By Simon Fischler
I wish someone could explain to me what happened to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton is an intelligent woman; she fought tirelessly for Israel as a Senator. She is the spouse of the President who was burned so badly by Yassar Arafat and the Palestinians at Camp David and Taba. She saw first hand how ready Israel was for peace and how much Ehud Barak offered to attain peace and to give the Palestinians their state. Hillary knows very well that both her husband and Ehud Barak were totally betrayed by the PA and Arafat.
With all of this knowledge and a past that should make her capable of understanding why Israel is right, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has assumed an extremely negative attitude towards the Jewish nation.
Most recently Clinton came out against Israel while giving a speech at the opening of the Daniel Abraham Center for Middle-East Peace!
She wrongly put the onus on Israel to do more to restart peace negotiations. She again made comment on how we Israelis supposedly feel we do not need peace and how we are jeopardizing the future of Israel as a democratic, Jewish State.
I guess the big questions to Hillary is: what more does she want us to do? If we (Israel) have to give so much to even get negotiations started, why are we having them? Why does Israel have to give into preconditions while the Palestinians don’t?
Incitement against Israel is being promoted by the supposed moderates of the Palestinian camp, meaning President Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah. This incitement and the collaboration of the PA with the radical left in Europe and America has done far more to hurt relations between Israel and the PA and done more to stop peace efforts than any batch of settlements. It was proven and is a fact that if Israel sees the other side is serious and ready to uphold its end of the bargain, she will remove settlements. In fact, Israel has proven that even when there isn’t an agreement (i.e., Gaza) she is ready to uproot settlements to promote peace.
Herein lies the problem. In this relationship, this couple, there is one who is always doing the hard work for peace. There is only one who is constantly paying a high price in sacrifice to attain harmony between our peoples, and it isn’t the Palestinians or the Arabs.
It was Israel that uprooted the settlements in the Sinai Peninsula, left the oil wells we had found and drilled there, left the resort towns we had already started to cultivate and possibly more than anything, abandoned our plans to build enormous solar fields to provide Israel with clean energy. What did Egypt give us in return? A piece of paper with a peace so cold it might not last passed President Hossini Mubarak.
It was Israel that started the Oslo accords and sought peace with the Palestinians. It was Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin who paid for Peace with his life, while Arafat turned down statehood and Peace for his people for fear of being assassinated.
It was Ehud Barak who paid for peace politically when he pulled the IDF out of Lebanon, offered Syria all the Golan Heights and the Palestinians all of Gaza, 97% of the West Bank and parts of East Jerusalem. In each case Barak was met with rejection. In each case secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s husband was also burned and firmly backed Israel and put the onus for the failure of Peace on the Arab side.
It was Israel that independently decided to leave the Gaza strip, uproot communities that had been living there for 30 years. What was given in return: 8,000 rockets?
Of course, behind all of these sacrifices and betrayals, there lies the absolute, bedrock fact that no one -- ever -- has demanded that the Palestinians agree to one absolutely necessary, irrevocable pre-condition: the right of Israel to exist as the Jewish state.
This is the problem: the American government seems to believe they can constantly rely on us to pay the price, while the other side offers up feces in return. When we finally say, “Excuse me, we don’t want to eat crap today, thank you very much,” The American government gets angry at us and starts threatening us.
The single biggest roadblock to peace between Israel and the Palestinians is what has always been the main stumbling block: the Palestinian and Arab dream of destroying Israel always comes before the building of a Palestinian State.
It is commendable that PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is attempting to build the foundations of a state in the West Bank (which is in fact, ancient Judea and Samaria). On the other hand just last week Hamas issued threats saying that Prime Minister Fayyad should be arrested and possibly face the death penalty for presenting what would be the only way of reaching agreement; the resettlement of Palestinian refugees in the new state of Palestine.
Hillary Clinton is wrong to blame Israel and to ask Israel to do any more than she already has. The fact that we Israelis are even ready to talk peace is a testament to how much we have already given and how little the Palestinians have. The Arabs have burned Israel too many times for an American diplomat to demand that we do more to attain peace.
As I have written so many times, it is high time for American and European diplomats to start making demands of the Palestinians; it is time for them to live up to their responsibilities, if anyone truly wants peace in the Middle-East.
All you need to do is take a History of the Middle-East 101course to know that the ball is; and always has been in the Arab court!
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
THANK YOU NABIL SHAATH
By Simon Fischler
I would like to personally thank Nabil Shaath of Palestinian Authority for making clear the fact that the Settlements in Judea and Samaria are not at all and never have been the issue preventing peace between Israel and the Palestinians or Palestinian Statehood.
Yesterday, Shaath exposed the fact that the PA and Hamas are the same when it comes to their hope of still destroying Israel. He did this when, in the name of the PA, he outright rejected what is thought to be the new American Peace Plan to be presented by President Barack Obama.
Why have Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas all rejected what will be the Obama Peace plan?
Not because of land, i.e. Settlements.
It is been made very clear that the Obama Plan will call for the Return of the 1967 borders with land swaps for the Palestinians in return for Settlement Blocs that Israel keeps.
Not because of Jerusalem. It has also been made very clear that the Obama Plan will call for East Jerusalem to be the Capital of the Palestinian State.
So why did Mr. Shaath reject what he thinks will be Obama’s plan, outright?
Because of the Palestinian “Right of Return.” This made-up right is a synonym for the destruction of Israel. Further, it carries absolutely no legitimacy. What the Palestinians call their Right was nothing more than a suggestion in UN General Assembly resolution 148, a non-binding recommendation.
What is binding is UN Security Council Resolution 242 that says just this: “A just settlement of the refugee problem must be reached.”
The resolution was written this way intentionally because all members of the Security Council knew that Israel should not and would never bear the responsibility of the refugees created when the Arab leadership in the then-Palestine Mandate rejected Partition in 1947.
It was also written this way because of the Jewish refugees who were forced out of Arab and Muslim States after Israel won her independence.
Someone should remind Nabil Shaath that while there were 700,000 Arab Muslim refugees who left Israel -- mainly at the behest of their leadership and Arab governments (who promised everyone would be able to return to their homes after the Jews were thrown into the Sea), there were 900,000 Jewish refugees from Arab and Muslim countries who were absorbed into Israel, at great expense.
Shaath’s latest remarks simply reaffirm that the Palestinians do not want to return to the negotiating table -- not because of settlements, but because they truly have no intention of compromising to reach a peace deal. At the end of the day the leadership of the Palestinian Authority is not moderate at all; and still refuses to recognize Israel for what she is, the Jewish Democratic State.
On another note, it would be nice if the Western World could wake up and admit that the ills of the Arab and Muslim world have nothing to do with Israel, but revolve around ruthless dictators and conservative Islamic fascism.
I would like to personally thank Nabil Shaath of Palestinian Authority for making clear the fact that the Settlements in Judea and Samaria are not at all and never have been the issue preventing peace between Israel and the Palestinians or Palestinian Statehood.
Yesterday, Shaath exposed the fact that the PA and Hamas are the same when it comes to their hope of still destroying Israel. He did this when, in the name of the PA, he outright rejected what is thought to be the new American Peace Plan to be presented by President Barack Obama.
Why have Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas all rejected what will be the Obama Peace plan?
Not because of land, i.e. Settlements.
It is been made very clear that the Obama Plan will call for the Return of the 1967 borders with land swaps for the Palestinians in return for Settlement Blocs that Israel keeps.
Not because of Jerusalem. It has also been made very clear that the Obama Plan will call for East Jerusalem to be the Capital of the Palestinian State.
So why did Mr. Shaath reject what he thinks will be Obama’s plan, outright?
Because of the Palestinian “Right of Return.” This made-up right is a synonym for the destruction of Israel. Further, it carries absolutely no legitimacy. What the Palestinians call their Right was nothing more than a suggestion in UN General Assembly resolution 148, a non-binding recommendation.
What is binding is UN Security Council Resolution 242 that says just this: “A just settlement of the refugee problem must be reached.”
The resolution was written this way intentionally because all members of the Security Council knew that Israel should not and would never bear the responsibility of the refugees created when the Arab leadership in the then-Palestine Mandate rejected Partition in 1947.
It was also written this way because of the Jewish refugees who were forced out of Arab and Muslim States after Israel won her independence.
Someone should remind Nabil Shaath that while there were 700,000 Arab Muslim refugees who left Israel -- mainly at the behest of their leadership and Arab governments (who promised everyone would be able to return to their homes after the Jews were thrown into the Sea), there were 900,000 Jewish refugees from Arab and Muslim countries who were absorbed into Israel, at great expense.
Shaath’s latest remarks simply reaffirm that the Palestinians do not want to return to the negotiating table -- not because of settlements, but because they truly have no intention of compromising to reach a peace deal. At the end of the day the leadership of the Palestinian Authority is not moderate at all; and still refuses to recognize Israel for what she is, the Jewish Democratic State.
On another note, it would be nice if the Western World could wake up and admit that the ills of the Arab and Muslim world have nothing to do with Israel, but revolve around ruthless dictators and conservative Islamic fascism.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
TIME TO RISE UP
By Simon Fischler
Small Israeli diplomatic victories of late must be used as a rallying point for a major battle on the horizon.
Omar Barghouti and his organization, BDS, are planning a major protest this May to coincide with the AIPAC conference and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech there.
However, while planning to continue their smear and disinformation tactics, Barghouti and the B.D.S are scared, very scared.
Why? Because they know better than anyone else that the facts are against them.
The Boycott, Sanction and Divestment group survives today only because they can feed on the naive and misinformed and because their tactics (like the Brownshirts of Germany) are violent enough to scare others into submission.
This is changing.
The Israeli BUYCOTT movement has defeated the BDS on numerous fronts. The Pro-Israel movement is gaining in strength by getting the truth out to those misinformed by the haters of Jewish self-determination.
But this is not enough. It is high time that Israel and her supporters meet Barghouti and his crew head on.
We need to score a major and lasting blow.
We need a diplomatic and political Battle of Yorktown and BDS has offered this up to us.
It’s difficult to figure out how the usually silky smooth liars over at BDS made this mistake, but they actually planned to have the retired journalist Helen Thomas as a keynote speaker for their BROWNSHIRT rally!
Thomas, 80-plus years old, was long the leading lady of the Washington, D.C., press corps, a career that required at least a semblance of objectivity. But since her enforced “retirement,” Thomas, of Lebanese descent, has decided to show her true bigoted, twisted colors. Helen has ranted such tasty morsels as “the Jews are running the U.S.,” and “the Jews should go back to Europe, where they came from.”
Then, just in time to save their outward appearance, someone in the BDS was smart enough to realize that having the Duchess of Jew Hatred as a keynote speaker would expose the BDS for what they truly are, racists and anti-Semites.
So Twisted Tongue Thomas will not be there for a showdown, but the rest of the people who hate Jewish SELF-DETERMINATION will be.
Those who love and support Israel need to meet these political terrorists on the street in the thousands or hundreds of thousands.
THIS MAY, WE MUST CLAIM VICTORY ON THE STREETS OF WASHINGTON WITH A PRO-ISRAEL COUNTER PROTEST THAT OUTNUMBERS ANYTHING BDS CAN MUSTER.
The Foreign Ministry of Israel needs to immediately start working with Pro-Israel NGOs, grass-roots supporters and bloggers to motivate this counter protest.
It cannot stop there. Israel and her supporters should use a tactic of the Palestinian camp: encourage people to take time off of work to support Israel; then bus them in by the thousands, to the counterprotest. However, knowing that BDS and compatriots can be prone to violence, it would be wise for the pro-Israel camp to set up appropriate safety measures.
Omar Barghouti will be there spouting his usual garbage, and a recent quote of his can easily be used against him the minute he opens his mouth.
"Apartheid is not defined according to whims of this or that scholar. Apartheid is when the discrimination is legalized. Now there are commissions to accept new residents into communities. Imagine an Irish white guy saying: 'We don't accept this Latino guy, his food smells funny, he doesn't fit.' But in Israel now it's legal.
Yes, there are communities in Israel where people are tested and interviewed -- just like Co-ops or Condos in America. However, If a family or person is not accepted, it is not because of race, religion or ethnicity as Mr. Barghouti would like you to believe. Redlining or racism of any sort is as illegal in Israel as it is anywhere in the States.
Just for starters, it should be pointed out that the ONLY apartment in Haifa successfully destroyed by Hezbollah’s rockets in the Lebanese conflict of 2006, was occupied by an Arab woman!
More than anything Israel and her supporters need to get Omar Barghouti to explain why selling land to a Jew under the supposedly moderate Palestinian Authority carries the death penalty? After that Mr. Barghouti to explain why it is illegal for Jews to own land in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
The goal of our FREEDOM PROTEST is to defend Israel and Americans from the lies of the BIG OIL-backed anti-Israel, anti-democracy movement.
Small Israeli diplomatic victories of late must be used as a rallying point for a major battle on the horizon.
Omar Barghouti and his organization, BDS, are planning a major protest this May to coincide with the AIPAC conference and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech there.
However, while planning to continue their smear and disinformation tactics, Barghouti and the B.D.S are scared, very scared.
Why? Because they know better than anyone else that the facts are against them.
The Boycott, Sanction and Divestment group survives today only because they can feed on the naive and misinformed and because their tactics (like the Brownshirts of Germany) are violent enough to scare others into submission.
This is changing.
The Israeli BUYCOTT movement has defeated the BDS on numerous fronts. The Pro-Israel movement is gaining in strength by getting the truth out to those misinformed by the haters of Jewish self-determination.
But this is not enough. It is high time that Israel and her supporters meet Barghouti and his crew head on.
We need to score a major and lasting blow.
We need a diplomatic and political Battle of Yorktown and BDS has offered this up to us.
It’s difficult to figure out how the usually silky smooth liars over at BDS made this mistake, but they actually planned to have the retired journalist Helen Thomas as a keynote speaker for their BROWNSHIRT rally!
Thomas, 80-plus years old, was long the leading lady of the Washington, D.C., press corps, a career that required at least a semblance of objectivity. But since her enforced “retirement,” Thomas, of Lebanese descent, has decided to show her true bigoted, twisted colors. Helen has ranted such tasty morsels as “the Jews are running the U.S.,” and “the Jews should go back to Europe, where they came from.”
Then, just in time to save their outward appearance, someone in the BDS was smart enough to realize that having the Duchess of Jew Hatred as a keynote speaker would expose the BDS for what they truly are, racists and anti-Semites.
So Twisted Tongue Thomas will not be there for a showdown, but the rest of the people who hate Jewish SELF-DETERMINATION will be.
Those who love and support Israel need to meet these political terrorists on the street in the thousands or hundreds of thousands.
THIS MAY, WE MUST CLAIM VICTORY ON THE STREETS OF WASHINGTON WITH A PRO-ISRAEL COUNTER PROTEST THAT OUTNUMBERS ANYTHING BDS CAN MUSTER.
The Foreign Ministry of Israel needs to immediately start working with Pro-Israel NGOs, grass-roots supporters and bloggers to motivate this counter protest.
It cannot stop there. Israel and her supporters should use a tactic of the Palestinian camp: encourage people to take time off of work to support Israel; then bus them in by the thousands, to the counterprotest. However, knowing that BDS and compatriots can be prone to violence, it would be wise for the pro-Israel camp to set up appropriate safety measures.
Omar Barghouti will be there spouting his usual garbage, and a recent quote of his can easily be used against him the minute he opens his mouth.
"Apartheid is not defined according to whims of this or that scholar. Apartheid is when the discrimination is legalized. Now there are commissions to accept new residents into communities. Imagine an Irish white guy saying: 'We don't accept this Latino guy, his food smells funny, he doesn't fit.' But in Israel now it's legal.
Yes, there are communities in Israel where people are tested and interviewed -- just like Co-ops or Condos in America. However, If a family or person is not accepted, it is not because of race, religion or ethnicity as Mr. Barghouti would like you to believe. Redlining or racism of any sort is as illegal in Israel as it is anywhere in the States.
Just for starters, it should be pointed out that the ONLY apartment in Haifa successfully destroyed by Hezbollah’s rockets in the Lebanese conflict of 2006, was occupied by an Arab woman!
More than anything Israel and her supporters need to get Omar Barghouti to explain why selling land to a Jew under the supposedly moderate Palestinian Authority carries the death penalty? After that Mr. Barghouti to explain why it is illegal for Jews to own land in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
The goal of our FREEDOM PROTEST is to defend Israel and Americans from the lies of the BIG OIL-backed anti-Israel, anti-democracy movement.
REWRITING REALITY -- THE REAL, RIGHT WAY
By Schmoel Yitzhak
The "Peace Process" merry-go-round is circling again, making as little sense as a carnival barker peddling snake oil to The Wizard of Oz.
Then again, perhaps it does make "sense" to those who envision the eventual annihilation of Israel.
As sure as we're in the month of April, any "Peace Process" involving Mahmoud Abbas and his cohorts virtually guarantees that Israel will wind up in big trouble whether the PP is orchestrated by Uncle Sam, the European Union or any of the so-called sanctimonious publicity-seekers who either are trying to rewrite reality or simply cannot understand what's really going on in the Arab mind.
And that is, let's wipe out the Middle East's only democracy one way or another. In the Arab mind, a phony "Peace Process" is a good way to start.
Once again Barack Obama, who does not seem to know what he's doing vis-a-vis Egypt, Libya, Afghanistan nor his own United States, is climbing on the "Peace Process" bandwagon once again. Which proves that the man in the White House never learns.
Peace, in the truest sense of the word, hardly is the issue here. Obama, who has yet to even set foot in Israel, should know that but doesn't really care. (By their works shall ye know them.)
Israel has been striving for the elusive peace ever since the nation was created in 1948.
From its very beginning the Jewish State has been surrounded by enemies -- they are foes because they quite simply hate Jews -- and regularly are attacked by them over and over again.
Each time Israel repelled its foes, it offered peace. In return, it received the 1967 Six Day War, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, ad nauseum.
Interestingly, only two Arab nations ever have accepted -- although rather reluctantly -- Israel's glad hand.
Egypt did so after its forces were slapped down again in 1973. Anwar Sadat eventually realized that a return of the Sinai Peninsula was worth putting his name on a peace pact. (And you know what happened to him!)
Likewise, Jordan's King Hussein forfeited Judea and Samaria -- alias the West Bank -- to Arabs who called themselves Palestinians.
As it happened, the "peace" with both Egypt and Jordan evolved into an ugly one.
Hate-Israel campaigns were woven into Hosni Mubarak's regime. Until the recent Egyptian uprising, Jew-hating under Mubarak was sanctioned in print and on radio and television; not to mention other hate-filled forums. (Guaranteed that it will get worse under the new "liberators.")
Jordan has been no bargain either but the hostility under Hussein merely was muted in comparison to the Egyptian variety.
What Israel received from its only two "peace" treaties has been nothing more than a political confection; roughly equivalent to milk chocolate on the outside and iodine underneath. Middle East analyst Avi Perry is one who fully understands the situation then and now.
"The two 'friendly' Arab neighbors continued their broad anti-semitism campaigns through their government-controlled media and via their government-controlled education system," notes Perry. "They participated actively in anti-Israel political maneuvering in international forums, including the UN, and limited their commercial ties with the Jewish State to a minimum."
It is vital that Benyamin Netanyahu be fully aware of past events as they relate to the present and future, especially in terms of the certain pressure to be applied by Obama and his henchmen -- plus women named Hillary and another sinister Israel-hater, the American president's senior advisor, Samantha Power.
Exposing Power in a recent Jerusalem Post column, Caroline Glick asserts that during the second Intifada, when Israelis were regularly murdered by both Fatah and Hamas killers, the very same Samantha Power -- in a filmed interview -- urged "mammoth" American military intervention to protect the Palestinians from the Israelis. (How about that; the murderers are to be "protected.")
So much for the support Israel can expect from Obama, Inc. Here are some lessons to be remembered:
* LESSON ONE: ACCEPTANCE OF ISRAEL AS A JEWISH STATE FIRST; TALKS LATER: It would be an egregious error for Bibi to even get close to talks unless -- and until -- the Arabs accept Israel as a Jewish State.
"They (the Arabs) have not reconciled to the fact that Israel exists as a Jewish State," explains Perry. "This reality has been evidenced in Abbas recent public refusal to admit to it, 'Yes, Israel exists,' he confirmed. 'it's fact,' he approved. But he resisted the critical part: 'as a Jewish state."
Since this happens to be the rampant Arab stance, there really is no starting point for negotiations until the entire Abbas-Hamas-Hezbollah contingent change their tune.
* LESSON TWO: SCRUPULOUSLY AVOID BOOMERANG DEALS: Nothing that Netanyahu can offer will satisfy the Arabs short of the geographic rape of Israel. Bibi must reinforce in his brain the Ehud Barak blunder committed at the behest (translated: heavy, heavy pressure) of Bill Clinton before the president not-so-gracefully left the White House.
At a Camp David conference, the then Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak offered Arafat 95 percent of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem; 100 percent of the Gaza Strip, plus a corridor connecting the two detached territories. All Barak wanted in return was a peace treaty.
What Barak got in return was not even a "Thank you" but a full-fledged war against Israeli civilians. (The softer Arab definition was Intifada.)
* LESSON THREE: DEFEND FIRST; TALK LATER: For starters, Israel's Prime Minister must not for a moment be conned into any pre-talks concessions. (See above.) The defense of Israel on all sides, including the Mediterranean Sea, is the first priority. A return to the indefensible 1967 borders is out, O-U-T.
Bibi must ensure that reality is re-written the right way. It would be useful if he presented the following observation to any leader -- Obama or otherwise -- who demands hurtful Israeli concessions.
"A two-state solution," concludes Avi Perry, "is a mirage. It's an illusion borne by western leaders and the world's media. It is a nightmare for sober Israelis who understand the consequences of the so-called peace."
As we have seen over the decades, this "Peace Process" merry-go-round can make an Israeli leader dizzy enough to make crazy, Barak-like concessions.
What's the most sensible modus operandi?
Don't get aboard that merry-go-round until you're absolutely positive that your Israeli safety belt is securely fastened!
The "Peace Process" merry-go-round is circling again, making as little sense as a carnival barker peddling snake oil to The Wizard of Oz.
Then again, perhaps it does make "sense" to those who envision the eventual annihilation of Israel.
As sure as we're in the month of April, any "Peace Process" involving Mahmoud Abbas and his cohorts virtually guarantees that Israel will wind up in big trouble whether the PP is orchestrated by Uncle Sam, the European Union or any of the so-called sanctimonious publicity-seekers who either are trying to rewrite reality or simply cannot understand what's really going on in the Arab mind.
And that is, let's wipe out the Middle East's only democracy one way or another. In the Arab mind, a phony "Peace Process" is a good way to start.
Once again Barack Obama, who does not seem to know what he's doing vis-a-vis Egypt, Libya, Afghanistan nor his own United States, is climbing on the "Peace Process" bandwagon once again. Which proves that the man in the White House never learns.
Peace, in the truest sense of the word, hardly is the issue here. Obama, who has yet to even set foot in Israel, should know that but doesn't really care. (By their works shall ye know them.)
Israel has been striving for the elusive peace ever since the nation was created in 1948.
From its very beginning the Jewish State has been surrounded by enemies -- they are foes because they quite simply hate Jews -- and regularly are attacked by them over and over again.
Each time Israel repelled its foes, it offered peace. In return, it received the 1967 Six Day War, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, ad nauseum.
Interestingly, only two Arab nations ever have accepted -- although rather reluctantly -- Israel's glad hand.
Egypt did so after its forces were slapped down again in 1973. Anwar Sadat eventually realized that a return of the Sinai Peninsula was worth putting his name on a peace pact. (And you know what happened to him!)
Likewise, Jordan's King Hussein forfeited Judea and Samaria -- alias the West Bank -- to Arabs who called themselves Palestinians.
As it happened, the "peace" with both Egypt and Jordan evolved into an ugly one.
Hate-Israel campaigns were woven into Hosni Mubarak's regime. Until the recent Egyptian uprising, Jew-hating under Mubarak was sanctioned in print and on radio and television; not to mention other hate-filled forums. (Guaranteed that it will get worse under the new "liberators.")
Jordan has been no bargain either but the hostility under Hussein merely was muted in comparison to the Egyptian variety.
What Israel received from its only two "peace" treaties has been nothing more than a political confection; roughly equivalent to milk chocolate on the outside and iodine underneath. Middle East analyst Avi Perry is one who fully understands the situation then and now.
"The two 'friendly' Arab neighbors continued their broad anti-semitism campaigns through their government-controlled media and via their government-controlled education system," notes Perry. "They participated actively in anti-Israel political maneuvering in international forums, including the UN, and limited their commercial ties with the Jewish State to a minimum."
It is vital that Benyamin Netanyahu be fully aware of past events as they relate to the present and future, especially in terms of the certain pressure to be applied by Obama and his henchmen -- plus women named Hillary and another sinister Israel-hater, the American president's senior advisor, Samantha Power.
Exposing Power in a recent Jerusalem Post column, Caroline Glick asserts that during the second Intifada, when Israelis were regularly murdered by both Fatah and Hamas killers, the very same Samantha Power -- in a filmed interview -- urged "mammoth" American military intervention to protect the Palestinians from the Israelis. (How about that; the murderers are to be "protected.")
So much for the support Israel can expect from Obama, Inc. Here are some lessons to be remembered:
* LESSON ONE: ACCEPTANCE OF ISRAEL AS A JEWISH STATE FIRST; TALKS LATER: It would be an egregious error for Bibi to even get close to talks unless -- and until -- the Arabs accept Israel as a Jewish State.
"They (the Arabs) have not reconciled to the fact that Israel exists as a Jewish State," explains Perry. "This reality has been evidenced in Abbas recent public refusal to admit to it, 'Yes, Israel exists,' he confirmed. 'it's fact,' he approved. But he resisted the critical part: 'as a Jewish state."
Since this happens to be the rampant Arab stance, there really is no starting point for negotiations until the entire Abbas-Hamas-Hezbollah contingent change their tune.
* LESSON TWO: SCRUPULOUSLY AVOID BOOMERANG DEALS: Nothing that Netanyahu can offer will satisfy the Arabs short of the geographic rape of Israel. Bibi must reinforce in his brain the Ehud Barak blunder committed at the behest (translated: heavy, heavy pressure) of Bill Clinton before the president not-so-gracefully left the White House.
At a Camp David conference, the then Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak offered Arafat 95 percent of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem; 100 percent of the Gaza Strip, plus a corridor connecting the two detached territories. All Barak wanted in return was a peace treaty.
What Barak got in return was not even a "Thank you" but a full-fledged war against Israeli civilians. (The softer Arab definition was Intifada.)
* LESSON THREE: DEFEND FIRST; TALK LATER: For starters, Israel's Prime Minister must not for a moment be conned into any pre-talks concessions. (See above.) The defense of Israel on all sides, including the Mediterranean Sea, is the first priority. A return to the indefensible 1967 borders is out, O-U-T.
Bibi must ensure that reality is re-written the right way. It would be useful if he presented the following observation to any leader -- Obama or otherwise -- who demands hurtful Israeli concessions.
"A two-state solution," concludes Avi Perry, "is a mirage. It's an illusion borne by western leaders and the world's media. It is a nightmare for sober Israelis who understand the consequences of the so-called peace."
As we have seen over the decades, this "Peace Process" merry-go-round can make an Israeli leader dizzy enough to make crazy, Barak-like concessions.
What's the most sensible modus operandi?
Don't get aboard that merry-go-round until you're absolutely positive that your Israeli safety belt is securely fastened!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
OBSEQUIOUS, NO! ASSERTIVE, YES!
By Schmoel Yitzhak
A quick dictionary check offers the following definition of obsequious: servile, fawning. And as for obsequiousness: to comply with.
Israel has spent much too much time being servile, subservient and deferential to both its enemies and so-called "aliies" (if there is such a thing) as well.
Clearly, this strategy -- of subconscious behavior, if you will -- does not work.
It dismally failed at Oslo -- the worst scam in which Jews were conned since World War II -- and has misfired in a dozen other critical episodes; not the least or which was the withdrawal from Gaza.
Ah, and here's where Israeli obsequiousness resulted in a gratuitous kick in the ass.
Playing Mister Nice Guy, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon went against all conventional Sharon wisdom and decided to simply give the precious Gaza land where Jews had miraculously turned garbage into gold over to the Arabs.
The sweet gesture was hailed -- for about one-and-a-half days -- far and wide as an Israeli peace-inducing gesture that would certainly inspire reciprocation from the Arabs.
And -- fair is fair -- the Arabs have returned the favor more than a thousand-times-over. The Jews offer land, plus their warm hand in peace, and in return Israel receives thousands of rockets exploding all over its land.
In place of obsequiousness, which has been proven to be a useless strategy, Benjamin Netanyahu must review the policies of his most assertive predecessors, starting with the pre-Gaza-giveaway Sharon. He should check out Menachem Begin at his most dogmatic and declarative; ditto for Yitzhak Shamir.
Bibi's new theme should be 180-degrees away from obsequiousness and turn to something roughly equivalent to ENOUGH, ALREADY!
When the empty suit disguised as America's president reiterates his ridiculous demands that Israel take "bold steps" toward producing Israeli-Arabs peace, the Prime Minister should boldly counter with a few facts:
FACT ONE: Barack Obama, you never have set foot in Israel since becoming president. Don't tell us what to do until you see how embattled we are, from the Lebanese border in the North to Gaza in the South.
FACT TWO: Not one but two Israeli prime ministers offered the Arabs -- fake name "Palestinians" -- more than 90 percent of the territories. Repeat; 90 PERCENT. To that super-generous offer the Israelis were told to go fly a kite!
FACT THREE: Uncle Sam's leader -- knowing nothing about "settlements" because he's never seen one firsthand -- leaned very, very heavily on Bibi to impose a ten-month freeze on construction in Judea and Samaria. Despite the fact that his Likud brothers and sisters had endlessly objected, Netanyahu agreed. The unprecedented offer was to be in exchange for Mahmoud Abbas & Co. returning to the negotiating table. All Abbas did was
walk in the other direction.
FACT FOUR: Richard Goldstone has gone public with an unprecedented denunciation of his "Report" which had condemned Israel for counterattacking after Hamas had endlessly attacked Southern Israel with rockets and mortars. (And, by the way, still is doing so.) Not once has Obama nor his Secretary of State grabbed Goldstone's recantation and pointed out that Israel was right in protecting itself.
I could list at least a dozen more facts proving without a shadow of a doubt that concession-making is not the answer when it comes to dealing with the White House, Ramallah, Beirut, the European Union or any other body claiming to advance peace in the Middle East.
Nothing that Israel has done in the way of peacemaking has produced any reciprocal gesture from the Arabs because -- when all is said and done -- their principal aim has been and always will be the extermination of Israel either by rocketry from Gaza and Lebanon or via a nuclear weapon from Iran.
Does anyone in the EU, or the phony Human Rights groups remember Israel's exit from Gaza; what a noble gesture it was; not to mention as painful today as it was then?
Of course not.
Does anyone care that Goldstone's Report was as phony as a three-dollar bill?
Apparently not.
As author-psychologist Phyllis Chesler so aptly asserts, "Like a rocket, once a Blood Libel (Goldstone Report) is launched, it's done its work. Most people already moved on, their blood streams permanently altered, poisoned with Jew-hatred.
Why do you think Abbas stays as far away from the "peace process" as possible?
Among other reasons, the longer he does so, the more Barack-Clinton will apply even more pressure on Israel to make concessions which will not be reciprocated.
Recalling the Olmert-Abbas talks of yesteryear, the Jerusalem Post's Isi Leibler, put it in proper perspective.
"When negotiating with Olmert, Abbas was either duplicitous or conscious that brainwashing his constituents to hate us had been so effective that any genuine Palestinian accommodation was inconceivable," says Leibler.
"The incitement emanating from every level of Palestinian society continues unabated, with Abbas brazenly sanctifying terrorists and providing pensions for the families of those who murder Israeli civilians."
And, we might add, while Obama, the European Union, et. al. remain silent.
Conclusion: Israel must veer sharply off Obsequious Highway which goes nowhere but to the Road to Ruin.
A quick dictionary check offers the following definition of obsequious: servile, fawning. And as for obsequiousness: to comply with.
Israel has spent much too much time being servile, subservient and deferential to both its enemies and so-called "aliies" (if there is such a thing) as well.
Clearly, this strategy -- of subconscious behavior, if you will -- does not work.
It dismally failed at Oslo -- the worst scam in which Jews were conned since World War II -- and has misfired in a dozen other critical episodes; not the least or which was the withdrawal from Gaza.
Ah, and here's where Israeli obsequiousness resulted in a gratuitous kick in the ass.
Playing Mister Nice Guy, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon went against all conventional Sharon wisdom and decided to simply give the precious Gaza land where Jews had miraculously turned garbage into gold over to the Arabs.
The sweet gesture was hailed -- for about one-and-a-half days -- far and wide as an Israeli peace-inducing gesture that would certainly inspire reciprocation from the Arabs.
And -- fair is fair -- the Arabs have returned the favor more than a thousand-times-over. The Jews offer land, plus their warm hand in peace, and in return Israel receives thousands of rockets exploding all over its land.
In place of obsequiousness, which has been proven to be a useless strategy, Benjamin Netanyahu must review the policies of his most assertive predecessors, starting with the pre-Gaza-giveaway Sharon. He should check out Menachem Begin at his most dogmatic and declarative; ditto for Yitzhak Shamir.
Bibi's new theme should be 180-degrees away from obsequiousness and turn to something roughly equivalent to ENOUGH, ALREADY!
When the empty suit disguised as America's president reiterates his ridiculous demands that Israel take "bold steps" toward producing Israeli-Arabs peace, the Prime Minister should boldly counter with a few facts:
FACT ONE: Barack Obama, you never have set foot in Israel since becoming president. Don't tell us what to do until you see how embattled we are, from the Lebanese border in the North to Gaza in the South.
FACT TWO: Not one but two Israeli prime ministers offered the Arabs -- fake name "Palestinians" -- more than 90 percent of the territories. Repeat; 90 PERCENT. To that super-generous offer the Israelis were told to go fly a kite!
FACT THREE: Uncle Sam's leader -- knowing nothing about "settlements" because he's never seen one firsthand -- leaned very, very heavily on Bibi to impose a ten-month freeze on construction in Judea and Samaria. Despite the fact that his Likud brothers and sisters had endlessly objected, Netanyahu agreed. The unprecedented offer was to be in exchange for Mahmoud Abbas & Co. returning to the negotiating table. All Abbas did was
walk in the other direction.
FACT FOUR: Richard Goldstone has gone public with an unprecedented denunciation of his "Report" which had condemned Israel for counterattacking after Hamas had endlessly attacked Southern Israel with rockets and mortars. (And, by the way, still is doing so.) Not once has Obama nor his Secretary of State grabbed Goldstone's recantation and pointed out that Israel was right in protecting itself.
I could list at least a dozen more facts proving without a shadow of a doubt that concession-making is not the answer when it comes to dealing with the White House, Ramallah, Beirut, the European Union or any other body claiming to advance peace in the Middle East.
Nothing that Israel has done in the way of peacemaking has produced any reciprocal gesture from the Arabs because -- when all is said and done -- their principal aim has been and always will be the extermination of Israel either by rocketry from Gaza and Lebanon or via a nuclear weapon from Iran.
Does anyone in the EU, or the phony Human Rights groups remember Israel's exit from Gaza; what a noble gesture it was; not to mention as painful today as it was then?
Of course not.
Does anyone care that Goldstone's Report was as phony as a three-dollar bill?
Apparently not.
As author-psychologist Phyllis Chesler so aptly asserts, "Like a rocket, once a Blood Libel (Goldstone Report) is launched, it's done its work. Most people already moved on, their blood streams permanently altered, poisoned with Jew-hatred.
Why do you think Abbas stays as far away from the "peace process" as possible?
Among other reasons, the longer he does so, the more Barack-Clinton will apply even more pressure on Israel to make concessions which will not be reciprocated.
Recalling the Olmert-Abbas talks of yesteryear, the Jerusalem Post's Isi Leibler, put it in proper perspective.
"When negotiating with Olmert, Abbas was either duplicitous or conscious that brainwashing his constituents to hate us had been so effective that any genuine Palestinian accommodation was inconceivable," says Leibler.
"The incitement emanating from every level of Palestinian society continues unabated, with Abbas brazenly sanctifying terrorists and providing pensions for the families of those who murder Israeli civilians."
And, we might add, while Obama, the European Union, et. al. remain silent.
Conclusion: Israel must veer sharply off Obsequious Highway which goes nowhere but to the Road to Ruin.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
TIME FOR THE TRUTH
By Simon Fischler
How many Israelis know who owns Haaretz?
I’d wager that close to 99% of Israel's citizens have no concept that Haaretz is run by an American family which has always been extremely hostile towards their homeland.
This, I am sure, is just how Haaretz would like to keep it too.
Knowing that Haaretz is operated by the same once-upon-a-time Jewish family (the Sulzbergers) who did all they could to hide the atrocities of the Holocaust on the back pages of the New York Times probably wouldn't sit well with the average Israeli.
On the other hand, this goes a long way to explain the morally corrupt message that Haaretz is pushing and why it continues to employ the likes of Gideon Levy and Amira Hass.
Like their masters in New York the Haaretz gang, lead by Mr. levy, has no gone to great lengths to undermine the credibility of Judge Richard Goldstone and his retraction of the Goldstone Report.
In the sick and twisted minds of Levy and Roger Cohen of the New York Times, it is impossible for a man like Goldstone to realize he made an insanely arrogant mistake when he took on the report in the vain hope of changing the UNHRC.
Of course they would never think to ask why the UN did not call for an investigation long before Cast Lead ever happened. They are well aware of the fact that the UN knew full well that every rocket shot into Israel was a war crime, but they would never think to call out the UN.
So Gideon Levy and Roger Cohen have gone the route of the old school Jew-hating self-haters. Blame those awful Jews for pressuring poor Richard Goldstone. In the minds of these perpetual Jew slammers it was being ostracized that changed Goldstone, not the realization of how the Arab oil-run UN had taken advantage of his Jewish, Zionist roots to delegitimize Israel yet again.
Levy and his cronies will stick to this made-up madness at all costs, turning on Goldstone like a pack of rabid wolves.
Any other route would mean admitting that they were wrong to slander Israel. The pride and haughtiness of Levy, Haaretz and the New York Times would never allow them to admit a mistake that colossal.
So the question is: can we Israelis continue to tolerate a newspaper like Haaretz, owned by a family and group actively trying to undermine our country?
I think not.
This is not about freedom of speech. Haaretz, Gideon Levy, Amira Hass and the rest of the gang do not stand for democracy, liberty or the freedom of speech. In fact they stand clearly against these principles by spreading lies and innuendo about Israel and her democracy.
The fact that Haaretz is pushed and programed to tout this line, abusing the freedoms allowed in Israeli democracy, by the same family which tried to hide the Holocaust from Americans is unacceptable and must be stopped.
What we need is a wealthy Israeli, who loves his or her country, to take over Haaretz and return it to what is should be, a non-biased, agenda-free newspaper that prints the facts.
How many Israelis know who owns Haaretz?
I’d wager that close to 99% of Israel's citizens have no concept that Haaretz is run by an American family which has always been extremely hostile towards their homeland.
This, I am sure, is just how Haaretz would like to keep it too.
Knowing that Haaretz is operated by the same once-upon-a-time Jewish family (the Sulzbergers) who did all they could to hide the atrocities of the Holocaust on the back pages of the New York Times probably wouldn't sit well with the average Israeli.
On the other hand, this goes a long way to explain the morally corrupt message that Haaretz is pushing and why it continues to employ the likes of Gideon Levy and Amira Hass.
Like their masters in New York the Haaretz gang, lead by Mr. levy, has no gone to great lengths to undermine the credibility of Judge Richard Goldstone and his retraction of the Goldstone Report.
In the sick and twisted minds of Levy and Roger Cohen of the New York Times, it is impossible for a man like Goldstone to realize he made an insanely arrogant mistake when he took on the report in the vain hope of changing the UNHRC.
Of course they would never think to ask why the UN did not call for an investigation long before Cast Lead ever happened. They are well aware of the fact that the UN knew full well that every rocket shot into Israel was a war crime, but they would never think to call out the UN.
So Gideon Levy and Roger Cohen have gone the route of the old school Jew-hating self-haters. Blame those awful Jews for pressuring poor Richard Goldstone. In the minds of these perpetual Jew slammers it was being ostracized that changed Goldstone, not the realization of how the Arab oil-run UN had taken advantage of his Jewish, Zionist roots to delegitimize Israel yet again.
Levy and his cronies will stick to this made-up madness at all costs, turning on Goldstone like a pack of rabid wolves.
Any other route would mean admitting that they were wrong to slander Israel. The pride and haughtiness of Levy, Haaretz and the New York Times would never allow them to admit a mistake that colossal.
So the question is: can we Israelis continue to tolerate a newspaper like Haaretz, owned by a family and group actively trying to undermine our country?
I think not.
This is not about freedom of speech. Haaretz, Gideon Levy, Amira Hass and the rest of the gang do not stand for democracy, liberty or the freedom of speech. In fact they stand clearly against these principles by spreading lies and innuendo about Israel and her democracy.
The fact that Haaretz is pushed and programed to tout this line, abusing the freedoms allowed in Israeli democracy, by the same family which tried to hide the Holocaust from Americans is unacceptable and must be stopped.
What we need is a wealthy Israeli, who loves his or her country, to take over Haaretz and return it to what is should be, a non-biased, agenda-free newspaper that prints the facts.
Monday, April 11, 2011
WAKE UP TO REALITY, YOUNG, LIBERAL JEWS
By Schmoel Yitzhak
At dinner with a New York University graduate student, I asked about his recent trip to Israel.
"Loved it," he replied. "I traveled the country, from Eilat to the Northern border. Best of all was a kibbutz in the Golan Heights. It's beautiful up there."
That's about where the pleasantries of our conversation ended.
The young man then went on to tell me about some Israeli-Arab gatherings in which he participated and how inspired he was about getting the two sides together in peaceful pursuits.
I listened and was tempted to laugh; especially when he suggested that he might be a bit idealistic in his thinking.
No, I didn't go ballistic over my plate of manicotti but I more than forcefully suggested that cows jumping over the moon would be an event taking place before any realistic Arab-Israeli reconciliation.
"My good friend," I pointed out, "the bottom line cannot be denied. The Arabs -- call them militant Islamics, call them what you will want to kill Jews in any manner possible."
I could tell that he was taken aback because young, liberal Jews -- especially in America -- have the cockamamee idea that there meaningful Muslims out there who really want to make nice with Israel.
They certainly aren't in Gaza where Hamas would like nothing better than to outdo Adolf Hitler.
You won't find them in Lebanon where Hezbollah wishes to outdo Hamas in Jew-annihilation.
And, forget about Syria or the soon-to-be-ruled-by-Muslim-Brotherhood-Egypt.
Then again, the so-called Palestinians in the West Bank as well as Jerusalem hardly are an improvement on the aforementioned when making peace with Israel is concerned,
Quite the contrary. The hatred is as intense as ever and what better barometer can be found than reaction to the Itamar Massacre among Arabs in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.
Mind you, we're talking about an indescribably vicious attack in which five members of a totally innocent Israeli family were stabbed to death in their West Bank home.
The murderer entered the Fogel family's Itamar home, killing father and mother, Udi Fogel, 37, and Ruth Fogel, 36, and three of their children, Yoav Fogel, 10 , four-year-old Elad Fogel and three-month-old Hadas Fogel.
One would be hard-pressed to find anyone but a psychopathic sadist who endorses the massacre but they not only were found but are in abundance.
Check this out: According to a team of Israeli and Palestinian pollsters, no less than 32 percent of the Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem back the attack in which the parents and three Fogel children were killed.
Thus, I suggested to my dinner companion that he would be wise to match his idealism with the facts that have been apparent for centuries. The Cossacks killed Jews; Hitler exterminated six million Jews and Arabs have been at it just as long.
My buddy was taken aback until I pointed out that Arabs slaughtered Jewish men, women and children in Hebron in 1927. Add to that the Jerusalem pogroms during the 1930s.
Another of my realistic pals chimed in: "The Fedayeen enjoyed murdering children in their beds; men, women and children in busses and on highways."
I suggested that my idealistic young friend who is so enamored of Israel read some newspaper other than The New York Times which, not to incidentally, refused to publish Judge Goldstone's refutation of his original, damning, lying report.
Barry Rubin was one such commentator who sees things clearly and sees them whole.
And in case you aren't aware of him, Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs Journal and Turkish Studies.
"It's only a matter of time until Hamas once again launches a larger-scale assault on Israel," says Rubin. "At that point, Israel will have to respond with a major counterattack on the Gaza Strip.
"This crisis is inevitable. Yet nobody outside Israel sees -- or wants to see -- what's coming."
Perhaps, my idealistic young friend will soon see the light.
As Rubin so cogently notes, "Terrorism works; aggression goes unpunished."
The liberal Jewish idealists don't get it.
Sadly, the residents of Itamar do.
Or, as another clear-thinking pal wastes the idealists: "We have lived with this bunch of Islamic murdering goons since the turn of the last century -- and don't fall for the crap that terrorism in Israel is due to the 'occupation.'"
Amen to reality!
At dinner with a New York University graduate student, I asked about his recent trip to Israel.
"Loved it," he replied. "I traveled the country, from Eilat to the Northern border. Best of all was a kibbutz in the Golan Heights. It's beautiful up there."
That's about where the pleasantries of our conversation ended.
The young man then went on to tell me about some Israeli-Arab gatherings in which he participated and how inspired he was about getting the two sides together in peaceful pursuits.
I listened and was tempted to laugh; especially when he suggested that he might be a bit idealistic in his thinking.
No, I didn't go ballistic over my plate of manicotti but I more than forcefully suggested that cows jumping over the moon would be an event taking place before any realistic Arab-Israeli reconciliation.
"My good friend," I pointed out, "the bottom line cannot be denied. The Arabs -- call them militant Islamics, call them what you will want to kill Jews in any manner possible."
I could tell that he was taken aback because young, liberal Jews -- especially in America -- have the cockamamee idea that there meaningful Muslims out there who really want to make nice with Israel.
They certainly aren't in Gaza where Hamas would like nothing better than to outdo Adolf Hitler.
You won't find them in Lebanon where Hezbollah wishes to outdo Hamas in Jew-annihilation.
And, forget about Syria or the soon-to-be-ruled-by-Muslim-Brotherhood-Egypt.
Then again, the so-called Palestinians in the West Bank as well as Jerusalem hardly are an improvement on the aforementioned when making peace with Israel is concerned,
Quite the contrary. The hatred is as intense as ever and what better barometer can be found than reaction to the Itamar Massacre among Arabs in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.
Mind you, we're talking about an indescribably vicious attack in which five members of a totally innocent Israeli family were stabbed to death in their West Bank home.
The murderer entered the Fogel family's Itamar home, killing father and mother, Udi Fogel, 37, and Ruth Fogel, 36, and three of their children, Yoav Fogel, 10 , four-year-old Elad Fogel and three-month-old Hadas Fogel.
One would be hard-pressed to find anyone but a psychopathic sadist who endorses the massacre but they not only were found but are in abundance.
Check this out: According to a team of Israeli and Palestinian pollsters, no less than 32 percent of the Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem back the attack in which the parents and three Fogel children were killed.
Thus, I suggested to my dinner companion that he would be wise to match his idealism with the facts that have been apparent for centuries. The Cossacks killed Jews; Hitler exterminated six million Jews and Arabs have been at it just as long.
My buddy was taken aback until I pointed out that Arabs slaughtered Jewish men, women and children in Hebron in 1927. Add to that the Jerusalem pogroms during the 1930s.
Another of my realistic pals chimed in: "The Fedayeen enjoyed murdering children in their beds; men, women and children in busses and on highways."
I suggested that my idealistic young friend who is so enamored of Israel read some newspaper other than The New York Times which, not to incidentally, refused to publish Judge Goldstone's refutation of his original, damning, lying report.
Barry Rubin was one such commentator who sees things clearly and sees them whole.
And in case you aren't aware of him, Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs Journal and Turkish Studies.
"It's only a matter of time until Hamas once again launches a larger-scale assault on Israel," says Rubin. "At that point, Israel will have to respond with a major counterattack on the Gaza Strip.
"This crisis is inevitable. Yet nobody outside Israel sees -- or wants to see -- what's coming."
Perhaps, my idealistic young friend will soon see the light.
As Rubin so cogently notes, "Terrorism works; aggression goes unpunished."
The liberal Jewish idealists don't get it.
Sadly, the residents of Itamar do.
Or, as another clear-thinking pal wastes the idealists: "We have lived with this bunch of Islamic murdering goons since the turn of the last century -- and don't fall for the crap that terrorism in Israel is due to the 'occupation.'"
Amen to reality!
Thursday, April 7, 2011
THE RAPE OF ISRAEL
By Simon Fischler
Have you ever experienced the blast of a 122mm shell when it hits the earth? Sadly most of the world condemning Israel have no concept of what an artillery shell can do; they also have no concept of what Israel is capable of, militarily.
Ignorance of military hardware and a military’s capability becomes a major problem when you ignorantly wish to call Israel a country that is committing “ethnic cleansing.”
I have experienced and survived a car bomb in Jerusalem. I was half a block away at an ATM machine when the car exploded in the neighborhood of Talpiyot. The car the bomb was in was -- luckily for me -- up against a retaining wall and next to but not on a major thoroughfare. The bomb was still powerful enough to hurl me through the air into the ATM machine.
The bomb I survived in Jerusalem is nothing in comparison to an artillery shell.
If Israel actually chose to commit ethnic cleansing either on Gaza or the West Bank, there is nothing Hamas or the PA could do. The IDF, which has the best artillery gunners in the world, could flatten Gaza without sending in a single soldier. The fact is, we would never do to the Palestinians what Arab leaders do to their own citizens.
Same goes for the inaccurate lies about white phosphorus being intentionally used against civilians in Gaza.
I will repeat it, the IDF artillery gunners are the best in the world.
If they wanted to actually use white phosphorus strictly as a weapon, the videos and pictures the world saw on media outlets would have shown the shells exploding much lower instead of high up in the air as was clearly seen.
This again has to do with the complete lack of military knowledge on the side of the general public. They do not know that a great gunner can time a shell to explode literally right above the ground, which would be the best result, if you wanted to use white phosphorus as a weapon.
This is not the public’s fault: we cannot expect the general public to seek information or search for the facts; it is far easier to believe what is beamed into your head.
It is the fault of organizations like CNN, BBC and other media organizations that have been totally bought off by the Arabs and insidiously attack Israel, no matter what.
All one needs do is watch CNN or the BBC: the commercials they run will show who is really running the show: virtually nothing but Arab-owned and/or run companies advertising.
This is why they have a very clear, malicious, anti-Israel (meaning anti-Semitic) sentiment.
The same goes for the New York Times. This newspaper has been run by fervently self-hating Jews since Arthur Hays Sulzburger. The latest example of this was the Times refusing to publish an opinion article by Richard Goldstone retracting his statements of Israel committing war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in Gaza. Richard Goldstone is only important to the Times if he is speaking perniciously against Israel.
CNN, BBC, the Times and other organizations which claim to be objective or centrist will also go out of their way to blame Israel for the outcome of the Goldstone Report, claiming that if Israel had only worked with the UN team led by Goldstone the outcome would have been different.
This is nothing more than a load of garbage. The United Nations has proven itself in general to be incapable of protecting true human rights or condemning the true perpetrators of crimes against humanity and genocide. Furthermore, the UN is run by the same oil-wielding Arab nations who have tried so hard to destroy Jewish self- determination. Asking Israel to work with the UN team is the same as asking a woman who has been raped to work with the man who raped her.
Speaking of rape, the Palestinians, the UN and the EU appear to think Israel is going to passively accept yet another attempted rape of the Jewish nation. That is the sole intention of the delegitimization of Israel, the Pro-Arab stance of Europe and the UN: to rape the Jews yet again.
Today’s colonialist empires -- the Arab/Muslim front, Iran, EU and UN -- like their predecessors, the Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, Arab/Muslims and Crusaders -- seek to weaken Israel and destroy her.
Working along with these anti-semitic institutions are many modern day Hellenistic or Romanized Jews -- only today we call them self-Hating Jews. They, like their masters, will do anything to make Israel look bad so they can fit in -- just as the Hellenistic and Roman Jews of old did.
Those who make the mistaken claim that Zionism (Jewish self-determination in our land) is a new concept born out of the 19th and early 20th centuries are dead wrong. We Jews have been saying “Next year in Jerusalem” since long before the birth of Mohammad.
It makes no difference how they come: anarchists, left wingers, right wingers, conservatives and liberals; those who stand against Israel are nothing more than anti-semites.
These days are indeed dark, but our nation has faced dark times at many points in her history. The Jewish Nation has faced these times before and we are still here in our homeland. We are facing some of the most heinous anti-semites we have faced, but we will prevail ... as the Hebrew, Israelite and Jewish nation always has.
Have you ever experienced the blast of a 122mm shell when it hits the earth? Sadly most of the world condemning Israel have no concept of what an artillery shell can do; they also have no concept of what Israel is capable of, militarily.
Ignorance of military hardware and a military’s capability becomes a major problem when you ignorantly wish to call Israel a country that is committing “ethnic cleansing.”
I have experienced and survived a car bomb in Jerusalem. I was half a block away at an ATM machine when the car exploded in the neighborhood of Talpiyot. The car the bomb was in was -- luckily for me -- up against a retaining wall and next to but not on a major thoroughfare. The bomb was still powerful enough to hurl me through the air into the ATM machine.
The bomb I survived in Jerusalem is nothing in comparison to an artillery shell.
If Israel actually chose to commit ethnic cleansing either on Gaza or the West Bank, there is nothing Hamas or the PA could do. The IDF, which has the best artillery gunners in the world, could flatten Gaza without sending in a single soldier. The fact is, we would never do to the Palestinians what Arab leaders do to their own citizens.
Same goes for the inaccurate lies about white phosphorus being intentionally used against civilians in Gaza.
I will repeat it, the IDF artillery gunners are the best in the world.
If they wanted to actually use white phosphorus strictly as a weapon, the videos and pictures the world saw on media outlets would have shown the shells exploding much lower instead of high up in the air as was clearly seen.
This again has to do with the complete lack of military knowledge on the side of the general public. They do not know that a great gunner can time a shell to explode literally right above the ground, which would be the best result, if you wanted to use white phosphorus as a weapon.
This is not the public’s fault: we cannot expect the general public to seek information or search for the facts; it is far easier to believe what is beamed into your head.
It is the fault of organizations like CNN, BBC and other media organizations that have been totally bought off by the Arabs and insidiously attack Israel, no matter what.
All one needs do is watch CNN or the BBC: the commercials they run will show who is really running the show: virtually nothing but Arab-owned and/or run companies advertising.
This is why they have a very clear, malicious, anti-Israel (meaning anti-Semitic) sentiment.
The same goes for the New York Times. This newspaper has been run by fervently self-hating Jews since Arthur Hays Sulzburger. The latest example of this was the Times refusing to publish an opinion article by Richard Goldstone retracting his statements of Israel committing war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in Gaza. Richard Goldstone is only important to the Times if he is speaking perniciously against Israel.
CNN, BBC, the Times and other organizations which claim to be objective or centrist will also go out of their way to blame Israel for the outcome of the Goldstone Report, claiming that if Israel had only worked with the UN team led by Goldstone the outcome would have been different.
This is nothing more than a load of garbage. The United Nations has proven itself in general to be incapable of protecting true human rights or condemning the true perpetrators of crimes against humanity and genocide. Furthermore, the UN is run by the same oil-wielding Arab nations who have tried so hard to destroy Jewish self- determination. Asking Israel to work with the UN team is the same as asking a woman who has been raped to work with the man who raped her.
Speaking of rape, the Palestinians, the UN and the EU appear to think Israel is going to passively accept yet another attempted rape of the Jewish nation. That is the sole intention of the delegitimization of Israel, the Pro-Arab stance of Europe and the UN: to rape the Jews yet again.
Today’s colonialist empires -- the Arab/Muslim front, Iran, EU and UN -- like their predecessors, the Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, Arab/Muslims and Crusaders -- seek to weaken Israel and destroy her.
Working along with these anti-semitic institutions are many modern day Hellenistic or Romanized Jews -- only today we call them self-Hating Jews. They, like their masters, will do anything to make Israel look bad so they can fit in -- just as the Hellenistic and Roman Jews of old did.
Those who make the mistaken claim that Zionism (Jewish self-determination in our land) is a new concept born out of the 19th and early 20th centuries are dead wrong. We Jews have been saying “Next year in Jerusalem” since long before the birth of Mohammad.
It makes no difference how they come: anarchists, left wingers, right wingers, conservatives and liberals; those who stand against Israel are nothing more than anti-semites.
These days are indeed dark, but our nation has faced dark times at many points in her history. The Jewish Nation has faced these times before and we are still here in our homeland. We are facing some of the most heinous anti-semites we have faced, but we will prevail ... as the Hebrew, Israelite and Jewish nation always has.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
GOLDSTONE, THE UN AND ISLAM-COURTING OBAMA
By Schmoel Yitzhak
In sports, they often say that "Turnabout is fair play."
But when it comes to Judge Goldstone's turnabout, it's the most grievous case of unfair play.
How much his admission of writing a faulty report "helps" Israel is as irrelevant as last year's playground basketball score.
The egregious sin the South African committed is irreversible, irreconcilable and infamous.
If December 7, 1941 was, as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, notoriously noted, "A day that will live in infamy," then Goldstone's latest gambit turns his report into "A document that will live in infamy." No more; no less!
The hope -- idealistic though it may be -- is that the United Nations will soon receive from Goldstone a more detailed denunciation of his report that was slyly passed off in a op-ed piece of all things. This, mind you, from a jurist who surely knew that by placing it in a newspaper column hardly was a sufficient recantation of his original position.
Not that even a detailed submission to the UN would do Israel any good.
Then again, is there anything that the so-called "world body" does vis-a-vis Israel which can be construed as fair to the Middle East's only democracy.
Nobody puts it better about UN hypocrisy toward Israel better than Moshe Arens.
"The attitude toward Israel by the United Nations," declares the respected Israeli leader, "the constant criticism of Israel's policies, and the threats of condemnation and sanctions represent another example of hypocrisy running wild.
"Rubbing shoulders with the worst of dictators while castigating democratic Israel has become the fashion."
Then again the above statement fits Barack Obama like a finely-tailored suit.
The White House has been consorting with Arab dictators ever since the American president did his first sycophant act in Cairo in his first futile attempt to woo militant Islam to his side.
And to prove that Uncle Sam's Muslim president still doesn't get it, he's still appeasing the very terrorists that would destroy America as they wasted the World Trade Center.
If you doubt me, take a gander at Bill Bennett's new book, "The Fight Of Our Lives."
A former cabinet member of Ronald Reagan's administration, Bennett rightly castigates Obama for the Chief Executive's failure to warn the American public about the dangers that Islamic extremism poses. Bennett's point is right-on; the President is afraid of offending Muslims.
"There is a problem with radical Islam," says Bennett, "and it need to be stated plainly and simply. Obama's strategy seems to be so far, we'll muddle through, we'll dither, we'll maybe do the right thing occasionally but maybe too late and we want to be sure no one thinks that we think we're anything special."
Based on his biased behavior, Obama seems more intent on keeping Jews from building apartments in Judea and Samaria than he is when it comes to confronting Muslims who would destroy American in the manner of 9/ll.
Bennett: "Right now in the world at large, three of the major leaders of al-Qaida in the world were either born or raised in the United States of America and that's frightening. We nurtured three leaders of al-Qaida international."
I am waiting for the day that Obama zeroes in on that issue.
Based on his past record, he'll respond in kind about the time that the UN's attitude toward Israel becomes fair-minded and when Goldstone goes to the United Nations and tells that body straightforwardly that his report was, in truth, a sham full of lies!
In sports, they often say that "Turnabout is fair play."
But when it comes to Judge Goldstone's turnabout, it's the most grievous case of unfair play.
How much his admission of writing a faulty report "helps" Israel is as irrelevant as last year's playground basketball score.
The egregious sin the South African committed is irreversible, irreconcilable and infamous.
If December 7, 1941 was, as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, notoriously noted, "A day that will live in infamy," then Goldstone's latest gambit turns his report into "A document that will live in infamy." No more; no less!
The hope -- idealistic though it may be -- is that the United Nations will soon receive from Goldstone a more detailed denunciation of his report that was slyly passed off in a op-ed piece of all things. This, mind you, from a jurist who surely knew that by placing it in a newspaper column hardly was a sufficient recantation of his original position.
Not that even a detailed submission to the UN would do Israel any good.
Then again, is there anything that the so-called "world body" does vis-a-vis Israel which can be construed as fair to the Middle East's only democracy.
Nobody puts it better about UN hypocrisy toward Israel better than Moshe Arens.
"The attitude toward Israel by the United Nations," declares the respected Israeli leader, "the constant criticism of Israel's policies, and the threats of condemnation and sanctions represent another example of hypocrisy running wild.
"Rubbing shoulders with the worst of dictators while castigating democratic Israel has become the fashion."
Then again the above statement fits Barack Obama like a finely-tailored suit.
The White House has been consorting with Arab dictators ever since the American president did his first sycophant act in Cairo in his first futile attempt to woo militant Islam to his side.
And to prove that Uncle Sam's Muslim president still doesn't get it, he's still appeasing the very terrorists that would destroy America as they wasted the World Trade Center.
If you doubt me, take a gander at Bill Bennett's new book, "The Fight Of Our Lives."
A former cabinet member of Ronald Reagan's administration, Bennett rightly castigates Obama for the Chief Executive's failure to warn the American public about the dangers that Islamic extremism poses. Bennett's point is right-on; the President is afraid of offending Muslims.
"There is a problem with radical Islam," says Bennett, "and it need to be stated plainly and simply. Obama's strategy seems to be so far, we'll muddle through, we'll dither, we'll maybe do the right thing occasionally but maybe too late and we want to be sure no one thinks that we think we're anything special."
Based on his biased behavior, Obama seems more intent on keeping Jews from building apartments in Judea and Samaria than he is when it comes to confronting Muslims who would destroy American in the manner of 9/ll.
Bennett: "Right now in the world at large, three of the major leaders of al-Qaida in the world were either born or raised in the United States of America and that's frightening. We nurtured three leaders of al-Qaida international."
I am waiting for the day that Obama zeroes in on that issue.
Based on his past record, he'll respond in kind about the time that the UN's attitude toward Israel becomes fair-minded and when Goldstone goes to the United Nations and tells that body straightforwardly that his report was, in truth, a sham full of lies!
Monday, April 4, 2011
SARIDISM AND PRAGMATISM
By Simon Fischler
With Judge Richard Goldstone retracting his conclusions against Israel in his United Nations report, you would think a media group such as Haaretz would apologize to the citizens of Israel and the soldiers who defend her for all of its disparaging coverage based on Goldstone’s now-recanted conclusions.
Of course this would be way too much to expect from Haaretz. A good example of the paper’s inability to admit they might have been wrong is the title of a recent article in the “Paper of the Perpetual Whine” written by Sir Yossi Sarid, aristocrat of the political far left called “Who is Israel’s King of Corruption?”
As expected, Sir Sarid lambasted just about everyone and their mother who is not ready to give the Palestinians every inch of land from Jerusalem to Los Angeles, and not accepting full blame in the name of the Jewish Nation for every problem this world has faced.
That is Yossi Sarid and that is why he and those like him are the most corrupt politicians and commentators in Israel.
Yossi Sarid walked away from the citizens of Israel when they dared to make him pay for endlessly trying force feed them a Peace Agreement that was never going to happen by voting Meretz down from ten seats to six in the Knesset in 2003.
His party, Meretz, lost most of the power it had in the Knesset; not because the people of Israel are stupid and ignorant -- as Mr. Sarid obviously thinks, but because he and his former party clung to beliefs proven wrong when the Palestinians rejected peace, statehood and reconciliation in 2000 at Camp David and 2001 at Taba.
Yossi Sarid and just about everyone at Haaretz are the ones who are morally corrupt and have no right to judge anyone.
All one needs to do is look at what Haaretz has produced since Judge Goldstone retracted the conclusions in his report. They have done nothing but make excuses for why they were right to lambaste Israel; nothing but nonsense and certainly not worthy of being in print.
The latest schtick for the left here in Israel (i.e., Haaretz, Sarid et al.) is a spate of dire predictions for Israel and her politicians as the Palestinians inch closer and closer to a unilateral declaration of Statehood at the United Nations in September.
Why do the Palestinians refuse to negotiate with Israel? Because they have not changed their political goals since 1948: they still hope to destroy Israel. If they negotiate they will have to compromise, just as Israel will. By going the route of a United Nations Unilateral Declaration, the hope is to gain statehood without out making any of the compromises needed to end this conflict.
However, rather than carping and whining a la Haaretz and friends, now is the time for Israel to get organized and move against the Palestinians and their insidious moves against her.
Israel must remind Europe, Russia and the U.N. that unilaterally declaring a Palestinian state is not simply counter to their demands of Israel NOT to act unilaterally, it is also contrary to the agreements signed by the Palestinians. Further it is essentially illegal by the UN’s own law which clearly states an agreement must be negotiated.
Now is the time for Israel and her supporters to press the offensive both diplomatically with other governments and at the UN, including the many grass roots bloggers and supporters to get the word out.
It must also be made clear that if the Palestinians do declare a state unilaterally, Israel can -- and probably will -- annex (in effect legally, since the Palestinians and their supporters will have made the General Assembly recommendations and security council resolutions null and void) the land and the major settlements that are as close to the Green Line as possible. The Palestinians will receive NO land in compensation.
Now is the time for the leaders of Israel, especially Benjamin Netenyahu and Tzipora Livni to be pragmatic, to form a coalition that can withstand what will be one of the most dangerous years diplomatically for Israel.
With Judge Richard Goldstone retracting his conclusions against Israel in his United Nations report, you would think a media group such as Haaretz would apologize to the citizens of Israel and the soldiers who defend her for all of its disparaging coverage based on Goldstone’s now-recanted conclusions.
Of course this would be way too much to expect from Haaretz. A good example of the paper’s inability to admit they might have been wrong is the title of a recent article in the “Paper of the Perpetual Whine” written by Sir Yossi Sarid, aristocrat of the political far left called “Who is Israel’s King of Corruption?”
As expected, Sir Sarid lambasted just about everyone and their mother who is not ready to give the Palestinians every inch of land from Jerusalem to Los Angeles, and not accepting full blame in the name of the Jewish Nation for every problem this world has faced.
That is Yossi Sarid and that is why he and those like him are the most corrupt politicians and commentators in Israel.
Yossi Sarid walked away from the citizens of Israel when they dared to make him pay for endlessly trying force feed them a Peace Agreement that was never going to happen by voting Meretz down from ten seats to six in the Knesset in 2003.
His party, Meretz, lost most of the power it had in the Knesset; not because the people of Israel are stupid and ignorant -- as Mr. Sarid obviously thinks, but because he and his former party clung to beliefs proven wrong when the Palestinians rejected peace, statehood and reconciliation in 2000 at Camp David and 2001 at Taba.
Yossi Sarid and just about everyone at Haaretz are the ones who are morally corrupt and have no right to judge anyone.
All one needs to do is look at what Haaretz has produced since Judge Goldstone retracted the conclusions in his report. They have done nothing but make excuses for why they were right to lambaste Israel; nothing but nonsense and certainly not worthy of being in print.
The latest schtick for the left here in Israel (i.e., Haaretz, Sarid et al.) is a spate of dire predictions for Israel and her politicians as the Palestinians inch closer and closer to a unilateral declaration of Statehood at the United Nations in September.
Why do the Palestinians refuse to negotiate with Israel? Because they have not changed their political goals since 1948: they still hope to destroy Israel. If they negotiate they will have to compromise, just as Israel will. By going the route of a United Nations Unilateral Declaration, the hope is to gain statehood without out making any of the compromises needed to end this conflict.
However, rather than carping and whining a la Haaretz and friends, now is the time for Israel to get organized and move against the Palestinians and their insidious moves against her.
Israel must remind Europe, Russia and the U.N. that unilaterally declaring a Palestinian state is not simply counter to their demands of Israel NOT to act unilaterally, it is also contrary to the agreements signed by the Palestinians. Further it is essentially illegal by the UN’s own law which clearly states an agreement must be negotiated.
Now is the time for Israel and her supporters to press the offensive both diplomatically with other governments and at the UN, including the many grass roots bloggers and supporters to get the word out.
It must also be made clear that if the Palestinians do declare a state unilaterally, Israel can -- and probably will -- annex (in effect legally, since the Palestinians and their supporters will have made the General Assembly recommendations and security council resolutions null and void) the land and the major settlements that are as close to the Green Line as possible. The Palestinians will receive NO land in compensation.
Now is the time for the leaders of Israel, especially Benjamin Netenyahu and Tzipora Livni to be pragmatic, to form a coalition that can withstand what will be one of the most dangerous years diplomatically for Israel.
Friday, April 1, 2011
FEAR
By Simon Fischler
Apparently the only place in the Middle East where Arabs can protest their government’s actions and not be shot, shelled, raped or beaten is in Israel.
Yesterday Israel’s Arab population took to the streets to protest Land Day, marking the Arabs’ loss of land after the creation of Israel.
At many of these protests pictures of Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s Foreign Minister were burned. We’ve all seen too much on tv recently about what can happen to Arab protestors behaving in this fashion, and it’s ugly.
However, one clear shot of Israeli Arabs fouling Lieberman’s bearded countenance and the concept of Israel as an apartheid state gets flushed right back into the cesspool from which it originates. Is it not a bit bizarre that it is Israel, not an Arab-governed country, that ensures the ability of and safety for Arabs to protest?
What is even more insane is the fact that nothing was or will be reported about the freedom given to Israeli Arabs when they choose to protest the government of Israel.
In Israel there is no Apartheid: be sure of that; and there never will be. That is why there remains so much support for Israel, despite all the screaming and yelling from a small, loud minority who would like to make you think otherwise. One must remember that the apartheid government in South Africa had no support, but for a few diehard racists inside the country itself. Why? Because it truly was utterly wrong.
Israel is not perfect and Israeli Arabs still face discrimination. On the other hand, all minorities of all countries deal with forms of discrimination. If you look today at the situation of Muslims and Arabs in Europe where head scarves and minarets are forbidden, it is evident that Israeli Arabs have far more freedom. There are parts of Israel in which there are clearly more minarets than synagogues in the region.
So why are many people intent on allowing a tiny minority the ability to promote the most heinous policies towards Israel? Why has the BDS movement been allowed to push a racist policy of delegitimizing Israel and calling for its destruction?
Fear.
The majority of the world supports Israel, but many are too afraid to voice their support because this minority is violent, just as the Brown Shirts of Germany were.
There have been numerous documented accounts of pro-Israel supporters being harassed by the anti-Israel side. Pro-Israel professors have also been threatened on several occasions. I myself can testify by way of the hate-mail this blog receives, that the pro-Palestinian side is carrying out what is tantamount to political terrorism.
Even though they are a minority, the anti-Israelis have learned that violent behavior pays. They know they can force the majority who may support Israel into silence, because they wish to live their lives without being threatened.
Unfortunately, there is a great deal about this nervous silence from the pro-Israel majority which is reminiscent of 1933: a masses of frightened people who believe if they simply hold their tongues, all of the nastiness will go away.
And, as in 1933, the real tragedy is that many of those mute pro-Israel people don’t even know they are afraid. They just don’t want conflict; they’re squeamish about some of the things they hear or see Israel do; they don’t realize the growing tide of anti-semitism and Israel-demonization is as serious as it is; if it gets worse, then they’ll do something. But mostly they deny their own fears and try to make it all nice again.
This is what needs to change. We, the people who fight for Israel’s name on daily basis, must help the majority silence the liars and charlatons of the anti-Israel movement.
Apparently the only place in the Middle East where Arabs can protest their government’s actions and not be shot, shelled, raped or beaten is in Israel.
Yesterday Israel’s Arab population took to the streets to protest Land Day, marking the Arabs’ loss of land after the creation of Israel.
At many of these protests pictures of Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s Foreign Minister were burned. We’ve all seen too much on tv recently about what can happen to Arab protestors behaving in this fashion, and it’s ugly.
However, one clear shot of Israeli Arabs fouling Lieberman’s bearded countenance and the concept of Israel as an apartheid state gets flushed right back into the cesspool from which it originates. Is it not a bit bizarre that it is Israel, not an Arab-governed country, that ensures the ability of and safety for Arabs to protest?
What is even more insane is the fact that nothing was or will be reported about the freedom given to Israeli Arabs when they choose to protest the government of Israel.
In Israel there is no Apartheid: be sure of that; and there never will be. That is why there remains so much support for Israel, despite all the screaming and yelling from a small, loud minority who would like to make you think otherwise. One must remember that the apartheid government in South Africa had no support, but for a few diehard racists inside the country itself. Why? Because it truly was utterly wrong.
Israel is not perfect and Israeli Arabs still face discrimination. On the other hand, all minorities of all countries deal with forms of discrimination. If you look today at the situation of Muslims and Arabs in Europe where head scarves and minarets are forbidden, it is evident that Israeli Arabs have far more freedom. There are parts of Israel in which there are clearly more minarets than synagogues in the region.
So why are many people intent on allowing a tiny minority the ability to promote the most heinous policies towards Israel? Why has the BDS movement been allowed to push a racist policy of delegitimizing Israel and calling for its destruction?
Fear.
The majority of the world supports Israel, but many are too afraid to voice their support because this minority is violent, just as the Brown Shirts of Germany were.
There have been numerous documented accounts of pro-Israel supporters being harassed by the anti-Israel side. Pro-Israel professors have also been threatened on several occasions. I myself can testify by way of the hate-mail this blog receives, that the pro-Palestinian side is carrying out what is tantamount to political terrorism.
Even though they are a minority, the anti-Israelis have learned that violent behavior pays. They know they can force the majority who may support Israel into silence, because they wish to live their lives without being threatened.
Unfortunately, there is a great deal about this nervous silence from the pro-Israel majority which is reminiscent of 1933: a masses of frightened people who believe if they simply hold their tongues, all of the nastiness will go away.
And, as in 1933, the real tragedy is that many of those mute pro-Israel people don’t even know they are afraid. They just don’t want conflict; they’re squeamish about some of the things they hear or see Israel do; they don’t realize the growing tide of anti-semitism and Israel-demonization is as serious as it is; if it gets worse, then they’ll do something. But mostly they deny their own fears and try to make it all nice again.
This is what needs to change. We, the people who fight for Israel’s name on daily basis, must help the majority silence the liars and charlatons of the anti-Israel movement.
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