Tuesday, January 31, 2012

IT'S FIGHTING TIME

By Simon Fischler

As of late there have been two issues that I am deeply troubled by.

The first issue, the pro-Palestinian camp; made up of the fanatical left, Islamo-facists and anarchists, are nothing more than criminals and thugs who will do just about anything to intimidate those who support the Jewish peoples right to govern themselves in their land.

These groups have one goal to steel our freedom and self-determination.

They truly are the modern version of the Nazis brownshirts.

These gangs of thugs disguised as activists are becoming far less afraid of the authorities in their native lands and more willing to use violence against Israelis, Israeli diplomats and the Jews who live in their countries.

This is beyond troubling. What is even more scary is the inability of the local authorities, world wide to protect Israeli officials, Israeli tourists and Jews native to the countries in which these outrages take place.

This gets to my second issue: It is high time we the Jews -- not just in Israel, but in all the European capitals and in America -- learn to fight back and not to shirk from getting some blood on our hands.

What we need to do today is similar to what the Jewish gangsters did in New York when the American Nazi party tried to organize rallies in the city.

Meir Lansky, Bugsy Siegal and many others made sure that those rallies got broken up real fast.

Since then we seem to have lost our backbone.

This is the reason why the pro-Palestinian fascists believe they can push us around, threaten us and even physically harm us today. They believe we won’t come out to fight, that we are weak.

This needs to change immediately.

We jews who believe in and love Israel must be prepared to meet these people on the streets, ready to fight back physically if it comes to that.

We can no longer let these people force universities to stop speeches by Israeli diplomats or professors who support Israel because of the fear factor. That is Nazi Germany of the Thirties. If we let this situation continue we will find ourselves in the same position that our Jewish predecessors were during the Shoah.

There are many ways we, Israel and American/European Jews can go about changing this.

First off we need to do all we can to improve the connection and understanding between our communities. More needs to be done to reinforce the importance of Israel not just to Israelis, but to Jews living in America and Europe whether they be Reform, Conservative or Orthodox.

While discovering and reinforcing our common values we can learn also how to defend our nation together.

Of course, the best way is a non-violent way. But if we are met with violence we must be ready to fight back. We should always try to be better than these violent fanatics. But if they believe they can kick us, punch us and bully us into submission, then we must be ready to show them we are more than their match.

Just as we were forced to bloody ourselves in defense of our country, from her Independence until today, we must be ready to get bloodied again, this time on the streets of America and Europe, in defense of Israel and her right to exist.

Networks need to be set up between the Jewish institutions, schools and synagogues across America and Europe where Krav Maga is taught for self-defense. This might sound outlandish, but knowing how to defend oneself has become imperative for the safety of our communities.

We need to meet these fanatics face to face when they take to the streets and protest our country’s freedom and our independence.

When they attempt to maul one of Israel’s highest diplomats we need to be there, ready to maul them.

When they march on the streets of America and Europe, trying to silence Israel and her supporters, we must be there, ready to fight back. When these modern day Brownshirts attempt to threaten us into submission, we must hit back like a bolt of lighting, so they will know well that we are not going to walk meekly off to the gas chambers as we once did.

Those who stand against Israel, those who delegitimize her have declared war, not just on Israel, but on the whole of the Jewish nation. There is no longer any time for niceties: this is war and it is an eye for an eye time.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

HOW MANY CASUALTIES MAKE A "GOOD" WAR?

By Schmoel Yitzhak


World War I historian William Boyd has written books and a movie ("The Trench") about what originally was termed The Great War. Therefore, it stands to reason that Boyd knows quite a bit about casualties. 

An Englishman, Boyd struck a casualty-nerve with me recently when he wrote a piece for the New York Times called "Why World War I Resonates."

Among the author's points is that casualties suffered (1914-1918) then would not be tolerated by armies today. Boyd cites the fact that 117,000 American servicemen died in the 19 months of Uncle Sam's participation in World War I; more than twice as many as in Vietnam, nearly 20 times as many as in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"No society today," writes Boyd, "would accept such a horrendous casualty count."

Not true. 

There is at least one society that would accept a considerably larger casualty count -- as long as it doesn't happen to be either its own soldiers nor its citizens. 

That would be Iran whose mullahs and assorted other political bullies have made it evident that the elimination of Israel is a top priority with militant Islam and the sooner Tehran completes its nuclear military project then aim will be taken at Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and all points from Haifa to Eilat. 

Sanctions are brushed aside by militant Iranians like a piece of dandruff on the collar.

It's noteworthy that whenever Barack Obama gets around to analyzing the Iranian threat, his challenges to Tehran are as circumspect as the useless sanctions that are developed along Pennsylvania Avenue.

If the White House ever has explicitly noted that the Iranian nuclear-bombs-to-be are meant for the destruction of Israel, it certainly has been uttered somewhere in a cloak room because I haven't heard it nor has the Jewish community. 

By contrast, two of the leading Republican candidates have unabashedly pointed out who to fear and why.

Mitt Romney has reiterated that the "Palestinians" want no part of a "two-state" solution. What the Arabs want -- the Republican front-runner correctly notes --  is one-state; an Arab Palestine, bereft of Jews; no more, no less.

Newt Gingrich, Israel's most consistent and fervent supporter in the GOP race, makes an even more pointed comment . In a sense Gingrich's point tangentially is related to historian Boyd's recalling that at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, July 1, 1916, the British Army suffered 60,000 dead and wounded -- in one day. And to the comment -- I repeat-- "No society today would accept such a horrendous casualty count."

As Gingrich points out, if the Iranians make good on their wipe-out-Israel threats, a pair of nuclear bombs would cause what Newt calls "a second Holocaust" and, in effect the end to the Jewish state.

The problem for Jews in Israel -- and everywhere else for that matter -- is that Gingrich is viewed in many middle-of-the-road, liberal and left quarters as some kind of hopeless nut case and therefore deserves neither votes nor any sane person's ear.

Thus, if Gingrich's voice-for-Israel is to be muted and Romney does go on to become the Republican candidate, will Mitt be as mightily pro-Israel as Newt? 

Doubtful but Romney's statements about the manner in which Benjamin Netanyahu was treated at the White House -- "Obama threw Bibi under the bus" -- suggests stronger support for Jerusalem than anyone since the Bush name adorned Washington.

What remains to be seen -- and this WILL be pivotal both for the candidates as well as Israel's future -- is what protective actions Obama takes in support of the Jewish State, particularly if Bibi decides that a pre-emptive attack on Iran's nuclear facilities is imperative to protect his nation.

Based on past -- and present -- performances, Washington's reaction will no doubt fall into the hand-wringing too-little-too late category. 

This, of course, is the irony of all ironies when one considers that Obama couldn't wait two days before helping to dethrone Hosni Mubarak, knowing full-well that he, Obama would be ushering in the same Muslim Brotherhood responsible for the assassination of Anwar Sadat and which would rip to shreds the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty at the earliest possible date.

When it comes to the endless slaughter of innocent Syrians, the American administration passively looks on even while Arab League monitors are forced to flee the bloodthirsty forces of President Bashar al-Assad. 

Then again, what did President Franklin Delano Roosevelt do when apprised that millions of European Jews were being exterminated -- some with the enthusiastic help of Jerusalem's Grand Mufti operating out of Berlin with Hitler -- and FDR has an opportunity to at least limit the killings? 

Nothing.

The oft-mocked Gingrich may be out of the race by the time you read this but when it comes to analyzing the Middle East, the Republican's decibel count is highest -- and accurate -- when he cites that: 1. Palestinians are an invented people; 2. That Israel should do whatever necessary to prevent a "Second Holocaust."

Regarding the six million Jews exterminated by the Nazis and their accomplices, historian Boyd says nothing about society not accepting "such a horrendous casualty count."

Assad's "society" would accept it, even if it meant killing 118,000 Syrians to maintain Bashar-al-Assad's power. 

As for the Iranian leaders, the eradication of six million Israelis would inspire smiles in Tehran, not to mention a few other centers of militant Islam.

Who knows what Boyd would write after that calamity took place.

Friday, January 27, 2012

1948, AND WELCOME TO FORT ISRAEL

By Simon Fischler

During his first term as Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu lacked the most important quality of a great leader, pragmatism.

That has all changed in his second term. Benjamin Netanyahu has become a true pragmatic, Israeli leader.

Faced with the constant barrage of negativity from a naive American president who was totally inept at seeing the Middle-East for what it is, Bibi – this time around – has been forced to contend with American pressure no Israeli PM has dealt with since David Ben Gurion.

Attempting to make good on the Israeli promise to do all it can to assist America in her foreign policy, Bibi carried out PEACE diplomacy that no other Israeli PM had been willing to do: freezing settlement building in Judea and Samaria.

That was Bibi showing what was needed to be the pragmatist he has become.

After the Palestinians spit this peace gesture back into the face of Israel and American President Barak Obama, Bibi was again forced to make a monumental decision.

Under intense American and European Union pressure Bibi had to decide to either appease an unappeasable Palestinian leadership by continuing the settlement freeze, or stand up to the world powers (as David Ben Gurion did when he declared the state of Israel) and say enough is enough: Israel cannot be the only side that gives in these negotiations.

Again Bibi showed colleagues how to be pragmatic by rejecting appeasement and demanding evenhandedness in the Mideast negotiations. Of course this sent the daydreamers, who think we still are living in the nineties and the Oslo Accords are still alive and well, into complete distress. They called Bibi ungrateful for not being an American Toady.

The great Thomas Friedman, sitting in his multi-million dollar home in Bethesda stroking his ridiculous mustache, said Bibi and Israel had lost their minds by refusing to accept the wave of freedom sweeping across the Middle East.

Today we see Bibi was once again proven right.

Mr. Friedman’s wave of Arab freedom movements have been replaced by the Muslim Brotherhood (the same people who ASSASSINATED, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat for making peace with Israel) in Egypt and more Islamists in Tunisia, Libya and anywhere else an election has been held.

While Friedman and Obama’s Middle East house of cards has crumbled around Israel, Bibi is again faced with a monumental decision fraught with possible repercussions.

After two weeks of ongoing negotiations in Amman, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority is threatening to walk away from negotiations if Israel does not succumb to their asinine preconditions. Those preconditions, a halt to building in Judea and Samaria and Israel accepting the so called 1967 borders for a Palestinian state, totally negate the purpose of negotiations.

What should Bibi do? What is good for Israel? More appeasement? More giving to an Arab wolf in sheep’s clothing? I think not!

Bibi must take this opportunity to end this now insane fallacy called negotiating with the Palestinians.

Think for a moment about the most interesting comment to come out of these ludicrous negotiations it will help you to understand why Israel must stop the fallacy called negotiations: a diplomat from the Palestinian Authority said the 21- point document presented by the Israelis for achieving peace was worthless.

Of course this is a predictable comment coming from a Palestinian diplomat, because if Israel does not immediately wave the white flag and cry surrender, they immediately declare the Israeli side null and void.

But what is truly worthless in all of this mess?

Is a piece of Paper signed by an Arab calling himself the leader of the Palestinian nation worth something to Israel?

NO!

It will give us nothing, no peace, no TRUE recognition of our rights, as AL Pacino would NOTHING!

For the record, Egypt is proof of this.

The side that is getting something of no worth in the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians is the Israeli side!

We have a state; they do not. We have control of most the land we want; they do not. We can set borders and tell the world to go fly a kite, as Ben Gurion did in 1948; the Palestinians can’t.

And to those who like to threaten Israel with the One State solution, take a good, long look at what Israel could do.

It would be possible to maintain a large Jewish Majority by taking the land WE really want and recognizing a Palestinian State on what is left over.

Just as America and the EU are shutting their borders to immigration, so can Israel.

The Palestinians would get what land is left for them in Judea, Samaria and Gaza; from there they would have to fend for themselves.

On the other hand, if there were a one-state solution it would not include Israel. This is why the European-placed King of Jordan is doing anything and everything to push Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

Do not forget it was England that was nice enough to give three quarters of the land promised to the Jews by international law and the League of Nations to a Saudi war lord named Abdullah. Thus creating the Kingdom of Transjordan; todays Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

If there were a one-state solution it would be Jordan and what is left to the Palestinian’s in Judea and Samaria.

For America and her buddies in the EU it will also mean the end of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and a Western ally. After all the State backed SEGREGATION that is practiced in Jordan, suppressing the seventy percent majority population of Palestinian's can last only so long. Eventually the Palestinian majority in Jordan will take control.

Basically everyone but Israel has something to lose by the Palestinians walking away, and that needs to be made very clear to the Obama administration and the European Union.

It is time for the Pragmatic leadership of Israel, lead by Bibi, Uzi Dayan, Ehud Barak, Moshe Yaalon and Dan Meridor to put their aces on the table.

The Israelis need to make it clear that if the Palestinians walk away from the table and do not return to negotiate -- without preconditions, Israel will declare all principles of Oslo and thereafter invalid.

It needs to be made clear by our leadership that if the America and the EU do not start cozying up to Israel, there could be absolute hell to pay.

We are no longer in the mood to be had by anyone; especially not this made-up, colonialist rabble of Arabs that calls itself the Palestinians.

Welcome back to Fort Israel -- are you ready to mount the ramparts?

Monday, January 23, 2012

ABOUT DEMANDS AND A JUST RESPONSE

By Schmoel Yitzhak

There has been a lot of "demanding" going around these days by folks whose comments range between fatuous and foolish.

Leading off the intellectually weak batting order is none other than senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. (Liberals like to call him a "moderate." I call him a phony.)

Be that as it may, Erekat is demanding that Israel release Aziz Duek, the speaker of the Palestinian parliament who was recently arrested. Plus, he wants 130 other prisoners released including Marwan Barghouti, head of Fatah's Tanzim armed wing.

Presumably, Erekat's "demand" is linked to meetings he's conducting with Israeli envoy Isaac Molocho in Amman to advance negotiations between Israel and the Arabs who conveniently masquerade under the banner "Palestinians," although there is no such nation.

Nor will there by any negotiations for the pure and simple reason that the Arabs continually pre-torpedo genuine peace meetings with demands that cannot -- and should not -- be met. As Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman cogently notes, the Arabs are trying to determine the facts on the ground and internationalize the conflict.

Hence, the so-called Palestinians never stop "demanding." If it isn't the release of prisoners such as Barghouti -- who has been in jail for good reason -- then there's the ever present demand for a construction halt in just about any place Israelis want to build, be it East Jerusalem, Judea or Samaria.

Why should Molocho, who represents Benjamin Netanyahu, give in to any of these demands when three critical points remain apparent: 1. Erekat's Palestinian Authority buddies are in constant negotiations with Hamas for a "unity" government. Not long ago Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with Hamas leader Khaled Meshal to set the ground for Hamas to join the PLO.

Since it's clear that Hamas is dedicated to Israel's destruction -- and if you don't believe it, just ask Meshal -- what's the point of Molocho even talking to Erekat?

2. If an election were to take place in the West Bank and Gaza, Hamas would easily win over the PA, leaving negotiations back at Square One which is nowhere because of the Hamas refusal to accept Israel's right to exist.

3. Should a Palestinian state ever be declared -- it should not -- Abbas has made it abundantly clear that Jews would not be allowed to live there. Therefore, such a theoretical country would be the purest type of an apartheid state.

Could you imagine the reception Israel would get if it said tomorrow no Arabs could live inside her borders? Apparently Apartheid (Israel is no where close to being an Apartheid State, America, Australia and most of Western are much closer to being Apartheid States than Israel)is fine as long as it is carried out by the Arabs.

Alas, "demands" upon Israel abound everywhere, not merely inside Arab capitals, unless, of course, you consider Paris part of the Islamic empire.

In the France of an ever-growing Muslim population -- "demands" on Israel are couched in another word, "warnings."

Thus, we have French President Nicolas Sarkozy warning Israel against any military intervention against Iran over its nuclear program.

Sarkozy apparently is unmoved by the fact that Iran is hellbent for building nuclear weapons with a top priority to wipe out Israel with atomic bombs. Bear in mind that Sarkozy is head of a nation that twice was invaded by the Germans: first in 1914 to ignite World War I and again in 1940 as World War II was spread across Europe by the Nazis.

If the Kaiser's -- and then Hitler's -- military build-up was an evil portent of terrible things to come, why shouldn't the Iranian threat be taken seriously?

It has been proven over and over again that Iranian warlords scoff at the "much stronger sanctions" that Sarkozy and the ineffective American president Barak Obama propose. They fiddle while the Iranians build bigger and more threatening weaponry.

Interestingly -- make that frighteningly -- Sarkozy's "warning" against a military strike on Iran coincides with the 70th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference on the Nazi "Final Solution" for the Jewish people.

The primary difference between Wannsee and Tehran is that Hitler essentially kept his "Final Solution" plans as secretive as possible whereas the Iranians make no bones about their desire to execute a "Final Solution -- Round Two."

That being the obvious case, why shouldn't Israel defend itself by preventing a nuclear Iran? Bibi has every right to take every measure -- military and otherwise -- to, as the Israeli Prime Minister so aptly puts it, "Ensure that such a human tragedy as 'The Final Solution' never happens again."

This much is certain; despite tissue-paper threats from the White House and the European Union, there will be no quick, intense moves against Iran. That means that the Israel-hating leaders in Tehran will consolidate their nuclear infrastructure and better protect it from military strikes and become immune from such strikes before any significant sanctions take place.

Israel can expect no meaningful help from Sarkozy, who appears more worried about his Muslim constituency than Israel's security.

As for Obama's quiet threat to Bibi against any Israeli pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, remember that the White House is considerably more concerned about the president's re-election -- rising oil prices, always a worry -- than Israel's protection against a REAL atomic threat.

My conclusion is the same as Sarkozy's or Obama's would be were either leader in Netanyahu's shoes.

Bibi has made it clear that the Israeli government has the "right, duty and capability" to prevent the elimination of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.

No threats nor warnings from the likes of Saeb Erekat nor Nicolas Sarkozy nor Barack Obama can shake that conviction.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

WELCOME TO PALESTINIANISM

By Simon Fischler

Stateless and still seeking the destruction of Israel -- what does that get you?

Welcome to Palestinian nationalism.

How have the Palestinian reached this stage in their warped development?

I repeat, via Palestinian nationalism!

What is another way of putting this curious development?

How about calling it victimism?

That’s simply because of this indisputable fact: when a nation spends all of its time blaming another party for its problems, it becomes the eternal victim whether or not it really is the victim.

A brief historical review proves that this “victimization” has enveloped the Palestinians from the get-go.

With that in mind, let me point out that nearly every Israel-basher conveniently forgets a pivotal point.

This is fact; the United Nations agreed on 29 November 1947 to two states in the land of Israel. One for the Jews and one for the Arabs: the Jews agreed; the Arabs did not and decided on war, a war to annihilate the Jews of Israel.

It was a war which the Arabs lost.

What’s more, they were defeated despite having an overwhelming advantage of multiple Arab armies arrayed against a rag-tag, patched-together, nascent Israeli Defense Forces.

Nonethelss, Israel (Little David) managed to secure her Independence with the help of nobody.

Meanwhile, the Palestinians managed to lose everything allotted to them from the United Nations. And this, despite help from armies of Egypt, Jordan (led by British officers), Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Morocco and even contingents from Yemen.

Somehow, the way the pro-Palestinians put it, this is all Israel’s fault.

Far too many contemporaries conveniently have also forgotten about the Palestinian leader during World War II. Maybe Nick Clegg should read more history before he opens his pompous, colonialist mouth!

That happened to be the virulent, Jew-hating Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.

Haj Amin el Husseini worked hand-in-glove with Adolf Hitler. Working -- sometimes from Berlin -- The Mufti’s aim was to deport all Jews of the then-Palestinian Mandate (controlled by Britain) to European death camps.

That means but one thing, the Arabs were actively aiding the Nazi's; hence they were directly involved with the Nazi holocaust and were war criminals!

With that in mind, it is also worth noting that, during the Israeli war of independence, while Israel was fighting for its life, David Ben Gurion fought a short but nasty Civil War.

It lasted for only one skirmish, but in that battle Ben Gurion gave the okay to sink a ship filled with arms and Holocaust survivors called the Altalena. This ship belonged to Menachem Begin’s underground militia, the Irgun.

This is an important piece of history from which the Palestinians need to learn.

If Mahmoud Abbas is not willing -- nor able --to corral the mini-armies belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the Palestinians never will have a state.

Ben Gurion knew at the time that were he to allow Begin to work him over and allow a militia outside of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) arms, it would be the start of anarchy such as we see today in Gaza and Judea/Samaria (which outsiders call The West Bank).

The Palestinians simply cannot legitimately blame Israel forever if there are thousands of armed militants running the Gaza strip and Judea/Samaria!

A reflection on The Oslo Accords reveals how completely the Palestinians have enrobed themselves in this guise of victim.

Consider what unfolded at Oslo.

Israel had everything to lose and Palestinian had everything to gain.

In return for the Gaza strip and Judea/Samaria, Israel would get a piece of paper saying that there was now a peace partnership between Israel and the Palestinians. Oh, and that Israel existed as a state.

There was, however, a paper problem.

Israel already did exist, so who needed it on a piece of paper.

Then, Ehud Barak committed one of the world’s most outrageous attempts at benevolence. He offered Yasser Arafat all of Gaza, 97% of Judea and Samaria plus East Jerusalem and the Muslim and Christian quarters of The Old City.

It was an offer that no sane negotiating leader could refuse.

Yet Arafat said no to that!

Not only were Barak and U.S. President Bill Clinton rebuffed, Arafat then proceeded to show his appreciation for Israel’s willingness to compromise by starting a war against Israeli citizens!

What has been revealed in the years since the start of Arafat’s war presents a more sinister picture of the Palestinians true intentions.

The Palestinians were planning to go to war as soon as the Camp David talks failed. They simply used Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount, Judaism’s most holy site, as an excuse.

This visit was also planned ahead with the Palestinians to guarantee a smooth and pleasant visit for Sharon with no violence.

As we know today the Palestinians did just the opposite.

Here is a quote from Imad Falouji who was then the PA Communications Minister: “The Intifada was carefully planned since the return of (Palestinian President) Yasser Arafat from Camp David negotiations rejecting the U.S. conditions."

A statement from Mamduh Nofal, former military commander of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, supplied more evidence of pre-September 28 military preparations. Nofal recounts that “Arafat told us, ‘Now we are going to fight, so we must be ready.’"

During Arafat’s War more than four thousand Palestinians were killed, mostly in Israeli retaliatory strikes to suicide bombings and attacks against Israeli citizens.

The Palestinian economy has been totally destroyed and Palestinian society is on the brink of collapse. Yet the Palestinians blame Israel for their sorrow, instead of taking responsibility for their actions.

Interestingly the Arabs always start the conflicts, yet after they lose them, they’re once again THE VICTIM!

Europe and America poured billions of dollars into the Palestinian Authority during the Oslo period, but where did that money go?

We know it was not used for building what would become a Palestinian state, because we know, for one thing, there are still refugee camps in Gaza with open sewers!

Instead it was put into the pockets and Swiss bank accounts of the “peacemaker” Arafat, or used to buy weapons that were eventually turned on Israel after Camp David.

By 2002, Palestinian corruption had reached so egregious a state that the Americans and Europeans finally intervened.

They insisted that Salam Fayyad (someone they knew could be trusted to place the money where it belonged) become the PA’s finance minister. Of course the Palestinians blame Israel for their financial woes. More victimism!

One final -- a clinching -- example. The Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza strip.

It had been -- logically -- hoped that the Palestinians would immediately embrace this newfound freedom and convert it to their peaceful advantage.

But, no, this has never been their way.

Instead of building schools and places of business, the first thing the Palestinians did was shell the Negev town of Sederot with Qassam rockets.

At first, Israel turned the other cheek. But the rockery multiplied.

Eventually Israel tired of broken promises to stop the aerial assaults. The Jews hit back, which simply was the natural thing to do.

Naturally, both the PA and the average Palestinian blamed Israel.

Hamas is making every effort to get the EU, UN and others to support its government. But every other day Khaled Mashal, the leader of Hamas, insists that Hamas will never recognize Israel.

This is not just curious, it is sick and ironic since every Israeli government since that of the late Yitzhak Rabin has respected and acknowledged Palestinian rights.

Even the Likud, the Israeli political party that CNN, the New York Times and the BBC love to call the ‘far right,” has recognized that the Palestinians must achieve a state to reach peace.

What is sad about Palestinian Nationalism or Palestinian Victimism is its failure to see that it simply will not defeat Israel.

Israel has fought hard to create a nation and a thriving country.

Israel sports an economy that withstood Arafat’s war, the 2006 war with Hezbollah and the Cast Lead operation.

In fact today the dollar is at it one of its lowest points against the Israeli shekel and the Tel Aviv stock exchange has done nothing but become stronger over the last decade-and-a-half.

Israel has a world-acclaimed Universal Health system -- something most Americans would love to have -- along with medical centers on a par with America’s best.

Israeli technology is at the cutting edge and places such as the Weizmann institute in Rehovot and the Technion in Haifa are well-noted for their contributions to the world of science.

The IDF is as strong as ever. Furthermore, it is taking the lessons of its last conflicts with Hezbollah and Hamas and incorporating them in future battle plans.

Although there were one thousand Israeli civilian casualties during Arafat’s war Israeli society proved its resilience and commitment to survival.

This point is most cogent in evaluating Jewish-Arab relations in the Middle East: Israelis will never sign off on the freedom or their nation.

No matter how many radical leftists try to call us fascist, Colonialist or an Apartheid state.

No matter how many Carter’s, Chomsky’s or Finkelsteins commit to the Palestinian side (verbally, at any rate), Israelis will always fight for their country.

And no matter how much the Palestinians attempt to whine their way to statehood, it will not happen until they assume the responsibility that Israel did in 1948.

Israelis know they have every right to live in their country, which they built. Come to Tel Aviv and look upon this fact with your own eyes and you will see why the Palestinian victim will never impress when compared with the facts.

Hopefully, the Palestinians will realize this and soon.

Then -- and only then -- can they begin what could be called Palestinian redemption.

Then they could get what they need: schools, industry, medical centers and a livelihood.

The day the Palestinian leaders commit to this worthy cause and stop trying to destroy Israel there will be peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

And finally, there will be no more victims.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

THE FEARFUL "NEBBISH" UNCLE SAM

By Schmoel Yitzhak

nebbish -- an innocuous, ineffectual, weak, helpless or hapless unfortunate. A sad sack; a loser.

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The only thing we have to fear is fear itself: Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933.




You don't have to be a Yiddish scholar to know the meaning of nebbish.

Nor do you require a doctorate in Middle East politics to understand that Uncle Sam has become the perceived nebbish of international politics.

Or should I say "Uncle Obama" since America's Commander-In-Chief has re-defined nebbish-ism when it comes to fearless decision-making.

Timidity, anxiety, hesitation, apprehension and dread are among the bywords of White House policy-making as its actions allows Iran to movel relentlessly toward its goal of becoming a nuclear power and -- not secondarily -- wiping Israel off the earth's face with that atomic capability.

The president reacts to the ongoing Iranian threats with a distillation of useless rhetoric and endlessly watered-down sanctions that have done nothing more than embolden Tehran every which way including the Gulf of Hormuz.

You would think that by this time Obama would understand that he heads the world's only super-power and if he fails to utilize that force when necessary, his foes -- that is, all of the Arab world -- will regard him as the nebbish commander somewhat less threatening than Mighty Mouse.

The last outstanding Democratic president, Harry S. Truman, knew when and where to wield that power as the Japanese learned full well at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By the time Nippon's two big cities were leveled Emperor Hirohito broke several speed records in his haste to surrender.

And for those revisionist historians who retroactively condemn Truman for his "brutal" act, bear in mind that the U.S. military projected a million American casualties had the planned invasion of the Japanese mainland taken place. Translated: the lives of more than a million GIs were saved by The Man From Missouri.

Obama has more power at his disposal than Truman ever did but when it comes to the international scene the current president acts more like the 98-pound weakling who gets sand kicked in his face with impunity by the beach bully.

The latest example of White House cheek-turning occurred over the weekend when it was announced that a joint American-Israeli defense exercise due to begin in the coming weeks was postponed.

Why?

Because Uncle Sam is running scared again and Iranian sabre-ratting invariably works when America is involved.

When Tehran threatens to block oil export routes out of the Gulf of Hormuz instead of replying with an immediate show of force, the White House wavers; hence a massive Israeli-American defense drill is stopped because Washington wants to avoid causing further tensions in the region. Imagine that for outrageous timidity.

The proposed drill was vital to Israel's security because it was designed to simulate the missiles fired by Iran or other antagonistic states toward Israel.

In other words a project designed to potentially save thousands of Israeli lives is shot down by Obama while out of the other side of his mouth he "reiterates his unshakeable commitment to Israel's security."

Trouble is by canceling the exercise Obama automatically erases his statement about an "unshakeable" commitment and reduces it to the level of most-shakeable.

Likewise when Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan was killed last week, Obama phoned Benjamin Netanyahu criticizing Bibi for the attack when the president knows full well that it's imperative for Israel to take all appropriate actions to deny Iran the ability to build an Israel-destroying atomic weapon.

And what, you may ask, is Obama afraid of when he holds all the power cards?

Israel's vice prime minister Moshe Ya'alon has the answer; it's all about votes because there's no guarantee that the incumbent Democrat will win the election next Fall. Therefore the Chief Executive is worried.

"There is hesitation," says Ya'alon, "for fear of oil prices rising this year, out of election year considerations."

To those who still believe that Obama has "an unshakeable commitment to Israel's security." bear in mind that the U.S. Senate had just passed a resolution by a majority of 100-1 to impose stiffer sanctions on Iran but the president -- in true nebbish form -- hesitates, fearing the Arabs, worried about oil prices while putting Israel in greater jeopardy.

You don't have to be a renowned philosopher in the Yogi Berra class to know that he who hesitates is lost.

In the case, though, Obama's fearful hesitation makes Israel the unfortunate loser!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

THE PALESTINIAN "OCCUPATION"

By Simon Fischler

While out riding my bike on the beautiful ISRAELI Golan Heights, I had a realization. I guess pushing one’s body has a tendency to make us see things more clearly.

I realized the Palestinians really are an occupied people, just as they and their misguided supporters claim.

In fact the Palestinian occupation has existed long before the Six Day War.

In the early 20th Century -- about twenty to thirty years after the modern birth of Zionism, the group that today is called “Palestinian” found its occupation.

Yes, the “Palestinian Nation” has been occupied; occupied with condemning and denying Jewish emancipation and self-determination.

This, in a land that belonged to “Israelites” long before there was an illiterate upstart Arab warrior named Mohammed.

The “Palestinian Nation” has made it their job, their “OCCUPATION”, to hate Jews and Israel.

Their failure to recognize Israel’s right to exist as the Jewish nation/state is a declaration of that hatred and racism.

This “occupation” that consumes the Palestinians so completely has caused them to turn their backs on statehood, normalization with the world and peace with Israel.

What consumes these allegedly “occupied” Palestinians is a political policy so ripe with HATRED AND RACISM TOWARDS JEWS that it could be picked straight from a tree!

This “OCCUPATION” does not just cover the Palestinians; it has moved like a virus to the fanatics of the world.

Fanatics have always had it out for the Jews and their aspirations of freedom and self-determination.

It makes no difference what fanatics you’re talking about: the extreme left and even the not so fanatical left; right wing fascists; Neo-Nazis; Islamists; Insane Third World dictators -- they have all jumped on the made-up nation of Palestine’s band wagon of anti-Semitism. They have made it their policy to hate Israel and blame the Jews for everything.

As many of us raise our children in America and Israel to be the best they can in the work area and society, Palestinians and their brethren teach their offspring from the most tender age to hate, distort and delegitimize the Jewish Nation’s historical rights to self-determination.

Remind you of another group? They were called Nazi Germans.

A known fact overlooked by most in today’s political and diplomatic world is that the Palestinian Arabs made an alliance with Adolf Hitler and his Nazis. Led by Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, Palestinian leadership of the time formulated its own final solution for Israel’s Jewish population.

Israel’s largest compromise since the destruction of the Peace Process by Yasser Arafat in 2000 – the settlement freeze -- was met with complete Palestinian distain.

Palestinian political and diplomatic disrespect was also slapped across the foreign policy “face” of the Obama administration. Obama leaned hard on Israel to get the freeze in the first place, and at great political risk.

Undaunted, and using their best Palestinian “OCCUPATION” tactics the PA/PLO leadership promptly spit that gift back in Obama’s face, by refusing to enter into ANY sort of negotiations until a mere one month before the freeze was due to expire.

The fanatics and the Occupied (with destroying Israel) Palestinians have bamboozled the world with the insane notion that Israel, the only existing liberal democracy in the entire Middle East, is oppressing the Palestinians of Gaza.

These are the same oppressed Palestinians who have rejected peace and compromise since the UN legally decided to partition the British-ruled Palestine Mandate into two nations – one to become Israel; the other, Palestine.

These are the same Palestinians who rejected peace in 1967 at the Khartoum summit, after all the Palestinian nation was occupied; occupied, that is, with destroying Israel.

These are the same Palestinians who perpetuated their own occupation by rejecting statehood and peace in 2000; opting yet again for another skirmish with Israel.

These are the same Palestinians who continued their occupation even after Israel UNILATERALLY uprooted her towns in the Gaza strip.

These are the same “helpless,” occupied Palestinians who value rockets and hopefully killing Jews above peace, stability, food and other goods.

YES, THE PALESTINIANS ARE OCCUPIED: THEY ARE AS OCCUPIED AS THEY HAVE ALWAYS BEEN.

AFTER ALL, THEY HAVE A NATION/STATE TO DENIGRATE, DELEGITIMIZE, DENY AND DESTROY.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

WHEN DREAM TURNS TO NIGHTMARE

By Schmoel Yitzhak

"Dream When You're Feeling Blue" -- (From the 1944 hit tune, "Dream," words and music by Johnny Mercer.
There's a lot of "dreaming" going on these days when it comes to analyzing the Middle East and most of those visions are turning into nightmares.

* DREAM  ONE: THAT EGYPT'S MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD CAN SUSTAIN A PEACE WITH ISRAEL. 

This is a White House fantasy encouraged by an Obama Administration which couldn't wait to torpedo Hosni Mubarak. As anyone with half-a-brain could have deduced a year ago, the well-coordinated Muslim Brotherhood would gradually gain enough power in Cairo to call the shots and that's precisely what's happening now. 

What's more, this is happening with Obama's complicity because it's rapidly becoming apparent that the White House does not have the spine to challenge the Brotherhood and will therefore employ the same appeasement tactics that failed with Iran and is now being employed with the Taliban. 

There has not been one pro-Israel suggestion from the new Egyptian power lords and there never will be one, based on the group's anti-Semitic philosophy. In terms of Egypt breaking its peace treaty with Israel it simply comes down to a matter of when; and that will be when the Muslim Brotherhood decides that it's most propitious to do so.

Before dreaming about the Muslim Brotherhood maintaining the Egyptian-Israel peace treaty consider what the respected Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs concludes: "There is no way that they will continue to respect the peace treaty. Indeed they will use any excuse to justify its abrogation and blame it on Israel. And they will do so at the earliest opportunity."

* DREAM TWO: THAT THE ARAB LEAGUE, UNCLE SAM AND THE EUROPEAN UNION CAN STOP THE SLAUGHTER IN SYRIA.

If it wasn't so pathetic it would have been a hilarious scene when the Arab League "intervened" to stop Comrade Assad's campaign of bloodshed among his civilians. Topping this theater of the absurd was Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby's declaration that he had no doubt that Syrian forces were killing civilians. 

The next thing you know Elaraby will be telling us that he's convinced that the sun rises in The East. While Uncle Sam and the EU dreams on, Bashar Assad understands that none of the aforementioned will take any decisive action against him. They will feign here and feign there meanwhile training their big diplomatic guns against Israel which only wants to build homes for its citizens. 

As for the effectiveness of the Arab League observers, in less than one week at least 150 Syrians were killed since the observers began their mission. And if you're wondering what a severe case of lockjaw looks like; check out Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton when it comes to helping the Syrian rebels. Dreamsville is another name for Pennsylvania Avenue.

* DREAM THREE: THAT AN ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE PACT IS POSSIBLE. 

This falls into the "Super-Dream" department because before any serious Arab-Istaeli talks ever begin PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas lays out a series of pre-conditions which he unalterably knows Benjamin Netanyahu will refuse. Why even think about talks if Abbas never intends to recognized Israel as The Jewish State? It's pointless for Israel's Prime Minister to open discussions with someone demanding -- as a pre-condtion -  that Israel revert to 1967 borders. That's like prescribing cyanide as a nightcap to ensure sleep.

Then again, what genuine power does Abbas possess? Obama, Tony Blair and Catherine Ashton like to dream that Abbas is capable of hammering out a peace treaty, but that suggests that they're smoking crack. Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick scores an analytical bullseye when she dissects the so-called Palestinian leader whose weekly rhetoric is filled with threats against Israel if peace talks fail.

"Abbas today represents no one," Glick asserts. "His term of office ended three years ago. Hamas won the last Palestinian elections in 2006. And Hamas's leaders -- like their counterparts in the Muslim Brotherhood -- make no bones about their intention to destroy Israel."

* DREAM FOUR: A DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL VICTORY IN NOVEMBER WILL BENEFIT ISRAEL.

Obama's Judenrat corps is spreading the word that the president really-really-really would serve Israel's interests better than any Republican candidate such as Newt Gingrich. The facts indicate otherwise. The president's latest Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, has been so egregiously -- and openly -- hostile to Israel you would think that his monologues are written by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. 

The president's foreign policy pal, Senator John Kerry,  is in the same anti-Israel league as Panetta. Not surprisingly, Kerry has been kowtowing to just about every militant Islamic group between Algeria and Pakistan. Kerry is America' s answer to Neville Chamberlain. When it comes to foreign policy, Kerry resembles a pinch-hitter with a batting average of .000 but who's continually sent to the place to rid him of his slump. Rubin Reports columnist Barry Rubin sums up Kerry's record thusly:

"He has been wrong about every Middle Eastern issue, notably his failed engagement policy with Syria and Iran. Might Kerry learn something from this experience about how radical forces can lie to you and manipulate you into supporting their repressive regimes? Of course not. He's now making the same mistake by engaging the Arab Islamists."

And so they dream on in Washington while Obama's Middle East policies eventually will produce nightmares for Israel and very like America as well.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

FIGHT THE HATE TO SAVE THE FATE OF ISRAEL

By Simon Fischler

As the culture of delegitimizing Israel and the Jewish nation garners strength around the world it must be clear to everyone that this culture is pure anti-Semitism and pure evil.

Let’s be honest, what is happening to Israel and Israelis today has nothing to do with freedom, justice or even self-determination for the Palestinians.

Today, people downright hate my country and my people, and as I see it, they hate us for no real reason whatsoever.

Today those who stand against Israel are not asking her to make peace, they are asking her to commit suicide.

Why do these people feel it is right to take a majority Jewish country and turn it into another majority Arab country? Only because of a deep rooted hatred towards the Jewish nation.

Why is right to deny the people who have fought so hard to protect their homes, families and lives, the right to their nation?

Of course if you ask the question above, you must remember ask why humans once thought it was acceptable to ship Jews off to concentration camps to burn in the fires of anti-Semitic Europe.

This is our nation we built from nothing, and why are we any less right in wanting to maintain our own self-determination?

My fellow citizens have worked so hard to build a flourishing democracy (a democracy so strong an Arab member of the Knesset can actually attend Israel Apartheid Week) that looks after ALL of its citizens.

Why are we the ones who are wrong? We are not in the in wrong we are incredibly right, in fact to right.

We may not be perfect, and I know we have made mistakes – some of them whoppers, but we are most certainly not an apartheid state.

Anyone who has done historical research knows this. Anyone who has taken the time to actually look at what Apartheid South Africa was would have to be either incapable of processing information or filled with truly malicious intent to say that Israel carries out Apartheid laws.

Most interestingly, some of the most vociferous of my country’s haters are the people of Europe. The people calling my country an Apartheid State are descendants of those who carried out some of the worst atrocities the world has seen, from the Spanish Inquisition, to the rape and pillage of North America, Africa and vast areas of the Pacific, as well as the Holocaust.

How do these people who bear the heritage of so much cruelty in history have the right to condemn my country for defending herself?

For that matter, since when has it become wrong for a nation to defend its civilians?

Israel and Israelis have always wanted peace. We have demonstrated that on numerous occasions. Why must we go beyond what all other nations would offer for peace?

Why must we get less in return for the land we give up than America got from Japan?

What will the world say when the Palestinians attack Israel after she has returned what is rightfully hers thanks to the Balfour Declaration?

If Israel gives back Judea and Samaria, signs a peace treaty and then gets attacked by the new Palestinian State, will it be okay with the UN and these elements who hate us so much for Israel to defend herself? Of course we know what the answer to that question is!

Must we go to the gas chambers, with bowed heads, again for these people to be happy?

That is the only answer I see as the cause for this venomous anti-Semitism shown towards Israel.

No matter how right we are (and we are very right) the world is always going to hate us.

IT ALWAYS HAS!

It can only be hate, for people to tell a nation whose majority firmly believes in its ethos to stop believing in them.

Israelis love their country; they celebrate it all the time. Who has the right to tell them they are wrong for loving their freedom, loving their nation, loving what they have built through most difficult conditions?

Who has the right to tell them they do not deserve this state after all the work they have done to build this nation, then protect it, while still searching for peace?

No one has that right. Anyone who tells us we should not be proud of what and who we are is someone who has never taken the time to see all that Israelis have created; to see what we have built from nothing in a constant state of war we never wanted to have. Someone who is nothing more than a racist.

So, again, where does this hate come from?

There is only one place such deeply-rooted hate towards the Jews and the Jewish nation comes from.

ANTI-SEMITISM.

It has to be and it makes no difference if there are a few Jews mixed in with the haters. Why? Because these Jews -- even some who are Israelis -- hate themselves so much because of their very Jewishness. These Jews are like many of those in the past who despised themselves because they were a part of this “wretched” nation.

So if Anti-Semitism is the true root cause of all this Israel bashing, hating and delegitimizing, what can we as Israelis do?

We can only do what we have always done, from the oppression of slavery in Egypt, to the Babylonian captivity and the Persian, Greek, Roman, Arab, Ottoman and European occupations of our land. We must fight the just battle and show the world that we, the Jews and the Israeli nation, will not lie down and sacrifice ourselves for their ingrained anti-Semitism. We must fight back, protect what we have built and yet work for true peace and acceptance of our just right to maintain our own self-determination and freedom.

But this is a new war, one in which our enemies fight with new weapons. We must develop our own new arsenal of weapons to fight this war of slander and lying invective. This is truly a time when the old adage is not true: we proved long ago that “sticks and stones could not break our bones,” but if we don’t learn the new rules of engagement, and soon, “words will certainly harm us.”

Sunday, January 1, 2012

PEACE NOW, ARE YOU KIDDING?

By Simon Fischler

Everyone take a good f---ing look at Peace Now and Americans for Peace Now. They have just released a new media weapon against Israel, it is called NEWS NOSH.

There is no news in it, just garbage.

This phony group and their new rag for delegitimizing Israel stand for only one type of peace -- the one where the sovereign, Jewish, democratic State of Israel is replaced with a fascist, colonialist Arab/Muslim state.

Maybe this will help some of you American Jews realize why such a great chasm has formed between our two communities.

Peace Now and Americans for Peace Now are the prime reason why Israel needs laws to protect her democracy from foreign governments and foreign citizens who wish to destroy the precious gem that Israel holds onto; the only true democracy in the Levant.

Is it not funny that the American Jewish community (for the most part the liberal Reform movement) cries bloody murder when Israel produces an ad campaign pushing for Israeli citizens to return home; but has no problem dictating to Israel how it should behave towards the Arab governments that are attempting to destroy it by means of organizations like Peace Now and Americans for Peace Now?

Yes this is all very tricky. Groups like Peace Now seek to bamboozle you with their names but in the end, it is the same old anti-Israel garbage as before.

The behavior of Peace Now towards the government of Israel and the Israeli Defense Forces after the Gaza War was a glaring example of their venomous behavior. Peace Now actively pushed soldiers to lie about the behavior of the IDF in Gaza. To top it off they gave false documents to Richard Goldstone and the UN which were used against Israel.

In the end Goldstone retracted his stance against Israel, largely because the IDF and the Government of Israel went to great lengths to prove that the info given to him by Peace Now was false.


Do not be fooled; these organizations are funded and used for one purpose: they are committed to destroying Israel.

They stand against human rights by backing Arab colonialism and seek only to delegitimize Israel with out and out lies. Again Peace Now's complicity in the lies of Goldstone Report is just one of the many smoking guns pointing in their direction.

Israel, the only democracy in the Middle-East, North Africa and much of Asia where an Arab or Muslim can protest his or her government without being mauled, shot, stoned, beaten to death or killed in some other Muslim/Arabic fashion cannot afford to give into organizations like this.

In fact it is in the duty of freedom and democracy to pass laws that deny organizations like Peace Now their funding -- funding that is used to support the global Arab/Muslim, Oil campaign to blame Israel for the injustices and Colonialism of the Muslim/Arab world.

Peace Now and American’s for Peace now are merely disguised Arab/Muslim attempts to present WHITE FACES, or in this case JEWISH FACES to America and Europe.

Like the OIL CEO’s and University Honcho’s like Jonathan Cole, Peace Now is really the Israeli HQ for Saudi, Arab, Muslim oil barrens who seek to hide their atrocities behind the made-up Palestinian Nation, their phony refugees and continuation of the conflict against Israel.

As always the Arabs -- as they have since Mohammad -- are attempting to rob the Jewish/Israeli nation of its freedom, self-determination and democracy. Or in this case, Israel’s right to exist in the diplomatic and political arena.

This democracy that Peace Now tries so hard to condemn as unjust is the same democracy that serves all her citizens, Jewish, Bahai, Druze, Circassian, and Arab. Israel does this far better and far more representatively than America and the EU could ever hope to do.

It’s time to tell these haters like it is.

We aren’t going to be fooled by their BROWN SHIRT media campaigns anymore.

Tell them the truth.

It’s not the Knesset that is undemocratic; it’s Peace Now and their fascist friends who stand in the way of FREEDOM, DEMOCRACY, and PEACE.

THE ARAB SPRING FOLLIES

By Schmoel Yitzhak

If there was a legitimate musical comedy stage in the Middle East, some creative writer would do a take-off on Irving Berlin's classic tune, "There's No Business Like Show Business Like No Business I Know."

My rewrite job would go something like this, "There's No Business Like Assad Business Like No Massacre Business I Know."

And the next line -- with apologies to Irving Berlin -- "Everything About It Is Un-Appeling; Everything That Traffic Will Allow."

Seriously, can you believe what's going on in Syria and what the dictatorship is getting away with while Barack Obama wears blinders and murders continue. Meanwhile, Arab League monitors observe with less effectiveness than The Scarecrow in "The Wizard of Oz."

How can Uncle Sam pretend to be the world's moral guardian when America's -- that's you Mister President and your vapid Lady Secretary of State -- top dogs pull in their tails and bark about houses being built in Judea and Samaria as if they are a threat to peace.

Not that Great Britain, France or any of the other impotent European Union stalwarts have done anything whatsoever to put fear in the heart of Assad.

And this is supposed to be a flowering of the Arab Spring? Puh-leeze!

If it is any flower, it would have to be cactus because Libya is messier than it was before the so-called revolution especially now, with al-Quaida playing a significant part in the new regime.

As for the "democratic" Spring's results in Egypt; well, Uncle Barack really messed that one up, didn't he?

Mubarak was as much a friend of Israel as any Arab leader, give or take Jordan's Hussein, and all America's Chief Executive did was pull the chute on Hosni. And you know where that will lead: a militant Islamic leadership inevitably will take over, dissolve the peace treaty with Israel and very likely force Israel to go to war once more.

How about that "Spring" in Baghdad?Now that the president has pulled out his troops the tribal strife already is producing a murderous regime that sadly has Saddam overtones and you can bet that the situation in and out of Baghdad will get worse rather than better by Springtime.

Meanwhile, the Iranians continue developing their atomic capabilities secure in the knowledge that, A. Obama long ago was emasculated, long-distance, by the leaders in Tehran; B. Pro-Democratic forces in Iran will get no tangible support from America; C. Israel will be prevented from staging the necessary pre-emptive attack against the threatening atomic factories.

Really, it's astonishing that the American media possess so few journalists willing to examine Obama's appeasement policies for what they are. Certainly, there's no one in the White House press corps like Israeli columnist Barry Rubin who sees things clearly and sees them whole.

"Obama has rejected America's leadership role," Rubin asserts. "When he asks an aggressive dictator 'pretty please' he's asking for a spit in the face. And that's just what Obama has received from Iran, Venezuela and others. Iran's regime benefits in many ways by seeking nuclear weapons. The Palestinian Authority rulers benefit by not negotiating or compromising with Israel. The Muslim Brotherhood benefits by seeking to seize state power and transform their states into Islamic ones."

But the manner in which Bashar Assad has managed to elude justice for so many months of massacres is absolutely staggering to one's mind; and this in the face the supposedly-effective Arab League "monitors." each of whom might as well be auditioning for a role in "The Invisible Man.,"

So bold is Assad in the face of the monitors that activists claim that 32 people were killed on Friday alone in the strife-torn country. And what does one of the Arab League monitors have to say about that?

"Our goal is to observe...it is not to remove the president, our aim is to return Syria to peace and security."

Perhaps the most ludicrous aspect of it all is that the Arab League "monitors" represent countries with some of the world's worst human rights records.

So, you may ask, what right do they have to judge human rights in Syria?

And to that, I reply -- music, maestro, please! -- "There No Business Like Assad Business Like No Massacre Business I Know!"

Or, should I say, where's Mel Brooks when Assad needs him most?