Posts
10 hours ago
Sunday 17 January 2010
Israel Matzav: Video: IDF rescues man trapped in building in Haiti
Video: IDF rescues man trapped in building in Haiti
IDF Search and Rescue teams in Port-au-Prince Haiti pulled a 52 year-old Hatian man from the rubble of a collapsed building. The team worked for 8 hours to extract the man, who was in good condition despite wounds on his limbs and dehydration. He had been trapped in the rubble for 125 hours, and had managed to communicate his location to rescue forces via sms.
The IDF sent an aid delegation of over 220 search and rescue and medical personnel to assist in the rescue efforts following the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Search and rescue teams are working around the clock to extract victims trapped in the rubble and the IDF has constructed a field hospital capable of treating up to 500 people a day near the soccer field in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Let's go to the videotape.
There are pictures from this rescue here.
The IDF sent an aid delegation of over 220 search and rescue and medical personnel to assist in the rescue efforts following the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Search and rescue teams are working around the clock to extract victims trapped in the rubble and the IDF has constructed a field hospital capable of treating up to 500 people a day near the soccer field in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Let's go to the videotape.
There are pictures from this rescue here.
Israel Matzav: Video: IDF rescues man trapped in building in Haiti
Israel Matzav: Encouraging discipline in the IDF
Encouraging discipline in the IDF
I should probably preface this post by saying that I never served in the IDF. Having made aliya at an age well past the age at which one is normally drafted and at the tail end of the Russian aliya, the IDF had no interest in drafting me. (They did have a brief interest in my car, but that's another story). So I never served in the IDF. But something about this story doesn't make sense to me.Ten soldiers from the Nachal unit have been sent to the brig for refusing to follow orders. No, they didn't refuse to expel Jews from their homes. Read the story, and at the end, I'll tell you what I think the outcome should have been.
According to a letter they sent to higher-ups, the commander ordered them to hitchhike home for their weekends off – when they were stationed next to Gaza. They were also ordered to fire mortar shells, even though they were not trained to do so. In addition, the commander threatened to court-martial them for even the slightest infractions. As a result, the letter said, the soldiers no longer trusted the commander, and would no longer follow his commands.
An IDF spokesperson said that the army treats refusing orders of any type very seriously, and that the soldiers would be punished for doing so; however, their allegations against the commander would be investigated, the spokesperson said.
Armies are built on following orders and you can't have soldiers issuing blanket refusals to follow orders. On the other hand, one of the distinguishing factors of the Jewish army is that because of our experiences with the Nazis, who tried to claim that they were 'just following orders,' the IDF has a concept of a prima facie illegal order. If it's true that the commander ordered soldiers who were not trained to fire mortars to fire them, thereby endangering their own lives and those around them, that sounds like an order that ought not to be obeyed.
If the IDF deemed the charges serious enough to be investigated, shouldn't they have postponed the jail terms under after the investigation takes place? (I'm sure I will have a reader or two who is far more familiar with IDF procedures than I am, who can explain this).
If the IDF deemed the charges serious enough to be investigated, shouldn't they have postponed the jail terms under after the investigation takes place? (I'm sure I will have a reader or two who is far more familiar with IDF procedures than I am, who can explain this).
Israel Matzav: Encouraging discipline in the IDF
Israel Matzav: Kuwaiti foreign minister calls Netanyahu 'stupid and insane'
Kuwaiti foreign minister calls Netanyahu 'stupid and insane'
A foreign minister of one country called the Prime Minister of another country 'stupid and insane.' The second country demanded an apology? No. Threatened to withdraw its ambassador? What ambassador? After all, the second country is Israel, and this kind of treatment from Arab countries - who all want to love us if we would only sign on the dotted line to commit suicide under the Saudi plan - is routine. Kuwait's foreign minister lashed out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling the Israeli leader "stupid" and "insane," the Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported on Sunday.
Mohammed al-Sabah said the policies of "Israel's stupid and insane prime minister" had jeopardized the peace process, but that the Kuwaiti government remained committed to an Arab peace plan put forward by Saudi Arabia and would keep working to heal a split between the major Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and exiled Hamas chief Khaled Meshal were set to meet in the next 10 days, al-Sabah said.
"Abbas and Meshal will aim at completing the reconciliation proposal backed by Egypt," Ma'an reported him as saying, quoting the Kuwaiti press.
I'm sure that having Hamas in the picture would just do wonders to promote the 'peace process.'
/sarc
But fear not: Ma'an reports in a later update that 'moderate' 'Palestinian' PresidentMahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen has already thrown another monkey wrench in the wheels of 'reconciliation.'
/sarc
But fear not: Ma'an reports in a later update that 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President
Members of Fatah's Central Committee told Ma'an on Sunday that President Mahmoud Abbas will not meet with senior-most Hamas leader Khaled Mash'al until Hamas signs the Egyptian reconciliation document.
Their statements follow news that the Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Muhammad As-Sabah said that a reconciliation meeting will be held within the next ten days between Abbas and Mash’al, Kuwaiti media reported on Sunday.
"A meeting will join Abbas and Mash'al, aimed at accomplishing the reconciliation proposal backed by Egypt. Hamas rules itself and all discussions concerning affiliations to other sides are false," Sheikh As-Sabah told the Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabs.
Efforts to end Fatah-Hamas rivalry have been stonewalled, as Hamas demands that its amendments be taken into consideration. Meanwhile, Fatah officials say that the reconciliation document is finalized and have accused Hamas of attempting to stay general elections by delaying the ratification of the agreement.
Sure, they're going to be able to live together in peace and stability....
Israel Matzav: Kuwaiti foreign minister calls Netanyahu 'stupid and insane'
Israel Matzav: Video: First baby born in IDF field hospital in Haiti, named Israel
Video: First baby born in IDF field hospital in Haiti, named Israel
Footage from the IDF Field Hospital that has been set up in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after the earthquake. This video includes footage of the first baby born at the field hospital on 17 January 2009. The mother arrived at the IDF field hospital 8 months pregnant and Maj. Dr. Shir Bar and Maj. Efrat Shayer delivered a healthy baby boy, who was named 'Israel' by his mother.
The IDF field hospital is currently the largest operating in Port-au-Prince. It has a staff of over 40 doctors, with different specialists, nurses, paramedics and features a maternity ward, ICU, pediatrics unit, internal medicine department, a pharmacy, and operating rooms. The hospital can treat up to 500 patients a day.
Let's go to the videotape.
Beautiful.
The IDF field hospital is currently the largest operating in Port-au-Prince. It has a staff of over 40 doctors, with different specialists, nurses, paramedics and features a maternity ward, ICU, pediatrics unit, internal medicine department, a pharmacy, and operating rooms. The hospital can treat up to 500 patients a day.
Let's go to the videotape.
Beautiful.
Israel Matzav: Video: First baby born in IDF field hospital in Haiti, named Israel
DoubleTapper: News from IDF Delegation in Haiti
News from IDF Delegation in Haiti
IDF Search and Rescue teams on the scene in Haiti.
FoxNews interviews IDF doctors.
Update: 5:00 PM IDF Spox
Several hours ago, an IDF Search and Rescue team in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, rescued a 52 year old man from a collapsed building. It took roughly 6 hours to extract the man who had been trapped for four days. He had been able to communicate his location to rescue teams via sms. The man suffered from some lacerations on his limbs and dehydration, he was treated at the IDF field hospital next to the soccer field in Port-au-Prince, and is currently in good condition.
تنسيق
DoubleTapper: News from IDF Delegation in Haiti
Israel Matzav: 'It's only natural'
'It's only natural'
The P5+1 meeting broke up in New York over the weekend without reaching a conclusion, an outcome Iran claimed was 'only natural.' Speaking to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mihman-Parast said the six nations' plans and talks over Iran's nuclear program were "doomed to failure as long as they fail to adopt a realistic approach towards the issue by endorsing Iran's rights to peaceful nuclear technology."
Mihman-Parast went on to say that the failure of talks was because they were carried out with a "political motivation."
Responding to a question by IRNA on the reasons for such countries as China to dispatch such a low-level delegation to the talks, the spokesman said some parties, including Beijing, believed such "negative measures" as well as sanctions were of no use at all and that any politically-motivated move would go nowhere.
Robert Cooper, the European Union's political director who chaired Saturday's meeting in New York, said the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany concluded "that Iran has failed to follow up" on an agreement in principle in October that Teheran exchange uranium for nuclear fuel, "in particular by refusing further meetings to discuss the nuclear issue."
He said the six nations remain committed to a "dual track" approach to Iran to try to defuse global fears over its nuclear program - diplomatic and political engagement on the one hand and possible new sanctions if Teheran refuses to rein in its nuclear ambitions.
"That implies that we will continue to seek a negotiated solution, but consideration of appropriate further measures has also begun," Cooper told reporters after the 2 1/2-hour closed-door meeting.
At this rate, expect them to agree on sanctions sometime around 2020. If the World as we know it still exists by then.
Israel Matzav: 'It's only natural'
Israel Matzav: Zambian Presidential candidate would restore relations with Israel
Zambian Presidential candidate would restore relations with Israel
Zambian Presidential candidate Saviour Chisimba would restore relations with Israel to their pre-1973 status, and stop selling uranium to Iran. Said Chishimba over a cup of hot tea with fresh mint in a Tel Aviv restaurant earlier this month: “The current leadership stands for outdated politics. It’s time to form international contacts with bodies and leaders who have a broader understanding of business and democracy. Like parliamentarians in the UK and business leaders in the U.S., I want to form different types of networks and get away from the old ways of thinking.”
What Chishimba specifically means is that he will weaken ties with Iran, and specifically Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. This currently prompt eyebrow-raising over the African country’s covert uranium trade.
“A pro-Iran, anti-Israel regime in Zambia is very dangerous,” Chishimba remarked. “Iran is determined to wipe Israel off the map and that can only be done with nuclear capability. Facilitating transport of uranium to Iran is very, very dangerous.” Despite a 2008 law implemented to control uranium mining and export, Zambia continues doing business with Iran.
Sitting at the presidential hopeful’s Tel Aviv table was another not-new-to-politics figure, media advisor to former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Dr. Raanan Gissin. Gissin was offering Chishimba pointers on successful campaigning and wooing influential backers ahead of the African’s impending European and U.S. visits this spring. Chishimba plans to meet parliament members, prominent CEOs, and President Obama on his visits.
Is Israel, then, a segway to the American Jewish lobby and U.S. campaign backing?
Says Chishimba: “I have always said Israel has a presence in Africa. This is not a strategy to get American influence. The relationship between Zambia and Israel started in 1900, when the first Jewish family settled there. Jews fought alongside freedom fighters for independence, and from 1964 to 1973, Israelis helped build the country’s largest university and the only medical teaching hospital.”
The irony in all this is that for as long as I can remember, the working assumption in Israel has been that relations with countries in Africa and the Islamic world could only come after there is a 'Palestinian state' or one appears to be on the way. Wouldn't it be nice if Zambia starts a different trend?
Israel Matzav: Zambian Presidential candidate would restore relations with Israel
Love of the Land: Blaming Jews (and Only Jews) for the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Blaming Jews (and Only Jews) for the Arab-Israeli Conflict
DVZ
CAMERA/Snapshots
15 January '10
Walter Brueggemann, a giant in the world of Old Testament theology and interpretation, has affirmed the notion that the Arab-Israeli conflict is solely the fault of the Jews.
Such an assertion will be met with disbelief from admirers his work which includes David’s Truth, his commentaries on Genesis, First and Second Samuel and Message of the Psalms.
Still the fact remains that in Brueggemann’s view, Jewish self-understanding can reasonably be regarded as the root cause of the fighting between Israel and its adversaries in the Middle East.
Brueggeman, an influential Protestant theologian, makes this perfectly clear in his forward to Mark Braverman’s newly released book Fatal Embrace: Christians, Jews, and the Search for Peace in the Holy Land (Synergy Books, 2010). After attesting to Braverman’s bona fides as a “passionate Jew with a long and deep love for Israel,” Brueggemann, writes:
(Read full article)
Love of the Land: Blaming Jews (and Only Jews) for the Arab-Israeli Conflict
RubinReports: Muslim Brotherhood Cleric Versus Palestinian "President": A Case Study of Islamism Versus Nationalism
Muslim Brotherhood Cleric Versus Palestinian "President": A Case Study of Islamism Versus Nationalism
By Barry Rubin
Forget about the moderate mythology fed the Western public by its media. Forget the comforting nonsense about reasonable masses held back from being humanitarian democrats only by manipulative dictatorships. Here’s a glimpse of what the region is really like.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi is one of the world’s most prestigious Muslim clerics and certainly the most internationally popular Islamist cleric. Some in the West like to think of him as some kind of pragmatic, modernizing moderate. As such he was welcomed in visiting Britain. But Qaradawi is a very hardline fellow indeed.
Siding with Hamas, Qaradawi, an Egyptian who lives in Qatar, gave a sermon urging Muslims to stone—in other words kill as a heretic—Palestinian Authority (PA) leader (often referred to as "president") Mahmoud Abbas. Angered by this statement, PA officials ordered West Bank imams to denounce Qaradawi for this action. One of those who did so was Raed al-Mahdawi of Ramallah who took a traditional conservative Muslim position, asking Qaradawi to apologize to Abbas and adding, "Muslim scholars should not use the podiums at their disposal to incite against any ruler or offend the feelings of any people."
But those who followed PA instructions were interrupted and forced to stop by angry worshippers; congregations walked out or chased the clerics out of the mosques altogether. In response, PA police beat up and arrested those protesting.
Thus, the PA was helpless, faced with this Islamist challenge, to keep its own people in line. And so what was their second line of defense? The Fatah Central Committee claimed that Qaradawi was acting as an Israeli stooge, objectively an ally with the Zionists.
But such anger won't be quieted by asserting that Islamism itself is an American or Zionist plot. Rather, this incident shows the strength of Islamist appeals overriding nationalist impulses in contemporary Arab politics
Thus evebt aksi once again demonstrates the horrifyingly powerful extremist impulses among the Arab, Muslim, Palestinian masses, just as one sees such sentiments in strong popular support for terrorism and rejection of compromises or of a permanent peace with Israel and two-state solution. This is the kind of attitude easily whipped up by rumors and ranters to produce anti-Christian pogroms in places like Pakistan, Iraq, and Egypt. .
Of course, many Palestinians do support Abbas, and some are genuinely moderate. Yet it is hard for such people to stand against the energetic ferocity of the radicals, their willingness to use violence, and their manipulation of religious sentiments. Incipient fanaticism, once harnessed, has a tidal wave power.
Arab regimes know this well. They don’t try to counter it with liberal reform but either with ferocious repression or try to harness this energy for their own causes. Regimes often endeavor to save themselves by diverting such forces against non-Muslims, meaning the West in general or often—as in the PA’s case here—against Israel.
It is easy to find parallels with this story in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and so on throughout most of the Arabic-speaking and Muslim majority areas. This is what the innocent and naïve West is up against but doesn’t want to face. Instead, while this has virtually never happened, much of the elite views its own majority citizenry as fanatics on the verge of being incited into Islamophobic mobs.
Forget about the moderate mythology fed the Western public by its media. Forget the comforting nonsense about reasonable masses held back from being humanitarian democrats only by manipulative dictatorships. Here’s a glimpse of what the region is really like.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi is one of the world’s most prestigious Muslim clerics and certainly the most internationally popular Islamist cleric. Some in the West like to think of him as some kind of pragmatic, modernizing moderate. As such he was welcomed in visiting Britain. But Qaradawi is a very hardline fellow indeed.
Siding with Hamas, Qaradawi, an Egyptian who lives in Qatar, gave a sermon urging Muslims to stone—in other words kill as a heretic—Palestinian Authority (PA) leader (often referred to as "president") Mahmoud Abbas. Angered by this statement, PA officials ordered West Bank imams to denounce Qaradawi for this action. One of those who did so was Raed al-Mahdawi of Ramallah who took a traditional conservative Muslim position, asking Qaradawi to apologize to Abbas and adding, "Muslim scholars should not use the podiums at their disposal to incite against any ruler or offend the feelings of any people."
But those who followed PA instructions were interrupted and forced to stop by angry worshippers; congregations walked out or chased the clerics out of the mosques altogether. In response, PA police beat up and arrested those protesting.
Thus, the PA was helpless, faced with this Islamist challenge, to keep its own people in line. And so what was their second line of defense? The Fatah Central Committee claimed that Qaradawi was acting as an Israeli stooge, objectively an ally with the Zionists.
But such anger won't be quieted by asserting that Islamism itself is an American or Zionist plot. Rather, this incident shows the strength of Islamist appeals overriding nationalist impulses in contemporary Arab politics
Thus evebt aksi once again demonstrates the horrifyingly powerful extremist impulses among the Arab, Muslim, Palestinian masses, just as one sees such sentiments in strong popular support for terrorism and rejection of compromises or of a permanent peace with Israel and two-state solution. This is the kind of attitude easily whipped up by rumors and ranters to produce anti-Christian pogroms in places like Pakistan, Iraq, and Egypt. .
Of course, many Palestinians do support Abbas, and some are genuinely moderate. Yet it is hard for such people to stand against the energetic ferocity of the radicals, their willingness to use violence, and their manipulation of religious sentiments. Incipient fanaticism, once harnessed, has a tidal wave power.
Arab regimes know this well. They don’t try to counter it with liberal reform but either with ferocious repression or try to harness this energy for their own causes. Regimes often endeavor to save themselves by diverting such forces against non-Muslims, meaning the West in general or often—as in the PA’s case here—against Israel.
It is easy to find parallels with this story in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and so on throughout most of the Arabic-speaking and Muslim majority areas. This is what the innocent and naïve West is up against but doesn’t want to face. Instead, while this has virtually never happened, much of the elite views its own majority citizenry as fanatics on the verge of being incited into Islamophobic mobs.
RubinReports: Muslim Brotherhood Cleric Versus Palestinian "President": A Case Study of Islamism Versus Nationalism
Israel Matzav: The Jerusalem building freeze
The Jerusalem building freeze
Prime Minister Netanyahu has been making a big deal about not freezing construction in Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem that are across the 1949 armistice line. It's all a lie.In August, I reported that the Netanyahu government had agreed to a de facto freeze in neighborhoods in Jerusalem that are across the 1949 armistice line. Two weeks ago, Israel announced the construction of some 700 new apartments in those neighborhoods. It turns out that those apartments were approved by the United States and that they are the last apartments we will have constructed in the parts of Jerusalem that are across the 1949 armistice line for quite a while. Bibi has bowed to Obama.
The story behind the recent announcement of 700 new housing units in Jerusalem does not paint a pretty picture for future construction in new Jerusalem neighborhoods. The new units are a result of strong pressure and even threats by coalition partner Shas, a request by Prime Minister Netanyahu to the U.S., one-time permission for a precise amount of housing units, and a coordinated, weak condemnation.
The information comes from an unnamed senior source in the Prime Minister’s Bureau and sources close to Housing Minister Ariel Attias, reports correspondent Haggai Huberman. Attias of Shas reportedly told Netanyahu that his party would no longer be able to tolerate what had become a “construction freeze” in Jerusalem – and that he would make a public statement to this effect if the situation continued.
...
The PM’s bureau source said that the numbers were determined in coordination with the Obama Administration, after Netanyahu explained that he must find a way to appease the nationalist and Shas camps regarding the freeze in Judea and Samaria.
Two other tenders – 150 units in Pisgat Ze’ev and 130 in Har Homa – are still in limbo, according to Housing Ministry sources, because adding them would mean that Israel exceeds the 700 approved by the United States.
Immediately following the announcement of the tenders, the U.S. government publicized a condemnation of sorts, stating that the US objects to new Israeli construction in eastern Jerusalem and that Jerusalem’s final status must be resolved via bilateral negotiations with the support of the international community.
The PM’s Bureau source said that both the tender announcement and the condemnation were timed to coincide with the Christmas vacation, so that neither would receive much attention.
Disgraceful. Totally and utterly disgraceful. Now that the cat is out of the bag, maybe someone will raise this in the cabinet and in the Likud Central Committee.
For those wondering why - given the de facto freeze - Abu Bluff has not returned to the bargaining table, that's a matter of 'honor.' He won't return to the table unless Israel openly admits it's freezing construction in Jerusalem.
For those wondering why - given the de facto freeze - Abu Bluff has not returned to the bargaining table, that's a matter of 'honor.' He won't return to the table unless Israel openly admits it's freezing construction in Jerusalem.
Israel Matzav: The Jerusalem building freeze
Israel Matzav: Hmmm....
Hmmm....
Guess who came to dinner in Jerusalem this week? Two facts emerged over the weekend about US National Security Adviser James Jones's recent trip to Israel: he was joined by NSC staffer Dennis Ross, an authority on Iran and the Middle East diplomatic process, and Jones went to Lebanon after visiting Israel.
Few details were available regarding why Ross joined the trip, or why his presence was kept a guarded secret. US Embassy officials would not confirm Saturday evening that he was even here, though Israeli officials did confirm his participation as part of Jones's team.
In November, Ross went to China with another National Security Council staffer, Jeffrey Bader, to pressure Iran to give up its nuclear weapons program. According to a Washington Post report at the time, Ross made clear to the Chinese that Israel could bomb Iran and severely damage China's crucial Persian Gulf oil needs if the nuclear program was not halted.
Jones met during his visit here with President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and National Security Adviser Uzi Arad. The meetings are believed to have been dominated by Iran and the diplomatic process with the Palestinians.
I would have to guess a lot more by Iran than by the 'peace process' with the 'Palestinians.' The 'peace process' is dead. Barack Hussein Obama killed it by being more 'Palestinian' than the 'Palestinians.' Heh.
Israel Matzav: Hmmm....
Israel Matzav: What Code Pink really wanted in Gaza
What Code Pink really wanted in Gaza
In Friday's JPost, Caroline Glick discusses Code Pink's real goals in Gaza last week. Reacting to her effective imprisonment in the Hamas-owned hotel, one of the demonstrators, an American woman named Poya Pakzad, cooed on her blog that the Commodore Hotel was "the nicest hotel I've ever stayed at, in my life."
Pakzad did complain, however, about what she acknowledged was the "farce" devastation tour she was taken on. She claimed that her Hamas guides were ignorant. In her studied view, they understated the number of Palestinians rendered homeless by the IDF counterterror offensive last year by some 60 percent.
Pakzad is something of a[n Amira] Hass [Haaretz reporter who has lived in Gaza. CiJ] groupie. She wrote that on the bus to Gaza, still smarting from the rough treatment the group received from the Egyptian authorities, Hass "made me realize why I came in the first place: to break the siege!"
Hass's participation in the pro-Hamas propaganda trip is a bit surprising. In November 2008, she was forced to flee from Gaza to Israel after Hamas threatened to kill her. At the time, Hass appealed to the Israeli military - which she has spent the better part of her career bashing - and asked to be allowed to enter Israel from Gaza, after sailing illegally to Gaza from Cyprus on a ferry chartered by the pro-Hamas Free Gaza outfit.
Hass's behavior is actually more revealing than surprising. The truth is that Hass and her fellow demonstrators were willing to be used as media props by Hamas precisely because it isn't the Palestinians' welfare that concerns them. If they cared about the Palestinians they would be demonstrating against Hamas, which prohibited local women from participating in their march to the Israeli border, and which barred non-Hamas members from speaking with them. It would offend their sensitivities that Hamas goons beat women for not covering themselves from head to toe in Islamic potato sacks. It would bother them that Hamas executes its political opponents by among other things throwing them off the roofs of apartment buildings.
The demonstrators did not come to Gaza to demonstrate their support for the Palestinians, but rather their hatred for Israel and for their own Western governments that refuse to join Hamas in its war against Israel. As one of the organizers told Hass as she sat corralled by Egyptian riot police outside the UNDP offices in Cairo, "In our presence here, we are saying that we are not casting the blame on Egypt. The responsibility for the shameless and obscene Israeli siege on Gaza rests squarely with our own countries."
By happily collaborating with Hamas in its propaganda extravaganza, these demonstrators demonstrated that the rights of Palestinians are not their concern. Their concern is waging war against their own societies and against Israel. They are more than happy to have their pictures taken with the likes of Hamas terror master Ismail Haniyeh. And while they will never acknowledge that his organization's terror war against Israel is illegal and immoral, or care that Hamas's founding charter explicitly calls for the genocide of Jewry, they will demonstrate from today till doomsday against their governments' recognition of Israel.
Caroline argues that we here in Israel ought to be taking the morons from Code Pink more seriously. Read the whole thing.
Israel Matzav: What Code Pink really wanted in Gaza
Israel Matzav: US warns Syria on SA2 missiles
US warns Syria on SA2 missiles
So much for ' benign neglect.'
A Kuwaiti newspaper is reporting that the United States has warned the Assad regime that if it supplies SA2 anti-aircraft missiles to Hezbullah, Israel will bomb Damascus. The warning came after Hezbullah terrorists trained on the SA2 over the weekend in Syria.
A Kuwaiti newspaper is reporting that the United States has warned the Assad regime that if it supplies SA2 anti-aircraft missiles to Hezbullah, Israel will bomb Damascus. The warning came after Hezbullah terrorists trained on the SA2 over the weekend in Syria.
An American source says that Syria allowed Hezbollah operatives to train within its territory in the use of advanced SA2 anti-aircraft missile batteries, the Kuwaiti daily Al Rai reported Sunday.I'd bet on the Israelis bombing Damascus (and taking out the SA2's before they can deployed) if the Syrians try to deliver them. I wouldn't bet much on a Syrian response. Heh.
In an interview, the senior U.S. official warned that if Syria supplies Hezbollah with this type of missile, Israel will bomb Damascus and a war will likely ensue.
According to the official, Israel has warned Syria not to allow the transfer of the SA2 missiles into the hands of Hezbollah, and views the transfer of such missiles as the crossing of a red line.
He added that he did not believe that a war would break out soon, unless one of the sides violated the undeclared agreement not to cross the red lines defined by both sides.
On and by the way, the US still considers Hezbullah a terrorist group. Something else the Obumbler can't change.
Israel Matzav: US warns Syria on SA2 missiles
Israel Matzav: Another reason to keep Turkey out of the European Union
Another reason to keep Turkey out of the European Union
If there hasn't been enough already, this ought to be enough to scare the European Union into keeping Turkey out. You see, there's free passage between countries of the European Union - no visas required. And now, there's free passage between Turkey and Lebanon too. Can you imagine all those Hezbullah terrorists entering England and France and Germany and Italy through Turkey? That might even keep Gordon Brown up at night. Hariri would ratify three agreements and sign three memorandums of understanding with Turkish leaders, the National News Agency reported Sunday.
The three agreements include the abolishment of entry visas between both countries, an agreement concerning technical and scientific cooperation on military levels as well as a third agreement on health care.
The memorandums of understanding included cooperation on agricultural levels, the exchange of expertise in maritime navigation and forestation.
By the way, while he was in Turkey, Hariri and Turkish President Erdogan took the time to slam Israel.
The prime ministers of Turkey and Lebanon on Monday slammed the Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace and air raids in Gaza Strip, warning they were undermining prospects for peace in the region. "Attacks on Lebanon is terrorism itself... We have to stand shoulder by shoulder against the enemy's plans... We have to stop Israel," visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri told a press conference.
According to AFP, Hariri's counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey "will never stay silent" on Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace. He slammed the Israeli overflights as "unacceptable action that threatens global peace."
Hey morons - what's the rearming of Hezbullah if not an act of war?
Israel Matzav: Another reason to keep Turkey out of the European Union
Israel Matzav: The frustrated Josh Landis
The frustrated Josh Landis
The Assad-regime's biggest tuches-licker in American academia is jumping for joy over the notion that President Obumbler has 'outsourced' criticizing Israel to Turkey. The West has remained surprisingly silent in the Israel-Turkey spat. Erdoghan has won boisterous praise in the East, and few reprimands in the West for his tough criticism of Israel. Western politicians from one end of the political spectrum to the other are silently, satisfied to see Israel’s leadership brought up short for continuing to implant its citizens in the heart of what should be a future Palestinian state, making a mockery of Western efforts to jump-start negotiations, and ignoring regional peace offers.
Syria is also the beneficiary of this new Obama strategy – which might be called benign neglect.
There's only one problem: As Obama himself has recognized and as Landis himself points out, Obama is powerless to change American relations with Israel.
Obama is powerless to change America’s relationship with Israel. He continues to provide it with more and better arms. He cannot stop it from acquiring ever more Palestinian land and progressively whittling away at the prospect of a Palestinian state, but he can stop the US from acting as an overt cheerleader and advocate of this usurpation.
In the case of Syria, initial efforts to “remake the relationship” have been abandoned. No ambassador has been named. Sanctions have been reaffirmed, most strikingly with the recent refusal to allow Sarkozy to supply Airbuses to Syria causing serious ire in the Élysée Palace. All the same, Syria enjoys a period of delightful benign neglect from the White House. It is not being abused in the press. It has been allowed to reassert itself in Lebanon. Washington made no effort to stop Hariri’s visit to Damascus. Saudi Arabia has warmed up to Assad; the most recent visit by Assad to Riyadh lasted several days rather than the customary one. Turkey and Syria are still in the heady blush of young love after a century of estrangement. Obama has allowed the Iran deadline to slip by and is still holding out hope for a deal. The latest excuse not to do anything is that the Green movement is gaining traction and will take over somehow, relieving Washington of the task straightening out Tehran – something it is completely powerless to do. Rather than admit honestly, that Washington no longer has the authority in the international community or on the battle field force compliance from Iran, Washington prefers bluster. In some part, this is to placate pro-Israel sentiment among Americans.
Obama and his team undoubtedly understand that benign neglect is the only option they have to change the relationship with Israel. As Turkey assumes regional leadership, it will become a powerful and confident new voice in international affairs. It knows how to strike the correct note of moral disapproval without indicating anti-Semitism or enmity toward the Jewish state. Istanbul has a good track record toward Israel to prove its bona fides.
No. The only relationship that really matters for Israel is its relationship with the United States. That relationship is deep enough that Obama cannot change it. He is not an 'enthusiastic cheerleader' by any stretch, but it is becoming increasingly clear (and Tuesday's special election in Massachusetts should confirm it) that he will be a one-term President. No President can impose his agenda on the United States in any matter without cooperation from Congress. When it comes to Israel, Congress is smart enough not to cooperate. Ask Jimmy Carter. Turkish criticism of Israel will only hurt the Turks. It already has. Flights from here to Turkey are empty these days.
Obama has been silent on Syria's encroachments against its neighbors because Obama is a weak President all the way around. He has turned himself into a laughingstock around the world. Saudi Arabia 'warmed up' to Assad because they see how weak Obama is. But the United States is resilient. It will undo the mistake called Barack Hussein Obama in the 2012 elections, and it will reassert its position on the world stage. And when it does, brutal regimes like the Assad regime will once again be relegated to the shadows along with American professors from Oklahoma who lick its tuches.
Obama has been silent on Syria's encroachments against its neighbors because Obama is a weak President all the way around. He has turned himself into a laughingstock around the world. Saudi Arabia 'warmed up' to Assad because they see how weak Obama is. But the United States is resilient. It will undo the mistake called Barack Hussein Obama in the 2012 elections, and it will reassert its position on the world stage. And when it does, brutal regimes like the Assad regime will once again be relegated to the shadows along with American professors from Oklahoma who lick its tuches.
Israel Matzav: The frustrated Josh Landis
Israel Matzav: Relations thaw with the Emirates?
Relations thaw with the Emirates?
Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau (Yisrael Beiteinu) has become the first Israeli Minister to visit Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Landau is attending a renewable energy conference in the Arab capital, whose opening session he will address on Sunday. This is from the first link. The minister's visit is the result of a decision reached by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), according to which Israel is allowed to participate in all activities organized by the agency's headquarters in Abu Dhabi.
"IRENA was launched as a European initiative with the aim of promoting the production of electricity from renewable energy sources around the world," said Landau.
"Apart from the obvious diplomatic importance a visit by an Israeli minister to this region holds, Israel has a lot to contribute in terms of innovation and development."
According to Landau, "Israel wants to be a key player in the renewable energy field, and this conference is a unique opportunity to advance this goal.
"The fact that I was invited to this conference proves that true regional cooperation surrounding the common interest of developing renewable energy is possible," he said.
Landau's visit to Abu Dhabi is the first by an Israeli minister, but about three months ago two senior Israeli officials – Simona Halperin from the Foreign Ministry and Dr. Avraham Arbiv from the Ministry of National Infrastructures - attended a different IRENA conference in preparation for the minister's visit.
Israel does not maintain diplomatic relations with the UAE.
This meeting is no accident and it's not just because an international organization based in Abu Dhabi decided that it wanted Israel to participate in its activities. The UAE is often mentioned as one of the countries that most fears an Iranian nuclear weapon. The country's rulers have figured out which side of the slice of bread to butter. Hopefully, other Arab countries will follow.
Israel Matzav: Relations thaw with the Emirates?
Israel Matzav: Amid the ruins in Haiti, a sanctification of God's name
Amid the ruins in Haiti, a sanctification of God's name
From a report on the Jerusalem Post website on the rescue efforts in Haiti: A ZAKA delegation in Haiti was dispatched on Saturday to a collapsed 8-story university building where cries were heard from trapped students.
After hours working with rescue equipment provided by the Mexican military, the ZAKA volunteers succeeded in pulling eight students alive from the rubble during a 38-hour rescue operation.
The ZAKA delegation took time to recite Shabbat prayers. Many locals sat quietly in the rubble, staring at the men as they prayed, facing Jerusalem.
At the end of the prayers, they crowded around the delegation and kissed the prayer shawls.
Worth more than all the 'hasbara' in the World. Awesome.
Israel Matzav: Amid the ruins in Haiti, a sanctification of God's name
Israel Matzav: Shiites and Sunnis put aside centuries of hatred in hope to murder Jews
Shiites and Sunnis put aside centuries of hatred in hope to murder Jews
Iran's two clients, Hassan Nasrallah and his murderous Shiites of Hezbullah, and Khaled Meshaal and his murderous Sunnis of Hamas, put aside their centuries-old religious differences on Friday to meet in Beirut and cooperate in murdering Jews, according to a report on Hezbullah's al-Manar television network. But it was much more than a meeting. "I promise you, as I have always promised you: In any coming confrontation, we will foil the aggressions' objectives, defeat the enemy, achieve a great historical victory, and change the face of the region," said Nasrallah in a speech via video link before the Arab International Forum for Supporting the Resistance at the UNESCO Palace in Beirut.
"The future of this region is the resistance, dignity, and freedom," Nasrallah told an audience that included representatives from Iran, Syria and other countries, as well as Hamas' Syria-based Supremo Khaled Meshaal.
"And inshallah (God willing), Israel, the occupation, hegemony and arrogance are in the process of disappearing."
"Lebanon has abandoned the myth saying 'Lebanon's strength is in its weakness' to adopt the truth saying 'Lebanon's strength is in the solidarity of its army, people, and resistance.'"
...
"Israel is living today a real dilemma: The dilemma of leadership and command, the dilemma of the invincible army which was defeated on the hands of the resistance fighters, and the dilemma of trusting the future," added Nasrallah.
Hizbullah number one said that Israel is trying to cover up its "dilemmas" through daily threats "which scare only advocates of defeat and cowards."
Someone ought to tell Nasrallah that Ehud Olmert is no longer Prime Minister and Amir Comrade Peretz is no longer 'defense minister.'
By the way, while he was there, Hamas chieftain Meshaal met with Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri. File that one away for when Suleiman starts crying when Lebanon gets its infrastructure bombed back to the 8th century in the next war.
By the way, while he was there, Hamas chieftain Meshaal met with Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri. File that one away for when Suleiman starts crying when Lebanon gets its infrastructure bombed back to the 8th century in the next war.
Israel Matzav: Shiites and Sunnis put aside centuries of hatred in hope to murder Jews
Israel Matzav: The 'Palestinians' get it, the Israelis get it, why don't the Americans?
The 'Palestinians' get it, the Israelis get it, why don't the Americans?
The al-Hayat newspaper quoted an unnamed Palestinian Authority official this weekend as saying that the American administration is realizing that it cannot force peace negotiations on the Jewish and Arab peoples of the Middle East. The official was quoted as saying that Washington was being unreasonably tough on both sides in search of a solution which would enable negotiations to resume.
The Obama administration has failed on every foreign policy front. They believe that the place where they can reverse that failure is the 'Middle East peace process.' After all, 'everyone knows' what the solution is.
They are so wrong, it's pathetic. I'm glad that the 'Palestinians' are willing to take the fall for killing the 'negotiations' that neither side wants. No, we don't want them either. And our votes in the election last March made that very clear. We don't trust the 'Palestinians.' As long as they leave us alone, we are content with the status quo. Let Obama find his 'success' someplace else.
They are so wrong, it's pathetic. I'm glad that the 'Palestinians' are willing to take the fall for killing the 'negotiations' that neither side wants. No, we don't want them either. And our votes in the election last March made that very clear. We don't trust the 'Palestinians.' As long as they leave us alone, we are content with the status quo. Let Obama find his 'success' someplace else.
Israel Matzav: The 'Palestinians' get it, the Israelis get it, why don't the Americans?
Israel Matzav: Surprise: Anti-Semitism at Huffington Post
Surprise: Anti-Semitism at Huffington Post
Just a month ago, I did a post in which I described the anti-Semitism that abounds at the three biggest 'progressive' websites in the blogosphere: Huffington Post, Salon and Daily Kos. Now, there's a lengthy study out of anti-Semitism at HuffPo, the number-one ranked site in World Politics (Hat Tip: Powerline). A summary appears here. Read the whole thing. What is it about 'progressives' that brings the anti-Semites out of the woodwork?HuffPost also claims to be non-partisan in its moderation of user comments. Arianna Huffington, the site’s founder and Editor-In-Chief, claims HuffPost has “a zero tolerance policy” for hate speech, and that it acts vigilantly to keep its comment threads free of offensive content, 24-7.
Unfortunately, HuffPost consistently “frames” news stories in such a way that incites anti-Israel perceptions and hatred. Further, in violation of its own policies, it approves and tolerates user comments submitted in response to these stories that contain incendiary, hate-filled libels against Israelis and Jews, as well as links to anti-Semitic hate websites.
Given the fact that an estimated 135,000 of Huffington Post’s unique monthly visitors reside in Iran and Pakistan, there is great concern among informed observers that its incitement against Israel influences perceptions far outside the United States.
This report, the result of three years of observation, documents:
* Numerous examples of Huffington Post’s incitement of anti-Israel perceptions, and the defamatory user comments that have appeared on the site in response, with special focus on Israel’s recent Operation Cast Lead.
* The fact that many of the most egregious violators of Huffington Post’s stated policies, including some of its most prolific anti-Semitic propagandists, remain active users – some, with tens of thousands of comments in their archives.
* The fact that contrary to Huffington Post’s public statements, since at least March 2008, it has been pre-moderating all user comments, meaning that all of the hateful and defamatory comments that appear have been approved by its moderators.
All of the following anti-Semitic user comments were published after HuffPost announced, in March 2008, that the only comments that would appear on its site are those that a human moderator had reviewed, approved and made the decision to publish. Ms. Huffington confirmed this fact, several months later.
“Jews are evil. Israel runs the world. Lets kill ‘em all and give the land back to Islam; result-perpetual peace. Seig Heil.”
By “pedrothemigrant,” 5/23/08
“Funny how [Israelis] had NO problem with wiping the [Palestinians] off the face of the earth until they discovered they might actually be able to strike back in a meaningful way. proof that bullies like this are nothing but cowards.”
By “peacekitten,” 1/2/09
“There’s a reason they [Jews] have been the most problematic group for thousands of years.”
By “Amennyc,” 1/4/09
“[W]omen holding limp little bodies of children in their hands, crying, as an Israeli soldier aims an AK.-47 at her head. With each civilian casualty Israel gets closer to the regime in Germany that provided the impetus for the creation of Israel.”
By “SkepticHume,” 1/3/09
“Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, Here I am, stuck in the middle with Jooooz [Jews]“
By “JamesR.,” 11/22/08
“They [Jews] all need to be rounded up and gassed.”
By “markoze,” 12/30/08
Perhaps more shockingly, all of these comments were posted by users whose accounts are still active (they have not been banned), some of whom HuffPost has allowed to post thousands of additional comments. This stands in stark contrast to the fact that HuffPost routinely bans other users who don’t violate its policies — some after as few as six comments — but dare to challenge or mock the radical leftists that the site attracts.
These comments are representative of thousands of others containing anti-Semitic and Israel-bashing libels, hate and propaganda that have been published on HuffPost in recent years. Columbia University professor Lincoln Mitchell recently claimed that on nearly every HuffPost news story concerning international affairs, regardless of the topic, he and his friends usually find that it takes no more than ten comments before its users are finding a way to blame Jews.
The most incendiary of these comments are usually submitted in response to “news” stories that HuffPost publishes regarding Israel, which it consistently “frames” in ways that incite inaccurate and unjustifiably negative perceptions of the Jewish state, and particularly its military. HuffPost does this primarily through the use of inflammatory, decontextualized headlines and headline imagery, and biased “news” sources.
Israel Matzav: Surprise: Anti-Semitism at Huffington Post
Love of the Land: Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day
Michael J. Totten
MichaelTotten.com
16 January '10
Appeasement is much harder to accomplish than it seems. It is not just a matter of saying to the stronger side, There you go, have what you want, it’s all yours, just sign on the dotted line. The appeaser much accomplish two crucial tasks.
First, the appeaser must, to the greatest extent possible, disguise the fact that he is appeasing. He must portray himself as a peacemaker, as a man who has prevented or ended a war on decent terms. That is why, for example, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, returning from Munich after handing a chunk of Czechoslovakia to Hitler, said in an address from Downing Street on the evening of September 30, 1938, that he had achieved “peace with honor,” and that, as a thankful result, everyone should “go home and get a nice quiet sleep.” He had not appeased; he had kept the peace. Now go to sleep, go to sleep…
Second, the appeaser much persuade the victim to cooperate. Chamberlain was fortunate in this case, because Edvard Benes, the president of Czechoslovakia, had no visible alternative to surrendering the Sudetenland; his small country could not resist a German blitzkrieg, especially if Britain was on Germany’s side. As a result, Chamberlain was able to present the carve-up of Czechoslovakia as a sort of diplomatic euthanasia that the victim agreed to. He was lucky. If the victim resists, the appeaser is in a bind, because euthanasia turns into murder, and, instead of being a benevolent guide, soothing the victim as it is put to sleep, the appeaser must hold down the screaming victim as the terminal injection is administered. It is a very nasty business.
From Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War by Peter Maass.
Love of the Land: Quote of the Day
Love of the Land: Fitzgerald: When it comes to Islam, please stop this "problem" and "solution" nonsense
Fitzgerald: When it comes to Islam, please stop this "problem" and "solution" nonsense
Hugh Fitzgerald
Jihad Watch
16 January '10
Many continue to believe that if we argue that Islam itself is the problem, this will leave the West with no solutions.
The word "solution" leapt out at me. I have written about it many times before, in regards to those who speak of a "two-state solution" to the Arab Muslim Jihad against Israel. I have written many times about what a foolish idea it is to believe that further Israeli surrenders, of claims, legal and moral and historic, and of tangible assets, especially the supreme asset, as it is viewed in the Muslim world, of land, would somehow change the immutable and uncreated words of the Qur'an, or somehow change the Hadith -- that is, change either the contents, or the rank of "authenticity," assigned to the Hadith (the written records of the words and deeds of Muhammad) more than a millennium ago by the most authoritative Muhaddithin.
I noted that Americans, unlike Europeans, are used to identifying situations that are troublesome or difficult or unpleasant as "problems," and, as problems, they are assumed to be susceptible of solution and therefore can be "solved." In some ways it is an attractive attitude. It testifies to a certain strain in the national character, a belief that may come from the encounter in this country with Nature, that the settlers in order to survive had to learn to subdue. And they felt, in a different way (a way we find not quite so unobjectionable today) it was felt necessary to subdue the indigenous Indians. Nature could be overcome, other men could be overcome. And when there was a need for something to be invented, born of necessity that invention would emerge. Yankee know-how and stick-to-it-iveness, the attitude that there is "no problem in the world that cannot be solved" if we just put our minds to solve it, may seem to some comically naïve, but for many it reflects an attitude that will not disappear, and of which many of us apparently cannot be disabused.
(Read full article)
Love of the Land: Fitzgerald: When it comes to Islam, please stop this "problem" and "solution" nonsense
Love of the Land: Who’d bother to kill Mahmoud Abbas?
Who’d bother to kill Mahmoud Abbas?
Fatah head Mahmoud Abbas, current chairman of the Palestinian Authority, claims that Israel is trying to assassinate him. Abbas told an Egyptian news agency this week that Israel had murdered his predecessor,Yasser Arafat – despite Arafat’s commitment to peace – and that he is afraid of suffering the same fate.
The man is beyond belief, and the US keeps paying him!
The implication is that he is for peace and a two-state solution, and Israel, which does not want peace, might kill him for his courageous stance, like his mentor Arafat.
In the real world the PA is doing its best to avoid negotiations with Israel, because it knows that its bottom lines — strict 1949 borders, return of ‘refugees’ to Israel, no recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, etc. — are unacceptable to either Israel or the US.
This is because they do not represent a compromise; they represent the whole ball game. Even Barack Obama has ruled out a right of return, has called for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, and has favored land swaps.
So Abbas insists that the fact that Israel will not extend its building freeze to East Jerusalem means that it is impossible to talk. Of course, extending the ill-considered freeze would prejudge the status of East Jerusalem, something which is theoretically part of the theoretical negotiations. It’s bad enough that a cloud has been cast over all the rest of Judea and Samaria.
Love of the Land: Who’d bother to kill Mahmoud Abbas?
Love of the Land: Will CMEP Rise to Object? (Are You Serious?)
Will CMEP Rise to Object? (Are You Serious?)
CMEP Executive Director Warren Clark
DVZ
CAMERA/Snapshots
15 January '10
In 2007, when the Israeli government initiated badly needed repairs the ramp leading up to the Temple Mount near the Dung Gate, a so-called peacemaking group, Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) sent a letter to the U.S. State Department calling on the agency to protest Israeli actions for fear of inciting Muslim violence. (Snapshots covered this statement here.)
Instead of holding Palestinian and Arab leaders to account for using the excavation as a pre-text for violence, CMEP rewarded these actions by irresponsibly affirming the notion that the construction “violate[d] the sanctity” of the “Temple Mount/Harem al-Sharif.” In fact, the Israeli excavation and construction took place hundreds of feet away from Muslim holy sites on the mount. Nevertheless, the damage was done. As noted by Snapshots, this letter was subsequently invoked by a Turkish journalist to incite hostility toward Jews and Israel.
Now the CMEP, led by former State Department service officer Warren Clark, has an opportunity to set things right by condemning the destruction (and not the maintenance) of a holy site. This time it is a Jewish holy site, not in Israel, but in Iraq. And this time the site is being destroyed, not maintained.
According to a report in the Jerusalem Post, Ezekiel’s grave, located in a town South of Bagdad is under threat.
(Read full post)
15 January '10
In 2007, when the Israeli government initiated badly needed repairs the ramp leading up to the Temple Mount near the Dung Gate, a so-called peacemaking group, Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) sent a letter to the U.S. State Department calling on the agency to protest Israeli actions for fear of inciting Muslim violence. (Snapshots covered this statement here.)
Instead of holding Palestinian and Arab leaders to account for using the excavation as a pre-text for violence, CMEP rewarded these actions by irresponsibly affirming the notion that the construction “violate[d] the sanctity” of the “Temple Mount/Harem al-Sharif.” In fact, the Israeli excavation and construction took place hundreds of feet away from Muslim holy sites on the mount. Nevertheless, the damage was done. As noted by Snapshots, this letter was subsequently invoked by a Turkish journalist to incite hostility toward Jews and Israel.
Now the CMEP, led by former State Department service officer Warren Clark, has an opportunity to set things right by condemning the destruction (and not the maintenance) of a holy site. This time it is a Jewish holy site, not in Israel, but in Iraq. And this time the site is being destroyed, not maintained.
According to a report in the Jerusalem Post, Ezekiel’s grave, located in a town South of Bagdad is under threat.
(Read full post)
Love of the Land: Will CMEP Rise to Object? (Are You Serious?)
Love of the Land: A forbidden visit to the Temple Mount
A forbidden visit to the Temple Mount
David Kirshenbaum
Guest Columnist/JPost
14 January '10
The day before the recent wedding of my daughter, Sharona, I had the awesome privilege of accompanying her, together with my son, Elie, to the Temple Mount. In addition to that much-anticipated visit, we had planned on spending the morning together, strolling the streets of Jerusalem, enjoying a father-daughter brunch and tending to last-minute preparations for the wedding. Instead, our visit to the Temple Mount was abruptly cut short and Sharona and I were detained until noon in a Jerusalem police station for actions deemed dangerous to the safety of the public and state.
Only hours after we were removed from the Temple Mount did I learn what it was that the police had determined made us public menaces. During separate questioning, I was asked, "Was your daughter swaying?"
Incredulous, I asked the officer to repeat the question, thinking perhaps I hadn't heard right.
"You know," and the good officer nodded his head back and forth, explaining, in a hostile manner, how that was quite obviously a provocative action and, therefore, an unlawful movement for a Jew to make on the Temple Mount.
AS I watched this officer bobbing his head and telling me why it was so bad and dangerous, what jumped into mind were the episodes in the classic M*A*S*H television series that mercilessly mocked the intelligence and shallow thinking of army brass.
But this was not comedy or satire. It was real, and it was sad. In fact, the shameful combination of the blatant racism of the Wakf, authorized by the government to monitor every movement on the Temple Mount of any non-Muslim visitor (in practice, the authority is primarily exercised in the case of those who appear to be religious Jews) and the craven police appeasement that my daughter and I experienced on her wedding eve surpassed that which I described in these pages in two recent columns ("Intolerance on the Temple Mount," September 27; Where's the compromise over the Temple Mount?).
(Read full article)
Love of the Land: A forbidden visit to the Temple Mount
Love of the Land: Honest Broker, Anyone?
Honest Broker, Anyone?
Evelyn Gordon
Contentions/Commentary
15 January '10
Nothing in George Mitchell’s interview with PBS last week received more attention than the envoy’s implied threat to revoke American loan guarantees to Israel. That’s a pity — because far more worrisome is the goal he set for the negotiations, as highlighted by Aluf Benn in today’s Haaretz. “We think the way forward … is full implementation of the Arab peace initiative,” Mitchell declared. “That’s the comprehensive peace in the region that is the objective set forth by the president.”
The Arab initiative mandates a full Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines — every last inch of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. It also demands a solution to the refugee problem “in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194,” which Arabs interpret as allowing the refugees to “return” to Israel.
Later in the interview, Mitchell says this initiative requires “a negotiation and a discussion,” and that you can’t negotiate by telling “one side you have to agree in advance to what the other side wants.” Yet by saying his goal is “full implementation” of this initiative, he’s effectively saying, “You can have your negotiation and discussion, but Washington has no intention of being an honest broker: it fully backs the Arab position on borders, Jerusalem, and even (to some extent) the refugees.”
This is the administration’s clearest statement yet that it’s abandoning the position held by every previous U.S. administration: that Israel needs “defensible borders” — which everyone agrees the 1967 lines are not. Mitchell also thereby abandoned the position, held by every previous administration, that any deal must acknowledge Israel’s historic ties to the Temple Mount via some Israeli role there, even if only symbolic (see Bill Clinton’s idea of “sovereignty under the Mount”). The Arab initiative requires Israel to just get out.
(Read full post)
Pikuach Nefesh
Pikuach Nefesh
Pikuach Nefesh is the Hebrew term for the obligation to put the saving of a life above all other commandments. The source of the term is from the Yoma tractate, 83a, where the mishna discusses the conditions in which it is permissible to break the sanctity of Yom Kippur. One example is when a structure has fallen on someone who may still be alive, and the rule is that the rubble is to be removed (mifakchin alav et hagal). There is then a long and detailed discussion, which includes the commandment that the labor is to be done by the men, with no attempt to have it done, say, by children who aren't fasting anyway.
2,200 years later, a team of Haredi men has joined the Israeli rescue team in Haiti, and they're proudly working throughout the Shabbat. Yet another small expression of the importance of having a Jewish state.
2,200 years later, a team of Haredi men has joined the Israeli rescue team in Haiti, and they're proudly working throughout the Shabbat. Yet another small expression of the importance of having a Jewish state.
Originally posted by Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations
Freedom of Inquiry at Universities
Freedom of Inquiry at Universities
The Economist has a review of Jonathan R. Cole's The Great American University: Its Rise to Preeminence, Its Indispensable National Role, Why It Must Be Protected
. It looks like an interesting book. Since I haven't read it, I can only argue with its contents as seen through the Economist. According to the review:
. It looks like an interesting book. Since I haven't read it, I can only argue with its contents as seen through the Economist. According to the review:The author describes how these institutions built upon Germany’s model of the 19th century, with its combination of research and teaching; how they benefited from America’s early enthusiasm for mass education as a route to social mobility; and how they hit the jackpot in the 1930s, when many brilliant academics in Germany and Austria fled to American universities (some of which had recently been purging Jews from their own academic bodies).
So the American universities learned from the Germans, then benefited when the Germans chased out their Jews. Later in the review, however, this thought leads to another:
Certain areas of study, such as climate change, stem-cell research and work on the Middle East, are particularly vulnerable to political pressure. Professor Cole tells how two respected scholars, Joseph Massad at Columbia and Nadia Abu El-Haj at Barnard College, were harassed by the Jewish lobby—and asks what would have happened had American universities given in to rampant institutional anti-Semitism and “resisted hiring the Jewish scientists and scholars from Nazi Germany”?
Well, no, not necessarily. The reviewer, and probably the author, assume full freedom of inquiry is always good, and any questioning of it is bad. This overlooks the well documented fact that the free German universities hosted dangerous and increasingly crackpot ideas from the late 19th century, and by the interwar period - in spite of still including many fine teachers including Jews - they were churning out large numbers of the most destructive men history has known. As historians such as Goetz Aly, Sussane Heim, Ulrich Herbert and others have shown, it was the university-trained generation of the late 1920s and early 1930s who gave Nazi Germany its most potent cadres; moreover, it was the universities which were their main spawning ground.
The telephone is morally neutral, as is the Internet. They can be used or misused by people. Strange as it may sound, freedom of inquiry can also be used or misused by people. A careful amount of surveillance of all three is not a bad idea.
The telephone is morally neutral, as is the Internet. They can be used or misused by people. Strange as it may sound, freedom of inquiry can also be used or misused by people. A careful amount of surveillance of all three is not a bad idea.
Originally posted by Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations
Love of the Land: C-SPAN Responds! Well, Not Exactly
C-SPAN Responds! Well, Not Exactly
C-SPAN Executives Susan Swain and Brian Lamb
AL
CAMERA/Snapshots
15 January '10
As Jeffrey Goldberg has discovered, communicating with C-SPAN executives about their network having become a platform for anti-Semites to spew hatred isn't easy. Unlike virtually every other media outlet, C-SPAN refuses to return phone calls, letters and emails from dissatisfied viewers. This is the case even though C-SPAN considers itself a public service, devoted to promoting a smooth-functioning and interactive democracy.
Goldberg has persisted, though, and on January 14 reported he'd elicited a written statement from Terry Murphy, the network's VP for Programming, who wrote:
CAMERA/Snapshots
15 January '10
As Jeffrey Goldberg has discovered, communicating with C-SPAN executives about their network having become a platform for anti-Semites to spew hatred isn't easy. Unlike virtually every other media outlet, C-SPAN refuses to return phone calls, letters and emails from dissatisfied viewers. This is the case even though C-SPAN considers itself a public service, devoted to promoting a smooth-functioning and interactive democracy.
Goldberg has persisted, though, and on January 14 reported he'd elicited a written statement from Terry Murphy, the network's VP for Programming, who wrote:
The call-in program has been a fixture of the C-SPAN networks for nearly all of our three decades. Our mission statement commits us to providing the audience with "direct access" to our guests on an "open basis". The live, town-hall format of the program can occasionally give rise to distasteful statements by callers making it to air, and the January 4 call is an example. We air approximately 400 calls per week and this kind of language is not typical of the vast majority. Program hosts, whose role is to facilitate the dialogue between callers and guests, are certainly permitted to step in when a caller makes ad hominem attacks or uses obscenity or obviously racist language. Given that this involves quick judgment during a live television production, it's an imperfect process that didn't work as well as it should have that day.
Love of the Land: C-SPAN Responds! Well, Not Exactly
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