Wednesday 13 May 2009

Israel Matzav: Those who do not learn from history...

Those who do not learn from history...

... are destined to repeat it. I sure hope not. This is from Melanie Phillips:

Leaving aside for the moment the malice towards Israel that is involved, the attitude of the Obama administration towards the Middle East is well-nigh incomprehensible in its suicidal stupidity. It is trying to make Israel play the role of Czechoslovakia in 1938, when Britain under Neville Chamberlain told it that if it didn’t submit to the Nazis it would stand alone – with the result that the following year, Hitler invaded Poland. Determined to prove that history repeats itself the second time as tragedy, America is trying to force Israel to destroy its security by accepting the creation of a terrorist Iranistan on its doorstep, under the threat that otherwise the US will not help protect its security by defanging Iran (and how, precisely would it do that?). But in doing so, the Obama administration is jeopardising the security of America itself and the free world, not to mention the Arab states which have good reason to fear Iranian regional hegemony.

Read the whole thing.

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Israel Matzav: Those who do not learn from history...

Israel Matzav: 'A secular, democratic Palestine'?

'A secular, democratic Palestine'?

Historian Benny Morris rips the mask off another insincerely muttered platitude.

So where did the slogan of "a secular, democratic Palestine" originate? That goal was first explicitly proposed in 1969 by the small Marxist splinter group the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). According to Khalidi [yes, that Khalidi. CiJ], "It was [then] discreetly but effectively backed by the leaders of the mainstream, dominant Fatah movement ... The democratic secular state model eventually became the official position of the PLO." As I have said, this is pure invention. The PNC, PLO and Fatah turned down the DFLP proposal, and it was never adopted or enunciated by any important Palestinian leader or body -- though the Western media during the 1970s were forever attributing it to the Palestinians. As a result, however, the myth has taken hold that this was the PLO's official goal through the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

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Israel Matzav: 'A secular, democratic Palestine'?

Israel Matzav: Syria building biological and chemical weapons at destroyed al-Kibar nuclear plant?

Syria building biological and chemical weapons at destroyed al-Kibar nuclear plant?

On September 6, 2007, Israeli jets destroyed what was alleged to be a nuclear reactor located in rural al-Kibar near the Turkish border. In what was widely believed to be a bid to cover up the site, the Syrians flattened it and then built another building on top of it. Now, according to an Israel Radio report that I heard once (and only once) on Monday morning, and an article from Yediot Aharonoth's Hebrew edition that seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth, that building may be in use to construct biological and chemical weapons to be used against Israel. Please allow me to explain.

On Thursday, President Obama surprised a lot of people by extending President Bush's sanctions against Syria for another year.

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Israel Matzav: Syria building biological and chemical weapons at destroyed al-Kibar nuclear plant?

Israel Matzav: Iraq to sue Israel over Osirak?

Iraq to sue Israel over Osirak?

The Iraqi legislature is considering legislation that would require the government to sue Israel for billions of dollars in compensation for the destruction of Iraq's nuclear reactor (by the pilots pictured at left) in June 1981. Of course, they would have to find a way to do so without recognizing the existence of the State of Israel.
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Israel Matzav: Iraq to sue Israel over Osirak?

FIGHTING WITH YOUR HANDS TIED BEHIND YOUR BACK


The Americans and their minor Nato allies are killing civilians in Afghanistan. There's no doubt about that. How many, what the circumstances are, what precautions are being made, these are not subjects one discusses in polite society, apparently. The custom of calling in aircraft - planes, not helicopters - is a bit puzzling to me, but I don't profess to have enough data, given as it isn't being offered.

Don't get me wrong. As a general statement I'm in favor of military action against the enemies of mankind and especially womankind; I'm no pacifist nor do I harbor any doubts about the utterly evil intentions of the enemies currently being fought. But I am befuddled, a wee bit, by the dimensions of the double standards in force here; and also by the ability to wage war without the public thinking intelligently.

And then there is this, in a Guardian article about the events. I don't suggest you take the Guardian article too seriously; it contains too many of the usual unthinking tropes that serve as a shield from thinking. My point is the quotation from the American general:

Last week Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, called for all air strikes invillages to be stopped, a view privately backed by many in the UN. YesterdayBarack Obama's national security adviser, Gen James Jones, ruled out such achange in policy, saying "we can't fight with one hand tied behind our back".

They can't be expected to fight with their hands tied behind their backs, says Obama's man.

taken from:Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)

Life in Israel: Two Sides of the Coin


While one former Nazi (John Demjanjuk) is being deported from his home back to Germany where he might get some of what he deserves (he is wanted for the murder of 29,000 Jews in Sobibor - how can he possibly get what he deserves for that?), another former Nazi is being given the royal treatment by Jews in the Holy Land.
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Life in Israel: Two Sides of the Coin