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Jerusalem On Line - Channel 2 News from Israel
04 August 2006
The Media War Against Israel
The media war against Israel
The Jewish state is fighting not one enemy, but two: Hezbollah, and those who peddle its propaganda
| Tom Gross |
| National Post |
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
The BBC world service has a strong claim to be the number-one villain. It has come to sound like a virtual propaganda tool for Hezbollah. As it attempts to prove that
The newscaster reads out carefully selected "audience comments." Among these are invariably contained some version of the claim that "
But if anything is going to win new recruits for Osama bin Laden and his like, it will not be
While the slanted comments and interviews are bad enough, the degree of pictorial distortion is even worse. From the way many TV stations worldwide are portraying it, you would think
A careful look at aerial satellite photos of the areas targeted by
From the distorted imagery, selective witness accounts, and almost round-the-clock emphasis on casualties, you would be forgiven for thinking that the level of death and destruction in Lebanon is on par with that in Darfur, where Arab militias are slaughtering hundreds of thousands of non-Arabs, or with the 2004 tsunami that killed half a million in Southeast Asia.
In fact, Israel has taken great care to avoid killing civilians -- even though this has proven extremely difficult and often tragically impossible, since members of Hezbollah, the self-styled "Party of God," have deliberately ensconced themselves in civilian homes. Nevertheless the civilian death toll has been mercifully low compared to other international conflicts in recent years.
Last week, a senior journalist let slip how the news media allows its
When pressed a few days later about his reporting on the CNN program Reliable Sources, Robertson acknowledged that Hezbollah militants had instructed the CNN camera team where and what to film. Hezbollah "had control of the situation," Robertson said. "They designated the places that we went to, and we certainly didn't have time to go into the houses or lift up the rubble to see what was underneath."
Robertson added that Hezbollah has "very, very good control over its areas in the south of
Yet Reliable Sources, presented by Washington Post writer Howard Kurtz, is broadcast only on the American version of CNN. So CNN International viewers around the world will not have had the opportunity to learn that the pictures they saw from
Another journalist let the cat out of the bag last week. Writing on his blog while reporting from southern
Robertson is not the only foreign journalist to have misled viewers with selected footage from
Palmer's honesty is helpful. But it doesn't prevent the damage being done by organizations such as the BBC, whose bias is obvious to those who know the facts. First, the BBC gave the impression that
Indeed, the BBC's coverage of the present war has been so extraordinary that even staunch BBC supporters in
If the BBC were just a British problem, that would be one thing, but it is not. Thanks to British taxpayers, it is the world's biggest and most lavishly funded news organization. No other station broadcasts so extensively in dozens of languages, on TV, radio and online.
The BBC's radio service alone attracts over 163 million listeners. It pours forth its world view in almost every language of the
It is not just that the supposed crimes of
You wouldn't have any real understanding of what it is like to have over 2,000 Iranian and Syrian rockets rain down indiscriminately on towns, villages and farms across one third of your country, aimed at killing civilians.
You wouldn't really appreciate that Hezbollah, far from being some ragtag militia, is in effect a division of the Iranian revolutionary guards, with relatively advanced weapons (unmanned aerial vehicles that have flown over northern Israel, extended-range artillery rockets, anti-ship cruise missiles), and that it has a global terror reach, having already killed 114 people in Argentina during the 1990s.
The BBC and other media have carried report after report on the damaged Lebanese tourist industry, but none on its damaged Israeli counterpart, even though at least one hotel in Tiberias, on the
Many have grown accustomed to left-wing papers such as
Now the Conservative-leaning Daily Telegraph, Britain's best-selling quality daily, and previously one of the only papers in Europe to give Israel a fair hearing, has got in on the act. The cartoon at the top of the Telegraph comment page last Saturday showed two identical scenes of devastation, exactly the same in every detail. One was labelled: "
A politician had already given the cue for this horrendous libel. Conservative MP Sir Peter Tapsell told the House of Commons that British Prime Minister Tony Blair was "colluding" with U.S. President George W. Bush in giving Israel the okay to wage a war crime "gravely reminiscent of the Nazi atrocity on the Jewish quarter of Warsaw."
Of course, there was no "Jewish quarter" of
The picture isn't entirely bleak. Some British and European politicians, on both the left and right, have been supportive of
But meanwhile, anti-Semitic coverage and cartoons are spreading across the globe. Norway's third largest paper, the Oslo daily Dagbladet, ran a cartoon comparing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to the infamous Nazi commander SS Major Amon Goeth, who indiscriminately murdered Jews by firing at them from his balcony -- as depicted by Ralph Fiennes in Steven Spielberg's film Schindler's List. (A month earlier, Dagbladet published an article, The Third Tower, which questioned whether Muslims were really responsible for the September 11 attacks.)
Antonio Neri Licon of
A cartoon in the South African Sunday Times depicted Ehud Olmert with a butchers knife covered in blood. In the leading Australian daily The Age, a cartoon showed a wine glass full of blood being drunk in a scene reminiscent of a medieval blood libel. In
At least one leading European politician has also vented his prejudice through visual symbolism. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero wore an Arab scarf during an event at which he condemned
It's entirely predictable that all this violent media distortion should lead to Jews being attacked and even murdered, as happened at a
When live Jews can't be found, dead ones are targeted. In
Other Jews continue to be killed in
But this is far from being an exclusively Jewish issue. Some international journalists seem to find it amusing or exciting to bait the Jews. They don't understand yet that Hezbollah is part of a worldwide radical Islamist movement that has plans, and not pleasant ones, for all those -- Muslim, Christian, Hindu and Jew -- who don't abide by its wishes.
- Tom Gross is a former
National Post 2006
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03 August 2006
Rescued Lebanese Americans - "DEATH TO AMERICA"
The article below was written by Bridgett Gabriel, a Lebanonese American who tells the truth about the situation in the Middle East. Visit her website: AmericanCongressForTruth.Com
Hezbos in America Who Hate America
I was talking with few friends of mine (Christian Lebanese) who arrived to America this past weekend, rescued by the marines and American ships off the shores of Beirut. They said that as the Marines were helping the Muslim (American) ladies on the ships, these Muslims were cussing them out in Arabic. The Muslim (Americans) being rescued were sitting on the decks saying (in Arabic): "Death to you (meaning our marines), death to America and Israel. You are the source of the problems. All our misery is because of you."
This talk was going on as the marines were holding their little babies in their arms playing with them. Even in the bathroom as one woman went on a cussing fit, another one told her to keep it down in case they understand Arabic and they would hear her. The woman answered: "I don't care if they hear me. I hate them I cannot stand them anymore."
I begged my friend Rana to come forward to the media and give interviews. She said she wouldn't dare because of what the Muslims might do to her and her family. She said: “Our house is there, our businesses, our life, our relatives. We have to go back to Lebanon, if I come out and give interviews they will track us down and kill us. Our life in Lebanon would be over. We can't take this risk."
This is the problems in the Middle East my friends as to why you only hear one side of the story. People are terrorized into silence. When you hear the reports about public opinion in Lebanon that 80% of Lebanese support Hezbollah, don't be fooled. My friends told me when I asked them the question is it really true that public opinion is changing favoring Hezbollah, my friends said that the Christians, who answered the poll, were not sure if those people asking the questions were Hezbollah operatives spying to see who is going to answer against Hezbollah so they can be eliminated. Also according to friends of mine who are close to the government said that members of the parliament were threatened with death just like Harriri if they do not line up with Hezbollah. That's why you saw the Lebanese leadership change their song and dance within the first few days of the war.
Hezbollah's is king in Lebanon, and terror is their rule. As for all those wonderful AMERICANS we rescued from Lebanon shrouded with headscarves and men with beard, those are the same Hezbollah terrorists men, women and children who are plotting our destruction right here on our soil, carrying our citizenship.
Hezbos in America Who Hate America
I was talking with few friends of mine (Christian Lebanese) who arrived to America this past weekend, rescued by the marines and American ships off the shores of Beirut. They said that as the Marines were helping the Muslim (American) ladies on the ships, these Muslims were cussing them out in Arabic. The Muslim (Americans) being rescued were sitting on the decks saying (in Arabic): "Death to you (meaning our marines), death to America and Israel. You are the source of the problems. All our misery is because of you."
This talk was going on as the marines were holding their little babies in their arms playing with them. Even in the bathroom as one woman went on a cussing fit, another one told her to keep it down in case they understand Arabic and they would hear her. The woman answered: "I don't care if they hear me. I hate them I cannot stand them anymore."
I begged my friend Rana to come forward to the media and give interviews. She said she wouldn't dare because of what the Muslims might do to her and her family. She said: “Our house is there, our businesses, our life, our relatives. We have to go back to Lebanon, if I come out and give interviews they will track us down and kill us. Our life in Lebanon would be over. We can't take this risk."
This is the problems in the Middle East my friends as to why you only hear one side of the story. People are terrorized into silence. When you hear the reports about public opinion in Lebanon that 80% of Lebanese support Hezbollah, don't be fooled. My friends told me when I asked them the question is it really true that public opinion is changing favoring Hezbollah, my friends said that the Christians, who answered the poll, were not sure if those people asking the questions were Hezbollah operatives spying to see who is going to answer against Hezbollah so they can be eliminated. Also according to friends of mine who are close to the government said that members of the parliament were threatened with death just like Harriri if they do not line up with Hezbollah. That's why you saw the Lebanese leadership change their song and dance within the first few days of the war.
Hezbollah's is king in Lebanon, and terror is their rule. As for all those wonderful AMERICANS we rescued from Lebanon shrouded with headscarves and men with beard, those are the same Hezbollah terrorists men, women and children who are plotting our destruction right here on our soil, carrying our citizenship.
Completion of inquiry into July 30th incident in Qana
Jerusalem, 2 August 2006
Completion of inquiry into July 30th incident in Qana
(Communicated by the IDF Spokesman)
Today, August 2, 2006, the IDF Chief of Staff was presented with the findings of the inquiry conducted into the incident in Qana on July 30th.
The inquiry confirms the information provided in the press briefing held by the IDF on the day of the incident, according to which the IDF targeted the building in an aerial attack on July 30th at 00:52 with two missiles, the first of which exploded and the second was apparently a dud.
The building was targeted in accordance with the military's guidelines regarding the use of fire against suspicious structures inside villages whose residents have been warned to evacuate, and which were adjacent to areas from where rockets are fired towards Israel. The guidelines were drafted based on surveillance and study of the behavior of the terrorists, who use civilian structures inside villages to store weaponry and hide in after launching rockets attacks.
Since July 12th, over 150 rockets were launched from within the village of Qana itself and the immediate surrounding area. The residents of Qana and the villages surrounding it were warned several times, through various media, to evacuate the area.
The IDF operated according to information that the building was not inhabited by civilians and was being used as a hiding place for terrorists. Had the information indicated that civilians were present in the building the attack would not have been carried out. Prior to the attack on the aforementioned building several other buildings which were part of the infrastructure for terror activity in the area were targeted.
In his summary the Chief of Staff Lt. General Dan Halutz again expressed his sorrow for the deaths of civilians, among them children, in the incident in Qana. He stated that the fight against terror, which cynically uses civilians as human shields and intentionally operates from within civilian villages and infrastructure, is much more difficult than traditional military combat and presents us with both operational and value oriented challenges.
The Chief of Staff emphasized that "The Hizbullah organization places Lebanese civilians as a defensive shield between itself and us while IDF places itself as a defensive shield between the citizens of Israel and Hizbullah's terror. That is the principal difference between us."
The Chief of Staff instructed that guidelines for opening fire against suspicious targets be evaluated and updated immediately, while staying relevant with operational needs and the dynamic nature of the information received, as is done on a regular basis.
The findings of the inquiry were also presented to the Minister of Defense.
Completion of inquiry into July 30th incident in Qana
(Communicated by the IDF Spokesman)
Today, August 2, 2006, the IDF Chief of Staff was presented with the findings of the inquiry conducted into the incident in Qana on July 30th.
The inquiry confirms the information provided in the press briefing held by the IDF on the day of the incident, according to which the IDF targeted the building in an aerial attack on July 30th at 00:52 with two missiles, the first of which exploded and the second was apparently a dud.
The building was targeted in accordance with the military's guidelines regarding the use of fire against suspicious structures inside villages whose residents have been warned to evacuate, and which were adjacent to areas from where rockets are fired towards Israel. The guidelines were drafted based on surveillance and study of the behavior of the terrorists, who use civilian structures inside villages to store weaponry and hide in after launching rockets attacks.
Since July 12th, over 150 rockets were launched from within the village of Qana itself and the immediate surrounding area. The residents of Qana and the villages surrounding it were warned several times, through various media, to evacuate the area.
The IDF operated according to information that the building was not inhabited by civilians and was being used as a hiding place for terrorists. Had the information indicated that civilians were present in the building the attack would not have been carried out. Prior to the attack on the aforementioned building several other buildings which were part of the infrastructure for terror activity in the area were targeted.
In his summary the Chief of Staff Lt. General Dan Halutz again expressed his sorrow for the deaths of civilians, among them children, in the incident in Qana. He stated that the fight against terror, which cynically uses civilians as human shields and intentionally operates from within civilian villages and infrastructure, is much more difficult than traditional military combat and presents us with both operational and value oriented challenges.
The Chief of Staff emphasized that "The Hizbullah organization places Lebanese civilians as a defensive shield between itself and us while IDF places itself as a defensive shield between the citizens of Israel and Hizbullah's terror. That is the principal difference between us."
The Chief of Staff instructed that guidelines for opening fire against suspicious targets be evaluated and updated immediately, while staying relevant with operational needs and the dynamic nature of the information received, as is done on a regular basis.
The findings of the inquiry were also presented to the Minister of Defense.
Stage-Managed Massacre
Except for one little detail: it is increasingly clear that the Qana “massacre” was a stage-managed Hizballah production, designed precisely to enflame international sentiment against Israel and compel the Israelis to accept a ceasefire that would enable the jihad terrorist group to gain some time to recover from the Israeli attacks. Some of the principal evidence for this:
- The Israeli bombardment took place about midnight, but the house where the civilians were gathered reportedly did not collapse until 8AM. Said Brigadier General Amir Eshel of the Israeli Air Force, “It is difficult for me to believe that they waited eight hours to evacuate it.” Indeed, it strains credulity that not only did these Lebanese civilians remain in a house that had been bombed for eight hours, but peacefully went to sleep in it after the bombing – since the victims were all apparently sleeping, despite continuing Israeli air bombardment in the area, when the building collapsed. Eshel suggested that “it could be that inside the building, things that could eventually cause an explosion were being housed, things that we could not blow up in the attack, and maybe remained there” – in other words, Hizballah bombs and/or weapons.
- Photos of the rescue operation, which were transmitted all over the world and appeared on the front page of the New York Times and other major newspapers, are extremely suspicious. The blog EU Referendum has done important work scrutinizing the photos, finding numerous anomalies. Most notably, the dating of the various photos suggests that the same bodies were paraded before reporters on different occasions, each time as if they had just been pulled from the rubble. In a rebuttal to this charge, AP’s David Bauder rather lamely asserts: “web sites can use such stamps to show when pictures are posted, not taken.” Responds Richard North of EU Referendum: “Note, however, the use of the word ‘can’. He does not say that the ‘date stamps’ are wrong.” EU Referendum has also uncovered strange anomalies in the photos themselves: some workers are wearing different gear in different photos, yet clearly carrying the same corpse. Richard North comments about one of these workers: “It stretches belief to breaking point to argue that, on his way to the ambulance, he took off his helmet, his fluorescent waistcoat and his flack jacket just in order to pose for the cameras putting the body in the wagon – especially as we have the body being placed on the ‘guerney’ – which means the scenes are totally inconsistent.”
- The very existence of these pictures raises more questions. As Israel Insider puts it: “While Hezbollah and its apologists have been claiming that civilians could not freely flee the scene due to Israeli destruction of bridges and roads, the journalists and rescue teams from nearby Tyre had no problem getting there.”
- The Christian Lebanese website LIBANOSCOPIE has charged that Hizballah staged the entire incident in order to stimulate calls for a ceasefire, thereby staving off its destruction by Israel and Lebanese plans to rid themselves of this terrorist plague: “We have it from a credible source that Hizbullah, alarmed by Siniora’s plan, has concocted an incident that would help thwart the negotiations. Knowing full well that Israel will not hesitate to bombard civilian targets, Hizbullah gunmen placed a rocket launcher on the roof in Qana and brought disabled children inside, in a bid to provoke a response by the Israeli Air Force. In this way, they were planning to take advantage of the death of innocents and curtail the negotiation initiative.”
- According to the German scholar Matthias Küntzel, “the Berlin daily the Tagesspiegel published a letter-to-the-editor from Dr. Mounir Herzallah, a Shiite from the South of Lebanon. Dr. Herzallah reports on how Hezbollah-terrorists came to his town, dug a munitions depot and then built a school and a residence directly over it. He writes: ‘Laughing, a local sheikh explained to me that the Jews lose either way: either because the rockets are fired at them or because, if they attack munitions depot, they are condemned by world public opinion on account of the dead civilians.’ Hezbollah, he says, uses the civilian population ‘as a human shield and then when they are dead as propaganda.’”
Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, declared that “War is deceit.” Specifically, he taught that lying was permissible in battle.[1] While the doctrines of religious deception (taqiyya and kitman) are most often identified with Shi’ite Islam, and ostensibly rejected by Sunnis, because they were sanctioned by the Prophet, they can still be found in traditions that Sunni Muslims consider reliable, and are practiced among Salafis. Jihadists today have spoken of the usefulness of deceptive practices.
Americans and Westerners are not used to dealing with carefully orchestrated and large-scale deception of this kind. It is time that it be recognized as a weapon of warfare, and an extremely potent one at that. Qana has already largely accomplished what it was supposed to. It will now take its place beside the Danish cartoons, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and all the rest as a useful focal point for Muslim outrage and a magnet for jihad recruitment. The dhimmi Leftist Western press is happy, for it can again show America and Israel as guilty in the world’s site. The mujahedin are happy, for jihad and Sharia will advance still more. The only people who couldn’t possibly be happy with this are the Israelis and others on the front lines of the jihad worldwide.
But who cares about them?
Notes:
[1] Bukhari, vol. 4, book 56, no. 3030; Muslim, vol. 4, book 32, no. 6303.
Our soldiers prevail.....
"Our soldiers prevail not by the strength of their
weapons but by their sense of mission; by their
consciousness of the justness of their cause,
by a deep love for their country, and by their
understanding of the heavy task laid upon them:
to ensure the existence of our people in and to
affirm, even at the cost of their lives, the right
of the Jewish people to live their lives in their
own state, free, independent and in peace."
weapons but by their sense of mission; by their
consciousness of the justness of their cause,
by a deep love for their country, and by their
understanding of the heavy task laid upon them:
to ensure the existence of our people in and to
affirm, even at the cost of their lives, the right
of the Jewish people to live their lives in their
own state, free, independent and in peace."
Jewish shops defaced with swastikas
20 Jewish Owned Shops Attacked in Rome
(deja vu 1933?)
Rome: Jewish shops defaced with swastikas
- Associated Press
About 20 shops owned by Jews vandalized in apparent neo-fascist attack linked to fighting in Middle East.
Flyers signed by group calling itself Armed Revolutionary Fascists left at the shops denouncing the 'Zionist economy’, including pro-Hizbullah slogans.
Owners of about 20 shops in the center and outskirts of the Italian capital reached their workplace Tuesday morning to find door locks filled with glue, shutters nailed closed, and swastikas defacing nearby walls, said Riccardo Paciffci, a spokesman for Rome's Jewish Community.
Jewish shops across Rome were vandalized and defaced with swastikas in an apparent neo-fascist attack linked to fighting in the Middle East, officials said Wednesday.
Although not all the shops targeted were owned by Jews, the raid was apparently conducted in reaction to hostilities between Israel and Hizbullah, Pacifici said.
Flyers signed by a group calling itself Armed Revolutionary Fascists were left at the shops denouncing "the Zionist economy" and including pro-Hizbullah slogans, Pacifici said.
"There are still anti-Semites in Italy," Pacifici said. He told The Associated Press that Italian Jewish organizations have been flooded with dozens of e-mails blaming Jews for violence in the Middle East.
Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni condemned the vandalism. "Rome and Romans are against any form of anti-Semitism," Veltroni, was quoted as saying by the Corriere della Sera daily.
"I hope that the authors of these actions will soon answer for them in court."
Police officials declined to comment on the investigation.
Last month, swastikas were spray-painted on walls in the Old Ghetto -Rome's ancient Jewish neighborhood - while hundreds of thousands of soccer fans gathered in the nearby Circus Maximus to celebrate Italy's victory in the World Cup.
(deja vu 1933?)
Rome: Jewish shops defaced with swastikas
- Associated Press
About 20 shops owned by Jews vandalized in apparent neo-fascist attack linked to fighting in Middle East.
Flyers signed by group calling itself Armed Revolutionary Fascists left at the shops denouncing the 'Zionist economy’, including pro-Hizbullah slogans.
Owners of about 20 shops in the center and outskirts of the Italian capital reached their workplace Tuesday morning to find door locks filled with glue, shutters nailed closed, and swastikas defacing nearby walls, said Riccardo Paciffci, a spokesman for Rome's Jewish Community.
Jewish shops across Rome were vandalized and defaced with swastikas in an apparent neo-fascist attack linked to fighting in the Middle East, officials said Wednesday.
Although not all the shops targeted were owned by Jews, the raid was apparently conducted in reaction to hostilities between Israel and Hizbullah, Pacifici said.
Flyers signed by a group calling itself Armed Revolutionary Fascists were left at the shops denouncing "the Zionist economy" and including pro-Hizbullah slogans, Pacifici said.
"There are still anti-Semites in Italy," Pacifici said. He told The Associated Press that Italian Jewish organizations have been flooded with dozens of e-mails blaming Jews for violence in the Middle East.
Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni condemned the vandalism. "Rome and Romans are against any form of anti-Semitism," Veltroni, was quoted as saying by the Corriere della Sera daily.
"I hope that the authors of these actions will soon answer for them in court."
Police officials declined to comment on the investigation.
Last month, swastikas were spray-painted on walls in the Old Ghetto -Rome's ancient Jewish neighborhood - while hundreds of thousands of soccer fans gathered in the nearby Circus Maximus to celebrate Italy's victory in the World Cup.
Proud Jew Protests Sale of Nazi Items - Chains himself to Courthouse
Lawyer chains self to courthouse to protest sale of Nazi and KKK items at fair
CLEARFIELD, Pa. At a county fair you can usually buy hot dogs, funnelcakes and maybe a T-shirt or stuffed animal. But at Pennsylvania's Clearfield County Fair, three vendors have some very different items on sale.
They're hawking Nazi and Ku Klux Klan merchandise. And that's got a local lawyer so angry he chained himself to the county courthouse in protest.
Steve Jarrett was there about four hours, saying he's not passionate about many things, but that his relatives "died in ovens."
Jarrett was finally hospitalized for dehydration. But he's still asking a judge to block the sale of the items, saying the county gets tax proceeds from it.
The county denies that, and says it'll move to dismiss Jarrett's claim.
One of the vendors with Nazi flags says she's "proud to sell a part of history."
Copyright 2006 Associated Press.
All rights reserved.
CLEARFIELD, Pa. At a county fair you can usually buy hot dogs, funnelcakes and maybe a T-shirt or stuffed animal. But at Pennsylvania's Clearfield County Fair, three vendors have some very different items on sale.
They're hawking Nazi and Ku Klux Klan merchandise. And that's got a local lawyer so angry he chained himself to the county courthouse in protest.
Steve Jarrett was there about four hours, saying he's not passionate about many things, but that his relatives "died in ovens."
Jarrett was finally hospitalized for dehydration. But he's still asking a judge to block the sale of the items, saying the county gets tax proceeds from it.
The county denies that, and says it'll move to dismiss Jarrett's claim.
One of the vendors with Nazi flags says she's "proud to sell a part of history."
Copyright 2006 Associated Press.
All rights reserved.
02 August 2006
Arabs responsible for their own fate
War of Survival
by Yossi Klein Halevi
In Lebanon and Gaza, Israel is holding Arabs responsible for their own fate.
Three times in the last century, the Jewish people has found itself on the front line against totalitarian ideologies with aspirations to rule the world, and which defined the Jewish people as its primary obstacle in fulfilling that goal. For Nazism, the Jew was not only the source of racial impurity but inventor of conscience, crippling humanity's survival instincts in an amoral world. For Soviet communism, the Jew was the source of capitalism, and Zionism the front line of imperialism. And now, for fundamentalist Islam, the Jew is the satanic enemy, and the Jewish state an abomination against God that must be destroyed.
Though Israeli officials are calling the conflict with Hezbollah and Hamas an "operation," it is, in fact, a war. Ultimately, the war will transcend its Iranian proxies and engage Iran itself. One crucial result must be the destruction of Iran's nuclear capability, which would provide the religious genocidalists with the ability to turn theology into practice. Imagine Israel confronting a Hezbollah backed by a nuclear Iran. Would we be able to defend our northern border knowing that an attack on Hezbollah could provoke an Iranian nuclear attack against Tel Aviv?
That prospect is not inconceivable: Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believes that the Muslim messianic age is about to be inaugurated by the destruction of Israel. Certainly Israel has the capacity to deliver an overwhelming second strike. But the balance of terror that worked during the cold war against the Soviet Union may fail against an enemy that welcomes death as a prelude to eternal life. A nuclear Iran could be the ultimate suicide bomber.
The war of the missiles in Lebanon and in Gaza is actually the second stage of the war that began six years ago. Erroneously, self-defeatingly, Israelis accepted the Palestinian terminology, and called the wave of Islamist suicide bombings that started in September 2000 "the second intifada." Unlike the intifada of the late 1980s, however, which united Palestinian Christians and Muslims against the occupation, the war that began in 2000 has been led by Islamists, after Israel tried to end the occupation. Not coincidentally, there have been no Christian suicide bombers. The Palestinian cause had shifted from national struggle to jihad.
Nevertheless, some insist on distinguishing between Hezbollah and Hamas. While Hezbollah is an operational extension of the Shia Iranian revolution, Hamas, they argue, represents the national aspirations of the Palestinian people. In fact, Hamas represents the undoing of Palestinian national aspirations. For Hamas, a Palestinian state is merely a means to an end: the resurrection of the medieval Caliphate and the transformation of the Middle East into a single Islamist state.
The rise of Hamas, then, has completed the process, which began with the suicide bombings, of Islamizing the conflict. The so-called second intifada has destroyed the achievement of the first intifada, which convinced a majority of Israelis that former Prime Minister Golda Meir had been wrong to insist there was no Palestinian people and that a distinct Palestinian identity had indeed emerged. In rejecting mere nationalism, Hamas is returning the Palestinians to their pre-national consciousness, when Palestinians were part of an amorphous Arab or Muslim identity. The first casualty of the jihad, then, has been a viable Palestinian national identity, and, with it, the possibility of a viable Palestinian state.
What unites Shia Hezbollah and Sunni Hamas is the theology of genocide. Both organizations preach that the Holocaust never happened, even as they actively plan the next one. According to the Hamas Covenant, every ill in the world, from the French Revolution to the two world wars, was provoked by the Jews. For its part, Hezbollah's Al Manar TV station spread the story that the Mossad was behind September 11 and warned 4,000 Jews who worked in the Twin Towers to stay home that day -- a calumny that was accepted, according to polls, by majorities throughout the Muslim world.
The grievance of the Islamists isn't only that they were conquered and occupied but that they have failed, so far, to conquer and occupy. Like Hezbollah, Hamas won't "moderate" with the responsibility of power. To believe otherwise is to underestimate the power of religion. For Hamas is not a political movement but a faith. And for Hamas to abandon its goal of Israel's destruction is to commit heresy against the core of that faith. Religious change, even among fundamentalists, is surely possible; but it is a process measured not in months but in decades, or centuries.
Indulging Rejectionism
In targeting Lebanon and Gaza, Israel is sending a simultaneous message: It is time for the Arab world to take responsibility for its actions. What Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora share is a helplessness -- to some extent self-inflicted -- against the terrorists in their midst. In large measure, the Oslo process failed because the international community allowed Palestinians to continue to act as victims, rather than as responsible peace partners prepared to exploit the extraordinary circumstances they enjoyed for creating a state.
Those circumstances included virtually unlimited international political and financial support, and the willingness of a majority of Israelis -- induced, in part, by a justifiable guilty conscience -- to consider previously unthinkable scenarios, like ceding part of Jerusalem to Yasir Arafat. Imagine what the Tibetans or the Kurds could have done with that level of political goodwill and foreign aid. Indeed, billions of dollars in international aid have gone to the Palestinian Authority. Perhaps the greatest defeat the Palestinians inflicted on themselves was to lose the patience of at least part of the international community and, most of all, the Israeli guilty conscience.
Yet many continue to indulge Palestinian rejectionism. Astonishingly, Israel still needs to prove that it offered a credible and contiguous Palestinian state at Camp David in July 2000, and not, as Palestinian leaders put it, a series of "Bantustans." What doubt remained from Camp David should have been dispelled five months later when Israel accepted President Clinton's proposals -- ceding almost the entirety of the West Bank, all of Gaza, and three-quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem. The Palestinian counter-offer was suicide bombings.
The tendency of much of the international community to excuse every Palestinian failure has helped convince Palestinians that victimization -- even when it is self-willed -- affords immunity from responsibility. Many foreign journalists with whom I've spoken in recent weeks accept the Palestinian argument that the rocket attacks from the 1967 Gaza border into sovereign Israel are legitimate, or at least understandable, given that Israel continues to occupy the West Bank. Yet that argument ignores the historic Palestinian failure to exploit the Gaza withdrawal, which created the first sovereign Palestinian territory.
Had the Palestinians shown the most minimal effort at statebuilding -- for example, applying foreign aid to rehabilitate refugee camps -- the Israeli public would have supported a return to the negotiating table. Instead, the Palestinian national movement proved again that it is more keen on subverting the Jewish state than on creating a Palestinian state. And so one more opportunity for a negotiated end to the conflict was lost.
Responsible Adults
In conversations I've had over the years with Palestinians, invariably my interlocutor would offer a version of the following: You and I, we are little people. The "big ones" are only interested in themselves. They don't care if we suffer. I used to find that sentiment moving, an attempt by Palestinians to create a common humanity with Israelis. But now I see it as an expression of self-induced helplessness, precisely why the Palestinians and the Lebanese have allowed our common tragedy to reach this point.
Israel's attack on Lebanon, holding it responsible for what occurs in its territory, is not a violation of Lebanese sovereignty but an affirmation of it. And in targeting the democratically elected Hamas government, Israel is telling the Palestinians that there is a price to pay for empowering the theology of genocide. If the only alternative to a corrupt Fatah that Palestinian society can generate is a non-corrupt Hamas, then Palestine will become a pariah. Israel's policy, then, is to stop patronizing the Lebanese and the Palestinians and relate to them as adults responsible for their fate.
Some in the Arab world are beginning to understand this. In an article published in the Kuwaiti newspaper Arab Times, the editor-in-chief, Ahmed Al Jarallah, wrote:
This war was inevitable as the Lebanese government couldn't bring Hezbollah within its authority and make it work for the interests of Lebanon. Similarly leader of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas has been unable to rein in the Hamas movement. Unfortunately we must admit that in such a war the only way to get rid of 'these irregular phenomena' is what Israel is doing. The operations of Israel in Gaza and Lebanon are in the interest of the people of Arab countries and the international community.
The war, then, is not only inciting Islamists, but may, potentially, embolden moderates. The extraordinary Saudi -- along with Egyptian and Jordanian -- condemnation of Hezbollah marks the first time in any of Israel's wars that a significant chunk of the Arab world has publicly blamed Arab aggression for starting hostilities. This could create an opening for a tacit Israeli alliance with moderate Arabs against the Islamist, and particularly Iranian, threat. Just as we need to be resolute against the pathologies of the Middle East, so we need to be open to its changes. The responsibility of the people of Israel is not only to be on the front line against terror but to be on the front line for reconciliation. Not only to help stop evil, but to help empower the good.
Territorial Withdrawal
So far, Israel enjoys three crucial strategic advantages in this war: unequivocal American support, a divided Arab world, and, most crucial of all, a united Israeli people. Arguably not since the 1973 Yom Kippur War has Israel been as determined in war as it is today. Though some restlessness has begun -- an antiwar rally in Tel Aviv drew 2,500 people -- most of the left supports the invasion. Indeed, Peace Now and other Zionist left-wing groups stayed away from the Tel Aviv rally.
One reason for the absence of serious left-wing opposition is the fact that Amir Peretz, our most dovish mainstream politician, happens to be running the war as defense minister. Peretz's ideological credentials are compensation for his lack of military ones: Just as Ariel Sharon helped insure broad support for withdrawal from Gaza, so Peretz is insuring broad support for the reinvasion of Gaza and Lebanon.
Most of the left understands that this is a war, in part, for the viability of the concept of territorial withdrawal. For years the left assured the Israeli public that, in the event of withdrawal, Israel would resist any subsequent aggression with determination, unity, and international legitimacy. In Lebanon and Gaza, then, two fronts from which Israel has already withdrawn to the green line (Israel also withdrew to the green line on the Egyptian border in 1982), that premise is now being tested. If the left defects from the war effort, triggering international pressure, then the Israeli public will rightly despair of future withdrawals.
Most of all, this is a war for the viability of Israeli deterrence. After Israel unilaterally withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000, Hezbollah leader Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah described the Jewish state as a "spider web": Just as a spider web seems solid from a distance but disintegrates when swiped, so Israel will collapse under the pressure of Arab resolve. The "spider web" speech, as it came to be known, is very much in the mind of Israelis today as we belatedly try to restore our lost deterrence, without which the Jewish state will not survive long in the Middle East.
Israel tried to avoid this war, to the point of endangering its most basic credibility. For months we allowed Palestinian groups to shell Israeli towns on the Gaza border with virtual immunity. And for six years we turned away as Iran supplied Hezbollah with thousands of long-range rockets and built a vast infrastructure literally meters across our border. When three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped by Hezbollah in October 2000, then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak didn't massively retaliate, preferring to negotiate a prisoner exchange. Among some Israeli journalists, Nasrallah was considered a "responsible" leader, capable of insuring quiet in the north, rather than biding his time and awaiting instructions from Iran to act.
The Jewish people is once again being forced to act as a brake against evil. This is not a repetition of the first Lebanon war, but a return to our consensus wars of survival -- not a Vietnam moment but a World War II moment. That is why Israel fights, and why it will win.
Reprinted from The New Republic
by Yossi Klein Halevi
In Lebanon and Gaza, Israel is holding Arabs responsible for their own fate.
Three times in the last century, the Jewish people has found itself on the front line against totalitarian ideologies with aspirations to rule the world, and which defined the Jewish people as its primary obstacle in fulfilling that goal. For Nazism, the Jew was not only the source of racial impurity but inventor of conscience, crippling humanity's survival instincts in an amoral world. For Soviet communism, the Jew was the source of capitalism, and Zionism the front line of imperialism. And now, for fundamentalist Islam, the Jew is the satanic enemy, and the Jewish state an abomination against God that must be destroyed.
Though Israeli officials are calling the conflict with Hezbollah and Hamas an "operation," it is, in fact, a war. Ultimately, the war will transcend its Iranian proxies and engage Iran itself. One crucial result must be the destruction of Iran's nuclear capability, which would provide the religious genocidalists with the ability to turn theology into practice. Imagine Israel confronting a Hezbollah backed by a nuclear Iran. Would we be able to defend our northern border knowing that an attack on Hezbollah could provoke an Iranian nuclear attack against Tel Aviv?
That prospect is not inconceivable: Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believes that the Muslim messianic age is about to be inaugurated by the destruction of Israel. Certainly Israel has the capacity to deliver an overwhelming second strike. But the balance of terror that worked during the cold war against the Soviet Union may fail against an enemy that welcomes death as a prelude to eternal life. A nuclear Iran could be the ultimate suicide bomber.
The war of the missiles in Lebanon and in Gaza is actually the second stage of the war that began six years ago. Erroneously, self-defeatingly, Israelis accepted the Palestinian terminology, and called the wave of Islamist suicide bombings that started in September 2000 "the second intifada." Unlike the intifada of the late 1980s, however, which united Palestinian Christians and Muslims against the occupation, the war that began in 2000 has been led by Islamists, after Israel tried to end the occupation. Not coincidentally, there have been no Christian suicide bombers. The Palestinian cause had shifted from national struggle to jihad.
Nevertheless, some insist on distinguishing between Hezbollah and Hamas. While Hezbollah is an operational extension of the Shia Iranian revolution, Hamas, they argue, represents the national aspirations of the Palestinian people. In fact, Hamas represents the undoing of Palestinian national aspirations. For Hamas, a Palestinian state is merely a means to an end: the resurrection of the medieval Caliphate and the transformation of the Middle East into a single Islamist state.
The rise of Hamas, then, has completed the process, which began with the suicide bombings, of Islamizing the conflict. The so-called second intifada has destroyed the achievement of the first intifada, which convinced a majority of Israelis that former Prime Minister Golda Meir had been wrong to insist there was no Palestinian people and that a distinct Palestinian identity had indeed emerged. In rejecting mere nationalism, Hamas is returning the Palestinians to their pre-national consciousness, when Palestinians were part of an amorphous Arab or Muslim identity. The first casualty of the jihad, then, has been a viable Palestinian national identity, and, with it, the possibility of a viable Palestinian state.
What unites Shia Hezbollah and Sunni Hamas is the theology of genocide. Both organizations preach that the Holocaust never happened, even as they actively plan the next one. According to the Hamas Covenant, every ill in the world, from the French Revolution to the two world wars, was provoked by the Jews. For its part, Hezbollah's Al Manar TV station spread the story that the Mossad was behind September 11 and warned 4,000 Jews who worked in the Twin Towers to stay home that day -- a calumny that was accepted, according to polls, by majorities throughout the Muslim world.
The grievance of the Islamists isn't only that they were conquered and occupied but that they have failed, so far, to conquer and occupy. Like Hezbollah, Hamas won't "moderate" with the responsibility of power. To believe otherwise is to underestimate the power of religion. For Hamas is not a political movement but a faith. And for Hamas to abandon its goal of Israel's destruction is to commit heresy against the core of that faith. Religious change, even among fundamentalists, is surely possible; but it is a process measured not in months but in decades, or centuries.
Indulging Rejectionism
In targeting Lebanon and Gaza, Israel is sending a simultaneous message: It is time for the Arab world to take responsibility for its actions. What Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora share is a helplessness -- to some extent self-inflicted -- against the terrorists in their midst. In large measure, the Oslo process failed because the international community allowed Palestinians to continue to act as victims, rather than as responsible peace partners prepared to exploit the extraordinary circumstances they enjoyed for creating a state.
Those circumstances included virtually unlimited international political and financial support, and the willingness of a majority of Israelis -- induced, in part, by a justifiable guilty conscience -- to consider previously unthinkable scenarios, like ceding part of Jerusalem to Yasir Arafat. Imagine what the Tibetans or the Kurds could have done with that level of political goodwill and foreign aid. Indeed, billions of dollars in international aid have gone to the Palestinian Authority. Perhaps the greatest defeat the Palestinians inflicted on themselves was to lose the patience of at least part of the international community and, most of all, the Israeli guilty conscience.
Yet many continue to indulge Palestinian rejectionism. Astonishingly, Israel still needs to prove that it offered a credible and contiguous Palestinian state at Camp David in July 2000, and not, as Palestinian leaders put it, a series of "Bantustans." What doubt remained from Camp David should have been dispelled five months later when Israel accepted President Clinton's proposals -- ceding almost the entirety of the West Bank, all of Gaza, and three-quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem. The Palestinian counter-offer was suicide bombings.
The tendency of much of the international community to excuse every Palestinian failure has helped convince Palestinians that victimization -- even when it is self-willed -- affords immunity from responsibility. Many foreign journalists with whom I've spoken in recent weeks accept the Palestinian argument that the rocket attacks from the 1967 Gaza border into sovereign Israel are legitimate, or at least understandable, given that Israel continues to occupy the West Bank. Yet that argument ignores the historic Palestinian failure to exploit the Gaza withdrawal, which created the first sovereign Palestinian territory.
Had the Palestinians shown the most minimal effort at statebuilding -- for example, applying foreign aid to rehabilitate refugee camps -- the Israeli public would have supported a return to the negotiating table. Instead, the Palestinian national movement proved again that it is more keen on subverting the Jewish state than on creating a Palestinian state. And so one more opportunity for a negotiated end to the conflict was lost.
Responsible Adults
In conversations I've had over the years with Palestinians, invariably my interlocutor would offer a version of the following: You and I, we are little people. The "big ones" are only interested in themselves. They don't care if we suffer. I used to find that sentiment moving, an attempt by Palestinians to create a common humanity with Israelis. But now I see it as an expression of self-induced helplessness, precisely why the Palestinians and the Lebanese have allowed our common tragedy to reach this point.
Israel's attack on Lebanon, holding it responsible for what occurs in its territory, is not a violation of Lebanese sovereignty but an affirmation of it. And in targeting the democratically elected Hamas government, Israel is telling the Palestinians that there is a price to pay for empowering the theology of genocide. If the only alternative to a corrupt Fatah that Palestinian society can generate is a non-corrupt Hamas, then Palestine will become a pariah. Israel's policy, then, is to stop patronizing the Lebanese and the Palestinians and relate to them as adults responsible for their fate.
Some in the Arab world are beginning to understand this. In an article published in the Kuwaiti newspaper Arab Times, the editor-in-chief, Ahmed Al Jarallah, wrote:
This war was inevitable as the Lebanese government couldn't bring Hezbollah within its authority and make it work for the interests of Lebanon. Similarly leader of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas has been unable to rein in the Hamas movement. Unfortunately we must admit that in such a war the only way to get rid of 'these irregular phenomena' is what Israel is doing. The operations of Israel in Gaza and Lebanon are in the interest of the people of Arab countries and the international community.
The war, then, is not only inciting Islamists, but may, potentially, embolden moderates. The extraordinary Saudi -- along with Egyptian and Jordanian -- condemnation of Hezbollah marks the first time in any of Israel's wars that a significant chunk of the Arab world has publicly blamed Arab aggression for starting hostilities. This could create an opening for a tacit Israeli alliance with moderate Arabs against the Islamist, and particularly Iranian, threat. Just as we need to be resolute against the pathologies of the Middle East, so we need to be open to its changes. The responsibility of the people of Israel is not only to be on the front line against terror but to be on the front line for reconciliation. Not only to help stop evil, but to help empower the good.
Territorial Withdrawal
So far, Israel enjoys three crucial strategic advantages in this war: unequivocal American support, a divided Arab world, and, most crucial of all, a united Israeli people. Arguably not since the 1973 Yom Kippur War has Israel been as determined in war as it is today. Though some restlessness has begun -- an antiwar rally in Tel Aviv drew 2,500 people -- most of the left supports the invasion. Indeed, Peace Now and other Zionist left-wing groups stayed away from the Tel Aviv rally.
One reason for the absence of serious left-wing opposition is the fact that Amir Peretz, our most dovish mainstream politician, happens to be running the war as defense minister. Peretz's ideological credentials are compensation for his lack of military ones: Just as Ariel Sharon helped insure broad support for withdrawal from Gaza, so Peretz is insuring broad support for the reinvasion of Gaza and Lebanon.
Most of the left understands that this is a war, in part, for the viability of the concept of territorial withdrawal. For years the left assured the Israeli public that, in the event of withdrawal, Israel would resist any subsequent aggression with determination, unity, and international legitimacy. In Lebanon and Gaza, then, two fronts from which Israel has already withdrawn to the green line (Israel also withdrew to the green line on the Egyptian border in 1982), that premise is now being tested. If the left defects from the war effort, triggering international pressure, then the Israeli public will rightly despair of future withdrawals.
Most of all, this is a war for the viability of Israeli deterrence. After Israel unilaterally withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000, Hezbollah leader Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah described the Jewish state as a "spider web": Just as a spider web seems solid from a distance but disintegrates when swiped, so Israel will collapse under the pressure of Arab resolve. The "spider web" speech, as it came to be known, is very much in the mind of Israelis today as we belatedly try to restore our lost deterrence, without which the Jewish state will not survive long in the Middle East.
Israel tried to avoid this war, to the point of endangering its most basic credibility. For months we allowed Palestinian groups to shell Israeli towns on the Gaza border with virtual immunity. And for six years we turned away as Iran supplied Hezbollah with thousands of long-range rockets and built a vast infrastructure literally meters across our border. When three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped by Hezbollah in October 2000, then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak didn't massively retaliate, preferring to negotiate a prisoner exchange. Among some Israeli journalists, Nasrallah was considered a "responsible" leader, capable of insuring quiet in the north, rather than biding his time and awaiting instructions from Iran to act.
The Jewish people is once again being forced to act as a brake against evil. This is not a repetition of the first Lebanon war, but a return to our consensus wars of survival -- not a Vietnam moment but a World War II moment. That is why Israel fights, and why it will win.
Reprinted from The New Republic
Gibson, You're Through you Schmuck!
Chevra,
If you read the statements in the exerpt below (Cops feel sorry for Mel), it is apparent that the Jewish Deputy who arrested Gibson (and who has served on the Sheriff's Department for 17 years) has been pressured by the Brass to sluff-off the anti-Semitic remarks made by Gibson and minimize those statements as "booze talking". The fact is, that when inhibitions are numbed by alcohol, a person reveals his true feelings and lack of ethical or moral principles.
Gibson has no shame, and he is a sociopath with regard to Jews and Israel. He said what he really believes, with no regard for the consequences. Gibson has shown his true colors and everything even remotely connected to him should be boycotted and actively resisted.
His "apology" is most certainly shallow and the remorse he is feeling is for the loss of revenue and image that will result because of lapse of control.
Gibson is a vile and despicable individual and should be an outcast, not only in Hollywood and the entertainment industry, but by everyone of conscience and good moral character. Gibson - You're Through you Schmuck!
B'nai Elim Blogmaster
"That stuff is booze talking." says Jewish Cop who arrested Mel Gibson
Cop feels sorry for Mel
Excerpt:
An arrest report signed by Mee and posted on the celebrity news website TMZ quoted Gibson as saying, "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," and asked the arresting officer, "Are you a Jew?" Mee, who is Jewish says "That stuff is booze talking." Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy James Mee said on Monday that he considered it a routine arrest and did not take any comments made by Gibson seriously. He says "I don't want to ruin his career. I don't want to defame him in
any way or hurt him."
[Can Hollywood executives feel the same way!]
START:
Calabasas, California - The sheriff's deputy who arrested Mel Gibson for drunken driving said in an interview that he feels bad for damage to the star's reputation but hopes Gibson thinks twice before drinking and driving.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy James Mee said on Monday that he considered it a routine arrest and did not take any comments made by Gibson seriously.
"I don't take pride in hurting Mr Gibson," said Mee, a 17-year deputy. "What I had hoped out of this is that he would think twice before he gets behind the wheel of a car and was drinking.
"That would be my hope that this would accomplish that. I don't want to ruin his career. I don't want to defame him in any way or hurt him."
The first fallout from the arrest may have already come with Monday's announcement by ABC that it had cancelled a planned miniseries about the Holocaust that it was developing with Gibson's Icon Productions.
"Given that it has been nearly two years and we have yet to see the first draft of a script, we have decided to no longer pursue this project with Icon," ABC said.
Network spokesperson Kevin Brockman declined to comment on Monday night on whether the decision was motivated by Gibson's arrest.
Meanwhile, the Sheriff's Department sent prosecutors its case on Monday, including an official police report that includes claims that Gibson made anti-Semitic remarks and threatened a deputy, a law enforcement official said.
The report also claimed that a tequila bottle was found in Gibson's car when he was pulled over.
'Booze talking'
An arrest report signed by Mee and posted on the celebrity news website TMZ quoted Gibson as saying, "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," and asked the arresting officer, "Are you a Jew?"
Gibson released a lengthy statement on Saturday apologising for saying "despicable" things.
Mee, who is Jewish, would not comment specifically on what Gibson said.
"That stuff is booze talking," the deputy said in an interview outside his home.
In his statement, Gibson said he has struggled with alcoholism and taken steps "to ensure my return to health".
The actor was "participating in an ongoing programme to deal with this", Gibson's publicist, Alan Nierob said. "The guy is trying to stay alive."
A tentative arraignment date was set for September 28.
Prominent Hollywood talent agent Ari Emanuel called for an industry boycott of Gibson in a blog posted on Monday.
"At a time of escalating tensions in the world, the entertainment industry cannot idly stand by and allow Mel Gibson to get away with such tragically inflammatory statements," he wrote.
"People in the entertainment community, whether Jew or gentile, need to demonstrate that they understand how much is at stake in this by professionally shunning Mel Gibson and refusing to work with him, even if it means a sacrifice to their bottom line.
If you read the statements in the exerpt below (Cops feel sorry for Mel), it is apparent that the Jewish Deputy who arrested Gibson (and who has served on the Sheriff's Department for 17 years) has been pressured by the Brass to sluff-off the anti-Semitic remarks made by Gibson and minimize those statements as "booze talking". The fact is, that when inhibitions are numbed by alcohol, a person reveals his true feelings and lack of ethical or moral principles.
Gibson has no shame, and he is a sociopath with regard to Jews and Israel. He said what he really believes, with no regard for the consequences. Gibson has shown his true colors and everything even remotely connected to him should be boycotted and actively resisted.
His "apology" is most certainly shallow and the remorse he is feeling is for the loss of revenue and image that will result because of lapse of control.
Gibson is a vile and despicable individual and should be an outcast, not only in Hollywood and the entertainment industry, but by everyone of conscience and good moral character. Gibson - You're Through you Schmuck!
B'nai Elim Blogmaster
"That stuff is booze talking." says Jewish Cop who arrested Mel Gibson
Cop feels sorry for Mel
Excerpt:
An arrest report signed by Mee and posted on the celebrity news website TMZ quoted Gibson as saying, "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," and asked the arresting officer, "Are you a Jew?" Mee, who is Jewish says "That stuff is booze talking." Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy James Mee said on Monday that he considered it a routine arrest and did not take any comments made by Gibson seriously. He says "I don't want to ruin his career. I don't want to defame him in
any way or hurt him."
[Can Hollywood executives feel the same way!]
START:
Calabasas, California - The sheriff's deputy who arrested Mel Gibson for drunken driving said in an interview that he feels bad for damage to the star's reputation but hopes Gibson thinks twice before drinking and driving.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy James Mee said on Monday that he considered it a routine arrest and did not take any comments made by Gibson seriously.
"I don't take pride in hurting Mr Gibson," said Mee, a 17-year deputy. "What I had hoped out of this is that he would think twice before he gets behind the wheel of a car and was drinking.
"That would be my hope that this would accomplish that. I don't want to ruin his career. I don't want to defame him in any way or hurt him."
The first fallout from the arrest may have already come with Monday's announcement by ABC that it had cancelled a planned miniseries about the Holocaust that it was developing with Gibson's Icon Productions.
"Given that it has been nearly two years and we have yet to see the first draft of a script, we have decided to no longer pursue this project with Icon," ABC said.
Network spokesperson Kevin Brockman declined to comment on Monday night on whether the decision was motivated by Gibson's arrest.
Meanwhile, the Sheriff's Department sent prosecutors its case on Monday, including an official police report that includes claims that Gibson made anti-Semitic remarks and threatened a deputy, a law enforcement official said.
The report also claimed that a tequila bottle was found in Gibson's car when he was pulled over.
'Booze talking'
An arrest report signed by Mee and posted on the celebrity news website TMZ quoted Gibson as saying, "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," and asked the arresting officer, "Are you a Jew?"
Gibson released a lengthy statement on Saturday apologising for saying "despicable" things.
Mee, who is Jewish, would not comment specifically on what Gibson said.
"That stuff is booze talking," the deputy said in an interview outside his home.
In his statement, Gibson said he has struggled with alcoholism and taken steps "to ensure my return to health".
The actor was "participating in an ongoing programme to deal with this", Gibson's publicist, Alan Nierob said. "The guy is trying to stay alive."
A tentative arraignment date was set for September 28.
Prominent Hollywood talent agent Ari Emanuel called for an industry boycott of Gibson in a blog posted on Monday.
"At a time of escalating tensions in the world, the entertainment industry cannot idly stand by and allow Mel Gibson to get away with such tragically inflammatory statements," he wrote.
"People in the entertainment community, whether Jew or gentile, need to demonstrate that they understand how much is at stake in this by professionally shunning Mel Gibson and refusing to work with him, even if it means a sacrifice to their bottom line.
01 August 2006
U.S. GENERAL AND FLAG OFFICERS IN SUPPORT OF ISRAEL
JINSA
Flag and General Officers
Statement on
Israeli-Hezbollah Fighting
Flag and General Officers
Statement on
Israeli-Hezbollah Fighting
July 30, 2006
1779 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Suite 515
Washington, DC 20036
202-667-3900
202-667-0601 Fax
August 1, 2006
JINSA Flag and General Officers Statement on Israeli-Hezbollah Fighting
We, the undersigned, believe that Israel's military operation to remove Hezballah from southern Lebanon is a correct and legitimate response to the creation of an armed force accountable to Syria and Iran residing within the boundaries of Lebanon and using Lebanese territory to engage in cross-border warfare. Israel voluntarily withdrew completely from Lebanese territory in 2000 under the terms of UN Resolution 1559, but the Government of Lebanon was unable or unwilling to assert its sovereignty in the area Israel vacated.
We believe further that the IDF has taken care to focus its response so as to minimize civilian casualties among the Lebanese, even as Hezballah indiscriminately rockets Israeli towns and cities. It has become increasingly clear that Hezballah took advantage of Lebanon's weakness to hide its forces and its weapons in the south of Lebanon and its command and control capabilities in Beirut, within the civilian population. This ensured that any Israeli response would create civilian casualties that would dominate the international media.
The relatively few Israeli casualties in the face of widespread rocket and missiles attacks appear to be the result of an active civil defense system in Israel, not humanitarian concern by Hezballah.
We have traveled to Israel over the years with The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). We brought with us our decades of military experience and came away with the unswerving belief that the security of the State of Israel is a matter of great importance to U.S. policy in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean. A strong Israel is an asset upon which American military planners and political leaders can rely. Israel shares our commitment to democracy, freedom, personal liberty and rule of law.
As American defense professionals, we view events in the Middle East through the prism of American security interests, in which regard we make two points:
First, the problem of militias and non-state actors operating in sovereign country is precisely the same as that faced by American and coalition forces in Iraq. The militias and foreign fighters facing our troops are also supported by Iran and Syria.
Second, we have a particular interest in the demise of Hezballah. Until September 11, 2001, Hezballah was the terrorist organization responsible for more American deaths than any other, including 241 American servicemen in the Beirut barracks bombing and 17 Americans in the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. We have not forgotten William Buckley, Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem and Lt. Col. William (Rich) Higgins, USMC.
We believe strongly that any cease-fire must be accompanied by a determined international military effort to assist Lebanon in rooting out the armed remnants of Hezbollah and ensuring that the Lebanese Army is the controlling armed force in the south. Anything less would be a prescription for renewed fighting at the time of Hezbollah's choosing.
Throughout our travels and our talks, the determination of Israelis to protect their country and to pursue a fair and workable peace with their neighbors was clear. Thus, we view the current conflict in and around Israel with great dismay. America's responsibility as a friend to Israel -- and to Lebanon -- should strengthen our country's resolve to assist and support Israel in its efforts to dislodge Hezballah's military capabilities from southern Lebanon and work with the international community to ensure that the Lebanese Army is deployed to the international border in a manner that protects both countries.
(Signed as of 30 July 2006)
1. RA Fred Ames, USCG (Ret.) --Assistant Commandant for Human Resources*
2. RA Charles Beers, USN (ret.) -- Commander, Submarine Group Ten
3. LG Walter E. (Buck) Buchanan III, USAF (ret.) -- Commander, 9th Air Force and U.S.
Central Command Air Forces
4. LG Anthony Burshnick, USAF (ret.) -- Vice Commander-in-Chief, Military Airlift Command
5. General J.B. Davis, USAF (ret.) -- Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Allied Powers Europe (NATO)
6. LG Joseph DeFrancisco, USA (ret.) -- Deputy Commander in Chief and Chief of Staff, U.S. Pacific Command
7. Admiral Leon Edney, USN (ret.) -- Commander in Chief, Allied Forces NATO
8. MG Bobby O. Floyd, USAF (ret.) Director of Logistics, Air Mobility Command
9. MG Paul Fratarangelo, USMC (ret.) Commander, Marine Corps Air Bases, Western Area
10. MG David Grange, USA (ret.) -- Commander, Task Force Eagle (Bosnia) and Task Force, Kosovo.
11. LG Earl Hailston, USMC (ret.) -- Commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific/Commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Central Command/ Commanding General, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific/Commander, U.S. Marine Corps Bases, Pacific
12. LG John Hall, USAF (ret.) -- Commander of U.S. Forces, Japan and Commander, 5th Air Force
13. Admiral Jerome Johnson, USN (ret.) -- Vice Chief of Naval Operations
14. VA Anthony Less, USN (ret.) -- Commander, Naval Air Forces, US Atlantic Fleet
15. MG Jarvis Lynch, USMC (ret.) -- Commander, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island and the Eastern Recruiting Region.
16. VA Bernard Kauderer, USN (ret.) -- Commander, U.S. Submarine Forces
17. LG Charles May, Jr., USAF (ret.) -- Vice Chief of Staff, USAF
18. VA Paul McCarthy, USN (ret.) -- Commander, U.S. Seventh Fleet
19. LG James C. McCombs, USAF (ret.) -- Deputy Commander in Chief, US Special
Operations Command
20. LG Fred McCorkle, USMC (ret.) -- Deputy Commandant for Aviation MG
21. R. Adm. Riley Mixson, USN (ret.) -- Director of Air Warfare
22. MG William C. Moore, USA (ret.) -- Director of Operations & Plans
23. LG Carol Mutter, USMC (ret.) -- Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower and Reserve Affairs
24. LG Garry Parks, USMC (ret.) -- Deputy Commandant, Manpower and Reserve Affairs
25. MG Robert Patterson, USAF (ret.) -- Commander, Special Operations Command & Commanding General 23rd Air Force
26. V. Adm. James Perkins, USN (ret.) -- Commander, Military Sealift Command
27. RA Richard Rybacki, USCG (ret.) -- Commander, First Coast Guard District
28. General Crosbie Saint, USA (ret.) -- Commander-in-Chief, US Army Europe and Seventh Army
29. RA Norman Saunders, USCG (ret.) -- Commander, 7th Coast Guard District
30. MG Sidney Shachnow, USA (ret.) -- Commanding General, JFK Special Warfare Center and School at Ft. Bragg
31. General Lawrence Skantze, USAF (ret.) -- Vice Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force
32. Gen. Donn A. Starry, USA (ret.) -- Commanding General, U.S. Army Readiness Command
33. Admiral Jerome Tuttle, USN (ret.) -- Director, Space & Electronic Warfare
34. Gen. Louis C. Wagner, Jr., USA (ret.) -- Commander, U.S. Army Materiel Command
35. RA Guy Zeller, USN (ret.) -- Commander Cruiser Destroyer Flotilla Three/Commander Battle Group Foxtrot
* Last Command noted for purposes of identification only.
JINSA Online, August 01, 2006
Source: http://www.jinsa.org/articles/view.html?documentid=3485
Time to Think About Annex and Transfer!
By Arlene Peck
I’d rather not be able to say, “I told you so.” Yet, it’s difficult not to gloat when I see how the rest of the world is “reluctantly” beginning to realize that something must be done soon about the evil and crazy culture that is attempting to thrust itself upon the rest of us. If not, we’re all going to be in deep doo-doo...
For the past five or six years, I’ve been writing about “us” as a confused and myopic generation, that didn’t have a clue about the enemy it was facing. Belatedly, I believe that we in the 21st century are finally recognizing some uncomfortable truths, which may save our lives yet; that the culture of militant Islam, rabidly foaming at the mouth from across a yawning abyss of cultural and ideological implacability, is rooted and cemented somewhere in the 7th century.
We have woken too late, only to discover that our culture is still in the midst of a crusade, which these poor people are conditioned to undertake (to their own detriment) by truly evil "religious" leaders, those carrion-eaters who call themselves Imams and Mullahs, and by corrupt politicians. Gawd! A crusade! Perhaps Mel Gibson could make a movie addressing that!
Come to think about it.. I told you so about him too!
One of our major problems in the West is that we have a leftist-fed “sound byte” mentality, which hasn’t been able to grasp the importance of “tribalism,” the basis of Arabic culture, still continuing to hold complete sway over primitive countries such as Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia. This is the mentality that underpins everything there, complete loyalty to the clan. That, and submission to a God they say is no friend of the West!
We Westerners have been living under a delusional cloud of stupidity. How else to explain the many nations and leaders who have been so blind to signs that have been glaringly clear and obvious, for so long? For the past six years I have been warning that anti-Semitism has been growing at a rapid rate among Arabs and Europeans, the latter in a sort of déjà vu, totally reminiscent of pre-war Nazi Germany, and that this anti-Semitism is being actively acted out in the so-called Arab-Israeli conflict. The Islamic culture has never made a secret that it has targeted all Jews for extermination; after all, it is called for by their prophet and holy writings. Although pre-dating 9/11, since Americas attention was so barbarically drawn to Islamist demands, the world stage has been overflowing with Islamist leaders who declare this. The question remains: Why didn't we listen?
I can only say that, as expected, for far too long, it didn’t seem to bother anyone too much. However, I now think many Western nations are beginning to take off the blinkers they’ve been wearing and are facing up to the fact that these ongoing Islamist actions are not about land issues but, religion. Their Koran tells the faithful 1.4 Billion Muslims that anyone who won't convert must die. And some are now mindful of another truth; that after the Jews, Christians and Hindus are next in their sights. They have been burning churches and killing Christians in the Horn of Africa for years now, with barely a word of protest from Western Nations.
In light of these facts, how appalling that, due to world pressure, the Israeli Defense Force is forced to fight this, and all of its wars, like a prizefighter in the ring with one arm tied behind his back. Had the United Nations followed up on resolution 1559, agreed to by all parties, instead of sitting by watching for the past six years while Hezbollah armed themselves to the teeth, Israel would not have to be fighting this war. A war, which no one disputes, was started by Hezbollah.
Incidentally, I was in many of those same “nests of vipers” cities such as Tyre and Sidon as a journalist, when I was in Lebanon reporting the conflict in June of 1982 and, again in 1993. These border towns aren't neighborhood communities. They are enemy territory used for the explicit purpose of launching rockets into Israel! Don't tell me about agreements! The Arabs only know to begin negotiations after the terms have been agreed. Anything else is considered ‘weakness’ by this culture of war. Fortunately, many people are recognizing that the Middle East is littered with agreements that just did not work.
Are they recalling our history, remembering that, if the United States and our allies in the Second World War not gone acted decisively and ruthlessly in places as far apart as Iwo Jima and Normandy, we’d all be speaking German today, or maybe, Japanese. No one back then spoke of disproportionate damage to the enemy. All that was important was that the west and our way of life were in immediate danger. Today, many are waking up to the fact that Israel and the West are in a fight for their lives with terrorists driven by fanatical adherence to the Koran, all around the world. Radical Islam started this latest outbreak of violence, and unfortunately, it has fallen, again, on Israel to finish it. The Jewish state must not be pressured to stop this offensive until the enemy is disarmed as they were supposed to be, under UN Resolution 1559, when Israel left Lebanon six years ago. Again, it was not the fight that Israel started.
What Israel knows and the West has to acknowledge, is the absolutely vital necessity for Israel to win this war. A cease fire allows Hezbollah to declare itself the winner. Inside the Islamic world, it will be seen no other way. The United Nations and the European Union is ‘the enemy’ and has always acted in a manner designed to bring about nothing less than the demise of the Jewish state. The Vatican, which incidentally has enough on its plate internally and internationally, never-the-less finds time to condemn Israel. All these paragons of virtue remain blinded to one incontrovertible fact; that Israel is in a fight for her life and is in a defensive position. There is no such thing as “proportionality” in a fight for survival.
The recent shooting attack at the Jewish Federation in Seattle where one innocent person was killed and six wounded is a perfect example of what where facing. Carried out by the son of one of the founders of the Muslim Mosque in that city, I wonder to myself, how proportionate is that? Now that, once again, almost 5 years after 9/11, Islamist attacks are again being seen on our shores, will there be an outcry from my country? I doubt it. However, if churches and Christian Ministries are next, perhaps attitudes might change. Only then, might we begin to admit, to ourselves first, and then publicly, that Israel and its little strip of land has nothing to do with the Muslim craziness.
Since when did the media wag the tail of the dog? Now that they on a cease-fire with Hezbolah with whom is Israel to negotiate? Is Israel to sit down with terrorists who represent no sovereign nation? Apart from the inanity of that idea, as Hezbolah is an internationally proscribed terrorist organization, Hezbollah would only use this time to re-group and re-arm.
And how, exactly, is Israel fighting this war? I know of no other army that warns the enemy by megaphone, television, leaflet, radio and even calling people on the phone to tell them that they must leave specific areas because they were going to be attacked. Only Israel would do this to avoid large civilian casualties. Then the world condemns them for defending their country against this terrorist militancy/malignancy .
Drastic times...drastic solutions. I feel now is the perfect time for Israel to annex Gaza and the West Bank, and expel all Arabs. Beginning soon, all Israelis must have the security of knowing that those in Gaza will no longer have the leisure of running into Israel and bombing or kidnapping hostages. The same pamphleting campaigns, which warn of Israeli retaliations, should now carry a new message. If they insist on continued campaigns of terrorism and warfare against any Israeli territory... anything, then ten percent of Gaza will be taken back by Israel. Be specific; which village, which well, which mosque, which street to which street... and then do it, the next time they ‘test’ Israeli resolve.
Transfer “the Arab enemy within” to any of the surrounding Arab countries. Let us see how well they like living in a Muslim controlled country. And, like a mantra…. Let us repeat that this is only one front in a global aimed at global Muslim domination! World War III has been going on for decades. We’ve just been so busy entering a new millennium that this monster facing us has only belatedly gotten our attention!
I’d rather not be able to say, “I told you so.” Yet, it’s difficult not to gloat when I see how the rest of the world is “reluctantly” beginning to realize that something must be done soon about the evil and crazy culture that is attempting to thrust itself upon the rest of us. If not, we’re all going to be in deep doo-doo...
For the past five or six years, I’ve been writing about “us” as a confused and myopic generation, that didn’t have a clue about the enemy it was facing. Belatedly, I believe that we in the 21st century are finally recognizing some uncomfortable truths, which may save our lives yet; that the culture of militant Islam, rabidly foaming at the mouth from across a yawning abyss of cultural and ideological implacability, is rooted and cemented somewhere in the 7th century.
We have woken too late, only to discover that our culture is still in the midst of a crusade, which these poor people are conditioned to undertake (to their own detriment) by truly evil "religious" leaders, those carrion-eaters who call themselves Imams and Mullahs, and by corrupt politicians. Gawd! A crusade! Perhaps Mel Gibson could make a movie addressing that!
Come to think about it.. I told you so about him too!
One of our major problems in the West is that we have a leftist-fed “sound byte” mentality, which hasn’t been able to grasp the importance of “tribalism,” the basis of Arabic culture, still continuing to hold complete sway over primitive countries such as Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia. This is the mentality that underpins everything there, complete loyalty to the clan. That, and submission to a God they say is no friend of the West!
We Westerners have been living under a delusional cloud of stupidity. How else to explain the many nations and leaders who have been so blind to signs that have been glaringly clear and obvious, for so long? For the past six years I have been warning that anti-Semitism has been growing at a rapid rate among Arabs and Europeans, the latter in a sort of déjà vu, totally reminiscent of pre-war Nazi Germany, and that this anti-Semitism is being actively acted out in the so-called Arab-Israeli conflict. The Islamic culture has never made a secret that it has targeted all Jews for extermination; after all, it is called for by their prophet and holy writings. Although pre-dating 9/11, since Americas attention was so barbarically drawn to Islamist demands, the world stage has been overflowing with Islamist leaders who declare this. The question remains: Why didn't we listen?
I can only say that, as expected, for far too long, it didn’t seem to bother anyone too much. However, I now think many Western nations are beginning to take off the blinkers they’ve been wearing and are facing up to the fact that these ongoing Islamist actions are not about land issues but, religion. Their Koran tells the faithful 1.4 Billion Muslims that anyone who won't convert must die. And some are now mindful of another truth; that after the Jews, Christians and Hindus are next in their sights. They have been burning churches and killing Christians in the Horn of Africa for years now, with barely a word of protest from Western Nations.
In light of these facts, how appalling that, due to world pressure, the Israeli Defense Force is forced to fight this, and all of its wars, like a prizefighter in the ring with one arm tied behind his back. Had the United Nations followed up on resolution 1559, agreed to by all parties, instead of sitting by watching for the past six years while Hezbollah armed themselves to the teeth, Israel would not have to be fighting this war. A war, which no one disputes, was started by Hezbollah.
Incidentally, I was in many of those same “nests of vipers” cities such as Tyre and Sidon as a journalist, when I was in Lebanon reporting the conflict in June of 1982 and, again in 1993. These border towns aren't neighborhood communities. They are enemy territory used for the explicit purpose of launching rockets into Israel! Don't tell me about agreements! The Arabs only know to begin negotiations after the terms have been agreed. Anything else is considered ‘weakness’ by this culture of war. Fortunately, many people are recognizing that the Middle East is littered with agreements that just did not work.
Are they recalling our history, remembering that, if the United States and our allies in the Second World War not gone acted decisively and ruthlessly in places as far apart as Iwo Jima and Normandy, we’d all be speaking German today, or maybe, Japanese. No one back then spoke of disproportionate damage to the enemy. All that was important was that the west and our way of life were in immediate danger. Today, many are waking up to the fact that Israel and the West are in a fight for their lives with terrorists driven by fanatical adherence to the Koran, all around the world. Radical Islam started this latest outbreak of violence, and unfortunately, it has fallen, again, on Israel to finish it. The Jewish state must not be pressured to stop this offensive until the enemy is disarmed as they were supposed to be, under UN Resolution 1559, when Israel left Lebanon six years ago. Again, it was not the fight that Israel started.
What Israel knows and the West has to acknowledge, is the absolutely vital necessity for Israel to win this war. A cease fire allows Hezbollah to declare itself the winner. Inside the Islamic world, it will be seen no other way. The United Nations and the European Union is ‘the enemy’ and has always acted in a manner designed to bring about nothing less than the demise of the Jewish state. The Vatican, which incidentally has enough on its plate internally and internationally, never-the-less finds time to condemn Israel. All these paragons of virtue remain blinded to one incontrovertible fact; that Israel is in a fight for her life and is in a defensive position. There is no such thing as “proportionality” in a fight for survival.
The recent shooting attack at the Jewish Federation in Seattle where one innocent person was killed and six wounded is a perfect example of what where facing. Carried out by the son of one of the founders of the Muslim Mosque in that city, I wonder to myself, how proportionate is that? Now that, once again, almost 5 years after 9/11, Islamist attacks are again being seen on our shores, will there be an outcry from my country? I doubt it. However, if churches and Christian Ministries are next, perhaps attitudes might change. Only then, might we begin to admit, to ourselves first, and then publicly, that Israel and its little strip of land has nothing to do with the Muslim craziness.
Since when did the media wag the tail of the dog? Now that they on a cease-fire with Hezbolah with whom is Israel to negotiate? Is Israel to sit down with terrorists who represent no sovereign nation? Apart from the inanity of that idea, as Hezbolah is an internationally proscribed terrorist organization, Hezbollah would only use this time to re-group and re-arm.
And how, exactly, is Israel fighting this war? I know of no other army that warns the enemy by megaphone, television, leaflet, radio and even calling people on the phone to tell them that they must leave specific areas because they were going to be attacked. Only Israel would do this to avoid large civilian casualties. Then the world condemns them for defending their country against this terrorist militancy/malignancy .
Drastic times...drastic solutions. I feel now is the perfect time for Israel to annex Gaza and the West Bank, and expel all Arabs. Beginning soon, all Israelis must have the security of knowing that those in Gaza will no longer have the leisure of running into Israel and bombing or kidnapping hostages. The same pamphleting campaigns, which warn of Israeli retaliations, should now carry a new message. If they insist on continued campaigns of terrorism and warfare against any Israeli territory... anything, then ten percent of Gaza will be taken back by Israel. Be specific; which village, which well, which mosque, which street to which street... and then do it, the next time they ‘test’ Israeli resolve.
Transfer “the Arab enemy within” to any of the surrounding Arab countries. Let us see how well they like living in a Muslim controlled country. And, like a mantra…. Let us repeat that this is only one front in a global aimed at global Muslim domination! World War III has been going on for decades. We’ve just been so busy entering a new millennium that this monster facing us has only belatedly gotten our attention!
31 July 2006
Run and Hide? Think Again!
MOSHE FINBERG, CHAIRMAN
CHAIRMAN@BNAIELIM.ORG
I read with great disappointment that the director of the Seattle chapter of the Anti-Defamation League "issued a recommendation to all Jewish institutions, including synagogues, to cancel services and evacuate the buildings" following the murderous attack on the Seattle Federation building last Friday. This reaction is all too reminiscent of the "run and hide" response of the Jewish People over the past 2,000 years when we have been attacked, and plays directly into the hands of our enemies. It reflects a fatal lack of bitachon [confidence in HaShem], rejecting His ways for the perception of safety one has with his head buried well in the sand. Instead, all Jews should be armed and/or otherwise ready to defend themselves to the full extent permitted by law, and go to prayer services, rallies, and ordinary day to day activities of normal Jewish life. We should be openly Jewish and attend our services in our synagogues in numbers larger than ever. Of course law enforcement should provide security to us as it would for any group targeted for hate crimes and terror. Nevertheless, we must be prepared to take care of ourselves as there are not enough law enforcement officials to cover every anti-Semite with a weapon. Get your heads out of the sand and stand up straight and proud, confident and strong. That is Yeshurun - Israel at our finest. HaShem doesn't want his Children to run from the class bullies. Never Again.
CHAIRMAN@BNAIELIM.ORG
I read with great disappointment that the director of the Seattle chapter of the Anti-Defamation League "issued a recommendation to all Jewish institutions, including synagogues, to cancel services and evacuate the buildings" following the murderous attack on the Seattle Federation building last Friday. This reaction is all too reminiscent of the "run and hide" response of the Jewish People over the past 2,000 years when we have been attacked, and plays directly into the hands of our enemies. It reflects a fatal lack of bitachon [confidence in HaShem], rejecting His ways for the perception of safety one has with his head buried well in the sand. Instead, all Jews should be armed and/or otherwise ready to defend themselves to the full extent permitted by law, and go to prayer services, rallies, and ordinary day to day activities of normal Jewish life. We should be openly Jewish and attend our services in our synagogues in numbers larger than ever. Of course law enforcement should provide security to us as it would for any group targeted for hate crimes and terror. Nevertheless, we must be prepared to take care of ourselves as there are not enough law enforcement officials to cover every anti-Semite with a weapon. Get your heads out of the sand and stand up straight and proud, confident and strong. That is Yeshurun - Israel at our finest. HaShem doesn't want his Children to run from the class bullies. Never Again.
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