Thursday 4 March 2010

Israel Matzav: J Street not invited to Biden meeting

J Street not invited to Biden meeting

When I ran the story about Joltin' Joe Biden's meeting with the 'Jewish leaders' on Wednesday, I wondered aloud whether J Street was invited to the meeting and whether the 'pro-settler' organizations (National Council of Young Israel and Zionist Organization of America) were excluded, as was the case when President Obama invited 'Jewish leaders' to meet with him last summer. I even left a comment on Laura Rozen's blog asking if she knew, but it wasn't answered.

I finally found the answer to my question. Maybe. J Street apparently was not invited. But neither were the 'pro-settler' organizations. So concluded Steve Rosen anyway (although he did so by reading Laura Rozen's list as complete - it was not clear to me that it was). Hmmm.

Israel Matzav: J Street not invited to Biden meeting

Israel Matzav: What does Obama stand for?

What does Obama stand for?

Michael Young has a pretty fair analysis of President Obama's policies in the Middle East. They can be summed up in one word: Confusion.

That kinder, friendlier face was shown two weeks ago, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly declared that the US would not use force against Iran. An attack on Iran would doubtless be a terrible idea, but for Clinton to rule out such an action so bluntly was not the best use she could have made of American military superiority. Indeed, it clarified a situation that the Obama administration should not have clarified, and the statement may ensure that the hardest of the hardliners in Tehran will win all future domestic debates on the best way to deal with international efforts to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

American power has been equally absent elsewhere. Nothing has been done to make Syria pay for undermining Iraqi stability, which presumably is a vital American interest. Iran has been more effective than the US in building networks of alliances in Iraq, even though the Americans have spent seven years in the country. Nothing has been done to make Israel more pliant on a settlement with the Palestinians, though administration spokespersons have described Palestinian-Israeli peace as a vital US interest. And Washington has, similarly, been incapable of persuading Arab states to implement even limited normalization with Israel as a prerequisite to regional talks, which Obama promised he would restart.

The reality is that the Obama administration these days provokes little confidence in its allies and even less fear in its adversaries. The US remains the dominant actor in the Middle East, but to what end? If Obama’s ultimate goal is to be different than George W. Bush, he hasn’t even managed that. As setback follows setback, he is increasingly finding himself constrained by the same dynamics that Bush faced. But at least Bush knew what he was supposed to be about. Obama just seems lost.

Not that I'm complaining about Obama's failure to make Israel 'more pliant' (and he has certainly tried).

What could go wrong?

Israel Matzav: What does Obama stand for?

Love of the Land: Those bleeding-heart journalists

Those bleeding-heart journalists




Isi Leibler
Candidly Speaking from Jerusalem
03 March '10

In recent weeks, our media has indulged its penchant for masochism, depicting every incident in the most self-deprecating manner. This is exemplified in a column by Bradley Burston on the current homepage of the English edition of Haaretz. Titled “I envy the people who hate Israel,” he relates to real and imaginary blunders committed by our political leaders, and concludes with the breathtaking comment that “my father did not flee the Soviet Union just so that his son could one day have the chance to live in a place just like it.”

I would submit that the publication of such wacky remarks in a purportedly serious Israeli paper highlights the need for soul searching by our bleeding-heart editors.

Burston’s principal example of malfeasance was “our apparent violation of the basic conventions of all civilized states in the Dubai murder.” It is unlikely that the true facts concerning the assassination of the vicious Hamas killer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh will ever be revealed. The information disclosed by the Dubai police smacks of disinformation. It sounds somewhat bizarre for the Mossad to risk 27 agents and then send some of them on to Iran.

Initially, Israeli media reports of the assassination were exuberant. However, when it transpired that foreign passports belonging to Israeli dual nationals had been used, the euphoria evaporated and commentators who had portrayed Mossad chief Meir Dagan as “superman” began calling for his head.

(Read full article )





Love of the Land: Those bleeding-heart journalists

Love of the Land: Talking to Terrorists

Talking to Terrorists


Lee Smith
Tabletmag.com
03 March '10

“If you can talk to an insurgency that kills Americans, it should be easy to talk to ones that don’t,” Mark Perry tells me on the phone. Perry is author of the recently published Talking to Terrorists: Why America Must Engage With Its Enemies, a book documenting his meetings with terrorists around the Middle East, including officials from Hamas and Hezbollah. But his favorite template for successful engagement with terrorists is the Sunni insurgency in Iraq that eventually partnered with the Americans and turned against al-Qaida in Iraq. Perry argues that al-Qaida is the one terrorist group we shouldn’t be talking to, since it has no natural constituency and no interest in the democratic process. The others, Perry says, are “national resistance movements.”

Perry, who has lived and traveled in the Middle East for several decades, started talking to terrorists during the second intifada, when he built relationships with Hamas leaders like Ismail Haniyeh, Abdul Azziz Rantissi, and Mahmoud al-Zahar. These contacts would eventually lead to Perry’s partnership with former British intelligence official Alastair Crooke of the Beirut-based Conflicts Forum, an organization that regularly meets with terrorists and arranges meetings with non-active Western policymakers and diplomats. Perry left Conflicts Forum in the wake of Iran’s June presidential election, when he and Crooke found themselves on opposing sides. “He wrote an article on the June elections that showed disregard for the demonstrators,” says Perry. “And I wrote a piece castigating the regime and showing admiration for the opposition.”

Still, Perry has not lost his enthusiasm for the Iranian regime’s violence-prone proteges, like Hezbollah. How, I asked him, can the Party of God be considered democratic if its forces overran Beirut in May 2008, when the democratically elected government made a decision that Hezbollah didn’t like? The government, explained Perry, “wanted to take away Hezbollah’s privileges, so they pushed back.” Apparently, the fact that Hezbollah members only killed a few dozen of their fellow Lebanese before handing over their positions to the Lebanese Armed Forces makes them democratic.

“I’m not a reconciliation freak,” says Perry. “I’m not a pacifist. The vulnerability of my book is that people may come away thinking that simply by talking or listening, the scales will fall from our eyes. I don’t think that’s necessarily true. Sometimes, you sit down with them and you’re thinking, Holy cow—conflict is inevitable.” Still, he believes that Hamas may be willing to make a transition similar to that of the Iraqi insurgency and come to the negotiating table with Israel.

(Read full article)


Love of the Land: Talking to Terrorists

Israel Matzav: The Security Council's "no" votes

The Security Council's "no" votes

Laura Rozen does some vote-counting on Iran sanctions at the UN Security Council.

[I]t's a particularly tough Security Council, with key current non-permament members of the 15 member body such as Brazil and Turkey not certain to support such a resolution, Lebanon likely to vote against it, and at least one permanent member, China, also reluctant. Three past UN Security Council resolutions on Iran passed overwhelmingly, with no "no" votes and only a few abstentions.

And she doesn't mention Russia, Nigeria, Austria or Japan (among others), who are currently non-permanent Security Council members, any of whom could vote against sanctions.

What could go wrong?

The picture at the top is Ahmadinejad with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

Israel Matzav: The Security Council's "no" votes

Fine Men Gone

Fine Men Gone

My friend Elly Dlin has died, suddenly. As did another friend, David Bankier, less than a week ago. We buried David on Friday, in the middle of one of the worst rainstorms I can remember; Elly, it seems, is to be buried in Edmonton, which is touching since there probably wasn't anywhere he would have fully called home,so he'll rest where he was born and grew up.

I need to write about them both; but I need to find the time. As you've noticed, I've been blogging less of late: too many other things going on, in other parts of life. In the meantime, if any of you are in Dallas or Edmonton, you might want to give Elly what we call chesed shel emet: the true charity, for it cannot be repaid.
Originally posted by Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations

Elder of Ziyon: A mysterious assassination in Dubai - and no one cared

Elder of Ziyon: A mysterious assassination in Dubai - and no one cared

Israel Matzav: Video: Sean Hannity interview with Mosab Hassan Yousef

Video: Sean Hannity interview with Mosab Hassan Yousef

Mosab Hassan Yousef, the Christian convert son of Hamas founder Hassan Yousef, who also served as an Israeli spy for more than ten years, was interviewed on Wednesday by Sean Hannity on Fox News. Mosab shattered a lot of myths about Islam (note that he talks about 'every Muslim' and not just about Hamas), at least for those who bothered to listen.

Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Atlas Shrugs).



The key is around the 4:50 mark where Musab claims that there is no such thing as 'moderate Islam.' I wonder whether anyone is listening.


Israel Matzav: Video: Sean Hannity interview with Mosab Hassan Yousef

Israel Matzav: Hmmm....

Hmmm....

Hmmm....


Israel Matzav: Hmmm....

Israel Matzav: Stupid Jews: IDF soldier broadcasts advance notice of raid on his Facebook page

Stupid Jews: IDF soldier broadcasts advance notice of raid on his Facebook page

The IDF was forced to cancel an operation in the Binyamin region (Samaria) when a soldier in the unit posted an update on his Facebook page that disclosed and gave details of the operation.

The operation was scheduled to take place several weeks ago in the Binyamin region. The soldier, from an elite unit of the Artillery Corps, posted on his Facebook page: “On Wednesday, we are cleaning out [the name of the village] – today an arrest operation, tomorrow an arrest operation and then, please God, home by Thursday.”

The status update on the soldier’s page was revealed by other members of the soldier’s unit. His commanders then updated Judea and Samaria Division commander Brig.-Gen. Nitzan Alon, who decided to cancel the operation out of concern that the mission had been compromised.

The raid eventually took place, several days later, and was successful. The soldier, who had updated his Facebook page with his cellular phone, was disciplined by his commander, sentenced to 10 days in jail and kicked out of his unit.

Following the incident, the IDF’s Information Security Unit published a letter in which it warned soldier of the danger involved in publishing sensitive military information on Facebook.

“Enemy intelligence scans the Internet in search of pieces of information about the IDF. Information that could sabotage operations and endanger our forces,” the letter read.

This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened - read the whole thing.

In the Second Lebanon War, there were problems with soldiers giving away positions when their cell phone conversations were eavesdropped. In Operation Cast Lead, the army took the phones away as the soldiers entered Gaza and returned them when they left. The army is supposed to be getting a secure communications network, although I doubt it is intended to accommodate Joe Soldier's cell phone.

And what if this had been a war and the other member's of this kid's unit had not had the time to go surfing and see what he posted on Facebook? Not smart. In fact, pretty stupid.

Israel Matzav: Stupid Jews: IDF soldier broadcasts advance notice of raid on his Facebook page

Israel Matzav: Dubai incident impacted Goldstone vote

Dubai incident impacted Goldstone vote

The Foreign Minister of Slovakia, Miroslav Lajcak, has told the Jerusalem Post that several European countries changed their votes on the Goldstone Report in the United Nations General Assembly on Friday because they believe that Israel is responsible for the liquidation of Hamas terrorist and arms dealer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

The Slovak Republic, considered in Jerusalem one of Israel’s best friends in the EU, originally voted – along with six other EU countries – alongside Israel against endorsing the Goldstone Commission report at the General Assembly in November.

In a second vote on the matter on Friday, however, all seven EU countries abstained, and another 10 countries that had abstained in the November vote – including Britain, France, Sweden, Belgium and Finland – voted in favor of an Arab resolution to keep the issue alive.

After saying that the change of votes was due in part to the EU’s desire to appear to speak in a less fragmented voice on the issue, and that the recent resolution was softer than the November one, Lajcak added, “Don’t take this as any official position, but I also think the European public opinion has been affected by the killing in Dubai, not in favor of Israel, [and this] probably played a certain role in the shifting of policy in certain countries.”

Lajcak – who was present in the debate in Brussels last Monday following which the EU issued a statement condemning the killing, but stopped short of blaming Israel – said, “I would be hypocritical if I said this [the passport issue] had no impact whatsoever” on the vote in the UN.

No country “is immune to its public opinion,” he said.

Asked how much this issue was hurting Israel in European public opinion, Lajcak said the issue was “quite big.” Stolen identities, he said, were “something that Europe is very sensitive to.”Also, he said, “Europe is based on respect of values and principles of rule of law, and extrajudicial killings is something we show no tolerance for, regardless of where they come from.”

Reminded that Mabhouh had been an arch-terrorist with Israeli blood on his hands and had been behind smuggling weapons into Gaza designed to kill even more Israelis, Lajcak said it was necessary to view the issue from a European perspective.

“You are [an] innocent, ordinary European citizen, and you travel as a tourist, and all of a sudden you are arrested because someone has stolen your identity and used it for something bad, something unlawful – this is how Europeans look at it,” he explained. “They [European citizens] want to make sure their identities and passports are protected, and they will not be in a position where they will have to bear responsibility for someone else’s actions.”

If it turns out that Jordan or Egypt was behind Mabhouh's liquidation, will the Europeans apologize? Will they shun the responsible country? Or is this just the old double standard at work?

Israel Matzav: Dubai incident impacted Goldstone vote

Love of the Land: Far From Home

Far From Home

On the eve of the Iraqi elections, the daughter of Iraqi Jews mourns the destruction of Baghdad’s once-vibrant Jewish community


Marina Benjamin
Tabletmag.com
02 March '10

As Iraq’s March 7 election draws near, I can’t help reflecting on how far the Iraqi nation, now entrenched in factionalism, has departed from the commitment to multiculturalism so vital to its birth. “There is no meaning in the words Jews, Muslims, and Christians in the terminology of patriotism, there is simply a country called Iraq and all are Iraqis,” King Faisal proclaimed in 1921, soon after the British installed him as king. These were fine words, underscored by a constitution that granted all of Iraq’s indigenous minorities equal rights. But Faisal’s valiant experiment in diversity proved short-lived, as I know all too well—my own family was forced into exile in 1951, after the government decided to eject Iraqi Jews en masse from the country.

Actually, it would be more accurate to say my family exploded into exile, atomizing in the process. Some members landed in Israel, some in Iran, and some in North America; my immediate kin escaped first to India and then eventually to the United Kingdom. The dynamite involved was—as is ever the story with Jews—racial hatred, which played itself out in the Iraqi political arena as an inability to resolve escalating tensions between Arab Nationalism and Zionism.

My family was far from alone in being shattered. Iraq’s entire Jewish population—a community with roots in Mesopotamia that pre-date the birth of Islam by a millennium—was unceremoniously ejected from the country between 1950 and 1951. But first the Iraqi government had “denaturalized” the Jews, effectively making them refugees in their own land and rendering them defenseless against marauding gangs eager to harm Jews in a kind of skewed quid pro quo for the displacement of Palestinian Arabs.

(Read full story)

Love of the Land: Far From Home

Love of the Land: Bashar Assad: What you see is what you get

Bashar Assad: What you see is what you get

Syria’s president is not a ‘pragmatist’ but fiercely anti-Israel, which is why efforts to lure him out of Iran’s orbit aren’t working.


Jonathan Spyer
Middle East/JPost
03 March '10

In Damascus last week, the full array of leaders of the so-called “resistance bloc” sat down to a sumptuous meal together.

Presidents Ahmedinejad of Iran and Assad of Syria were there, alongside a beaming Khaled Mashaal of Hamas and Hizbullah General-Secretary Hassan Nasrallah. There were some lesser lights, too, to make up the numbers – including Ahmed Jibril of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), a fossil from the old alphabet soup of secular Palestinian groups.

The mood – replicated a few days later in Teheran – was one of jubilant defiance.

The reasons underlying Syria’s membership in the “resistance bloc” remain fiercely debated in western policy discussion. It has long been the view of a powerful element in Washington – strongly echoed by many in the Israeli defense establishment – that Syria constitutes the “weakest link” in the Iranian-led bloc. Adherents to this view see the Syrian regime as concerned solely with power and its retention. Given, they say, that Syria’s ties to the Iran-led bloc are pragmatic rather than ideological, the policy trick to be performed is finding the right incentive to make Damascus recalculate the costs and benefits of its position.

Once the appropriate incentive tips the balance, it is assumed, the regime in Damascus will coolly absent itself from the company of frothing ideologues on display in Damascus and Teheran last week, and will take up its position on the rival table – or at least at a point equidistant between them.

(Read full article)


Love of the Land: Bashar Assad: What you see is what you get

Israel Matzav: Getting something for nothing

Getting something for nothing

In the Middle East, giving an interlocutor something for nothing is considered a sign of weakness. Showing weakness to the autocratic rulers of this region is like showing blood to a great white shark: It's inviting them to come and eat you.

But that's precisely what President Obama has done by announcing his intention to return an ambassador to Syria. And Syrian President Bashar al-Assad showed last Thursday night that he can smell the blood in the water through his meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hezbullah chieftain Hassan Nasrallah, at which they ridiculed the United States.

“In the Middle East, favors are not accepted; you always trade something for something,” said a veteran Israeli diplomat who supports US dialogue with Syria. “If Obama got anything for all he just gave to Assad, it’s a very well-kept secret. He’s still problematic in Iraq, tightening his alliance with Iran, smuggling arms to Hizbullah, moving back into Lebanon and refusing any dialogue with Israel.

When [Yitzhak] Rabin was offering Assad Sr. an opportunity to get back the Golan Heights, we asked for the return of the bones of [Israeli spy] Eli Cohen as a goodwill gesture. We were turned down flat,” he added.

Topping the US wish list are separating Syria and Iran, stopping support for the Iraqi insurgents, halting the arms smuggling to Hizbullah and ending support for Hamas. Assad delivered his rebuff with Ahmadinejad, Nasrallah and Mashaal just days after the White House announced the return of the ambassador.

...

So far, all we know is that William Burns, number three at the State Department, met with Assad to inform him of plans to return the ambassador, and the Syrian leader assured him he is not helping the Iraqi insurgents, meddling in Lebanese politics, smuggling arms to Hizbullah or assisting Palestinian terror groups. Burns came away saying he was “hopeful we can make progress together.”

The White House said returning an ambassador “represents President Obama’s commitment to use engagement to advance US interests by improving communication with the Syrian government and people,” but the White House hasn’t answered the big question – where’s the beef?

Assad made it repeatedly clear that his relationships with Iran, Hizbullah, Hamas and the other terror groups are not negotiable.

So far, all we know is that William Burns, number three at the State Department, met with Assad to inform him of plans to return the ambassador, and the Syrian leader assured him he is not helping the Iraqi insurgents, meddling in Lebanese politics, smuggling arms to Hizbullah or assisting Palestinian terror groups. Burns came away saying he was “hopeful we can make progress together.”

The White House said returning an ambassador “represents President Obama’s commitment to use engagement to advance US interests by improving communication with the Syrian government and people,” but the White House hasn’t answered the big question – where’s the beef?

Assad made it repeatedly clear that his relationships with Iran, Hizbullah, Hamas and the other terror groups are not negotiable.

In this case, however, the Senate will have a chance to undo President Obama's mistake. Robert Ford, Obama's nominee to be ambassador to Syria, must be confirmed by 60 Senators. Fortunately, there are only 59 Democrats, which means that 60 Senators will not automatically vote in favor of confirmation. And there may even be Democrats that will oppose confirmation (Joe Lieberman, who caucuses with the Democrats, comes to mind).

The critical question here may not be Robert Ford's qualifications for the position. There is a different question that the Senate can and should consider through the confirmation process: Whether this is the appropriate time for the United States to give Syria something for nothing by returning an ambassador to Damascus. Close examination of that question should result in its answer being "no."


Israel Matzav: Getting something for nothing

Israel Matzav: The 'Palestinian' Agency?

The 'Palestinian' Agency?

'Palestinians' living in 23 countries got together in an opulent convention center in Bethlehem for the founding conference of the 'Palestine Network.' The 'Palestine Network' is meant to be a 'Palestinian' version of the Jewish Agency. But unlike the Jewish Agency, which was entirely self-financed, the 'Palestine Network's founding conference was funded by the governments of Germany and Belgium.

The Palestine Network is not just another charity or source of funding. The Palestinians have many economic backers. In 2008, global financial aid to the Palestinian Authority exceeded $2 billion, including about $526 million from Arab countries, $651m. from the European Union, $300m. from the US and about $238m. from the World Bank, according to the Arab League’s 2009 economic report.

...

The network’s goal is to use expertise from Palestine’s diaspora communities to develop the local economy, judiciary, education and health infrastructures in what will be the future state.

...

Nabil Shaath, a minister in the Palestinian Authority and former peace negotiator, says that the amount of money that is expected to come from the Palestine Network “is not going to be significant.”

“But their involvement with their country, their commitment, their networking is going to be an element of strength for the people inside as much as satisfaction for the people outside,” the minister adds.

“I understand that the many people who emigrated are willing to really come back, either permanently or to make businesses and go back again, which is fine with us,” Shaath concludes.

The Palestinian Network is setting up clubs across the world, several each in major cities like London and Chicago. The first club will symbolically be in Jerusalem, headed by Theodosios Attallah Hanna, Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Sebastia.

But not all 'Palestinians' were represented at the conference.

Notably absent were Palestinians from Arab states, where an estimated 1.2 million live. Khoury says that club formation there was contingent on Arab governments’ approval, which they hope will come later. Clubs will also be opened in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as well as inside Israeli Arab communities. Non-Palestinian supporters were also welcomed.

And apparently not all 'Palestinians' are happy about the conference.

The Palestinian community in exile condemns the efforts by the Ramallah-based illegitimate Palestinian Authority (PA) to divide, co-opt and control us through the creation of “clubs” in our midst to build legitimacy for a future settlement with Israel that betrays fundamental Palestinian rights, in particular the right of return.

...

Officials in the PA contacted several Palestinian activists in Europe, North America and South America inviting them to the “Palestine Network Founding Conference” in Bethlehem for late February 2010. The Palestinian Authority claims that the initiative is a response to “grassroots” demands, hiding the fact that international participants were handpicked according to their political orientation in a secretive process controlled by senior officials in the office of Mahmoud Abbas, first and foremost Rafiq Al-Hussaini, the “Head of the Palestine Network Taskforce”.

The Palestine Network comes at a time when the Palestinian Authority faces a legitimacy crisis. There has been an upsurge of global activism outside the control of the Palestinian Authority. US-trained security forces are cracking down on internal dissent. The Palestine Network aims to build a constituency that will act as the “Palestinian voice” in order to lend legitimacy to these unpopular policies.

The undersigned individuals and organizations pledge to boycott and resist the Palestine Network and reaffirm the integrity of the inalienable rights of Palestinians, first and foremost the Right of Return.

Maybe the 'Palestinians' who live normal lives in the West have forgotten that the true goal of 'Palestinian nationalism' is to destroy the Jewish state. (For those of you who are first time visitors who wonder why I keep putting the term 'Palestinian' in scare quotes, that last link will explain it).

Hmmm.

Israel Matzav: The 'Palestinian' Agency?

Israel Matzav: What you see is what you get

What you see is what you get

Why is it so difficult to pry Syrian President Bashar al-Assad away from his Iranian friend Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Maybe because Assad has read the political map and concluded that American weakness will lead to Iran filling a power vacuum in our region says Jonathan Spyer.

Clearly, the Syrians have a habit of swallowing incentives and giving nothing in return. But if the alignment with Iran is purely pragmatic, then why does it prove so difficult to offer Syria the right carrot to lure it away from Teheran?

There are two possible answers. The first and most obvious one is that Syria calculates, probably correctly, that since there will be no real price imposed on it for not changing its behavior, it can afford to maintain its current level of relations with Iran, while happily accepting any gestures from the west or Israel designed to induce it to change them.

But this explanation fails to account for the brazenness and fervor of Syria’s current stance of defiance. The statements of individuals close to the Syrian regime in recent months suggest that there is more to the current Syrian stance than simply playing all sides off against the middle.

Rather, the Syrians believe that a profound restructuring of the balance of power is under way in the Middle East – to the benefit of the Iran-led bloc. This restructuring is being made possible because of the supposed long-term weakening of the US in the region.

This enables the aggressive, Islamist regime in Teheran to fill the vacuum. It also renders feasible policy options – such as direct confrontation with Israel – which in the 1990s seemed to have vanished forever.

The characterization of the young Syrian president and his regime as ultimately cool-headed and pragmatist is incorrect. The Damascus regime always held to a fiercely anti-Israeli and anti-American view of the region.

In the 1990s, realities appeared to require a practical sidelining of this view. But the 1990s were over a while ago.

In other words, Assad's brazen alliance with Ahmadinejad is yet another consequence of President Obama's insistence on degrading American military capabilities.

What could go wrong?

Read the whole thing.

Israel Matzav: What you see is what you get

Love of the Land: Israel's 'crime' : failing to use Jewish refugees

Israel's 'crime' : failing to use Jewish refugees


Bataween
Point of No Return
04 March '10

Israel committed the mistake, nay, the crime, of failing to use the Jewish refugees from Arab countries in putting its case.

Addressing a London audience yesterday at the launch of the English edition of book The Dove Flyer, Eli Amir, the distinguished Baghdad-born writer, did not mince his words. " Why did Israel not use us 850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries? There were more of us and we lost more than the 650,000 Palestinian refugees."

Amir commended the passing of the Knesset law last week safeguarding the rights of Jewish refugees but implied it might have come too late. " The Palestinians have won," he said.

Amir urged people to read his novel The Dove Flyer (Mafriah hayonim). When the last Jew disappeared from Iraq, and its Jewish history had been erased, Amir's account of the anti-Jewish atmosphere in Iraq between 1948 and 1951, when 90 percent of the Jewish population was airlifted out to Israel would be the only enduring testament to the presence and persecution of Jews in Iraq." Iraq was the only country to hang Jews because they were Zionsts", he exclaimed. (He might have added that Iraq was the only country to hang Jews in 1969 because they were Jews.)

Amir missed places in Iraq, but he did not miss being 'under the yoke of the Muslims'. He relished Israel as a free and independent state. "We must do everything in our power to maintain it," he said. He himself was a living example that any citizen of Israel, regardless of origin, could 'make it' if he worked hard enough.

Review of The Dove Flyer

Love of the Land: Israel's 'crime' : failing to use Jewish refugees

Love of the Land: The wisdom of Ahmadinejad

The wisdom of Ahmadinejad


Fresnozionism.org
03 March '10

Some recent wisdom from the Iranian President:

Existence of Zionist regime an insult to humanity

Tehran, Feb 28, IRNA — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that existence of the Zionist regime is an insult to the entire humanity.

Addressing International Conference on ‘National and Islamic Solidarity for Future of Palestine’, he said that it is well-known for all that the Zionist regime’s mission is threat, violence and beating drums of war. Supporters of the Zionist regime who are shouting slogans of human rights and anti-terrorism, support systematic crimes of the occupying regime, the president said.

He said that everybody knows that the regime is seeking hegemony over the world.

He said that the Zionist regime is the origin of all the wars, genocide, terrors and crimes against humanity and that they are the racist group not respecting the human principles.


(Read full post)


Love of the Land: The wisdom of Ahmadinejad

Elder of Ziyon: Al-Arabiya Sports leaves out a small fact

Elder of Ziyon: Al-Arabiya Sports leaves out a small fact

UNIVERSAL TORAH: KI TISA

UNIVERSAL TORAH: KI TISA


By Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum

Torah Reading: KI TISA Exodus 30:11-34:35

PROVIDING THE MEDICINE BEFORE THE ILLNESS

The lengthy first section of our parshah of KI TISA (the entire first Aliyah in the synagogue Torah reading, up to Ex. 31:18) starts with a number of commandments concluding the account of the Sanctuary, its vessels and the daily services of its ministering priests. Then, with a reiteration and amplification of the Fourth Commandment, the Sabbath, its seriousness (violation is punishable by death) and its holiness as an eternal sign between G-d and Israel, Moses' Forty Days on Mt. Sinai after the giving of the Ten Commandments come to an end. G-d gives him Two Tablets of Testimony, but as he readies to go down the mountain back to the people, G-d tells him that the worst had just happened: the people had already violated the Covenant by making a molten idol.

Even before the sin occurred, the commandments with which KI TISA opens provide precisely the remedy for the coming illness, which was rooted within the dark depths of selfish material lust and craving. The Sanctuary as a whole is a remedy for material craving and the lust for wealth. This is particularly true in the case of the mitzvah with which the parshah opens, the HALF SHEKEL which each Israelite was required to contribute to the Sanctuary and for the purchase of the daily sacrifices so as to put food on the "table" of G-d's House, the Altar. The HALF SHEKEL is symbolic of charity and the will to GIVE, as opposed to the selfish desire to acquire and consume. The HALF SHEKEL is the remedy for the appetite for material wealth in itself.

When G-d spoke to Moses, He "showed him a kind of coin of fire, the weight of a half shekel" and He said to him: "THIS shall all who pass through the count give -- a half shekel" (Ex. 30:13 and Rashi there). This fiery HALF SHEKEL COIN, which made every single citizen an equal partner in the Sanctuary and its upkeep, was the remedy for material lust and the appetite for wealth. Everyone was to join and be a partner in an enterprise that elevates material wealth -- the finest vessels of gold, silver and copper, the finest fabrics, choicest animals, flour, oil, wine and spices -- by incorporating them in the worship of the One G-d. This is where the display of wealth is truly fitting, a place where each may take a just pride in having a share. Having a joint share with everyone else in the national treasure, the Temple, keeping one's eyes focussed on its splendid golden vessels and their implicit messages -- these are the medicine for the selfish lust for wealth for its own sake.

Differences in wealth and assets were of no significance in this annual half shekel tax that made each citizen an equal partner in the Temple enterprise. The rich could not give more nor the poor less. Souls cannot be quantified and counted -- each soul has its own unique significance that would be violated by trying to quantify it or assign it a number. What counts is that each person adds his or her own SELF and WILL, and is willing to play his or her part by paying the "head tax" and "casting a vote". Numbers and wealth do not count in the eyes of G-d. What counts is each person's WILL to make a contribution -- to have an equal share with everyone else, without pride and without shame, in being part of the whole, feeding the Altar and bringing the fire of G-d's presence into the world.

An integral part of this remedy for the sin of worshipping material wealth and splendor is the keeping of the Sabbath, with which the account of the Sanctuary and its vessels concludes. Observance of the Sabbath is more important even than the work of building the Sanctuary, which must also cease for one day every week. The race to work, build, make and create wealth must stop for one day out of every seven in order to remember that it is not work and material wealth that guarantee security but only G-d's enduring Covenant. What is of prime importance is not our wealth but our soul. One day a week must be for the soul. "And on the seventh day, He rested, VAYNAFASH -- and became ENSOULED" (Ex. 31:17).

* * *

THE LOSS OF INNOCENCE

To get a faint grasp of how, forty days after hearing G-d speak from heaven at Sinai, the people could worship a golden calf, it is necessary to understand that the ERUV RAV -- the "mixed multitude" who went up with the Children of Israel out of Egypt -- were by no means a mere rabble of fellow-travelers who jumped on the wagon together with a band of runaway slaves. The Exodus was far more than a slave breakout. It was a religious revolution, in which the entire idolatry-based worldview of Egypt together with its hierarchy of king, priests and wizards was publicly overthrown and defeated. According to the Zohar (beginning of KI TISA), the shattering of the existing culture and its assumptions caused some of Pharaoh's leading magicians (the great scientists and philosophers of the time) to join Moses (who was "very great in the eyes of Pharaoh's servants", Ex. 11:3), on this new venture out into the wilderness in search of the One G-d. The Midrashim note that some of these magicians even brought their idols with them when they crossed the Red Sea.

Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, commenting on the two golden calves made later on by Jeraboam, first king of the Northern Kingdom, asks how it is conceivable that he could have deceived a great multitude with such nonsense as worshiping cows. "Certainly this matter contained very deep and profound reasoning. And if a single page of the philosophical writings on which it was based had survived, it would distance many people from G-d and it would be impossible to come close to Him at all. And for this reason, it is a great benefit to the world that the works justifying this idolatry have been lost." (Likutey Moharan II:32). [Likewise it is told in Sanhedrin 102b that the soul of King Menashe appeared to Rav Ashi, who asked him, "Since you were all so wise, why did you worship idols?" The king replied, "If you had been there, you would have picked up your robes and come running after us." See also Taanis 25b, where the angel of the rains is compared to EGLA, a "calf". The root EGLA is also related to IGUL, a circle or cycle, hinting at how the image of the golden calf was bound up with representing fundamental cosmic cycles.]

"They have turned aside quickly from the path that I commanded them, they have made for themselves a molten EGEL and they are prostrating to it and sacrificing to it and they said, These are your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt." (Ex. 32:8).

Whatever this EGEL was intended to represent, it was a deviation from the pathway of absolute monotheism taught at Sinai, which proscribed any kind of graven image. Unlike the path of Sinai, which was intended to lead to the holiness befitting a nation of priests, the festivities around the EGEL ended up in "play" (Ex. 32:6) -- the three cardinal sins of idolatry, sexual immorality and murder (see Rashi ad loc.). The molten image, with its sophisticated associated "theology", was at root a wizardly rationalization for material lust.

How it came about that Aaron, Moses' older brother, played a part, albeit unwillingly, in the manufacture of this calf is one of the profound mysteries of the Torah. The two previous parshahs dealt with the elevation of wealth through the incorporation of gold, silver and other symbols of wealth into the Temple service. In TETZAVEH we saw that at the very center of the Temple service is the High Priest, with his beautiful garments (expressing "splendor", HOD, kabbalistically the characteristic quality of Aaron). Yet suddenly we find that Aaron himself took the gold offered by those who wanted to make the calf, symbol of the ultimate degradation of wealth! This implies that there is a "fatal flaw" in HOD -- that splendor, even in the service of true religion, may lead to corruption.

[And thus it was that in the time of the Second Temple, the priesthood became corrupt. The "fatal flaw" in Hod corresponds to the sciatic nerve that "jumped" when the angel who struggled with Jacob touched his thigh.]

While Moses was "blotted out", as it were, from the previous parshah of TETZAVEH (as discussed in last week's commentary), he is the central figure in our present parshah of KI TISA. In the previous parshah we saw that the role of the Priest, as epitomized in Aaron, is to secure atonement. But how can atonement come when the priest himself is in need of atonement -- when the splendor of religious service itself has become corrupted because of the inherent "flaw" in this-worldly glory?

KI TISA teaches that ultimately, atonement can come only through from the Sage, as epitomized in Moses (whose characteristic quality is NETZACH, "Victory" -- as when he "argues" with G-d when pleading for forgiveness, see Likutey Moharan I:4). Moses alone "found favor" in G-d's eyes, eliciting the revelation of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy (Ex. 34:6): Both before the sin and after the sin, G-d does not change. He is always the same: "loving and gracious, patient, and abundant in mercy and truth." True atonement comes from practicing these same virtues: "And you shall go in His ways" (Deut. 28:9).

Repentance is not very glorious -- it is hard to admit that one did wrong, to have to accept the consequences, atone and struggle to change while living with shame and contrition. In order to escape the ignominy of sin, practitioners of religion are sometimes tempted to present an outer face of sanctimony and irreproachability to others and even to themselves, thereby blinding themselves to their own flaws.

This is not the path of religion and repentance taught by the Torah, which gives naked exposure to people's real flaws and shortcomings, including even the errors of an Aaron, a Moses or a David, none of whom were spared from criticism.

The Talmud states: "It was not really consistent with what David truly was that he should have sinned with Batsheva, and it was not really consistent with what the Children of Israel were that they sinned with the golden calf. Then why were they made to sin? It was a decree of the King in order to give penitents an excuse" (Avodah Zarah 4b and Rashi there). They were made to sin in order to teach others the ways of repentance ("I will teach sinners your ways", Psalms 51:15). If they could sin, and still bear the pain and repent, then so can others.

While the sanctimonious nations of the world never cease berating and criticizing the Jews and Israel for their supposed sins, the actual followers of the Torah continue with the inglorious work of Teshuvah, scrutinizing themselves for flaws and striving to correct them instead of denying and papering over them. "And He, being compassionate, will atone for sin".

* * *

MESHENICHNAS ADAR, MARBIN BESIMCHAH!!! "When Adar arrives, we maximize SIMCHAH!!!"

Shabbat Shalom!

Avraham Yehoshua Greenbaum

--
AZAMRA INSTITUTE
PO Box 50037 Jerusalem 91500 Israel
Website: www.azamra.org

Swastikas and Ku Klux Klan Symbols during Apartheid Week - Politics & Gov't - Israel News - Israel National News

Swastikas and Ku Klux Klan Symbols during Apartheid Week - Politics & Gov't - Israel News - Israel National News

Netanyahu's Likud Party Plans Foiled - Politics & Gov't - Israel News - Israel National News

Netanyahu's Likud Party Plans Foiled - Politics & Gov't - Israel News - Israel National News

Jerusalem's Master Plan May Endanger United Capital - A7 Exclusive Features - Israel News - Israel National News

Jerusalem's Master Plan May Endanger United Capital - A7 Exclusive Features - Israel News - Israel National News

Arab League Approves US-Brokered PA-Israel Talks; PM is Pleased - Defense/Middle East - Israel News - Israel National News

Arab League Approves US-Brokered PA-Israel Talks; PM is Pleased - Defense/Middle East - Israel News - Israel National News

Israeli Critic Exposes Lie of Apartheid - A7 Exclusive Features - Israel News - Israel National News

Israeli Critic Exposes Lie of Apartheid - A7 Exclusive Features - Israel News - Israel National News

Court Gives Green Light to Shiloach Zoning Plan - Inside Israel - Israel News - Israel National News

Court Gives Green Light to Shiloach Zoning Plan - Inside Israel - Israel News - Israel National News

MK: PA Boycotting Israeli Goods? Boycott Back, Fire Workers - Politics & Gov't - Israel News - Israel National News

MK: PA Boycotting Israeli Goods? Boycott Back, Fire Workers - Politics & Gov't - Israel News - Israel National News

Love of the Land: Medical clowns in Haiti

Medical clowns in Haiti


lianet1965
February 24, 2010

Hamutal, Dudi and Shuli are all trained medical clowns with Dream Doctors. They accompanied Israeli Flying Aid in Haiti, and amidst the rubble, brought joy to the children. Just a few moments from my upcoming documentary on Haiti. Enjoy!



Love of the Land: Medical clowns in Haiti

Love of the Land: Tell me what your heritage sites are...

Tell me what your heritage sites are...


Israel Harel
Haaretz
04 March '10

(You'll have to read the full piece to get to the punch line, but it's got punch. Y.)

Everyone expected Benjamin Netanyahu to surprise us once again by distancing himself from the Likud platform, just as he did when he adopted the two-state "vision" in his speech at Bar-Ilan University. But at last month's Herzliya Conference, the prime minister surprised us from a different direction. Israel's existence, he declared, "depends first and foremost ... on our ability to explain the justness of our path and demonstrate our affinity for our land. ... If our feeling of serving a higher purpose dissipates, if our sources of spiritual strength grow weak, then - as Yigal Allon said - our future will also be opaque."

Less than a month after that speech, the cabinet members went to Tel Hai, a foundational site in the pioneering Zionist ethos, and decided during a festive meeting to "rehabilitate and strengthen the infrastructure of our national heritage, which expresses the national heritage of the nation of Israel in its land." In accordance with this decision, two maps will be "branded and rooted" in the public consciousness: "the map of the historical Jewish story" and "the map of the Israeli-Zionist experience."

The map of the "historical story" will include foundational sites such as Al-Kanatir, Dir Aziz, Hamam Midya, El-Umdan, Qeiyafa, Anim and Madras. It will not include - doubtless because they truly are the "historical Jewish story" - the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, Rachel's Tomb, Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, Tel Shilo (which was the capital of the ancient Israelite polity for 300 years before it moved to Hebron), Givon, Tel Jericho, the ancient Shema Yisrael mosaic in Jericho, or many other sites located in the heart of the land of the Bible.

Heletz, Beit Haya'aran and the Timna mines are three sites on the second map, that of the "Israeli-Zionist experience." And they, no less than the sites chosen for the map of the "historical Jewish story in the Land of Israel," faithfully reflect the best of the Zionist experience, as chosen by a task force comprising more than 100 people, led by Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser. According to the task force's concluding report, the choices were "based on criteria that reflect our vision."

(Read full article)

Love of the Land: Tell me what your heritage sites are...

Love of the Land: The Israeli Field Hospital in Haiti — Ethical Dilemmas in Early Disaster Response

The Israeli Field Hospital in Haiti — Ethical Dilemmas in Early Disaster Response


Ofer Merin, M.D., Nachman Ash, M.D.,
Gad Levy, M.D., Mitchell J. Schwaber, M.D.,
and Yitshak Kreiss, M.D., M.H.A., M.P.A.
New England Journal of Medicine
03 March '10

Within 48 hours after the massive earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on January 12, the government of Israel dispatched a military task force consisting of 230 people: 109 support and rescue personnel from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Home Front Command and 121 medical personnel from the IDF Medical Corps Field Hospital. The force's primary mission was to establish a field hospital in Haiti.

We landed in Port-au-Prince 15 hours after leaving Tel Aviv and began to deploy immediately. The first patients arrived at our gates and were admitted even before the hospital was fully built, within 8 hours after our equipment arrived. In its 10 days of operation, the field hospital treated more than 1100 patients.

Our mission was to extend lifesaving medical help to as many people as possible. The need to manage limited resources that fell far short of the demands continuously presented us with complex ethical issues. Every mass-casualty event raises ethical issues concerning the priorities of treatment, but the Haiti disaster was exceptional in several ways. Haiti is a poor country with minimal civil facilities, and the earthquake's destruction of infrastructure left millions of people homeless and hundreds of thousands in need of medical assistance. When we arrived, there was no functioning authority coordinating the distribution of the available medical resources. We were faced with the challenge of establishing an ethical and practical system of medical priorities in a setting of chaos.

Our hospital was designed to contain 60 inpatient beds, including 4 in the intensive care unit (ICU). It had one operating room with a single table. In view of the initial absence of functioning nearby medical facilities and the dire need for medical services, we extended our hospitalization capacity to its maximum of 72 patients and added a second operating table.

Under normal circumstances, triage involves setting priorities among patients with conditions of various degrees of clinical urgency, to determine the order in which care will be delivered, presuming that it will ultimately be delivered to all. After the Haitian earthquake, however, it was impossible to treat everyone who needed care, and thus the first triage decision we often had to make was which patients we would accept and which would be denied treatment. We were forced to recognize that persons with the most urgent need for care are often the same ones who require the greatest expenditure of resources. Therefore, we first had to determine whether these patients' lives could be saved.

Our triage algorithm consisted of three questions: How urgent is this patient's condition? Do we have adequate resources to meet this patient's needs? And assuming we admit this patient and provide the level of care required, can the patient's life be saved?

In the first days of our deployment, most of the patients we saw had recently been removed from the rubble. The majority had limbs that were compromised by open, infected wounds. Untreated, open fractures meant infection, gas gangrene, and ultimately death. Clearly, the sooner after injury the patient received medical attention, the better his or her chances of survival. Late-arriving patients who already had sepsis had a poor chance of survival. But there was no clear cutoff time beyond which patients could not be saved; each case had to be evaluated individually.

(Read full article)


Love of the Land: The Israeli Field Hospital in Haiti — Ethical Dilemmas in Early Disaster Response

Love of the Land: Anti-Israel Bigotry Week

Anti-Israel Bigotry Week


Melanie Phillips
The Spectator
02 March '10

This afternoon, I attended a reception at the House of Commons given by the All-Party Parliamentary Committee against Antisemitism. As its splendid and doughty chairman the Labour MP John Mann observed, it is heartening to find MPs from all political parties taking a lead in fighting the re-emergence of this disgusting prejudice. This week provides evidence of why such a defence is tragically so necessary with Anti-Israel Bigotry Week (aka Israel Apartheid Week), a global campus hate-fest whose message, that Israel is fundamentally illegitimate, is in effect a call for Israel’s destruction and is therefore an incitement to genocide.

In Canada, the fact that the University of Toronto is hosting this odious travesty has caused one of its alumni, Howard Rotberg, to return the degrees he obtained there. He wrote to the President of his old university thus:

We have now reached a stage where Jewish students and others identifiably Jewish fear for their safety at various universities in North America and Europe, and where various Jewish speakers are denied permission to speak because of Islamist intimidation. We have now reached a situation where various student groups, such as the Muslim Students Association are being funded by radical Islamist groups, and where various University departments across the ‘free world’ are becoming beholden to radical Islam due to financial funding from Saudi Arabia and the Emirates.

I am sure you have read how young Muslim students are being ‘radicalized’ at universities in England, and such was the case with the attempted terror attacker on the Delta airlines jet on Christmas Day.

The situation at English universities and even at York University has gotten out of hand. To the extent that your views are infused with cultural and moral relativism, I suggest that the University of Toronto is poised to eventually join those institutions where Jewish students will be viewed as ‘offensive’ per se to Muslim students and other illiberal antagonists who apply double standards and factually incorrect legal and historical judgments against the Jewish State, and interpret Islam as holding Jews and Christians to be second class citizens, which is the real apartheid that your University will not allow to be discussed. Moral equivalency is not appropriate between liberal democrats and terror supporting illiberals.



(Read full article)


Love of the Land: Anti-Israel Bigotry Week

Love of the Land: Franchising “Apartheid”: Why South Africans Push the Analogy

Franchising “Apartheid”: Why South Africans Push the Analogy


Rhoda Kadalie & Julia Bertelsmann
Z-Word Blog
Originally Posted March '08

ON A COLD NIGHT IN Johannesburg last year, a bus pulled up outside the American consulate. It was the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War in the Middle East-June being a winter month in South Africa-and several dozen activists planned to mark the occasion by protesting U.S. support for "Apartheid Israel." The protest was organized by the Palestine Solidarity Committee and most of the demonstrators were South African Muslims.[1] Among their number, however, were black South Africans who shared the organizers' hostility to Israel.

Or so it seemed. A reporter discovered that some of the black demonstrators "were not pro-Palestinian activists, but homeless people bused in from the surrounding townships," he told Ha'aretz. "[M]ost of them refused to protest, opting to sit on the warm bus. The organizers refused to allow it. When I asked one black 'protester' if he was for Palestine, he replied: ‘I am for nobody.'" The organizers soon ejected the reporter. [2]

Like the ‘protester' on the bus, most South Africans feel indifferent towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a study conducted by the Pew Global Attitudes Project in 2007. Of those with clear opinions on the matter, the majority sympathized more with Israel: 28 per cent of South Africans overall sided with Israel compared to only 19 per cent with the Palestinians. [3]

Nevertheless, South Africa has increasingly become the flash point of virulently anti-Israel demonstrations. Many of the country's leaders routinely compare the State of Israel to the apartheid regime that governed South Africa from 1948 to 1994 and imposed an oppressive system of segregation and discrimination on grounds of race. "End Israeli Apartheid" rallies are usually organized by radical Muslim organizations, but some black South Africans have also entered the fray.

(Read full article)

Love of the Land: Franchising “Apartheid”: Why South Africans Push the Analogy

Israel Matzav: What would the aftermath of a strike on Iran's nuclear weapons facilities look like?

What would the aftermath of a strike on Iran's nuclear weapons facilities look like?

This is without question the most interesting piece I have read in a LONG time, and I urge you all to read it.

It's a write-up of a simulation of the aftermath of an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. It was done by the Saban Center at the (Left-leaning) Brookings Institute.

The surprises start from the very beginning because it wasn't supposed to be the aftermath of an Israeli attack. It was supposed to be the lead up. The Control group decided to change the scenario at the last minute and tell the three groups (US, Israel and Iran) that Israel had just carried out an attack and destroyed (best case scenario) Iran's nuclear capability. And that's the first lesson: The US team said that they would have stopped an Israeli strike even at the last minute if they could have stopped it. If Israel is going to attack Iran, it cannot tell the US in advance. Everyone agreed that the surprise scenario was much better than Israel telling the US it was going to attack, meeting a US refusal and then attacking anyway.

The US then behaved the way it did during the first Gulf war. During the first Gulf war, the first Bush administration forced Israel to sit on the side and absorb one missile after another from Iraq. In this simulation, eight days after the initial strike, the US had just given Israel permission to retaliate against Hezbullah (which was also firing missiles), but not against Iran. The US also continued to attempt to 'engage' Iran, but Iran wasn't interested. 'Engagement' brought no positive results.

Because the US kept pushing for 'engagement,' Iran kept pushing the US to the limit to see where that limit was. Eventually, Iran crossed a red line by bombing a Saudi oil facility in Dharan and mining the Straits of Hormuz. Another lesson (that Obama will undoubtedly ignore): Don't keep acting like a wimp in front of Iran - it will only encourage them further.

The Iranian team admitted that its actions were much more aggressive because its nuclear facilities were completely destroyed. It figured it had nothing to lose. I'd like to see Iran's nuclear facilities completely destroyed and for them to feel that they still have something to lose. The only way that will happen (and this is not in the simulation) is for Israel to ignore the US red light after it destroys Iran's nuclear facilities and go after Iran's infrastructure and the regime's leadership. Let's hope it happens.

There's much more. Read the whole thing. By the way, it's a pdf link but it's only six pages. It's worth it.

Israel Matzav: What would the aftermath of a strike on Iran's nuclear weapons facilities look like?

Israel Matzav: Iran to seek seat on 'Human Rights Council'

Iran to seek seat on 'Human Rights Council'

The 'Human Rights Council' is holding elections in May and one of the candidates is likely to be the 'Islamic Republic of Iran.'

On Wednesday, Germany's Foreign Minister urged countries to vote against Iran saying having the human rights violator on the body would be an affront to human rights.

Actually, I hope that Iran wins. It would be the loudest and clearest statement possible that the 'Human Rights Council' is a fraud that couldn't care less about human rights.

Israel Matzav: Iran to seek seat on 'Human Rights Council'

Israel Matzav: Da Silva (Brazilian President): Don't push Iran into a corner

Da Silva (Brazilian President): Don't push Iran into a corner

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paid a visit to Brazil on Wednesday to try to convince Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (pictured with President Obama), whose country is currently a member of the UN Security Council, to support sanctions against Iran. Mighty Hillary struck out.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday the international community should not "push Iran into a corner" over its nuclear program.

Lula, speaking before a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said "it is not wise to push Iran into a corner. It is wise to establish negotiations."

And we just have so much time remaining to negotiate with Iran, don't we? What could go wrong?

More details here.


Israel Matzav: Da Silva (Brazilian President): Don't push Iran into a corner

Israel Matzav: He's a sweet-talkin' guy

He's a sweet-talkin' guy

If you all haven't figured it out yet, I spent way too much time watching television and listening to rock music in the 1970's. And since I have no place else to use those brain cells these days, I inflict them on all of you. So....

Let's go to the videotape.



Caroline Glick says that Joe Biden is a sweet talkin' guy. And while she believes that most of Israel's media will fall for him when he is here next week, Caroline has seen right through Joe Biden since Day One.

Glick said that Vice President Joe Biden will bring with him a message of “we love you” although, "despite his sweet talk," he has been the biggest defender of Iran. “Maybe he will talk about the 'American commitment to the security of Israel,' but this would be a gross lie,” Glick stated.

She added, “The journalists in Israel undoubtedly will be convinced and will call on our leaders to give Obama a chance.

Glick warned as far back as 2008 that President Obama’s choice of Biden as his running mate was a sign that the two could not be trusted.

...

Glick pointed out that despite the pro-Israel talk, Biden was "a staunch supporter of an Israeli transfer of the strategically critical Golan Heights to Syria and…harshly criticized the Bush administration for its refusal to support Israeli negotiations with Syria. At the same time, he downplays the significance of Syria's strategic alliance with Iran and its sponsorship of terrorists in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority. Belittling those ties, Biden has claimed repeatedly and without a shred of evidence that the Syrians really want to put all of that behind them.

“Biden's positions on Iran are even more troubling. Over the past decade, since Iran's ballistic missile program and its nuclear program came into full view, Biden has distinguished himself both for his refusal to support tough U.S. diplomatic moves against Iran…. In 1998, Biden was one of only four senators to vote against the Iran Missile Proliferation Sanctions Act, a bill that punished foreign companies and other entities that sent Iran sensitive missile technology or expertise.”

The vice president also “was one of just a handful of senators who voted against a Senate resolution calling on the State Department to classify Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist organization,” according to Glick.

Smart women aren't fooled by sweet talkin' guys anymore. Maybe Israel's media needs a few more smart women like Caroline.

Israel Matzav: He's a sweet-talkin' guy

Israel Matzav: Another month and still no sanctions

Another month and still no sanctions

It should surprise no one that new sanctions against Iran are not on the Security Council's agenda for March.

Also on Tuesday, Gabon's UN envoy said that the UN Security Council might take up this month the issue of Iran's nuclear program and Western proposals for a fourth round of sanctions against Tehran.

Ambassador Emanuel Issoze-Ngondet, who is president of the Security Council for the month of March, said the Iranian nuclear issue was not on the agenda of the 15-nation panel this month, but council members might still hold a meeting on it.

"We think the question could come to the table [in March]," Issoze-Ngondet told reporters through an interpreter. "But right now we are waiting. We're following the process that's ongoing. We're waiting for the right time to bring the Security Council to deal with it."

Speaking on condition of anonymity, Western diplomats told Reuters the United States, Britain, France and Germany have prepared a draft proposal -- which they hope China and Russia will support - for a fourth round of sanctions against Iran for refusing to halt its uranium enrichment program.

The four Western powers had hoped to secure an agreement among the six as early as this week, so they could submit it to the full Security Council for discussion. But it has been difficult getting China to negotiate, the diplomats said.

"We still don't know what China thinks," a diplomat told Reuters.

What could go wrong?

Israel Matzav: Another month and still no sanctions

Israel Matzav: Arab League okays 'proximity talks'

Arab League okays 'proximity talks'

The Arab League foreign ministers met on Wednesday in Cairo and endorsed 'proximity talks' - indirect talks between Israel and the 'Palestinians' to be mediated by the United States. The League rejected the notion of direct talks unless and until Israel implements a 'full settlement freeze,' which would include Jerusalem. Don't hold your breaths waiting for that to happen.

One foreign minister opposed the decision: Syria's Walid Moallem.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem interrupted Moussa while he was reading the statement, insisting that the decision on whether to join indirect talks or not was up to the Palestinians. "The Palestinians are better positioned to know what to do," he said.

Moallem is correct. The 'Palestinians' are better positioned. The fact that Abu Mazen needs the cover of the Arab League to even open talks shows how weak his position is. It also means that Abu Mazen cannot make any concessions. Since Prime Minister Netanyahu is not Ehud Olmert and is not going to be a gift that keeps on giving (even if he would give too much in my book), Abu Mazen's weakness ensures that these talks will end in failure. They are all for show.

By comparison, Yasser Arafat never sought Arab League approval for what he did vis a vis Israel. He sought (and did not receive) Egypt's and Saudi Arabia's approval for the minimal concessions he sought to make on the Temple Mount in 2000, but that was the sum total of it.

Abu Mazen's weakness derives from several sources. The most obvious one is the split with Hamas. The second source is that he has now been President for more than a year past the point that he was supposed to stand for re-election. The third source is that he is not Yasser Arafat and does not enjoy the 'Palestinians' confidence the way that Arafat did.

All of these factors make it all but certain that these talks will fail. The fact that they are not direct talks is just the icing on the cake. The real question here is why the Obama administration insists on continuing to waste American political capital on this game. I have no rational answer to that question.


Israel Matzav: Arab League okays 'proximity talks'

Israel Matzav: Italy accuses nine of selling arms to Iran

Italy accuses nine of selling arms to Iran

Italy has arrested seven people in connection with arms sales to Iran - five Italians and two Iranians who live in Italy. Two other Iranians are being sought.

Italy’s veteran counterterrorism prosecutor, Armando Spataro, said at a news conference in Milan on Wednesday that a nine-month investigation, including intercepted phone conversations and e-mail messages, indicated that the group was trafficking in weapons to Iran despite an arms embargo.

Mr. Spataro said that the British, Swiss and Romanian authorities had joined the investigation and that shipments of materials had been intercepted, including 1,000 rifle scopes. The authorities also said the operation stopped explosives from being shipped to Iran, according to the Italian media.

I would bet that a fair chunk of those weapons were supposed to go to Hezbullah and Hamas.


Israel Matzav: Italy accuses nine of selling arms to Iran

The Torah Revolution: Thank you Ynet for the beautiful video

The Torah Revolution: Thank you Ynet for the beautiful video

Elder of Ziyon: Dubai police chief: "We could infiltrate the Mossad"

Elder of Ziyon: Dubai police chief: "We could infiltrate the Mossad"

Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations: All Knowing

All Knowing

I don't think I've ever written directly about my religious beliefs, one way or the other. In all the verbiage I spout, I challenge anyone to find any clear endorsement of a position on a transcendent deity. Mostly, this is because it's my business, not of interest to the world; but there's something very Jewish (I think) in discussing the issues I focus on without dragging divinity into it.

This post will be no different. The point I'm about to make is about logic, not belief.

The earliest computers were invented in the 1930s, I think. As a child in the early 1960s I heard the grownups talk about machines that were learning to think, though I doubt I'd ever met anyone who had actually seen such a machine (and they still haven't figured out how to think). If you can believe it, I completed my undergraduate studies on a portable typewriter, and never considered acquiring a PC until I was doing an MA. When in 1994 I stood in front of an audience of hundreds of researchers and said that the goal of the Yad Vashem archives was to put everything we had on the Internet, the startled audience erupted in applause. (Only later did I begin to think about the practicalities. Ouch).

70-some years after the first invention, The Economist has a special report on the super-abundance of data we're creating. (The report begins here; a single-page introduction is here). The thesis: Everything is being recorded, and the world is dramatically changing. The Onion spoofs the reality here.

If we allow our thoughts to run forward a few decades, to, say, the first centenary of the invention of the earliest computer, it's reasonable to expect there will be digital images of every inch of the globe viewable from any direction; there will be mountains of data on every human and much of their activities; every human thought which has ever been put into writing and survived until the late 1990s will be available somewhere in digital form; any and every human interaction which takes place in any format other than face-to-face talk will be recorded... and probably much more.

Whether you like it or not.

Now, assume a deity which has been around for longer than the first century of human digital recording. Is there any logical reason to assume that this deity doesn't have the abilities Man has so recently acquired? What's so implausible about a deity knowing everything about us all, always? We're well on our way there on our own, and just starting...

Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations: All Knowing
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