That's Jan Helin, and he's an antisemite. He's not even a particularly interesting antisemite, with some novel angle that gives you pause or forces you grudgingly to recognize his intellectual innovation. This fellow, he just regurgitates stale old cannards and lots of very worn clischees.Helin said he had not meant to hurt anyone. "I was naïve," he said. "I thought Israel was democratic. I have many Jewish friends and I see Jewish culture as very positive."Neat, isn't it? I thought Israel was a democracy; now I know I was naive. There's more there; you really have to read the entire interview to see how effectively the man's Weltanschuung protects him from accepting any wrong-doing, even things like publishing baseless allegations with nary a sliver of evidence, because "the claims exist so we published the story".
Still, the push for health care "reform" is in one important way, as your title states, a recklessness borne of arrogance -- or if not arrogance exactly, then of the echo-chamber quality of a liberalism that can no longer hear the outside world or, increasingly, itself. This is again related to the way Obama campaigned and has governed. The fact that big majorities are satisfied with the health care system in general and their care in particular just does not register with him. What registers are the Queen for a Day stories -- the cancer-stricken granny whose insurance company cuts her off three days before chemotherapy was to have begun, etc.
Putting a single human face on policy choices that will affect 300,000,000 people paints a powerful picture. But in short order it succumbs to the defects of its "virtues." The public is not yet so dumbed-down that it's going to cashier a system it knows and likes in favor of the Government Sponsored Unknown, and still less is it going to do such a thing on the basis of a handful of anecdotal horror stories -- stories that it senses are deeply dishonest for attempting to convey as routine something people know is anything but.
Personally, I don't go onto the Temple Mount. My rabbi doesn't permit it. But some Jews do and apparently some of them were 'caught' praying on Sunday. And the Arab League is seething about it. Israel Matzav: Arab League seethes over Jewish prayer on Temple MountRabbi Yisrael Ariel, head of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, led the guided tour on the Temple Mount. While guards on the mount have a policy of preventing Jewish prayer or religious gestures such as kneeling or bowing, Rabbi Ariel's group managed to briefly pray at the site.
"This is the first time since 1967 that Jews have conducted prayers on Al-Aksa during the month of Ramadan,” Moussa declared. “We condemn this act,” he added, in the name of the 22 countries belonging to the League.
The prayer session was “a serious blow to the holiness of the site,” Moussa claimed, adding that Jews should not be allowed to pray at the site "whether it is Ramadan or any other time of year.”Read All at :
David Bernstein does a nice job of summing up what the world's reaction should be to the recent revelations about Human Rights Watch (Hat Tip: Instapundit).Israel Matzav: Some wishful thinking on Human Rights WatchFrom now on, every HRW report on Israel is going to be greeted with "you mean the Saudi-funded HRW," or "you mean the report written by the woman [HRW Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson] who is a great admirer of Norman Finkelstein and lobbied Kofi Annan against Israel in the middle of the Second Intifada" or "you mean the report written by the guy [Stork] who supports the anti-Israel boycott movement and has been venting his hostility to Israel for almost forty years" or "you mean HRW, the organization that fails to take down from its website anti-Israel reports even when it has admitted they are inaccurate," and so on.
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After questioning why President Obama would want to try to solve the Israeli - 'Palestinian' dispute when he has so many other things on his plate right now, Jackson Diehl almost nails it. Israel Matzav: Diplomats: Obama's devotion to Israeli - 'Palestinian' dispute a 'waste of time'Why do this now? There is, Obama said after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak last week, "a growing realization on the part of the Palestinians that Israel is not going anywhere and is a fact, a reality that has to be dealt with; and a recognition on the part of the Israelis that their long-term security interests require finding an accommodation with the Palestinians and ultimately with their Arab neighbors."
In general, those observations are correct. But the administration's efforts to broker the initial steps that Obama hopes to announce have demonstrated just how difficult it will be to translate those promising trends into a peace agreement.Read All at :
Iran has budgeted $20 million to expose US human rights abuses. Israel Matzav: Iran budgets $20MM to expose US human rights abusesPassage of the bill suggests the depth of mistrust that remains between the nations as Iran faces a September deadline to respond to President Obama's offer for talks. Iranian lawmakers said the legislation was in retaliation for what they consider similar action by the United States.
The U.S. Senate passed a bill in July that would allocate $30 million for technologies to allow the U.S. government's Farsi-language satellite and radio stations to bypass Iranian government efforts to jam their broadcasts. An additional $20 million would be set aside for developing Web sites and other technologies that will improve Iranian access to censored information. An additional $5 million is authorized for documenting information about human rights in Iran.Read All at :
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Cal) was critical of the Obama administration last week, saying that the President's demand for a 'settlement freeze' was 'mistaken.' Israel Matzav: Senior Democratic congressman critical of Obama on IsraelCongressman Berman met on August 14 with Jewish leaders in Los Angeles. The senior congressman, who is in close touch with Mitchell and is updated regularly on developments in the Middle East, said during the meeting that the disagreement between Israel and the U.S. over the settlements will be resolved by the end of August in a manner that is satisfactory to both sides.
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Here's some more proof for my claim that Sweden is an anti-Semitic country. Israel Matzav: More proof Sweden is an anti-Semitic countryTHE RESULTS of media distortion and constant demonizing of Jews and Israelis are felt in Sweden all the time - most recently Saturday in a soccer match involving Jewish youth club IF Hakoah, in which spectators raced onto the pitch during and after the match to assault the Hakoah players for the crime of being Jewish.
One problem, however: at this particular match, none of the Hakoah players happened to be Jewish. Not that it mattered in a climate of hate cloaked in government silence.
Other aspects of Swedish silence that are equally worrying if one steps back and examines the broader canvas. Sweden is one of the world's largest per capita donors to Palestinian Arab welfare. This funding comes in the form of tax revenues paid dutifully by hard-working Swedes lucky enough to still have a job, to the tune of about of 700 million kronor per annum and increasing yearly.Read All at :
Two leaders of Sweden's Jewish community - Lena Posner of Stockholm and Anders Carlberg of Gothenburg - have taken the Israeli government to task for blowing the Aftonbladet blood libel out of proportion. According to Lena Posner, head of the Jewish community in Stockholm and president of the Official Council of Jewish Communities in Sweden, "Israel caused all this mess."
Posner told Ynet, "The article was published here on Monday, but no one paid any attention to it. It wasn't a news report and was buried in the back pages of a tabloid. The writer is known to many of us as anti-Israel, and so it the entire paper. This is why no one took it seriously – until Israel got involved."
Soccer Dad asserts that Israel has to look in the mirror and accept some of the blame for the release of Pan Am 103 hijacker Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, and for Iran's appointment of Ahmad Vahidi - an accused mastermind of the 1994 bombing of the Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires - to be Iran's defense minister. Israel Matzav: Israel has only itself to blame?Israel, unfortunately has played a role in this.
By making deals for terrorists - whether it was the release of Yassin, the refrigerator bomber, Samir Kuntar - Israel has allowed the rest of the world to be less vigilant. After all, if Israel can forgive those who target it and kill its citizens, how can the rest of the world declare a stance of non-negotiation?Read All at :
Barry Rubin explains how to tell a blood libel from an accusation that is true, and why so many blood libels against Jews are being made. Israel Matzav: How to tell a blood libelWhat should the media, governments, and human rights’ groups look for in avoiding propagation of slander? Simply what they are supposed to look for in every story:
Evidence.
Until there is some proof, stories shouldn’t be reported.Read All at :
On Monday morning it's becoming clear that the 'Palestinians' may once again take the opportunity to miss an opportunity. 'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Israel Matzav: They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity
But while Netanyahu was painting a relatively upbeat picture, Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh said that Abbas had sent an "urgent message" to the US administration saying he would not return to the negotiating table with Israel as long as construction in the settlements continued.
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This ought to make the Obumbler real happy. Plans for a new neighborhood in 'east' Jerusalem have been filed with the City. The neighborhood will be called Maaleh David and will be next to Ma'aleh HaZeitim (pictured by computer simulation) on the Mount of Olives. Israel Matzav: Plans filed for new Jewish neighborhood in 'east' JerusalemThe plan calls for the construction of 104 housing units on the land where the former headquarters of the Judea and Samaria police was housed in the neighborhood of Ras al-Amud.
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You may recall that last Sunday I posted a translation of an article by Ben Dror Yemini from Friday's Ma'ariv that ripped the mask off Human Rights Watch's Joe Stork, who wrote the NGO's report on Operation Cast Lead that accused Israel of shooting eleven white-flag-bearing 'Palestinians' in seven separate incidents. Stork responded to Yemini's charges in a letter that was linked by Noah Pollak on Contentions on Saturday. In his Ma'ariv column on Friday, Ben Dror Yemini fisked Stork's letter. Here are some highlights (Hat Tip: Dave H). Stork's accusations are in italics and Yemini's response in normal font.
A number of right-wing bloggers in the US have been calling on their readers to buy from Whole Foods, the gourmet grocery that's being boycotted by the Left because its chief executive officer, John Mackey, wrote a Wall Street Journal article in which he blasted President Obama's healthcare plan, which is known as Obamacare. Typical of those bloggers is Michelle Malkin, with whom I rarely find myself disagreeing.Israel Matzav: Why I don't recommend that you buy from Whole FoodsA story I broke on this site documents how Whole Foods refuses to carry Israeli olive oil. I documented how the store has, instead, chosen to carry, vigorously promote, and subsidize Palestinian olive oil made by extremists who support Islamic terrorism. The olive oil, Canaan Fair Trade olive oil, sends its profits to fund scholarships at An-Najah University (and even worse “schools”), where the majority of the student body is in HAMAS and recruits for HAMAS, and where official school displays glorify the homicide bombing of innocent civilians at Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem, and mock its blown-up victims.
Canaan Fair Trade also subsidizes the anti-Israel, anti-American Rachel Corrie Foundation, honoring a pan-Islamist whore who committed suicide (standing in front of a bulldozer) for her Palestinian buddies, after she took photos of herself smilingly burning the American flag for her Palestinian friends.Read All at :
Every other world leader is capable of telling the President of the United States where to get off. Bibi Netanyahu is not. JPost reports on Sunday that 'significant progress' has been made in the 'negotiations' over a 'settlement freeze' and that the surrender may be signed as soon as this week in London. I'm not sure why Obama's bothering - Netanyahu keeps reminding us that he hasn't issued a single building permit since taking office at the end of March. 
Even the cows in the Middle East are political. This is from Monday's Lebanese Daily Star. Israel Matzav: UNIFIL building a fence to keep Zionist cows outKFAR SHUBA: The Spanish contingent operating as part of the United Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) pursued works to build a fence to surround the Baathaiil Lake in the southern Kfar Shuba, while talks to dispose of the cadaver of a cow that recently died came to a halt, according to a report carried by the state-run National News Agency on Sunday.
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Mike Huckabee was in Israel this past week espousing a very different vision for Israel than what you are used to hearing in the mainstream media. Israel Matzav: Huckabee's visionIt's a stark contrast not just to Obama's approach--but decades of U.S. bipartisan policy towards Israel. While most observers have a hard time realizing it, there is not much of a difference between the Bush presidency and the Obama presidency when it comes to the Israeli-Arab peace process. Yes, Obama is more "engaged," more ambitious, more determined, and acting with a greater sense of urgency. He is also more aggressive in his treatment of Israeli feet-dragging. But overall, Obama hasn't changed much when it comes to the strategic goals set by the Clinton and the Bush administrations: two-state solution, Jewish state, Palestinian state, settlements dismantled, right of return denied. If there is a difference, it is mostly temperamental. After all, Bush too was set--at least rhetorically--on the establishment of a Palestinian state in the near future. "We agree to engage in vigorous, ongoing, and continuous negotiations, and shall make every effort to conclude an agreement before the end of 2008," reads the document produced at Bush's Annapolis Summit.
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Tevi Troy reviews President Obumbler's conference call with 1000 American rabbis, at which he urged them to get political in their High Holiday sermons, and then comes up with this description of Obama's relationship with the Jewish community. Israel Matzav: Tone deafnessOverall, the mistakes here are minor. But these missteps indicate a continuing tone-deafness in the White House’s political dealings with the Jewish community. This extends to a variety of issues, including the settlement freeze in Israel, the aborted nomination of Israel critic Charles Freeman to chair the National Intelligence Council, and the Mary Robinson medal. The powers that be in the White House may feel that, since they won 80 percent of the Jewish vote in the last election, the Jewish vote is unshakably Democratic. Perhaps so. Nevertheless, it seems as if the Obama administration is going to try very hard to test this proposition.
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Just what we needed: 'Our friends the Saudis' have decided to go nuclear. Israel Matzav: Awesome: 'Our friends the Saudis' to build nuke plantThe Saudi newspaper Al-Watan reported on Thursday that the Saudi minister of water and electricity, Abdullah al-Hosain, said the kingdom was working on plans for its first nuclear power plant. The US inked civil nuclear power deals with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates last year.
Israel had no official response to the Saudi minister's announcement.Read All at :
The rest of the parshah deals with a lot of different laws and cases, which seem to fit in with the appointing of judges and how they are to rule in different cases. But the parshah barely returns to the duty of the officers. Only near the end of the parshah do we again read about the officers, but in a seemingly strange way. The Torah tells us the following:
“When you go out to the battle against your enemy…you shall not fear them, for Hashem your God is with you…let your heart not be faint, don’t be afraid, do not panic…Then the officers shall speak to the people saying ‘…Who is the man who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house…’ ” [Deuteronomy: 20: 1 - 8 ]
1012, Jews expelled from Mainz. 1290, Jews expelled from England. 1306, Jews expelled from France. 1483, Jews expelled from Warsaw, Sicily, Lithuania and Portugal. 1492, all Jews expelled from Spain. 1510, Jews expelled from Brandenburg, Germany. 1569, Pope orders all Jews out of the Papal States. 1593, Jews expelled from Italy and Bavaria. 1941, Jewish refugees expelled from the German Reich to Poland. 1956, Jews expelled from Egypt.
Both Church doctrine and Islamic teachings adopted the theology of the Wandering Jew, that the continuous expulsions of Jews was proof of their debased status and rejection by G-d. Jews were regularly forced out of their homes in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East at the whims of kings, clergymen and rulers. The partial list of expulsions above shows the regularity with which Jews were uprooted and were forced to seek new host countries. This 2000 year period of exile forever came to a close on one historic night in May 1948 when David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the re-establishment of the State of Israel and the promise of immediate citizenship to any Jew who desired.
Never again were Jews to be left without a refuge or a place of safety. As Hitler's dark forces grew, the world began to close its doors to Jewish immigration, leaving the Jews of Europe doomed to the Nazi inferno. "None was too many" was the infamous response of a Canadian official when asked how many Jewish refugees his country would let in. Then suddenly, this homelessness came to an end with the earth-shattering words: "we... hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, to be known as the State of Israel". Finally, the exile had ended. When the Jews of the Arab world were forced out of their homes, they found a country waiting for them with open arms. The Jews of Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, etc. were not condemned to wander or to languish in camps but became full citizens in their own country, the Jewish state.
Incredibly, the very same countries that threw Jews out of their homes, prompting many to make their way to Israel and fight for their right to their own state there, are now leading the way in preparing for the expulsion of Jews from there. Leaving the lands of Europe behind, Jews came to Israel and now the European countries are demanding that Jews leave their rightful homes in Judea and Samaria. 70 years after the cry was 'Jews to Palestine!', the grandchildren of those who screamed this now yell 'Jews out of Palestine!'.
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For Zion's Sake: Finally Home, and Never Leaving Again
Anonymous diplomats have told AP that IAEA inspectors were allowed to visit the nearly completed Arak heavy water nuclear facility in Iran last week, and will be allowed to visit the Natanz nuclear facility soon. Iran had barred the inspectors for more than a year.
A joint poll of 'Palestinians' and Israelis shows that neither are very impressed with President Obama's peacemaking. Israel Matzav: Obama's epic fail on the Middle East 'peace process'Following the intensified American diplomatic activity in the region in recent months, a majority of Palestinians think that Obama's policy is more supportive of Israel (64%). Among Israelis 40% think Obama's policy is more supportive of the Palestinians; only 12% think it is more supportive of Israel. Compared to a poll conducted December 2008, in proximity to Obama's election, Israelis are less enthusiastic about American involvement in the region, more worried about the continuation of American support, and less willing to accept American pressure. Palestinians see now American
involvement somewhat more favorably than in December.Read All at :
A couple of my favorite bloggers were livid on Wednesday because President Obama had a Israel Matzav: 'God' tells the Rabbis what to discuss in their High Holiday sermonsYesterday, President Obama participated in a conference call with about 1,000 rabbis in anticipation of the High Holy Days next month—and the sermons the rabbis will give. The purpose of the call was, apparently, to urge the rabbis to support ObamaCare, or something like it, from the pulpit.
Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times writes that the call was left off the Obama schedule—an interesting note, she writes, on “Obama White House selective transparency.” [Where have we seen that before? CiJ] Jodi Kantor of the New York Times cites a participant’s tweet that the president told the rabbis “I am going to need your help.”
The call was a joint effort of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), the Rabbinical Assembly, and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, coordinated by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. The URJ invitation read, in part, as follows:Read All at :
Haaretz reports that under an agreement with the 'Palestinian Authority,' Israel's General Security Service (GSS or Shabak in Hebrew) guards Israel Matzav: Moonbats seethe: Israeli General SecurityAccording to an agreement between Israel and the PA, a team from the Shin Bet's VIP security unit accompanies Abbas and Fayyad whenever they are in Area C, meaning that part of the West Bank that is under full Israeli control according to the Oslo accords.
On Tuesday, for instance, Fayyad visited several villages near Nablus to inaugurate new wells. Because the trip going back and forth between Area C and Area B (where Israel has security control but the PA is in charge of civilian matters), Fayyad's convoy also included an Israel Police patrol car, representatives of Israel's Civil Administration and a jeep full of Shin Bet bodyguards. These guards were responsible for Fayyad's security in Area C, while his Palestinian bodyguards - members of the PA's Presidential Guard - took over in Area B.
Israel Defense Forces sources told Haaretz that the security procedures for guarding Abbas and Fayyad on their trips through the West Bank stem from Israel's desire to avoid having armed Palestinian guards open fire in Area C should their charges come under attack.
The same procedures are in effect when foreign dignitaries visit the West Bank: The Shin Bet guards them in Area C, and the PA takes over in Areas B and A (the latter is the area under full Palestinian control). The Shin Bet also guards Abbas when he visits Israel proper.Read All at :
In the Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens asks, if the US is going to have a conversation with Syria, Iran and North Korea, why not talk to al-Qaeda too? His answer makes a case for not having a conversation with Syria, Iran and North Korea: Israel Matzav: Why not talk to al-Qaeda too?Imagine an anonymous, virtual association of murderers and rapists who promise, via an Internet manifesto, to desist from wrongdoing altogether in exchange for immunity from prosecution and a yearly stipend of, say, $15 billion, to be deposited in a numbered bank account and divided equitably among the association's members.
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There's a great letter in Thursday's New York Times by Queens College Sociology Professor Samuel Heilman in response to the Malley and Agha article that argued that a 'two-state solution' wouldn't solve anything. Israel Matzav: Why 'peace' is elusiveIf in the face of 61 years of the existence of Israel, which today is home to roughly 40 percent of the world’s Jews, Mr. Agha and Mr. Malley can argue that the definition of Israel as the Jewish state is still an open question, then the likelihood of a resolution of the conflict is as small as it’s ever been.
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The Washington Post reports that it's unlikely that Israel's 'security fence' in Judea and Samaria will ever be completed due to cost overruns, Supreme Court rulings and a decline in terrorism. Israel Matzav: Israel's 'security fence' won't be completed?The last substantial work on the barrier, a network of fences and concrete walls flanked by a military patrol road, was finished in 2007. The construction underway now largely involves moving parts of it off Palestinian land in response to a series of Israeli Supreme Court rulings that found that the barrier had in some cases isolated families and sealed off villages from farmland to a degree that security concerns did not warrant.
A portion of the barrier in the sparsely populated southern West Bank remains unfinished, and the Israeli Defense Ministry said in a recent memo that "for budgetary and other considerations" it did not plan to complete the barrier around Maale Adumim, a major Jewish settlement east of Jerusalem.
That will leave as much as 40 percent of the barrier's 420-mile planned route unfinished. Even with the substantial gaps, Israeli military officials and politicians credit the barrier -- one of Israel's more controversial undertakings -- with a decline in suicide and other bombings originating from the West Bank.Read All at :
At the left-leaning Washington Note, Steve Clemons points to a Twitter entry by Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon on Tuesday in which Ayalon says Hopes the rumored settlement freeze is just a rumor, because it hasn't gone through appropriate forums.
After meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday, Israeli President Shimon Peres announced that Russia is 'reconsidering' the sale of the S-300 anti-missile system to Iran. Israel Matzav: Israel courts the Russian bear"President Medvedev gave a promise he will reconsider the sales of S-300s because it affects the delicate balance which exists in the Middle East," Peres told reporters via video link from Sochi.
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Defending his visit to Israel against charges that he is undermining US policy here, former Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee rips President Obumbler for deviating from his own stated policies on Israel. Israel Matzav: Huckabee rips Obama's Middle East policiesPresident Obama’s unprecedented stance toward Israel doesn’t just contravene the past forty years of American policy, it contravenes his own statements as a presidential candidate.
I visited a planned housing development in East Jerusalem that President Obama is insisting not be built because he seems to anticipate that Jerusalem will be divided and this area will go to the Palestinians. Yet in June 2008, candidate Obama told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (“AIPAC”) that “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.”Read All at :
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