By Schmoel Yitzhak
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, just visited Israel. This was her umpteenth attempt to jump-start Arab-Israeli peace talks which have remained cemented to the Starting Line since, well, forever.
While Ms. Ashton’s intentions may very well be sincere, current Middle East realities suggest that the English lady is on the same wavelength as Alice In Wonderland.
Why is Lady Catherine kidding herself and her counterparts in Germany, France, Italy, et. al. about the possibilities of a negotiated Israel-Arab settlement?
When will both European and American negotiators understand the futility of their efforts, noble though they may be?
The answer comes down to a two-letter common denominator that quickly and easily explains the permanent obstacle to a negotiated peace.
It’s the Arab (“Palestinian”) eternal password: N-O!
“No,” in one form or another has been the Arab position from 1948 to the present whenever a serious attempt at reconciliation is available.
It was negative in 2007 at the Annapolis Conference just as it was seven years earlier at Camp David and a year after that during the Taba Summit or the 2003 Road Map For Peace.
The redundant “No” was sounded loud and clear when a peace treaty was available in 1967 after the Six Day War and again in 1973 following yet another Arab attempt to push the Jews into the Mediterranean far beyond their collective neck lines.
Sometimes Arab rejections are obvious and other times they take on the form of a charade, artfully designed to lull Israelis into a false sense that pacifism works.
This was apparent when unauthorized representatives of the Jewish State convened -- and connived -- at Oslo in 1993. In the end they presented Yassir Arafat with a collection of major concessions that boggled the minds of objective observers.
In truth those territorial gifts amounted to handing the “Palestinians” virtually everything short of Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem. (Yes, Virginia, there was a Santa Claus and he had come to Norway.)
Ah, but the geographic presents were not enough. The Arab response amounted to, “Thanks but no thanks and, instead, we’ll give you Jews an intifada.”
Which they most certainly did.
Such abject refusals when offered Israeli concessions and cooperation have regularly surfaced through the decades and in all areas of life. Believe it or not, one of those includes management of water supplies.
As Yochanan Visser and Sharon Shaked noted in The Jerusalem Post,
“The Palestinian Authority has been sabotaging the two-state solution,” state Visser and Shaked, “by preventing the development of an independent water infrastructure for the future Palestinian state.
“When in November 2009, the Palestinian Water Committee complained about a lack of funds, the Israeli government offered to finance water projects for Palestinian communities. The PA has yet to respond to this offer.”
For the past three years Israel has beseeched the PA to restore joint water surveillance to battle water theft; and the Arab reply was -- you heard it before and will hear it again -- “No!”
Frankly, I admire Catherine Ashton’s persistence -- despite its futility -- but it would be worthwhile for the English negotiator to fully understand Arab resistance to peace; everywhere; even in the world of H2O.
Visser-Shaked: “The stubborn refusal to work with Israel on mutual interests like improvement of the water infrastructure, and the way the PA subsequently uses that lack of improvement to demonize Israel, prove that the PA is not interested in a two-state solution, or peace.”
N-O kidding.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
HATRED, DENIAL AND THE TRUTH
By Simon Fischler
The make-believe “peace process” -- that never was -- has taken yet another decisive blow from the killers of peace and tranquility, the made-up Palestinian “nation.”
Today, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas again made abundantly clear the racist and colonial policies of the Arab side of this conflict.
Abbas stated very clearly that the Palestinians will never recognize Israel as the Jewish State.
One must ask why the Palestinians believe that Israel must recognize Palestinian national aspirations when they are intent on denying Israelis their internationally accepted and clearly stated national aspirations?
The problem is not with the racist policies of the Arabs. After all, the Palestinian “nation” is a creation of the twentieth century and is nothing more than a misconception. Militant Islam’s hatred for Jews is nothing new; the heart of the problem lies in America and Israel.
Until the majority of American Jews -- remember that American Jews comprised a major bloc of voters who got Barack Obama elected president -- wake up and start demanding that Obama stand by his so-far-hollow words of camaraderie with Israel things won’t get better.
In Israel we keep hearing how much Obama loves us and supports us and yet his hostile-to-Israel actions continuously contrast with his words.
When Israel approves -- not builds, but merely approves -- building permits on land that will eventually be part of Israel with or without an agreement with the Arabs -- the Obama administration never hesitates to condemn her ally.
When Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinians, who throughout history have been enemies of the American people, refuse to recognize Israel as the Jewish Nation State not a condemning word from Israel’s good “friend,” Obama. Nothing!
Interesting, isn’t it?
This destructive American foreign policy towards America’s greatest and most faithful ally will continue until American Jews demand that Obama change his not-so-subtle hostility toward Benjamin Netanyahu and his government.
I often wonder why American Jews have not been more forceful in demanding Obama stand by his promises to Israel?
The American Jewish community has bought into the false concept that being “liberal” means Jews from San Francisco to Syracuse must be “politically correct” and simultaneously self-hating.
The new J-Street movement is a perfect example.
As much as Jeremy Ben-Ami (The Don of J-Street) will deny it he is nothing more than a self-hating Jew who runs a phony Zionist organization well-supported by Obama cronies.
Like Obama, Ben-Ami pretends to have an affection for Israel. At that, he’s a bad actor. The proof, of course, is that he will condemn the Jewish State while supporting the must outragously anti-Israel U.N. resolutions; not the least of which was the Goldstone Report.
That is not a friend of Israel nor Zionism!
Had Ben-Ami been old enough at the time, I’m certain that he would have supported the U.N. resolution debasing Zionism, the Jewish national movement that has been around longer than many contemporary nations.
Until the majority of American Jews realize that Israel is a nation to be proud of the Ben-Ami’s will continue to besmirch Israel with lies.
It’s time that American Jews do their homework. If they check the undeniable facts they will learn that Israel is one country in the world community that has done everything for peace. By contrast, the Palestinians endlessly have fanned the flames of this conflict.
In America the Jewish American Reform movement must take blame for the likes of J Street and its Quisling Jewish allies. The Reform movement is a major culprit just as it was during World War II.
It was then that Reform leader, Rabbi Steven Wise betrayed victims of the Holocaust by refusing to urge president Franklin Delano Roosevelt to take vigorous action against the Nazis who were exterminating Jews by the millions.
J Street’s misguided policies -- along with the majority of Reform Jews -- are a pathetic extension of those betrayed by Rabbi Wise while true Zionists created an awareness of the European Jewish tragedy.
I blame the contemporary Reform Jews for their militant ignorance about Israeli life and policies. This negative attitude has contaminated friendship between Israeli Jews and American Jews. The Jewish American Reform movement has gone so far as to make pride in Israeli nationalism a taboo.
Sorrowfully, these supposedly “erudite” reformists -- many Conservative rabbis as well -- never hesitate condemning Israel for building in the “Settlements.” On the other hand these name Quisling Jews never condemn the Palestinian Authority’s law banning land sales to Jews under penalty of death!
The same goes for left wing Israeli “journalists,” such as Haaretz columnists Yossi Sarid and Gideon Levy.
Next time Sarid wishes to tell a fervent pro-Israel supporter such as American broadcaster Glenn Beck to “GO HOME, BECAUSE ISRAEL DOES NOT WANT YOU HERE” he should think twice. Remember, Israeli voters who booted Sarid and his Meretz party out of the Knesset.
Haaretz’s other viciously anti-government barker, Gideon Levy, encourage Jew-haters such as Abbas and Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood to believe that they can get away with a return to the war-like policies of Gamal Abdel Nassar.
In an amazing display of sedition Levy blames Israel for the latest outburst of Egyptian anti-Semitism. Apparently it never has dawned on Levy to condemn the relatively small -- but vocal -- Egyptians for displaying public hate for Israel simply because she is the Jewish State. Instead, with his twisted logic, Levy condemns his own country for not completely appeasing Palestinian demands that Israel commit national suicide.
The likes of Levy and J Street merely encourage Jew-haters such as the Egyptian who tore down the Israeli flag outside of the Israeli embassy in Cairo. That was an attack on Israeli soil for which the Egyptian junta should have been forced to apologize.
There is also no excuse for the Egyptians to be point a finger at Israel for the deaths of the five Egyptian Soldiers in Arab terrorist attack against innocent Israelis. It was Egypt that allowed the twenty armed Palestinian terrorists into Israel who killed eight Israelis.
It comes to this; Egyptians and Palestinians will escape punishment for their
colonialist and racist behavior.
Sadly, this will happen thanks to the Levys, Sarid’s and Ben-Amis of Israel.
These newspaper charlatans further encourage Barak Obama to sell Israelis empty promises of support -- without facts on the ground.
American and Israeli Jews must not be suckered by appeasers like Rabbi Wise of the 1940s nor the J-Streeters of today. All they have sold -- and are selling -- is hot air, poison to Jews and the only true democracy in the Middle East!
The make-believe “peace process” -- that never was -- has taken yet another decisive blow from the killers of peace and tranquility, the made-up Palestinian “nation.”
Today, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas again made abundantly clear the racist and colonial policies of the Arab side of this conflict.
Abbas stated very clearly that the Palestinians will never recognize Israel as the Jewish State.
One must ask why the Palestinians believe that Israel must recognize Palestinian national aspirations when they are intent on denying Israelis their internationally accepted and clearly stated national aspirations?
The problem is not with the racist policies of the Arabs. After all, the Palestinian “nation” is a creation of the twentieth century and is nothing more than a misconception. Militant Islam’s hatred for Jews is nothing new; the heart of the problem lies in America and Israel.
Until the majority of American Jews -- remember that American Jews comprised a major bloc of voters who got Barack Obama elected president -- wake up and start demanding that Obama stand by his so-far-hollow words of camaraderie with Israel things won’t get better.
In Israel we keep hearing how much Obama loves us and supports us and yet his hostile-to-Israel actions continuously contrast with his words.
When Israel approves -- not builds, but merely approves -- building permits on land that will eventually be part of Israel with or without an agreement with the Arabs -- the Obama administration never hesitates to condemn her ally.
When Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinians, who throughout history have been enemies of the American people, refuse to recognize Israel as the Jewish Nation State not a condemning word from Israel’s good “friend,” Obama. Nothing!
Interesting, isn’t it?
This destructive American foreign policy towards America’s greatest and most faithful ally will continue until American Jews demand that Obama change his not-so-subtle hostility toward Benjamin Netanyahu and his government.
I often wonder why American Jews have not been more forceful in demanding Obama stand by his promises to Israel?
The American Jewish community has bought into the false concept that being “liberal” means Jews from San Francisco to Syracuse must be “politically correct” and simultaneously self-hating.
The new J-Street movement is a perfect example.
As much as Jeremy Ben-Ami (The Don of J-Street) will deny it he is nothing more than a self-hating Jew who runs a phony Zionist organization well-supported by Obama cronies.
Like Obama, Ben-Ami pretends to have an affection for Israel. At that, he’s a bad actor. The proof, of course, is that he will condemn the Jewish State while supporting the must outragously anti-Israel U.N. resolutions; not the least of which was the Goldstone Report.
That is not a friend of Israel nor Zionism!
Had Ben-Ami been old enough at the time, I’m certain that he would have supported the U.N. resolution debasing Zionism, the Jewish national movement that has been around longer than many contemporary nations.
Until the majority of American Jews realize that Israel is a nation to be proud of the Ben-Ami’s will continue to besmirch Israel with lies.
It’s time that American Jews do their homework. If they check the undeniable facts they will learn that Israel is one country in the world community that has done everything for peace. By contrast, the Palestinians endlessly have fanned the flames of this conflict.
In America the Jewish American Reform movement must take blame for the likes of J Street and its Quisling Jewish allies. The Reform movement is a major culprit just as it was during World War II.
It was then that Reform leader, Rabbi Steven Wise betrayed victims of the Holocaust by refusing to urge president Franklin Delano Roosevelt to take vigorous action against the Nazis who were exterminating Jews by the millions.
J Street’s misguided policies -- along with the majority of Reform Jews -- are a pathetic extension of those betrayed by Rabbi Wise while true Zionists created an awareness of the European Jewish tragedy.
I blame the contemporary Reform Jews for their militant ignorance about Israeli life and policies. This negative attitude has contaminated friendship between Israeli Jews and American Jews. The Jewish American Reform movement has gone so far as to make pride in Israeli nationalism a taboo.
Sorrowfully, these supposedly “erudite” reformists -- many Conservative rabbis as well -- never hesitate condemning Israel for building in the “Settlements.” On the other hand these name Quisling Jews never condemn the Palestinian Authority’s law banning land sales to Jews under penalty of death!
The same goes for left wing Israeli “journalists,” such as Haaretz columnists Yossi Sarid and Gideon Levy.
Next time Sarid wishes to tell a fervent pro-Israel supporter such as American broadcaster Glenn Beck to “GO HOME, BECAUSE ISRAEL DOES NOT WANT YOU HERE” he should think twice. Remember, Israeli voters who booted Sarid and his Meretz party out of the Knesset.
Haaretz’s other viciously anti-government barker, Gideon Levy, encourage Jew-haters such as Abbas and Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood to believe that they can get away with a return to the war-like policies of Gamal Abdel Nassar.
In an amazing display of sedition Levy blames Israel for the latest outburst of Egyptian anti-Semitism. Apparently it never has dawned on Levy to condemn the relatively small -- but vocal -- Egyptians for displaying public hate for Israel simply because she is the Jewish State. Instead, with his twisted logic, Levy condemns his own country for not completely appeasing Palestinian demands that Israel commit national suicide.
The likes of Levy and J Street merely encourage Jew-haters such as the Egyptian who tore down the Israeli flag outside of the Israeli embassy in Cairo. That was an attack on Israeli soil for which the Egyptian junta should have been forced to apologize.
There is also no excuse for the Egyptians to be point a finger at Israel for the deaths of the five Egyptian Soldiers in Arab terrorist attack against innocent Israelis. It was Egypt that allowed the twenty armed Palestinian terrorists into Israel who killed eight Israelis.
It comes to this; Egyptians and Palestinians will escape punishment for their
colonialist and racist behavior.
Sadly, this will happen thanks to the Levys, Sarid’s and Ben-Amis of Israel.
These newspaper charlatans further encourage Barak Obama to sell Israelis empty promises of support -- without facts on the ground.
American and Israeli Jews must not be suckered by appeasers like Rabbi Wise of the 1940s nor the J-Streeters of today. All they have sold -- and are selling -- is hot air, poison to Jews and the only true democracy in the Middle East!
Friday, August 26, 2011
KISSING THE ARAB MOUTH THAT BITES YOU -- UNCLE SAM
By Schmoel Yitzhak
“Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”
The above maxim has always seemed to me a sensible and logical guide to successful living.
But, according to the advanced, 21st Century logic-according-to-Barack Obama, there’s a new twist to the old adage; and a painful one at that.
The White House reflex action can best be simplified to this: kiss the Arab mouth that bites you.
No matter how often nor how harshly Muslim governments snap at America, the president of the United States goes out of his way to make nice to them -- only to be slapped down once more; or bitten in the crotch to be even more politically accurate.
Obama must be wearing a steel cup because he either doesn’t feel it or -- worse still -- doesn’t get it.
If the Guinness Book of World Records featured a section called “Presidents Who Turned The Other Cheek -- And Got Whacked Again,” the Chief of State would lead it by a mile; or 2,892 cheek-turns while he awaits the next blow.
Why and how does this happen?
Jerusalem Post columnist and Israel television personality Caroline Glick offers a compelling insight.
“Obama believes that the Arabs have good reason to hate the U.S.,” explains Glick, “and that it is up to the U.S. to put its national interests aside in the interest of making them like America.
“As Obama put it, ‘A failure to change our approach threatens a deepening spiral of division between the United States and the Muslim communities. And you know what that means. If the U.S. doesn’t end the ‘spiral of division,’ then the Muslims will come after America. So the U.S. better straighten up and fly right.”
The president’s disgustingly obsequious courting of the Arabs began with a pivotal political turn two years ago.
After taking office, the White House had a splendid opportunity to tighten its ties with its foremost ally in the Middle East and the area’s only working democracy, Israel.
Instead, Obama reacted -- as Arab states still relentlessly do -- as if Israel did not exist. He turned his back on Jerusalem and made a bee line for Cairo from where he made a speech that to this day has spelled finis to any hopes for Israeli-Arab peace.
The president wooed militant Islam by calling for a “settlement” (bad word for normal homes built with good intent) freeze beyond the 1949 armistice lines.
This gratuitous kick in Israeli pants not only infuriated the political right but moderate Israelis such as Moshe Arens as well.
“Obama,” noted Arens, “meant the cessation of building in parts of east, north and south Jerusalem that had been occupied by Jordan after Israel’s War of Independence.
“As should have been expected, the Palestinian negotiators could not be less Palestinian than the president of the United States. So the freeze on construction became their precondition for the resumption of negotiations with Israel.”
In terms of Israeli-American relations, nothing has changed. Obama still hasn’t visited his democratic ally -- not even for half-a-day -- but he has been courting the most extreme elements in Arab society including the Muslim Brotherhood.
Meanwhile, the White House treats Israel as some Third World country that either can be bullied with impunity or totally ignored as rockets and mortar shell explode over Ashkelon, Ashdod, Sderot and the Negev.
Where is Obama’s voice of outrage over the incessant attacks from Gaza?
What is Uncle Sam’s Commander-In-Chief doing about the growing Iranian nuclear threat other than delivering meaningless homilies about “opposition” to the Tehran menace?
“Obama has made it clear,” concludes Glick, “that actually the U.S. isn’t going to do anything about it.”
The president turns the other cheek while the warlords in Iran slap him from the left, right and center.
The dictatorship whacks his face and he kisses the hand that clobbers him.
Sooner rather than later, that brand of world leadership will turn Uncle Sam into
Uncle Slob.
“Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”
The above maxim has always seemed to me a sensible and logical guide to successful living.
But, according to the advanced, 21st Century logic-according-to-Barack Obama, there’s a new twist to the old adage; and a painful one at that.
The White House reflex action can best be simplified to this: kiss the Arab mouth that bites you.
No matter how often nor how harshly Muslim governments snap at America, the president of the United States goes out of his way to make nice to them -- only to be slapped down once more; or bitten in the crotch to be even more politically accurate.
Obama must be wearing a steel cup because he either doesn’t feel it or -- worse still -- doesn’t get it.
If the Guinness Book of World Records featured a section called “Presidents Who Turned The Other Cheek -- And Got Whacked Again,” the Chief of State would lead it by a mile; or 2,892 cheek-turns while he awaits the next blow.
Why and how does this happen?
Jerusalem Post columnist and Israel television personality Caroline Glick offers a compelling insight.
“Obama believes that the Arabs have good reason to hate the U.S.,” explains Glick, “and that it is up to the U.S. to put its national interests aside in the interest of making them like America.
“As Obama put it, ‘A failure to change our approach threatens a deepening spiral of division between the United States and the Muslim communities. And you know what that means. If the U.S. doesn’t end the ‘spiral of division,’ then the Muslims will come after America. So the U.S. better straighten up and fly right.”
The president’s disgustingly obsequious courting of the Arabs began with a pivotal political turn two years ago.
After taking office, the White House had a splendid opportunity to tighten its ties with its foremost ally in the Middle East and the area’s only working democracy, Israel.
Instead, Obama reacted -- as Arab states still relentlessly do -- as if Israel did not exist. He turned his back on Jerusalem and made a bee line for Cairo from where he made a speech that to this day has spelled finis to any hopes for Israeli-Arab peace.
The president wooed militant Islam by calling for a “settlement” (bad word for normal homes built with good intent) freeze beyond the 1949 armistice lines.
This gratuitous kick in Israeli pants not only infuriated the political right but moderate Israelis such as Moshe Arens as well.
“Obama,” noted Arens, “meant the cessation of building in parts of east, north and south Jerusalem that had been occupied by Jordan after Israel’s War of Independence.
“As should have been expected, the Palestinian negotiators could not be less Palestinian than the president of the United States. So the freeze on construction became their precondition for the resumption of negotiations with Israel.”
In terms of Israeli-American relations, nothing has changed. Obama still hasn’t visited his democratic ally -- not even for half-a-day -- but he has been courting the most extreme elements in Arab society including the Muslim Brotherhood.
Meanwhile, the White House treats Israel as some Third World country that either can be bullied with impunity or totally ignored as rockets and mortar shell explode over Ashkelon, Ashdod, Sderot and the Negev.
Where is Obama’s voice of outrage over the incessant attacks from Gaza?
What is Uncle Sam’s Commander-In-Chief doing about the growing Iranian nuclear threat other than delivering meaningless homilies about “opposition” to the Tehran menace?
“Obama has made it clear,” concludes Glick, “that actually the U.S. isn’t going to do anything about it.”
The president turns the other cheek while the warlords in Iran slap him from the left, right and center.
The dictatorship whacks his face and he kisses the hand that clobbers him.
Sooner rather than later, that brand of world leadership will turn Uncle Sam into
Uncle Slob.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
THE NEW BATTLE
By Simon Fischler
Thirty rockets today, another twenty yesterday, how long should Israel wait until she retaliates forcefully against Hamas and the residents of the Gaza?
Is it not a sick joke that terrorists from the Gaza strip have been shooting rockets into Israel on a daily basis?
Is it not sick that the United Nations sits idle and does nothing about the incessant barrage against innocent Israelis?
Doesn’t logic demand that the United Nations hold an inquiry into the Human Rights violations committed by Arabs against Israel and her citizens?
On the other hand when Israel finally decides enough is enough and sends its armed forces into Gaza to maul Hamas and end the mortar and rocket attacks, you can bet that the U.N. won’t hesitate to condemn Israel for defending itself.
You would think by the non-action of the U.N. and European Union that these so-called peace-seeking organizations regard Israelis as silly Jews who should know that the only future they have is in a Mediterranean Auschwitz.
I understand why Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is momentarily restraining the IDF from launching a second and final Operation Cast Lead. (Memo to our dear friends running the new Egyptian military junta; it is not because of you.) Bibi is holding back the IDF so the world will focus on Bashar al Assad, the murderer of Damascus, and more importantly do something more than level useless sanctions against the dictator and his government.
There are some actions-and-reactions that as clear as the sun always rising in the East. One of them -- in this case -- is that Hamas under pressure from Assad.
It is evident that the Hamas murderers have given the green, missile-firing light to their cowardly underlings (Popular Resistance Committee, et. al.) in the Strip.
The hope among Hamas leaders is that we here in Israel will overact and destroy the strip; thereby taking pressure off Bashar in Syrian.
Only in our present, virulently anti-Semitic universe could world leaders, the media and many other Jew-hating folk turn their eyes away from the Syrian leader who daily butchers his citizens in cold blood and point an accusatory finger at Israel for defending its citizens.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A BRIEF FEW WORDS TO THE SYRIAN PEOPLE WHO ARE FIGHTING FOR THEIR RIGHTS AND FREEDOM THE OPPRESSIVE ASSAD REGIME;
Please take note that both the Egyptian government and the Palestinian Authority have harmed your cause.
They have done so by moving the spotlight from your fight against the oppressive Assad to Israel defending itself from endless barrages of rockets and mortars.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MEMO TO OUR ARAB FRIENDS LIVING IN GAZA;
It behooves you to make your leaders aware that you do not want to get clubbed again by Israel just to relieve the pressure from the Alawite Dictator of Syria.
Benjamin Netanyahu must do things differently and I commend him for his current restraint under pressure to pulverize the Hamas regime. One wonders whether the Pharaoh in the White House appreciates the present that Bibi’s restraint has given him?
My question to the Prime Minister is this; Why in did you apologize for the inadvertent killing of Egyptian soldiers last week? Remember, the Military Junta in Egypt did not apologize to Israel for the incursion of twenty heavily armed terrorists from sovereign Egyptian soil that resulted in the death of eight Israeli citizens.
Thirty rockets today, another twenty yesterday, how long should Israel wait until she retaliates forcefully against Hamas and the residents of the Gaza?
Is it not a sick joke that terrorists from the Gaza strip have been shooting rockets into Israel on a daily basis?
Is it not sick that the United Nations sits idle and does nothing about the incessant barrage against innocent Israelis?
Doesn’t logic demand that the United Nations hold an inquiry into the Human Rights violations committed by Arabs against Israel and her citizens?
On the other hand when Israel finally decides enough is enough and sends its armed forces into Gaza to maul Hamas and end the mortar and rocket attacks, you can bet that the U.N. won’t hesitate to condemn Israel for defending itself.
You would think by the non-action of the U.N. and European Union that these so-called peace-seeking organizations regard Israelis as silly Jews who should know that the only future they have is in a Mediterranean Auschwitz.
I understand why Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is momentarily restraining the IDF from launching a second and final Operation Cast Lead. (Memo to our dear friends running the new Egyptian military junta; it is not because of you.) Bibi is holding back the IDF so the world will focus on Bashar al Assad, the murderer of Damascus, and more importantly do something more than level useless sanctions against the dictator and his government.
There are some actions-and-reactions that as clear as the sun always rising in the East. One of them -- in this case -- is that Hamas under pressure from Assad.
It is evident that the Hamas murderers have given the green, missile-firing light to their cowardly underlings (Popular Resistance Committee, et. al.) in the Strip.
The hope among Hamas leaders is that we here in Israel will overact and destroy the strip; thereby taking pressure off Bashar in Syrian.
Only in our present, virulently anti-Semitic universe could world leaders, the media and many other Jew-hating folk turn their eyes away from the Syrian leader who daily butchers his citizens in cold blood and point an accusatory finger at Israel for defending its citizens.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A BRIEF FEW WORDS TO THE SYRIAN PEOPLE WHO ARE FIGHTING FOR THEIR RIGHTS AND FREEDOM THE OPPRESSIVE ASSAD REGIME;
Please take note that both the Egyptian government and the Palestinian Authority have harmed your cause.
They have done so by moving the spotlight from your fight against the oppressive Assad to Israel defending itself from endless barrages of rockets and mortars.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MEMO TO OUR ARAB FRIENDS LIVING IN GAZA;
It behooves you to make your leaders aware that you do not want to get clubbed again by Israel just to relieve the pressure from the Alawite Dictator of Syria.
Benjamin Netanyahu must do things differently and I commend him for his current restraint under pressure to pulverize the Hamas regime. One wonders whether the Pharaoh in the White House appreciates the present that Bibi’s restraint has given him?
My question to the Prime Minister is this; Why in did you apologize for the inadvertent killing of Egyptian soldiers last week? Remember, the Military Junta in Egypt did not apologize to Israel for the incursion of twenty heavily armed terrorists from sovereign Egyptian soil that resulted in the death of eight Israeli citizens.
Monday, August 22, 2011
GRANDMA ETEL’S ADVICE TO THE UNITED NATIONS AND OTHER COLOR-BLIND FRIENDS OF ISLAM -- YOU INCLUDED, BARACK OBAMA!
By Schmoel Yitzhak
If my grandmother, Etel Friedman, were giving advice to the Israeli government at this moment in time, she would do the opposite of that provided by United Nations boss Ban-Ki-Moon.
The chap at UN Plaza, who endlessly doles soothing verbal syrup to rocket-bombed Israelis as bombs rain down on Jews in the Negev and elsewhere, reflexively declares, “Use restraint.”
Saba Etel would immediately reply to those words of ill-wisdom with a blend of Hungarian mixed with Yiddish-Hebrew. “Soofil, gezunt-gezunt.”
In Williamsburg-type Brooklynese, it means ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
If that doesn’t translate well for the dear UN leader, perhaps the following will:
Israelis struck down -- or merely intimidated by -- Gaza-deployed rockets, mortars and assorted other killing apparatus cannot employ UN-prescribed restraint for several cogent reasons:
It’s difficult to be cool, calm and collected when you have been killed by a Grad missile, as was the case last weekend in Beersheba.
Believe me, it’s near-impossible to utilize such restraint after rockets fly like snowflakes on Israeli’s despite the UN-enforced promise that Hamas would honor the UN-sanctioned armistice agreement.
There’s another war on, Mister Secretary-General. It was started by Hamas after Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon turned Gaza over to the Arabs (now known as “Palestinians”). And it was RE-started by Hamas in the past month.
In a sense neither Moon, nor the European Union’s Pollyanna thinkers, nor His Majesty Barack Obama genuinely understand that a war has begun because each is living in his or her Ivory Castle.
None of them have lately -- or EVER! -- been residents of rocket-maimed Sderot, or the Negev, or Ashkelon, or Ashdod where explosives have traumatized an unconscionable percentage of the population.
Nor have they been to the city of Beersheba where the latest Hamas gift merely destroyed a home, killed a resident and wounded many others.
The urging of Israelis to “use restraint” after these war crimes could only come from the mouth of someone whose only known textbook is “Grimm’s Fairy Tales.”
But the Middle East’s only democratic nation -- and world’s only Jewish state -- cannot abide the Hamas declaration of war by air attack.
The response must be as severe as the Arab desire to once and for all destroy Israel. It must be totally relentless.
Hamas is able to rule -- irony of all ironies -- because Israel supplies Gaza
with such necessities as electricity, gas and water.
Thus, Benjamin Netanyahu could end the rocketry by a few declarations:
DECLARATION ONE: If another rocket is dispatched to Israel, ALL electricity from Israel to Gaza will be shut down. Period.
DECLARATION TWO: If the above fails to halt the missile attacks, ALL gas supplies will end. Period.
DECLARATION THREE: If the above pair of regulations fail to stop the assaults, water supplies will be halted. Period. End of story.
And if the Holy Blessed Be He at UN Plaza says all three of the above supplies should be resumed for whatever reasons, Bibi should reply with Grandma Etel’s not-so-cheery homily:
Sufil gezunt-gezunt. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
If my grandmother, Etel Friedman, were giving advice to the Israeli government at this moment in time, she would do the opposite of that provided by United Nations boss Ban-Ki-Moon.
The chap at UN Plaza, who endlessly doles soothing verbal syrup to rocket-bombed Israelis as bombs rain down on Jews in the Negev and elsewhere, reflexively declares, “Use restraint.”
Saba Etel would immediately reply to those words of ill-wisdom with a blend of Hungarian mixed with Yiddish-Hebrew. “Soofil, gezunt-gezunt.”
In Williamsburg-type Brooklynese, it means ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
If that doesn’t translate well for the dear UN leader, perhaps the following will:
Israelis struck down -- or merely intimidated by -- Gaza-deployed rockets, mortars and assorted other killing apparatus cannot employ UN-prescribed restraint for several cogent reasons:
It’s difficult to be cool, calm and collected when you have been killed by a Grad missile, as was the case last weekend in Beersheba.
Believe me, it’s near-impossible to utilize such restraint after rockets fly like snowflakes on Israeli’s despite the UN-enforced promise that Hamas would honor the UN-sanctioned armistice agreement.
There’s another war on, Mister Secretary-General. It was started by Hamas after Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon turned Gaza over to the Arabs (now known as “Palestinians”). And it was RE-started by Hamas in the past month.
In a sense neither Moon, nor the European Union’s Pollyanna thinkers, nor His Majesty Barack Obama genuinely understand that a war has begun because each is living in his or her Ivory Castle.
None of them have lately -- or EVER! -- been residents of rocket-maimed Sderot, or the Negev, or Ashkelon, or Ashdod where explosives have traumatized an unconscionable percentage of the population.
Nor have they been to the city of Beersheba where the latest Hamas gift merely destroyed a home, killed a resident and wounded many others.
The urging of Israelis to “use restraint” after these war crimes could only come from the mouth of someone whose only known textbook is “Grimm’s Fairy Tales.”
But the Middle East’s only democratic nation -- and world’s only Jewish state -- cannot abide the Hamas declaration of war by air attack.
The response must be as severe as the Arab desire to once and for all destroy Israel. It must be totally relentless.
Hamas is able to rule -- irony of all ironies -- because Israel supplies Gaza
with such necessities as electricity, gas and water.
Thus, Benjamin Netanyahu could end the rocketry by a few declarations:
DECLARATION ONE: If another rocket is dispatched to Israel, ALL electricity from Israel to Gaza will be shut down. Period.
DECLARATION TWO: If the above fails to halt the missile attacks, ALL gas supplies will end. Period.
DECLARATION THREE: If the above pair of regulations fail to stop the assaults, water supplies will be halted. Period. End of story.
And if the Holy Blessed Be He at UN Plaza says all three of the above supplies should be resumed for whatever reasons, Bibi should reply with Grandma Etel’s not-so-cheery homily:
Sufil gezunt-gezunt. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
Sunday, August 14, 2011
O IS FOR OBAMA -- AND OSTRICH
By Schmoel Yitzhak
Before the last presidential election, I fully digested three comments made by insightful friends about the possibilities of Barack Obama winning the White House.
* FRIEND ONE: (A Liberal Democrat who once ran for the New York State Senate and lost because he was too liberal:) "Obama is a racist."
* FRIEND TWO: (An equally-liberal Democrat who never ceased to ridicule George W. Bush): "Obama is a loser."
* FRIEND THREE: (A businessman with extremely liberal tendencies.) "The man (Obama) is an empty suit."
To those observations, I submit one other description -- he's a human ostrich.
When there's trouble ahead, the president buries his head or helicopters off to Camp David to play golf.
Some president.
And speaking of fauna, those are not ostriches being mowed down like clay pigeons by Assad's murderers in Syria. They are real humans and every day there are fewer Syrians than there were the day before.
You would think that America's Commander-In-Chief would do SOMETHING to protect Syria's innocent protestors from their homicidal dictator. You would think, wouldn't you?
So, what does the Talking Ostrich of Pennsylvania Avenue do about the daily massacres in Syria?
He looks, issues a hollow homily -- "We are watching events in Syria with horror" -- and buries his head once more. Ergo: the embattled Syria protestors get a blend of hot air and nothing.
Obama's pattern of avoiding action when he has all of America's might behind him is nothing new. We remember how he ineffectually looked on when the Iranian dissidents took to the streets, hoping -- praying -- for some kind of substantive American support and all they got from Washington was more looking and no action.
Remarkably, some of The Ostrich's most fervent supporters finally are taking their heads out of the sand. Yesiree, Bob, a few liberals actually are getting wise to him. Why, one such individual happens to be a columnist in the New York Times, the newspaper that effectively has been the president's public relations arm ever since Obama took office.
Columnist Maureen Dowd describes the president as "spectacularly unable to fill the leadership void. Obama seems at a loss."
Give Dowd points for understatement.
Not only is The Ostrich "at a loss," he's a loser. Big-time.
His instincts are to the left of awful.
Remember when he made that "I Love You Arabs" speech in Cairo? Then he embraced President Hosni Mubarak. Obama sure forgot about that fast because, when Egyptians took to the streets this year, The Ostrich speedily pushed his former friend right into the waiting arms of those who soon will murder Mubarak.
Meanwhile, Obama still doesn't know what he's doing with Libya and likely never will at the rate things are going in the Sahara.
While Obama regularly spews a diarrhea of words condemning Israel for building in its "settlements," The Ostrich still has not visited the Middle East's only democracy. Incredibly, three years since taking office, he does nothing but talk about "settlements." But since he dares not visit Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa or The Golan Heights, has no idea why calling Jewish developments in Judea and Samaria with the incorrect label, "settlements," is an egregious geographic and political sin.
It reminds me of the bromide; "If you haven't tried it, don't knock it." But, alas, The Ostrich doesn't get it; he just doesn't get it at all.
"Obama," explains Dowd, who once adored him, "turns out to be the odd case of a pragmatist who can't learn from his mistakes and adapt."
One of his mistakes was treating Benjamin Netanyahu as some sort of irrelevant Senate page boy instead of Israel's head of state on Bibi's first visit to the Obama White House.
But, as Dowd so accurately notes, The Ostrich didn't get it so the next time the Prime Minister came to call, Obama double-crossed Bibi with the totally unacceptable "1967 borders" declaration. That bit of White House chicanery just about set Arab-Israel peace prospects irrevocably behind Square One.
Half the time, Obama sounds like those faux-Jews who operate J-Street; they pretend to support Israel while undercutting it at every turn of the phrase.
Meanwhile, as August turns toward September and the Arabs -- otherwise mistakenly known as Palestinians -- push for United Nations recognition, we wait in vain for Uncle Sam's leader to boldly assert that he is unabashedly AGAINST such a hostile move that would once and for all kill any "peace process," whatever that means.
Really, all Israel can hope for -- long-range -- is that Hilary Clinton takes on -- and defeats -- Obama in a Democratic showdown next year. Surely, Clinton -- though pockmarked with defects -- or ANY Republican would be better for Israel and American Jews than The Ostrich masquerading as president.
Once liberal commentators such as Dowd begin to rip away Obama's coverings we discover that the emperor has no clothes or, as my buddy long ago asserted, "He's an empty suit."
Then again, you might prefer Ms. Dowd's pithy X-ray of The Ostrich.
"The politician who came across as a redemmer in 2008 is now in need of redemption himself."
Before the last presidential election, I fully digested three comments made by insightful friends about the possibilities of Barack Obama winning the White House.
* FRIEND ONE: (A Liberal Democrat who once ran for the New York State Senate and lost because he was too liberal:) "Obama is a racist."
* FRIEND TWO: (An equally-liberal Democrat who never ceased to ridicule George W. Bush): "Obama is a loser."
* FRIEND THREE: (A businessman with extremely liberal tendencies.) "The man (Obama) is an empty suit."
To those observations, I submit one other description -- he's a human ostrich.
When there's trouble ahead, the president buries his head or helicopters off to Camp David to play golf.
Some president.
And speaking of fauna, those are not ostriches being mowed down like clay pigeons by Assad's murderers in Syria. They are real humans and every day there are fewer Syrians than there were the day before.
You would think that America's Commander-In-Chief would do SOMETHING to protect Syria's innocent protestors from their homicidal dictator. You would think, wouldn't you?
So, what does the Talking Ostrich of Pennsylvania Avenue do about the daily massacres in Syria?
He looks, issues a hollow homily -- "We are watching events in Syria with horror" -- and buries his head once more. Ergo: the embattled Syria protestors get a blend of hot air and nothing.
Obama's pattern of avoiding action when he has all of America's might behind him is nothing new. We remember how he ineffectually looked on when the Iranian dissidents took to the streets, hoping -- praying -- for some kind of substantive American support and all they got from Washington was more looking and no action.
Remarkably, some of The Ostrich's most fervent supporters finally are taking their heads out of the sand. Yesiree, Bob, a few liberals actually are getting wise to him. Why, one such individual happens to be a columnist in the New York Times, the newspaper that effectively has been the president's public relations arm ever since Obama took office.
Columnist Maureen Dowd describes the president as "spectacularly unable to fill the leadership void. Obama seems at a loss."
Give Dowd points for understatement.
Not only is The Ostrich "at a loss," he's a loser. Big-time.
His instincts are to the left of awful.
Remember when he made that "I Love You Arabs" speech in Cairo? Then he embraced President Hosni Mubarak. Obama sure forgot about that fast because, when Egyptians took to the streets this year, The Ostrich speedily pushed his former friend right into the waiting arms of those who soon will murder Mubarak.
Meanwhile, Obama still doesn't know what he's doing with Libya and likely never will at the rate things are going in the Sahara.
While Obama regularly spews a diarrhea of words condemning Israel for building in its "settlements," The Ostrich still has not visited the Middle East's only democracy. Incredibly, three years since taking office, he does nothing but talk about "settlements." But since he dares not visit Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa or The Golan Heights, has no idea why calling Jewish developments in Judea and Samaria with the incorrect label, "settlements," is an egregious geographic and political sin.
It reminds me of the bromide; "If you haven't tried it, don't knock it." But, alas, The Ostrich doesn't get it; he just doesn't get it at all.
"Obama," explains Dowd, who once adored him, "turns out to be the odd case of a pragmatist who can't learn from his mistakes and adapt."
One of his mistakes was treating Benjamin Netanyahu as some sort of irrelevant Senate page boy instead of Israel's head of state on Bibi's first visit to the Obama White House.
But, as Dowd so accurately notes, The Ostrich didn't get it so the next time the Prime Minister came to call, Obama double-crossed Bibi with the totally unacceptable "1967 borders" declaration. That bit of White House chicanery just about set Arab-Israel peace prospects irrevocably behind Square One.
Half the time, Obama sounds like those faux-Jews who operate J-Street; they pretend to support Israel while undercutting it at every turn of the phrase.
Meanwhile, as August turns toward September and the Arabs -- otherwise mistakenly known as Palestinians -- push for United Nations recognition, we wait in vain for Uncle Sam's leader to boldly assert that he is unabashedly AGAINST such a hostile move that would once and for all kill any "peace process," whatever that means.
Really, all Israel can hope for -- long-range -- is that Hilary Clinton takes on -- and defeats -- Obama in a Democratic showdown next year. Surely, Clinton -- though pockmarked with defects -- or ANY Republican would be better for Israel and American Jews than The Ostrich masquerading as president.
Once liberal commentators such as Dowd begin to rip away Obama's coverings we discover that the emperor has no clothes or, as my buddy long ago asserted, "He's an empty suit."
Then again, you might prefer Ms. Dowd's pithy X-ray of The Ostrich.
"The politician who came across as a redemmer in 2008 is now in need of redemption himself."
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
A BLOOD RED SKY
By Soldier Aleph
I am waiting, I have been waiting the whole day.
Unable to move, stuck in one position, watching and waiting.
Sweat has covered my face making it harder for me to see. The heat and the Humitaty of Gaza is overwhelming.
I cannot be seen, I moved into my position in the sand dunes outside of Beit Hanoun early in the morning after crossing into Gaza from Israel.
I am here for one reason only, to stop killers in their tracks.
Finally, a pickup moves to the outskirts of the city and the rocket team gets out.
First they set up their homemade launcher. I could easily call in the strike now, but I wait.
It is my duty to wait, I must make sure I see them ready the rocket.
For a second I look west, the sun is setting, creating a blood-red sky.
In a few moments I will be both prosecutor and judge.
Today I will be the angel of death.
It is no easy task, knowing you will take someones life. Then I remember they are attempting to kill my children and I must protect my children and the citizens of my country.
They carry the rockets from the pickup and set them down next to the launcher.
They calibrate the launcher.
As they prepare to load the rocket, I call in the strike.
No one can here the Tamuz missile launch, no one can here it coming, but it is.
They rocketeers prepare to fire.
Then.....
A thunderous bang and a cloud of dust.
I wait and make sure my job is done.
Night has fallen and it is dark, I approach the cavernous hole at contact point. My job is done.
I have protected my nation, my children and my fellow citizens. I have no second thoughts, I know this anti-Semitic world has no place for the weak Jew.
I have done my duty and won a small victory for Israel in her battle against terrorism.
I am waiting, I have been waiting the whole day.
Unable to move, stuck in one position, watching and waiting.
Sweat has covered my face making it harder for me to see. The heat and the Humitaty of Gaza is overwhelming.
I cannot be seen, I moved into my position in the sand dunes outside of Beit Hanoun early in the morning after crossing into Gaza from Israel.
I am here for one reason only, to stop killers in their tracks.
Finally, a pickup moves to the outskirts of the city and the rocket team gets out.
First they set up their homemade launcher. I could easily call in the strike now, but I wait.
It is my duty to wait, I must make sure I see them ready the rocket.
For a second I look west, the sun is setting, creating a blood-red sky.
In a few moments I will be both prosecutor and judge.
Today I will be the angel of death.
It is no easy task, knowing you will take someones life. Then I remember they are attempting to kill my children and I must protect my children and the citizens of my country.
They carry the rockets from the pickup and set them down next to the launcher.
They calibrate the launcher.
As they prepare to load the rocket, I call in the strike.
No one can here the Tamuz missile launch, no one can here it coming, but it is.
They rocketeers prepare to fire.
Then.....
A thunderous bang and a cloud of dust.
I wait and make sure my job is done.
Night has fallen and it is dark, I approach the cavernous hole at contact point. My job is done.
I have protected my nation, my children and my fellow citizens. I have no second thoughts, I know this anti-Semitic world has no place for the weak Jew.
I have done my duty and won a small victory for Israel in her battle against terrorism.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
WHAT CAN I SAY AFTER I SAY I'M NOT SORRY?
By Schmoel Yitzhak
One of my favorite popular tunes of all-time is titled "What Can I Say After I Say I'm Sorry?" It's an apologetic love song delivered by one sweetheart to another.
When it comes to Israel's National Security head, Yaakov Amidror, and his recent confrontation with twenty-seven European Union ambassadors, I would alter the title to "What Can I Say After I Say I'M NOT SORRY?"
Tsk! Tsk!
Should we weep crocodile tears because a number of the EU ambassadors to Israel got a temporary case of lockjaw after being deservedly admonished by Amidror at the political-security briefing?
Or should we give landsman Amidror endless kudos for calling a spade a "spade" in terms of the EU's one-sided behavior in which the Arabs -- disguised as Palestinians -- are favored by the EU about eleven times out of ten!
If, as the bromide goes, "Honesty is the best policy," then there's no question about the answer; brother Amidror deserves a standing ovation, diplomatic protocol or no diplomatic protocol.
And what was it that upset the darling Europeans? They got a good taste of what my Uncle Benyamin called tooches ufen tisch; Amidror put his cards on the table and the EU gentry didn't like what they saw -- or heard. Viz and to wit:
* The European Union always is critical of Israel while never admonishing the Palestinians. (TRUE. Deny that if you can, EU; I dare you!)
* The European Union is unable -- and/or unwilling -- to take a balanced stance when it comes to addressing the Israeli-Arab tug-of-war. (TRUE. And when was the last time the EU ever favored Israel in the endless conflict?)
* Israel cannot be blamed for everything. (And, yet, at virtually every political turn in the eminently mis-called "Peace Process," the EU points an accusatory finger at Jerusalem while conspicuously ignoring the Gaza Gang and Abbas
"You (the EU and its ambassadors) only address the portion of (President Barack) Obama's address that's good for the Palestinians and not portions that are good for Israel," Amidror asserted.
One member of the EU contingent took his head out of the Arab sand long enough to deliver this pathetic beef:
""Amidror was aggressive, contemptuous and arrogant," said the apparently shaken European. "Some ambassadors were genuinely traumatized."
Well, if those EU Nervous Nellies really want to get traumatized, I suggest they spend some time in Sderot, Ashkelon and other Negev environs where an assortment of Gaza-based missiles still are regularly being fired into Israel.
Are these European nitwits being traumatized by the truth? And when was the last time EU representatives spent time with the beleaguered Sderot citizens to learn what warning sirens are all about and how fatal it is for innocent Israelis to be struck by a Grad missile, among the many other destructive rockets so easily smuggled into Gaza.
Did we hear the word "contemptuous?" And does that term bother the EU reps?
Well contempt is precisely what the EU deserves for its endless and unapologetic bias in favor of the Arabs.
Amidror is to be commended not condemned for his aggressive -- instead of defensive -- behavior because the time for appeasing phony, one-sided diplomats is over.
I completely agree with Israel's national security head when he warns that unless the EU alters its position, there's no reason to resume negotiations between the Arabs and Israel.
Ditto for Israel Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman who insists that Jerusalem cut off all contact with the Palestinian Authority including security.
Why not?
The PA currently is negotiating -- yet again! -- reconciliation with Hamas. The PA does everything in its power to undercut Israel as The Jewish State. It refuses even to come to the negotiating table unless Prime Minister Netanyahu submits to endless demands.
When the European Union gets around to appreciating these realities of Middle East life then, maybe, its ambassadors won't have to hear blunt reprimands that can only be equated with the truth.
Until then, the Amidror-Lieberman theme song must remain "What Can I Say After I Say I'M NOT SORRY?"
One of my favorite popular tunes of all-time is titled "What Can I Say After I Say I'm Sorry?" It's an apologetic love song delivered by one sweetheart to another.
When it comes to Israel's National Security head, Yaakov Amidror, and his recent confrontation with twenty-seven European Union ambassadors, I would alter the title to "What Can I Say After I Say I'M NOT SORRY?"
Tsk! Tsk!
Should we weep crocodile tears because a number of the EU ambassadors to Israel got a temporary case of lockjaw after being deservedly admonished by Amidror at the political-security briefing?
Or should we give landsman Amidror endless kudos for calling a spade a "spade" in terms of the EU's one-sided behavior in which the Arabs -- disguised as Palestinians -- are favored by the EU about eleven times out of ten!
If, as the bromide goes, "Honesty is the best policy," then there's no question about the answer; brother Amidror deserves a standing ovation, diplomatic protocol or no diplomatic protocol.
And what was it that upset the darling Europeans? They got a good taste of what my Uncle Benyamin called tooches ufen tisch; Amidror put his cards on the table and the EU gentry didn't like what they saw -- or heard. Viz and to wit:
* The European Union always is critical of Israel while never admonishing the Palestinians. (TRUE. Deny that if you can, EU; I dare you!)
* The European Union is unable -- and/or unwilling -- to take a balanced stance when it comes to addressing the Israeli-Arab tug-of-war. (TRUE. And when was the last time the EU ever favored Israel in the endless conflict?)
* Israel cannot be blamed for everything. (And, yet, at virtually every political turn in the eminently mis-called "Peace Process," the EU points an accusatory finger at Jerusalem while conspicuously ignoring the Gaza Gang and Abbas
"You (the EU and its ambassadors) only address the portion of (President Barack) Obama's address that's good for the Palestinians and not portions that are good for Israel," Amidror asserted.
One member of the EU contingent took his head out of the Arab sand long enough to deliver this pathetic beef:
""Amidror was aggressive, contemptuous and arrogant," said the apparently shaken European. "Some ambassadors were genuinely traumatized."
Well, if those EU Nervous Nellies really want to get traumatized, I suggest they spend some time in Sderot, Ashkelon and other Negev environs where an assortment of Gaza-based missiles still are regularly being fired into Israel.
Are these European nitwits being traumatized by the truth? And when was the last time EU representatives spent time with the beleaguered Sderot citizens to learn what warning sirens are all about and how fatal it is for innocent Israelis to be struck by a Grad missile, among the many other destructive rockets so easily smuggled into Gaza.
Did we hear the word "contemptuous?" And does that term bother the EU reps?
Well contempt is precisely what the EU deserves for its endless and unapologetic bias in favor of the Arabs.
Amidror is to be commended not condemned for his aggressive -- instead of defensive -- behavior because the time for appeasing phony, one-sided diplomats is over.
I completely agree with Israel's national security head when he warns that unless the EU alters its position, there's no reason to resume negotiations between the Arabs and Israel.
Ditto for Israel Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman who insists that Jerusalem cut off all contact with the Palestinian Authority including security.
Why not?
The PA currently is negotiating -- yet again! -- reconciliation with Hamas. The PA does everything in its power to undercut Israel as The Jewish State. It refuses even to come to the negotiating table unless Prime Minister Netanyahu submits to endless demands.
When the European Union gets around to appreciating these realities of Middle East life then, maybe, its ambassadors won't have to hear blunt reprimands that can only be equated with the truth.
Until then, the Amidror-Lieberman theme song must remain "What Can I Say After I Say I'M NOT SORRY?"
Saturday, August 6, 2011
ONE MASSACRE TO ANOTHER
By Simon Fischler
The view from Coffee Anan (Anan means Cloud in Hebrew) on top of Mt. Bental in the Israeli Golan Heights is amazing.
On a day like today, a day that is sunny and dry, there is an unimpeded view from the Heights of the Hermon, to the Hula Valley and almost all the way down to the Kinneret.
When looking East, you can see the Syrian City of Quenitra and deep into the heartland of Syria.
As I sit comfortably on the Israeli side of the border enjoying these amazing views, enjoying the freedoms granted to me and my fellow citizens, it makes me acutely aware of what is happening on the other side of the border.
Atrocities are being carried out by the Syrian government against her own citizens at this very moment.
As I write, human beings -- it makes no difference to me at this point that they happen to be Arab Muslims -- are being mass murdered by a megalomaniac.
Can this really be happening? Is it really the twenty-first century? If so, has the human race really made so little progress?
How can the US stock market crashing be more of a headline story than a minority ruler carrying out the mass murders of his own people?
Is this a bad joke?
How can the world let this happen?
Should Israel intervene and help the people of Hama? If the answer is no, why is it no?
Why is the Arab League diddling around with wording on documents for a Palestinian State and not condemning the Assad regime and rallying support for the citizens of Syria?
Why is Mr. Tom Friedman so concerned with how the Israeli leadership does what it can to protect its citizens, but NOT with the fact that Bashar Assad is making lemonade out of his own people?
Where are the immediate United Nations Security Council sessions, resolutions and inquiries into Syrian Human Rights Violations?
Is it not sick that when Israel dared to enforce her LEGAL maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip, the world went into an uproar? The world denounced Israel and called the killing of nine Muslim fundamentalist Turks (who were just trying to LYNCH a few IDF soldiers) a massacre.
Yet the murder of more than 2,000 Syrian citizens (more than 200 in the last few days alone in Hama) has garnered far less criticism.
Is this also a bad Joke?
Doesn't this now completely expose the sick, twisted and anti-Semitic bias against Israel?
Why are Syria and Iran still allowed to be members of the United Nations? Are the rest of the world’s nations united with this type of criminal leader?
If so, I do not want to be part of or united with nations they fail to stop a monster like Assad.
Where is President Barak Obama? He was so brave when it came to stepping up to Mohamar Qaddaffi – at least verbally. But then, Mohamar did not have Iran backing him up, did he?
If this American administration fails to back up the Syrian people and rid this world of the monster calling himself Bashar Assad, then it will be a catastrophe.
Just as Iran and Hezbollah are assisting the Assad regime on the ground, America must rally her Arabian allies -- Saudia Arabia and Jordan especially -- and assist the Syrian people to gain their freedom.
This massacre must be stopped and this ruthless megalomaniac must be brought down.
“NEVER AGAIN” should not just apply to the Holocaust and the Jews. “NEVER AGAIN” must become the motto of the world in the Twenty-First century; and of a New United Nations.
This new United Nations could then do what the original one was supposed to do: to administer and protect international law; to stop psychopaths like Basher Assad from murdering his citizens.
But, instead of condemning leaders like Assad, today’s UN is too focused on condemning the one democratic country in the Middle East that protects international law -- because it happens to be the Jewish Nation State.
Wake up, Free World; you have been had.
The cause of the problems in the Middle East is not Israel and the Israeli towns and cities in Judea and Samaria. The problems in the Middle East stem from one place only: Arab leadership. Leaders like Bashar Assad, Mohamar Qaddaffi, Yassar Arafat, Khaled Meshal and Hassan Nashrallah. Leaders who rule as the feudal kings of Europe ruled in the Middle Ages.
THE WORLD MUST STOP BLAMING ISRAEL FOR THE PROBLEMS ARAB LEADERS HAVE CREATED FOR THEIR OWN CITIZENS. Instead it needs to re-learn the meaning of truth, justice and international law -- to help the citizens of Syria and the Arab world realize it is not Israel who denies them their freedom and the keeps them down, but their own leaders.
From Hama of the Eighties to Hama of today it is but one massacre to another.
The view from Coffee Anan (Anan means Cloud in Hebrew) on top of Mt. Bental in the Israeli Golan Heights is amazing.
On a day like today, a day that is sunny and dry, there is an unimpeded view from the Heights of the Hermon, to the Hula Valley and almost all the way down to the Kinneret.
When looking East, you can see the Syrian City of Quenitra and deep into the heartland of Syria.
As I sit comfortably on the Israeli side of the border enjoying these amazing views, enjoying the freedoms granted to me and my fellow citizens, it makes me acutely aware of what is happening on the other side of the border.
Atrocities are being carried out by the Syrian government against her own citizens at this very moment.
As I write, human beings -- it makes no difference to me at this point that they happen to be Arab Muslims -- are being mass murdered by a megalomaniac.
Can this really be happening? Is it really the twenty-first century? If so, has the human race really made so little progress?
How can the US stock market crashing be more of a headline story than a minority ruler carrying out the mass murders of his own people?
Is this a bad joke?
How can the world let this happen?
Should Israel intervene and help the people of Hama? If the answer is no, why is it no?
Why is the Arab League diddling around with wording on documents for a Palestinian State and not condemning the Assad regime and rallying support for the citizens of Syria?
Why is Mr. Tom Friedman so concerned with how the Israeli leadership does what it can to protect its citizens, but NOT with the fact that Bashar Assad is making lemonade out of his own people?
Where are the immediate United Nations Security Council sessions, resolutions and inquiries into Syrian Human Rights Violations?
Is it not sick that when Israel dared to enforce her LEGAL maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip, the world went into an uproar? The world denounced Israel and called the killing of nine Muslim fundamentalist Turks (who were just trying to LYNCH a few IDF soldiers) a massacre.
Yet the murder of more than 2,000 Syrian citizens (more than 200 in the last few days alone in Hama) has garnered far less criticism.
Is this also a bad Joke?
Doesn't this now completely expose the sick, twisted and anti-Semitic bias against Israel?
Why are Syria and Iran still allowed to be members of the United Nations? Are the rest of the world’s nations united with this type of criminal leader?
If so, I do not want to be part of or united with nations they fail to stop a monster like Assad.
Where is President Barak Obama? He was so brave when it came to stepping up to Mohamar Qaddaffi – at least verbally. But then, Mohamar did not have Iran backing him up, did he?
If this American administration fails to back up the Syrian people and rid this world of the monster calling himself Bashar Assad, then it will be a catastrophe.
Just as Iran and Hezbollah are assisting the Assad regime on the ground, America must rally her Arabian allies -- Saudia Arabia and Jordan especially -- and assist the Syrian people to gain their freedom.
This massacre must be stopped and this ruthless megalomaniac must be brought down.
“NEVER AGAIN” should not just apply to the Holocaust and the Jews. “NEVER AGAIN” must become the motto of the world in the Twenty-First century; and of a New United Nations.
This new United Nations could then do what the original one was supposed to do: to administer and protect international law; to stop psychopaths like Basher Assad from murdering his citizens.
But, instead of condemning leaders like Assad, today’s UN is too focused on condemning the one democratic country in the Middle East that protects international law -- because it happens to be the Jewish Nation State.
Wake up, Free World; you have been had.
The cause of the problems in the Middle East is not Israel and the Israeli towns and cities in Judea and Samaria. The problems in the Middle East stem from one place only: Arab leadership. Leaders like Bashar Assad, Mohamar Qaddaffi, Yassar Arafat, Khaled Meshal and Hassan Nashrallah. Leaders who rule as the feudal kings of Europe ruled in the Middle Ages.
THE WORLD MUST STOP BLAMING ISRAEL FOR THE PROBLEMS ARAB LEADERS HAVE CREATED FOR THEIR OWN CITIZENS. Instead it needs to re-learn the meaning of truth, justice and international law -- to help the citizens of Syria and the Arab world realize it is not Israel who denies them their freedom and the keeps them down, but their own leaders.
From Hama of the Eighties to Hama of today it is but one massacre to another.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
AHMED TIBI’S RED CARPET TO PALESTINE?
By Simon Fischler
I am not one for boycotts: they are counter-productive and often harm those the boycotts are trying to assist.
The Israeli boycott is the worst type of boycott, because no matter how it’s worded, ultimately the boycott is anti-Semitic.
In fact, those leading the boycott openly admit their intention is to deny the Jewish Nation its self-determination.
Israel, the Jewish Nation State and only true democracy in the Middle East has a large Arab minority that enjoys fully the freedom of Israel’s liberal democratic values
But, like all minorities in all democracies, Arab Israelis do face some discrimination – just as Mizrachi and Ethiopian Jews have.
However, unlike other minorities (such as African Americans in the United States) Israeli Arabs face discrimination not because of color, religion or ethnicity, but because of the political choices they have made.
On too many occasions Israeli Arab leaders and their constituents have trampled on the freedoms given to them, openly siding with enemies of Israel.
Never before has a minority in a democracy been given such immense freedoms when they happen to be the same ethnicity of the enemies of the State. Even America in World War II placed her Japanese citizens in interment camps (a nice way of saying concentration camps).
This all gets back to Knesset Member Ahmed Tibi who once again showed Israel’s eighty percent Jewish majority the true face of Israel’s Arab leadership.
Tibi penned an Op/Ed article for The New York Times days ago calling for a boycott of Israel and the eventual destruction of Israel by flooding her with Arabs who have no connection to the nation.
The inexcusable lies included in his shameful opinion piece should have rendered it unprintable, which gives us a revealing insight to where The Times’ sympathies lie.
Tibi says the “Palestinians” were forced from their homes. Mr. Tibi must have forgotten that the majority of Arabs (they did not call themselves Palestinians at that time) fled because their leaders told them to.
Here is a quick quote that should burn at the feet of Ahmed Tibi’s scandalous lies, in the March 1976 issue of Falastin a-Thaura, then the official journal of the Beirut-based PLO. Mahmud Abbas ("Abu Mazen", now President of the West Bank PA), then a PLO spokesman, wrote: "The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny but, instead, they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and to leave their homeland, and threw them into prisons similar to the ghettos in which the Jews used to live."
Inside the article Tibi also whined about freedoms being stripped from Israeli (Jewish and Arab, not discriminatory) citizens who were actively attempting to destroy the nation by calling for a boycott against her.
If this boycott truly were about the peace process and the Internationally binding laws calling for a Two-State Solution for Two Nations, the Jewish and the Arab Nation, the boycott would be directed at the Palestinians!
It is the Palestinian Arabs who rejected the United Nations Partition in 1947, thereby creating this whole conflict that alternately has raged and sputtered around Israel ever since.
It is undeniable that is also the Palestinians who have perpetuated this conflict by continually refusing to accept the two state solution, actively rejecting a Palestinian State and peace in 2000 and the Camp David peace conference.
If Ahmed Tibi actually wanted to create a Palestinian State, he would call on the world to recognize the freedoms given to Israeli Arabs, something we see their brethren in Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon and especially Syria (where a massacre is occurring in the city as I write) are struggling to achieve.
Tibi should go work for Peoples Republic of China in the Department of Demographically Destroying Tibet and Propaganda! His lies would actually be funny if they were not so distressing. However, Ahmed Tibi obviously is smart enough to know that the majority of the liberal-minded readers of the New York Times will not do their homework and check up on the fallacies he has penned
But Ahmed Tibi is just the tip of the Israeli Arab spear. He represents a population, he was CHOSEN by a population that takes for granted the democratic rights they are granted.
Apparently Israeli Arabs are unaware that a democracy does not have to offer sedition as one of the benefits of democratic freedoms. Nor does a democracy have to be suicidal to its majority ethnic population.
Sedition is Sedition, even in a democracy and is often handled with the most serious of punishments.
It must be made clear to Israel’s Arab population that they can no longer cry foul when they support anti-Semitic political initiatives. Israeli Arabs can no longer expect the Jewish majority of Israel to turn a blind eye to the virulently hateful rhetoric their leaders espouse.
Israeli Arabs have the same rights as their Jewish co-patriots and their cultural and political freedoms must be maintained under the Laws of the Jewish Democratic State, as it is for Native Americans in the United States. Except, notably, Israel does not assign their Arab citizens to reservations.
The Arabs of Israel need to make a decision: are they Israeli Arabs or Palestinians Arabs? If they are Israeli Arabs, then they must start serving in the Israeli Defense Forces like their co-patriots and contribute to the nation’s preservation. If this is the case, then they are welcome to stay.
If they view themselves first and foremost as Palestinian Arabs, then they should go live in Palestine; end of story.
Ahmed Tibi views himself as a Palestinian, so he should renounce his Israeli Citizenship and go live in Palestine … wherever that is.
I am not one for boycotts: they are counter-productive and often harm those the boycotts are trying to assist.
The Israeli boycott is the worst type of boycott, because no matter how it’s worded, ultimately the boycott is anti-Semitic.
In fact, those leading the boycott openly admit their intention is to deny the Jewish Nation its self-determination.
Israel, the Jewish Nation State and only true democracy in the Middle East has a large Arab minority that enjoys fully the freedom of Israel’s liberal democratic values
But, like all minorities in all democracies, Arab Israelis do face some discrimination – just as Mizrachi and Ethiopian Jews have.
However, unlike other minorities (such as African Americans in the United States) Israeli Arabs face discrimination not because of color, religion or ethnicity, but because of the political choices they have made.
On too many occasions Israeli Arab leaders and their constituents have trampled on the freedoms given to them, openly siding with enemies of Israel.
Never before has a minority in a democracy been given such immense freedoms when they happen to be the same ethnicity of the enemies of the State. Even America in World War II placed her Japanese citizens in interment camps (a nice way of saying concentration camps).
This all gets back to Knesset Member Ahmed Tibi who once again showed Israel’s eighty percent Jewish majority the true face of Israel’s Arab leadership.
Tibi penned an Op/Ed article for The New York Times days ago calling for a boycott of Israel and the eventual destruction of Israel by flooding her with Arabs who have no connection to the nation.
The inexcusable lies included in his shameful opinion piece should have rendered it unprintable, which gives us a revealing insight to where The Times’ sympathies lie.
Tibi says the “Palestinians” were forced from their homes. Mr. Tibi must have forgotten that the majority of Arabs (they did not call themselves Palestinians at that time) fled because their leaders told them to.
Here is a quick quote that should burn at the feet of Ahmed Tibi’s scandalous lies, in the March 1976 issue of Falastin a-Thaura, then the official journal of the Beirut-based PLO. Mahmud Abbas ("Abu Mazen", now President of the West Bank PA), then a PLO spokesman, wrote: "The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny but, instead, they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and to leave their homeland, and threw them into prisons similar to the ghettos in which the Jews used to live."
Inside the article Tibi also whined about freedoms being stripped from Israeli (Jewish and Arab, not discriminatory) citizens who were actively attempting to destroy the nation by calling for a boycott against her.
If this boycott truly were about the peace process and the Internationally binding laws calling for a Two-State Solution for Two Nations, the Jewish and the Arab Nation, the boycott would be directed at the Palestinians!
It is the Palestinian Arabs who rejected the United Nations Partition in 1947, thereby creating this whole conflict that alternately has raged and sputtered around Israel ever since.
It is undeniable that is also the Palestinians who have perpetuated this conflict by continually refusing to accept the two state solution, actively rejecting a Palestinian State and peace in 2000 and the Camp David peace conference.
If Ahmed Tibi actually wanted to create a Palestinian State, he would call on the world to recognize the freedoms given to Israeli Arabs, something we see their brethren in Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon and especially Syria (where a massacre is occurring in the city as I write) are struggling to achieve.
Tibi should go work for Peoples Republic of China in the Department of Demographically Destroying Tibet and Propaganda! His lies would actually be funny if they were not so distressing. However, Ahmed Tibi obviously is smart enough to know that the majority of the liberal-minded readers of the New York Times will not do their homework and check up on the fallacies he has penned
But Ahmed Tibi is just the tip of the Israeli Arab spear. He represents a population, he was CHOSEN by a population that takes for granted the democratic rights they are granted.
Apparently Israeli Arabs are unaware that a democracy does not have to offer sedition as one of the benefits of democratic freedoms. Nor does a democracy have to be suicidal to its majority ethnic population.
Sedition is Sedition, even in a democracy and is often handled with the most serious of punishments.
It must be made clear to Israel’s Arab population that they can no longer cry foul when they support anti-Semitic political initiatives. Israeli Arabs can no longer expect the Jewish majority of Israel to turn a blind eye to the virulently hateful rhetoric their leaders espouse.
Israeli Arabs have the same rights as their Jewish co-patriots and their cultural and political freedoms must be maintained under the Laws of the Jewish Democratic State, as it is for Native Americans in the United States. Except, notably, Israel does not assign their Arab citizens to reservations.
The Arabs of Israel need to make a decision: are they Israeli Arabs or Palestinians Arabs? If they are Israeli Arabs, then they must start serving in the Israeli Defense Forces like their co-patriots and contribute to the nation’s preservation. If this is the case, then they are welcome to stay.
If they view themselves first and foremost as Palestinian Arabs, then they should go live in Palestine; end of story.
Ahmed Tibi views himself as a Palestinian, so he should renounce his Israeli Citizenship and go live in Palestine … wherever that is.
Monday, August 1, 2011
WHAT IF
By Simon Fischler
What if Bibi Netanyahu had countered the Palestinians’ pre-conditions for a full settlement freeze with the pre-condition that they recognize Israel as a Jewish state?
In fact, what if Israel, for the first time ever, proposed her own peace plan, rather than the U.S., Saudi Arabia or the PA
Instead of the partial freeze he has offered, which simply allowed the PA to pooh-pooh, Netanyahu could have -- and probably should have -- said, “Fine ... you want a total freeze on settlements? All you need do is recognize Israel as a Jewish state and you have your wish.”
However, the PA could counter that by recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, one of their “negotiating tools” would immediately be removed from their array of demands.
Israel could immediately return with, “Yes, but, by proposing a full settlement freeze -- something which has never, NEVER been put on the offering table before, we have willingly ceded one of OUR major negotiating tools.”
Would this mean yet another stalemate? Not necessarily.
If nothing else, this exchange would point out to the rest of the world, which appears to be blind to this reality, that the PA is not, nor has it ever been, truly directed toward earnest negotiations, with the possibility of a peaceful co-existence anywhere on the Middle Eastern horizon.
They have been -- always have been -- making absolute demands that are only geared toward the destruction, negation or cancellation of Israel as we know it.
The result of this one constant: the refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, where it is and how it is, means that it is the PA and the other Arab countries which have no treaty, of any sort, with Israel which are practicing “apartheid” -- that nasty word former US President Jimmy Carter is so fond of casting Israel’s way.
What does “apartheid” mean but Afrikaans for, "apartness" or "separateness," or in South African political terms “separate house.” It is the Palestinians, the Syrians, Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran who would go further than conventional apartheid: they would deny Israel even a separate house.
This situation has been compounded by PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ threat to declare, unilaterally, a Palestinian state, followed by the possibility of the EU and the UN announcing their potential support of such a unilateral declaration.
WHAT IF? ...
The Palestinian threat to unilaterally declare statehood might appear on the surface to be a potential favor to Israel. With the West Bank and Gaza an actual state, Israel would have the right -- by international law -- to attack with full force after the very next rocket that hits Sderot.
Hypothetically Israel would also have the right in international law, by virtue of “spoils of war” tradition, to officially annex any or all of the parts of the West bank that they won in the 1967 six-day war.
Now enter the EU, where many countries have stated they would recognize a unilaterally declared state of Palestine and furthermore, would “support” such a state.
What does the EU mean by “support?” Does it entail military as well as economic support?
Look at the EU today and examine what it resembles. Does the Roman Empire come to mind?
When the Roman Empire destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem after the Bar Kokba revolt (70 C.E.) and established the puppet state of “Palestinia” (the ONLY time the area has actually been called Palestine), it was not merely comprised of Rome and Italy.
The Roman Empire at that time included what today is Spain, France, the British Isles, Germany, Eastern Europe and North Africa.
Since the EU would be supporting the Arab League’s (North Africa) anti-Israel stance, doesn’t she then become the Rome of modern times?
WHAT IF? ...
The European Union HAS begun to fancy itself the reincarnation of the Roman Empire?
The ramifications of this possibility are enormous, terrifying and endlessly complicated, involving the decline of U.S. power in both the Middle East as well as the “de-Americanization” of the UN.
The Israel of the 21st century is not the Israel of 70 C.E., however, and the EU would do well -- for the sake of the Middle East, itself and the greater world -- to remember this.
Even the most peace-loving, left-wing, liberal Israeli always has supported the belief that “there will never be another destruction of the Second Temple; there will never be another Masada.”
This is no longer simply a nation of shepherders, grape and olive growers, but a first-world, hi tech, multi-ethnic democracy with nuclear capabilities.
However, if the EU persists in its proposal to “support” a unilaterally-declared Palestinian state, it is high time that it ascertain every single Euro goes into the creation and development of a functioning economy, infrastructure and a democratic state, rather than into the pockets of its leaders (ask the widow of Yasser Arafat how her bank account is doing).
It is also high time, particularly as nations of the EU struggle with variations of insurgent Islamic immigrants (i.e., Switzerland banning the construction of Muslim minarets; France outlawing the burqa; bombings in England and Spain) to admit that the “side” of the Middle Eastern conflict which is more like them, with more similar values, systems, needs and hopes (despite their being Jews) is Israel ... not the Palestinians.
Otherwise it is high time for the EU to admit what lies in its heart of hearts, to own up to what is behind its leaders’ constant undermining and negative judging of Israel: their basic anti-semitism.
It is high time for the EU -- and the entire western world -- to admit that they are as sorry as any radical Muslim cleric that the state of Israel ever came to exist.
It is beyond high time for the EU to admit to itself that it would secretly love nothing more than to see the destruction of the State of Israel ... again.
What if Bibi Netanyahu had countered the Palestinians’ pre-conditions for a full settlement freeze with the pre-condition that they recognize Israel as a Jewish state?
In fact, what if Israel, for the first time ever, proposed her own peace plan, rather than the U.S., Saudi Arabia or the PA
Instead of the partial freeze he has offered, which simply allowed the PA to pooh-pooh, Netanyahu could have -- and probably should have -- said, “Fine ... you want a total freeze on settlements? All you need do is recognize Israel as a Jewish state and you have your wish.”
However, the PA could counter that by recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, one of their “negotiating tools” would immediately be removed from their array of demands.
Israel could immediately return with, “Yes, but, by proposing a full settlement freeze -- something which has never, NEVER been put on the offering table before, we have willingly ceded one of OUR major negotiating tools.”
Would this mean yet another stalemate? Not necessarily.
If nothing else, this exchange would point out to the rest of the world, which appears to be blind to this reality, that the PA is not, nor has it ever been, truly directed toward earnest negotiations, with the possibility of a peaceful co-existence anywhere on the Middle Eastern horizon.
They have been -- always have been -- making absolute demands that are only geared toward the destruction, negation or cancellation of Israel as we know it.
The result of this one constant: the refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, where it is and how it is, means that it is the PA and the other Arab countries which have no treaty, of any sort, with Israel which are practicing “apartheid” -- that nasty word former US President Jimmy Carter is so fond of casting Israel’s way.
What does “apartheid” mean but Afrikaans for, "apartness" or "separateness," or in South African political terms “separate house.” It is the Palestinians, the Syrians, Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran who would go further than conventional apartheid: they would deny Israel even a separate house.
This situation has been compounded by PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ threat to declare, unilaterally, a Palestinian state, followed by the possibility of the EU and the UN announcing their potential support of such a unilateral declaration.
WHAT IF? ...
The Palestinian threat to unilaterally declare statehood might appear on the surface to be a potential favor to Israel. With the West Bank and Gaza an actual state, Israel would have the right -- by international law -- to attack with full force after the very next rocket that hits Sderot.
Hypothetically Israel would also have the right in international law, by virtue of “spoils of war” tradition, to officially annex any or all of the parts of the West bank that they won in the 1967 six-day war.
Now enter the EU, where many countries have stated they would recognize a unilaterally declared state of Palestine and furthermore, would “support” such a state.
What does the EU mean by “support?” Does it entail military as well as economic support?
Look at the EU today and examine what it resembles. Does the Roman Empire come to mind?
When the Roman Empire destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem after the Bar Kokba revolt (70 C.E.) and established the puppet state of “Palestinia” (the ONLY time the area has actually been called Palestine), it was not merely comprised of Rome and Italy.
The Roman Empire at that time included what today is Spain, France, the British Isles, Germany, Eastern Europe and North Africa.
Since the EU would be supporting the Arab League’s (North Africa) anti-Israel stance, doesn’t she then become the Rome of modern times?
WHAT IF? ...
The European Union HAS begun to fancy itself the reincarnation of the Roman Empire?
The ramifications of this possibility are enormous, terrifying and endlessly complicated, involving the decline of U.S. power in both the Middle East as well as the “de-Americanization” of the UN.
The Israel of the 21st century is not the Israel of 70 C.E., however, and the EU would do well -- for the sake of the Middle East, itself and the greater world -- to remember this.
Even the most peace-loving, left-wing, liberal Israeli always has supported the belief that “there will never be another destruction of the Second Temple; there will never be another Masada.”
This is no longer simply a nation of shepherders, grape and olive growers, but a first-world, hi tech, multi-ethnic democracy with nuclear capabilities.
However, if the EU persists in its proposal to “support” a unilaterally-declared Palestinian state, it is high time that it ascertain every single Euro goes into the creation and development of a functioning economy, infrastructure and a democratic state, rather than into the pockets of its leaders (ask the widow of Yasser Arafat how her bank account is doing).
It is also high time, particularly as nations of the EU struggle with variations of insurgent Islamic immigrants (i.e., Switzerland banning the construction of Muslim minarets; France outlawing the burqa; bombings in England and Spain) to admit that the “side” of the Middle Eastern conflict which is more like them, with more similar values, systems, needs and hopes (despite their being Jews) is Israel ... not the Palestinians.
Otherwise it is high time for the EU to admit what lies in its heart of hearts, to own up to what is behind its leaders’ constant undermining and negative judging of Israel: their basic anti-semitism.
It is high time for the EU -- and the entire western world -- to admit that they are as sorry as any radical Muslim cleric that the state of Israel ever came to exist.
It is beyond high time for the EU to admit to itself that it would secretly love nothing more than to see the destruction of the State of Israel ... again.
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