West Bank (that is Judea and Samaria) run by Fatah. Looking at anything HAMAS produces is like reading Mien Kampf.

Of course all of this anti-Semitic, anti-Israel incitement in Palestinian media and society was supposed to be stopped before Israel stopped building in the Settlements, this is clearly written in the Road Map to peace.

Again, I guess it is Zionism’s fault.

How dare the Jews demand self-determination in their land? How dare the Jewish Nation defend its citizens? How dare the Jews and Israel not take the blame for Arab and Muslim oppression? How dare the Jews not take the blame for the Palestinians’ intransigency? How dare the Jews not take the blame for the Palestinian and Arab refusal of partition in 1947? HOW DARE THE JEWS NOT TAKE THE BLAME FOR ARAFAT’S REFUSAL OF PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD AND PEACE IN TWO THOUSAND AND TWO THOUSAND AND ONE? How dare the Jews not take the blame for PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ refusal of Palestinian Statehood and Peace in two thousand and eight with Israeli PM Ehud Olmert?

You get the picture.