What Took 'Em So Long?

Zoth Hanukkah 5769

Everyone else is jabbering on about the attacks in Azza, while I sit here in front of my computer screen in an area proving to be one of the safest places to be in Israel, b'il eyin hara: Efraim (Central Samaria), safe from rockets from Azza and Lebanon, safe from bomb attacks in Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv,...for now.

Funny how people are also asking ME if I am scared to live where I do, let alone travel around by tremp, and unarmed.

Don't worry, the gub'ment has plans for us, too. Then I'll start to get worried, and have to snap out of my complacency.

In the meantime, I'll also provide my 10ag on the current goings-on in Azza.

What I want to know is what took 'em so long to bomb Azza?

Sure. They've gone in beforehand, but it was always a half-ass job, going only into the limited areas allowed by big brother and sister George and Condi, followed by the requisite, quick retreat. OR it was those lovely targeted assassinations, carefully avoiding "innocent civilians" (Central Samaria), known to every other country as "collateral damage."

There are a few theories as to what took 'em so long....

1. Election Ploy
This will get votes for Livni (Kadima), and for Baraq (Labor), showing the center that even though they want to continue "piece" negotiations with the Arabs, they can be tough like Netanyahu (Likud) says he will be, and not as wishy-washy like Olmert (Kadima). They can spin the incessant threats to strike Azza, and taking so damn long to do so, as a clever strategy, taking the Arabs by surprise.

Hey, even I'm beginning to believe that Ehud Baraq isn't such a buffoon after all. Tzippy Livni was actually pretty effective in her interview on Fox & Friends. I mean her Godless/Torahless approach is completely wrong, of course, but she certainly demonstrated that she knew her audience. Her biggest mistake was thinking that making a case to the American public was in the least bit important. (...and too bad they kept calling her "Zippy.")

Did I say that there were a few theories? Well, actually, I can only think of two.

But you're not gonna like this last one...

2. Fear
The wealthy, Ashkinazi powers that be were not in such denial of the Arab threat after all. The rockets did not actually have to reach Tel-Aviv before they were able to snap out of it. They knew that it was only a matter of time before the rockets reached Ashdod, you know, where there are actually some of those "nice" neighborhoods. After all they had reached Qiriyath Gath. Even though no one cares about Qiriyath Gath, it was an indicator of just how close the rockets were getting to the Ashkinazi, leftist headquarters of North Tel-Aviv. (See the map below to see just how close.)

No one cares about Ashqelon either. But the rockets inching closer to the power station there was problematic to the powers that be. Losing one-third of the country's power, due to lack of inaction, will lose you votes, even from "piece" negotiation-pushing Leftists, addicted to electrical appliances.

Translation into American terms: Rich white people were going to start getting killed.

I told you, you weren't going to like it.

(Click the map to enlarge it)

Red dots indicate locations having been hit from the south or north. Half red indicates having been hit on the outskirts of the city. Netanyah's outskirts were hit, but publicity over this was hushed up.

Ashqelon, Qiriyath Gath, and S'deroth are indicated by red dots , but not labeled. Be'er Sheva has not been hit,...yet.

The map demonstrates how the rockets have been creeping closer to Tel-Aviv as well as to Ben-Gurion International Airport.

Cross-posted on Esser Agaroth.

WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO SAY????

Blogmaster: This cartoon from A7 says volumes...It expresses the frustration, the attitude and feelings of guilt that the Soldiers and Commanders in IDF feel when they see the enemy given a free hand in the relentless murder of Israeli citizens. I'll say it again: Shame on you Ehud Barak, and Shame on you Ehud Olmert. Hamas must be squashed like a cockroach, you know it, we know it, and the world knows it. You are making Israel the laughing stock of the world. No other nation would tolerate such aggression. You say you have authorized the IDF to make battle plans...what dreck! Everyone knows that the IDF stands at the ready and have been so since last summer. Your lies make you look like idiots because you actually believe that we will swallow them. It is time that the Citizens of Israel take the appropriate action necessary to throw our crooked and disgraced politicians out and while we are at it...let's make sure that the crazies who want to pacify our enemies never warm a seat in the Knesset with their cowardly toucheses again. When we vote, we must vote for the preservation of Israel. In my heart of hearts, I know that the future of Israel is not in the hands of the politicians...our future is in the hands of our Soldiers and their Commanders in the IDF. Please, turn them loose on the enemy before it is too late. Already you have allowed Hamas to arm themselves to the teeth, train as a regular military force, and build complex defenses that will surely cost our soldiers dearly. The Israeli blood that will most certainly be shed when you decide that the time has come to go into Gaza will be on your hands forever.

Self-Restraint or Adequate Force???

Self-Restraint Prolongs the War.
by Prof. Paul Eidelberg

US Admiral Bull Halsey said, "Hit hard, hit fast, hit often." Rationality and responsibility are qualities quite foreign to those who shape Israel's policy toward its enemy, the Palestinian Authority. Their policy is "Hit softly, hit slowly, and hit seldom."
In Hebrew this policy is called havlaga - "self-restraint". This policy is motivated by fear of world opinion, perhaps also by the desire to display Israel's moral superiority vis-à-vis the cruelty of her Arab enemies. It is an utterly inane and immoral policy.

Havlaga prolongs the war. It therefore increases the number of Jewish as well as Arab casualties... Yet this has been the policy of Israeli prime ministers and their cohorts since the signing of the Israel-PLO Agreement of September 1993. How demoralizing, how revolting! And yet, not a single party in the Knesset protests against this cowardly and self-destructive policy. Even the religious parties, which proclaim the principle of pikuach nefesh - "saving life"...

The Jewish people are known (even by their enemies) for their kindness and mercy, which is why Arabs store weapons in hospitals and schools, and shield themselves behind women and children. In time of war, however, "do not show [your enemy] any pity" (Deuteronomy 7:17), on which verse the Ramban comments: "Through the mercy of fools all justice is lost."

Justice, justice is what Israel stands for: justice has ever been the sacred cause of the Jewish people. Today, however, inasmuch as Israeli governments display no confidence in the justice of Israel's cause, is it any wonder that the Jew-haters of this world now question whether Israel has a right to exist, indeed, call for Israel's eradication?

Happy and Joyful Hanukkah!
May the courage and spirit of the Maccabees always remain with us!

MURDERER OF ISRAELI CHILDREN TO BE SET FREE

Blogmaster’s rant: This contemptible act speaks volumes about the resolve (lack thereof) of the present Israeli Government and gives Hizbullah, Hamas, Fatah and other terrorists the green light to kidnap and murder more Israeli soldiers. Finally, they have found a way to force Israel to negotiate with terrorists! There will be more kidnappings… we have opened the door and have no one to blame but ourselves. May Kuntar soon die a slow and agonizing death.

Peres pardons Kuntar

"I want to stress the obvious – in this decision there is no forgiveness or absolution for the murderer's heinous actions. I will not forget, and I won't forgive… I have reached this difficult decision after speaking with the Shahar, Keren and Haran families – the families of the victims of the despicable murderer Samir Kuntar. I, together with all the people of Israel, feel their pain, which is unbearable." President Shimon Peres

KUNTAR VOWS TO KILL MORE ISRAELI BABIES…

Kuntar, who was jailed in the Hadarim Prison in the Sharon region 29 years ago, after murdering the Haran family members and two police officers during a terror attack on the northern city of Nahariya, made the promise in the following letter to the mass murderer and leader of the Hizbullah Shiite terrorist organization, Hassan Nasrallah. The letter was first published in the Palestinian Authority's official daily newspaper al-Hayat al-Jadida.

"My dear and respectable master and commander," Kuntar wrote in the letter to Nasrallah. "Peace be with you and with our shahids (martyrs). "I give you my promise and oath that my only place will be in the fighting front soaked with the sweat of your giving and with the blood of the shahids (martyrs), the dearest people, and that I will continue your way until we reach a full victory. I send my best wishes and promise of renewed loyalty to you, sir, and to all the jihad fighters,"

Samir Kuntar

The World Should Know What He Did to My Family

By Smadar Haran Kaiser

Sunday, May 18, 2003; Page B02
NAHARIYA, Israel

Abu Abbas, the former head of a Palestinian terrorist group who was captured in Iraq on April 15, is infamous for masterminding the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro. But there are probably few who remember why Abbas's terrorists held the ship and its 400-plus passengers hostage for two days. It was to gain the release of a Lebanese terrorist named Samir Kuntar, who is locked up in an Israeli prison for life. Kuntar's name is all but unknown to the world. But I know it well. Because almost a quarter of a century ago, Kuntar murdered my family.

It was a murder of unimaginable cruelty, crueler even than the murder of Leon Klinghoffer, the American tourist who was shot on the Achille Lauro and dumped overboard in his wheelchair. Kuntar's mission against my family, which never made world headlines, was also masterminded by Abu Abbas. And my wish now is that this terrorist leader should be prosecuted in the United States, so that the world may know of all his terrorist acts, not the least of which is what he did to my family on April 22, 1979.

It had been a peaceful Sabbath day. My husband, Danny, and I had picnicked with our little girls, Einat, 4, and Yael, 2, on the beach not far from our home in Nahariya, a city on the northern coast of Israel, about six miles south of the Lebanese border. Around midnight, we were asleep in our apartment when four terrorists, sent by Abu Abbas from Lebanon, landed in a rubber boat on the beach two blocks away. Gunfire and exploding grenades awakened us as the terrorists burst into our building. They had already killed a police officer. As they charged up to the floor above ours, I opened the door to our apartment. In the moment before the hall light went off, they turned and saw me. As they moved on, our neighbor from the upper floor came running down the stairs. I grabbed her and pushed her inside our apartment and slammed the door.

Outside, we could hear the men storming about. Desperately, we sought to hide. Danny helped our neighbor climb into a crawl space above our bedroom; I went in behind her with Yael in my arms. Then Danny grabbed Einat and was dashing out the front door to take refuge in an underground shelter when the terrorists came crashing into our flat. They held Danny and Einat while they searched for me and Yael, knowing there were more people in the apartment. I will never forget the joy and the hatred in their voices as they swaggered about hunting for us, firing their guns and throwing grenades. I knew that if Yael cried out, the terrorists would toss a grenade into the crawl space and we would be killed. So I kept my hand over her mouth, hoping she could breathe. As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust. "This is just like what happened to my mother," I thought.

As police began to arrive, the terrorists took Danny and Einat down to the beach. There, according to eyewitnesses, one of them shot Danny in front of Einat so that his death would be the last sight she would ever see. Then he smashed my little girl's skull in against a rock with his rifle butt. That terrorist was Samir Kuntar.

By the time we were rescued from the crawl space, hours later, Yael, too, was dead. In trying to save all our lives, I had smothered her.

The next day, Abu Abbas announced from Beirut that the terrorist attack in Nahariya had been carried out "to protest the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty" at Camp David the previous year. Abbas seems to have a gift for charming journalists, but imagine the character of a man who protests an act of peace by committing an act of slaughter.

Two of Abbas's terrorists had been killed by police on the beach. The other two were captured, convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Despite my protests, one was released in a prisoner exchange for Israeli POWs several months before the Achille Lauro hijacking. Abu Abbas was determined to find a way to free Kuntar as well. So he engineered the hijacking of the Achille Lauro off the coast of Egypt and demanded the release of 50 Arab terrorists from Israeli jails. The only one of those prisoners actually named was Samir Kuntar. The plight of hundreds held hostage on a cruise ship for two days at sea lent itself to massive international media coverage. The attack on Nahariya, by contrast, had taken less than an hour in the middle of the night. So what happened then was hardly noticed outside of Israel.

One hears the terrorists and their excusers say that they are driven to kill out of desperation. But there is always a choice. Even when you have suffered, you can choose whether to kill and ruin another's life, or whether to go on and rebuild. Even after my family was murdered, I never dreamed of taking revenge on any Arab. But I am determined that Samir Kuntar should never be released from prison. In 1984, I had to fight my own government not to release him as part of an exchange for several Israeli soldiers who were POWs in Lebanon. I understood, of course, that the families of those POWs would gladly have agreed to the release of an Arab terrorist to get their sons back. But I told Yitzhak Rabin, then defense minister, that the blood of my family was as red as that of the POWs. Israel had always taken a position of refusing to negotiate with terrorists. If they were going to make an exception, let it be for a terrorist who was not as cruel as Kuntar. "Your job is not to be emotional," I told Rabin, "but to act rationally." And he did.

So Kuntar remains in prison. I have been shocked to learn that he has married an Israeli Arab woman who is an activist on behalf of terrorist prisoners. As the wife of a prisoner, she gets a monthly stipend from the government. I'm not too happy about that.

In recent years, Abu Abbas started telling journalists that he had renounced terrorism and that killing Leon Klinghoffer had been a mistake. But he has never said that killing my family was a mistake. He was a terrorist once, and a terrorist, I believe, he remains. Why else did he spend these last years, as the Israeli press has reported, free as a bird in Baghdad, passing rewards of $25,000 from Saddam Hussein to families of Palestinian suicide bombers? More than words, that kind of cash prize, which is a fortune to poor families, was a way of urging more suicide bombers. The fortunate thing about Abbas's attaching himself to Hussein is that it set him up for capture.

Some say that Italy should have first crack at Abbas. It had already convicted him of the Achille Lauro hijacking in absentia in 1986. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi now wants Abbas handed over so that he can begin serving his life sentence. But it's also true that in 1985, the Italians had Abbas in their hands after U.S. fighter jets forced his plane to land in Sicily. And yet they let him go. So while I trust Berlusconi, who knows if a future Italian government might not again wash its hands of Abbas?

In 1995, Rabin, then our prime minister, asked me to join him on his trip to the White House, where he was to sign a peace agreement with Yasser Arafat, which I supported. I believe that he wanted me to represent all Israeli victims of terrorism. Rabin dreaded shaking hands with Arafat, knowing that those hands were bloody. At first, I agreed to make the trip, but at the last minute, I declined. As prime minister, Rabin had to shake hands with Arafat for political reasons. As a private person, I did not. So I stayed here.

Now I am ready and willing to come to the United States to testify against Abu Abbas if he is tried for terrorism. The daughters of Leon Klinghoffer have said they are ready to do the same. Unlike Klinghoffer, Danny, Einat and Yael were not American citizens. But Klinghoffer was killed on an Italian ship in Abbas's attempt to free the killer of my family in Israel. We are all connected by the international web of terrorism woven by Abbas. Let the truth come out in a new and public trial. And let it be in the United States, the leader in the struggle against terrorism.

Smadar Haran Kaiser is a social worker. She is remarried and has two daughters.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company

3,320 Years Ago...the problem still exists!

Time to “Leave Egypt”.

by Steven Shamrak.

I wrote this article 5 years ago. Unfortunately the problem still exists.

Every year Jews celebrate the exodus from Egypt and freedom from slavery. It took place 3,320 years ago. It was a fundamental event in Jewish history. At the same time, it symbolizes not just freedom from physical slavery. The Passover reminds us that internal freedom of mind and spirit are even more significant. This freedom allows us real freedom of choice.

Jews have nothing to apologise for. We have the right to live in peace on Jewish land in our own country. We lived in Gallut (exile, slave mentality) for too long. It is time to say – “NO more”!

I am ashamed and feel sorry for those Jews who have no self-respect and are helping enemies to destroy Israel. Why do they hate themselves so much?

I do respect non-Jewish people who do not know and do not care about the Arab-Israel conflict. They are honest hard working people who have their own problems and interests. At the same time, there is a danger when opinions are formed under the influence of selectively presented information, provided by mainly a press that is biased against Israel. People become attached to the belief system they have adopted and it is difficult to change it. For Jews the understanding of the conflict and support for Israel is existential! I would like to remind all of them:

1. Israel is on a front line of the war between Arab-Muslim expansionism and Western democracy. This war has already shifted to America and Europe.

2. According to the UN’s own legal opinion: Judea, Samaria and Gaza do not belong to any country at the moment. Therefore, it is wrong to call them ‘Occupied Territories’. They used to be a part of Jewish land 2000 years ago and were allocated by the League of Nations for the creation of Eretz-Israel in 1922. There was never an Arab country in Palestine.

3. So-called Palestinians are Arabs and Muslims who moved to the territories during the last 130 years, after the Zionist pioneers started to revitalize the land.

4. Arabs have no intention of living in peace with Jews. When former president of Egypt Nasser was asked: Why do you continue to fight Israel after so many defeats? His answer was: “Because. We need to win only one war!” Please make no mistake, the Arabs’ aim is total destruction of the Jewish state!

5. Arabs do respect charisma and strong leadership. It is time for Israel and her government to show it and end terror.

6. Enemies and so-called friends have never treated Jewish people as equals. They will never support Israel unconditionally regardless of facts. They do not care about facts and deliberately distort or falsify them (remember the fake massacre of Jenin and how much noise they made about it).

7. After 60 years of wars and terror, it is time to become an Independent nation with self-respect and be equal among equals. No more double standards!

8. Israel was created to fulfil a 2000 year-old national inspiration of Jewish people. Jews have the right to regain control over all Jewish land. The time is NOW!

At the same time, I am ashamed and feel sorry for Jews who advocate destruction of Israel. Why do they hate themselves so much?

Enemies Know Jews Well - Plan for Demise of Israel!

“The PLO proceeds through phases, without changing its strategy. Let me tell you, when the ideology of Israel collapses, and we take, at least, Jerusalem, the Israeli ideology will collapse in its entirety, and we will begin to progress with our own ideology, Allah willing, and drive them out of all of Palestine," Abbas Zaki, the PLO's ambassador to Lebanon, told in an interview to Lebanon's NBN TV. The enemies of Israel, regardless of their political or religious shade, are not hiding their plan, which remains the same, for the future of Israel and Jews – total obliteration of the state of Israel and “Throw Jews to the Sea!” And they are betting on current Jewish apathy, political correctness and self-destructiveness of Israeli society, as well as an inept, corrupt and self-hating leadership. For how long will we continue kidding ourselves by participating in this bogus peace process?

According to a recent poll, 65% of Israeli Jews oppose the State of Israel making any further withdrawals from Judea and Samaria (the land commonly known in the US as “the West Bank”), while only 24% support more withdrawals. By continuing the policy of surrender of Jewish land to the enemy Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his fellow Oslo traitors, Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, Tsipi Livni etc - all oppose the will of Israeli populace and are obliterating the Jewish National dream.

Revealed truths vs. revealed lies

Blogmaster’s Comments: Olmert and his Gang are controlled by their own unabated egomania and narcissism. Their quest for power guides their actions rather than the good of Israel. Caroline's excellent piece placed the problem squarely into the laps of the Israeli people. If Israel is to survive, policies must change and waiting for the 2010 elections is not the answer. If the Olmert gang "negotiates" away Judea and Sameria and partitions Jerusalem, no one will be to blame but us. We must stand together, in Israel and the Diaspora, to force elections and bring a Strong New Government… that will protect and defend the Land and People of Eretz Israel!

Revealed truths vs. revealed lies
Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST

Pessah - the Jewish celebration of freedom and God's dominion that begins on Saturday night - provides a timely insight into the foundations of Jewish faith and human nature.
Jews believe in a God without form. The Jewish God is ineffable. To Abraham himself, God appeared only in visions, never in the "flesh." And yet, the story of God's deliverance of the Children of Israel from Egyptian bondage is packed with physical proofs of this consummately non-physical God.

God exposes himself to Moses in the burning bush. And then, from Moses's first appeal to Pharaoh through the parting of the Red Sea, God exposes himself and his mastery of the universe and all that is in it again and again, in progressively powerful ways.

At the Pessah Seder, Jews recount these astounding manifestations of God's existence, presence and dominion. That is, at the Pessah Seder, Jews celebrate the physical manifestations of the God we know to be formless and ubiquitous.

Why would God feel the need to reveal himself? And why do Jews, who accept an ineffable God, place so much stress on his self-revelation?

By our nature, human beings are skeptical. Before we believe something, we require proof. Whether that proof is collateral for a bank loan, burning a bush without harming it, laying waste to Pharaoh's Egypt or parting the Red Sea, the fact is that without proof, humans will not long believe. To convince the Children of Israel to accept him and his laws throughout time, God showed us signs and wonders in Egypt that were powerful enough to keep us united as his people ever since.

Contrast this natural human skepticism and the Jews' reasoned faith in God with the international and Israeli Left's engineered credulousness and blind faith in Peace.
This week, former US president Jimmy Carter arrived in the Middle East on a "peace mission." Shunned by Israel's senior political leadership for his overtly hostile positions toward Israel and Jews, Carter had to suffice with a public dressing down for his incendiary anti-Israel rhetoric from otherwise friendly, and "pro-Peace," President Shimon Peres, and visits with Israeli doves affiliated with the non-Zionist Meretz party.
From Israel, Carter continued to the Fatah-led, Israel-defended Palestinian Authority in Ramallah where he laid a wreath at the grave of arch-murderer and master terrorist Yassir Arafat, and hugged and kissed Arafat's Fatah and Hamas heirs. Both visits, of course were conducted against the backdrop of Carter's well-publicized plan to meet with Hamas terror master and Iranian proxy Khalad Mashaal in Syria.

By meeting with Mashaal, Carter is arguably breaching US law, which prohibits American citizens from assisting terror groups. His planned meeting elicited criticism from the Bush administration. His radicalism fomented Israel's informal, but fairly firm boycott of his visit. And yet, his faith in Peace being what it is, Carter brushed off his critics as men and women of little faith. For their part, Carter's Israeli allies, Yossi Beilin, David Kimche and their fellow believers in Peace embraced him. These Israelis, like Carter, are not averse to meeting with Hamas.

The fact is, while Carter may be the loudest proponent of negotiating with Hamas, he is far from alone. To advance this view in America, Carter's Jewish-American and Israeli fellow believers just set up a new lobbying group in Washington. It is staffed by former Clinton administration, Peace Now, and Democratic Party officials. It is supported by the Israeli signatories to Yossi Beilin's European-financed 2003 Geneva "peace accord" with the Palestinian Authority's former propaganda minister Yassir Abd Rabo. The new lobby, "J Street," is tasked with financing the campaigns of American politicians who are willing to sacrifice the US alliance with Israel in the interest of Peace. Presumably, it is conversely tasked with scuttling the political fortunes of US politicians who refuse to do so.

It is hard to know what to make of either the Bush administration's criticism of Carter, or for that matter the Olmert-Livni-Barak government's shunning of the former president. Legal restrictions on maintaining contacts with terror operatives aside, Carter's hostility to Israel and his enthusiastic embrace of Hamas are the logical outcome of their own policies. Indeed, several government ministers from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's Kadima party have expressed willingness to engage Hamas. And at present, through Egypt and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, the Olmert-Livni-Barak government is negotiating with Hamas toward a temporary cease-fire that would leave the Hamas regime in Gaza intact and armed.

The basic belief that informs both the Olmert-Livni-Barak government and the Bush administration is the same as Carter's. Namely, they believe that the Palestinian war against Israel is the consequence of Palestinian statelessness. Then, too, both governments accept the Arab and European assertion that the lack of Palestinian statehood is the root cause of the Arab and Islamic world's rejection of Israel's right to exist and of the larger pathologies of the jihad-supporting Arab and Islamic world.
This basic ideological premise has been the core belief of the Israeli and American policy-making classes since the advent of the Israeli-PLO "peace process" in 1993. And in light of this premise it is hard to see how the official boycott of Hamas is sustainable or even logical. The belief that the root cause of all the Middle East's troubles is a lack of Palestinian sovereignty generally, and more specifically the view that Israel's continued control over areas it secured during the third Arab war against Israel is the root of the conflict, renders Israel solely responsible for resolving the conflict. It is Israel, after all that is blocking Palestinian control over Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. It is Israel that is putting up obstacles to Palestinian sovereignty.

This is the view that informed Israel's 1993 decision to embrace the mass-murdering father of modern terrorism Yassir Arafat and his PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. It was this view that caused Israel to turn a blind eye to Arafat's transformation of Palestinian society into the most jihadist society in the Arab world through the constant indoctrination of his official Palestinian media organs, education systems and mosques.

It is this view that still brings Israel's leaders to refer to Judea and Samaria as "occupied"; to negotiate the partition of Jerusalem; to outlaw Jewish building in Judea and Samaria and limit Jewish building in Jerusalem; to demonize Jewish opponents of their view as "extremists" and "enemies of peace": and to ignore the need to defend the western Negev from the Palestinian rocket campaign in Gaza.

It is this view that causes Israel's leaders to embrace Arafat's successor and deputy of 40 years, Mahmoud Abbas, as a "peace partner" while turning a blind eye to his open support for terror and Israel's violent destruction; his Fatah party's deep involvement in terror attacks against Israel; his financial support for terrorists and families of jailed and dead terrorists; and his operational ties to Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Syria and Iran.

It is this view that has caused the US to treat Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria as moral equivalents of terrorism; to support the establishment of a Palestinian state that will be ethnically cleansed of all Jews; to pressure Israel to allow pro-terror Palestinian militias to deploy in Judea and Samaria and to curtail its counter-terror operations; to provide financial, military and political support to pro-terror Palestinian militias; and to pressure Israel to stop building homes for Jews in Jerusalem.

And, of course, it is this view that renders the US and Israel's current boycott of Hamas unsustainable and illogical. If Israel is to blame for the lack of Palestinian statehood, then nothing the Palestinians believe or do is relevant. The organizational separation of Hamas from Fatah is irrelevant. Hamas's subservience to Iran is irrelevant. Just as is the case with Fatah, so too, Hamas's embrace of terror as a means of advancing Israel's complete destruction is not a reason to boycott it. It is blameless. Carter is right.
To maintain their belief in Peace through Israeli capitulation as a panacea for all the Middle East's deformities, Peace adherents have been forced to replace their natural skepticism with artificial credulity. For in contrast to the Children of Israel in Pharaoh's Egypt, not only have they received no evidence that their faith in Peace is reasonable, they have seen in the terrorist murder of more than 1,500 Israelis since 1993 and in the daily incitement for Israel's destruction and massing of Palestinian terror armies of jihad overwhelming proof that their faith is unfounded. Indeed, just this week, Israel Radio reported that Abbas was planning to bestow the highest official PA honors on two female terrorist murderers jailed in Israeli prisons.

Actually, the story about Abbas's plan to publicly embrace mass murderers is instructive of how the blind faith in Peace has been maintained now for 15 years. The Israel Radio broadcast forced the Olmert-Livni-Barak government for the first time to acknowledge Abbas's support for terrorists and so placed in question the rationality of their entire policy of capitulating for Peace. At their insistence, Abbas announced he was cancelling the awards.

But as Prof. Mordechai Keidar from Bar-Ilan University pointed out in a radio interview Wednesday, the only thing extraordinary about Abbas's planned ceremony was that it was reported by the Israeli media. The PA has been annually bestowing its highest honors on jailed mass murderers. It's just that the flock of Peace faithful who run Israel's media have never reported the story before.

Yet, in spite of its leadership's and media's attempts to hide the truth from them, the Israel public has insisted on maintaining its natural skepticism and limiting its faith to its revealed God. Tel Aviv University's monthly Peace Index, which surveys the Israeli public's views on issues relating to the "peace process," showed that despite the government's and media's pro-Peace rhetoric and attempts to obfuscate reality, the majority of Israeli Jews have not accepted their views.

The majority of Israeli Jews view Judea and Samaria as "liberated" rather than "occupied" territories. They do not believe that signing a peace treaty with the Palestinians will bring peace, and they oppose destroying the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. A poll of the public's views of the government's plans to negotiate the partition of Jerusalem taken this week by Bar-Ilan's Begin-Sadat Center showed that 71 percent of Israelis oppose partitioning Jerusalem and ceding the Old City to the Palestinians.

All told then, Pessah's lesson of reasoned faith in the true revealed God over blind faith in a false God has not been lost on the Jews. And the celebration of faith and freedom that Pessah embodies should instill us with certainty that one day soon, our leaders who uphold the irrational belief in fake Peace will be replaced by others who reject it.

More on Israel's Dysfunctional Hierarchy

Israel’s No-Win Strategy

by ICSEP Director Daniel Doron
Originally published
in The Wall Street Journal

The massacre of rabbinical students Thursday at a Jerusalem seminary highlights the failure of the powerful Israeli military to stop the assaults of Palestinian terrorists. It also reveals serious deficiencies in Israel’s strategy and tactics.

These have cost Israel dearly. They also harm the world-wide war on terror, of which Israel is on the forefront.

You can’t stop every suicide bomber of course. But for seven years now, Hamas terrorists have been rocketing southern Israeli towns from Gaza. Israeli governments headed by Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert have all vowed to put an end to the attacks. Despite Israel’s overwhelming military superiority, its governments have failed to do so.

Israel has scored some impressive victories in its fight against terrorism, especially from attacks originating in the West Bank. Numerous attempts by Fatah and Hamas to dispatch bombers into Israel were frustrated by a combination of excellent intelligence, daring special operations, and the ability of the army to enter Palestinian-ruled areas in hot pursuit or for preemptive strikes. Not so in Gaza.

There, a radicalized population has elected a Hamas government determined to eliminate Israel. After Israel unconditionally retreated from the northern Gaza strip—hoping that the Palestinians would concentrate on state building—the territory was immediately used for attacks on Israel. Why has Israel failed to stop them?

Governments here—behemoths whose budgets consume about a half the nation’s $160 billion GDP—are generally dysfunctional. They are hamstrung by constant internal squabbles and Byzantine bureaucracies. As became evident as early as the 1973 Yom Kippur War, their dysfunction has infected the Israeli defense establishment. In that year, a totally surprised Israeli cabinet and military leadership reacted with confusion and ineptness that almost led to the country’s ruin. The recent Winograd Commission of Inquiry report on the Second Lebanon War indicates that these faults are endemic to the over-centralized yet disorganized Israeli system of governance.

More than in most countries, Israeli politicians are preoccupied with political machinations designed to buy support from powerful interest groups by distributing government largesse. This causes not only the factionalization of politics and growing corruption, but consumes time and energy that leadership should use to address life and death issues. As the Winograd Commission attested, Mr. Olmert’s government initiated the Second Lebanon War without proper discussion or preparation. During the relatively long war government and military leaders failed to define their objectives. They issued vague and contradictory directives, causing repeated failures and unnecessary loss of life. Only the exceptional bravery and tenacity of Israel’s soldiers and field commanders and of the rocketed Israeli population saved the day.
Permalink: http://www.icsep.org.il/en/commentary/israels-no-win-strategy

Tzipi Livni gets slapped around by CondiSleeza...AGAIN!

WHEN WILL ISRAEL SLAP BACK?

(Rhetorical question... we all know the answer: Never!)

Blogmaster's articulation:

Take a close look at Tzipi's face and tell me if she doesn’t look like her pet dog just bit her in the touches. Look at CondiSleeza...did you ever see such a phony smile? When will Livini learn (for that matter, when will the broken Government of Israel learn) that the U.S. State Department has no lost love for the Jewish State?













Last week, Rice ordered Olmert to get our troops out of Gaza because the IDF's incursion into Rocket Land was making the U.S. look bad to their "friends" in the EU. Never mind about the victims killed or maimed by the palestinian rocketeers.
What did Israel do, what else?... we capitulated and withdrew our forces to allow Hamas to regroup and resupply.

Hamas welcomed the CondiSleeza brokered cease fire as a Victory. They also needed the time to assemble more missiles with larger warheads...to kill more Israeli children.

"Never mind" says CondiSleeza, "Uncle Sam will send you more dwindling dollars. You can buy more ambulances."

Okay, so the gruesome threesome (Olmert, Barak and Livini) smiled like naive children, and thought that Rice had somehow bribed the terrorists in Gaza... there would be a respite from the rocket attacks. Guess what? There was a respite while the Hamas leadership in consort with Hezbollah made ready for the coming Yeshiva Massacre in Jerusalem.

Almost immediately after the arab murderer had slaughtered our Sons in Jerusalem, CondiSleeza was on the phone to Olmert screaming "Restraint - Restraint - Do Not Retaliate!!!... I'll tell Tzipi how to respond...after all, she's coming to Washington, the Capital of Israel. As long as we have Washington, you don't need all of Jerusalem anyway!"

"Well, well, well Tzipi" said CondiSleeza about the massacre; "you know that this was just a "loan wolf" that did this because of the occupation, just an unfortunate isolated incident...no need for further bloodshed - you understand don't you?" "Of course" said Tzipi grimacing as ConciSleesza twisted and tightened the grip on her wrist.

"Now lets talk about Ehud's mistaken authorization to build more apartments for the growing Jewish population in the Jerusalem suburbs... don't you know that we don't want more Jews in Jerusalem? Can't you see that restarting construction at Givat Zeev could derail the peace process again and ruin George and my chance for the Nobel Peace Prize?

Here is what you will do as a result of the unfortunate attack on the boys school... you need to focus! It's not helpful to the process unless you keep focused on moving the political process forward and you Will speed up the implementation of the Roadmap now won't you? Once that is in place, all of your problems will be over ("Yes thought Rice as she twisted Livini's wrist, there won't be an Israel to worry about.") Now smile nicely for the cameras (photo above).

If that wasn’t the factual conversation, it was nevertheless, obviously on target. Rice, George Bush and Olmert are so narcissistic that they will do anything to go down in history as the great peacemakers of the twenty-first century. First the "Roadmap" and then the debacle at Annapolis will seal the fate of Israel and reserve their immortal places in the history books (or so they think... they obviously don't know Israelis very well, or do they Tzipi?).

Isn't it time that someone in Israel stood up for Israel, our land and our heritage? "If not now, when?"

IRON DOME = TISSUE PAPER & LIES

Iron Dome system found to be helpless against Qassams

By Reuven Pedatzur,
Haaretz Correspondent
Last update - 03:19 22/02/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/956859.html

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was surprised to learn last Sunday that the Iron
Dome defense system, which was approved last year and was supposed to
protect Israel's citizens against Qassam rockets, is not capable of
alleviating the distress of Sderot inhabitants. "Recent tests found the
system to be effective against rockets fired from more than four kilometers
away, but not against those fired from closer range," Haaretz noted that
same day in its lead story. Because Sderot is less than two kilometers from
Beit Hanun, from which the rockets are being fired, Iron Dome will be
helpless against them.
The upshot is that the prime minister, who just two months ago declared that
"we will not fortify ourselves to death," was compelled to approve
recommendations to fortify 8,000 homes in Sderot and the communities of the
"Gaza envelope," to the tune of NIS 300 million. Such protection is
necessary because these homes lie within 4.5 kilometers of the Gaza Strip.
But a mere day later, it turned out that the plan was too ambitious and that
budget shortfalls meant that only 3,600 homes in Sderot and the Gaza
envelope can be fortified within the next two years. The solemn declarations
to fortify the homes, revoked only hours later, are just the latest chapter
in a gloomy saga replete with deception, lies, concealment of the truth from
policymakers, groundless promises to Sderot residents, the unexplained
rejection of the arguments for examining additional defense systems other
than Iron Dome, and bizarre decisions made in the Defense Ministry.
The decision to focus on the development of Iron Dome raises so many
questions that an examination of the process that led to it is in order. The
questions include, for example, whether the decision was influenced by
considerations relating to commercial bodies, the likely implications of a
deal to export this defense system to a foreign country which is not located
in the NATO continents (America and Europe), and the motives of some of
those involved in the process. It may well be that nothing concrete lurks
behind these questions, but we must not ignore the need to find satisfactory
answers for them.
The fact that Iron Dome is not effective against short-range rockets and
therefore cannot protect Sderot was long known to the system's developers
and to the Defense Ministry officials who chose to focus on it. For some
reason, they decided not to go public with their information. When the
Defense Ministry officials, led by the defense minister, promised that the
residents of Sderot would be protected after the installation of the Iron
Dome system, they knew they would not be able to deliver on this promise.
One need not be privy to classified information in order to understand that
Iron Dome is not the solution to the Qassam rockets. The data are public
knowledge: The Qassam's speed in the air is 200 meters per second. The
distance from the edge of Beit Hanun to the outskirts of Sderot is 1,800
meters. Therefore, a rocket launched from Beit Hanun takes about nine
seconds to hit Sderot. The developers of Iron Dome at Rafael Advance Defense
Systems know that the preparations to simply launch the intercept missiles
at their target take up to about 15 seconds (during which time the system
locates the target, determines the flight path and calculates the intercept
route). Obviously, then, the Qassam will slam into Sderot quite a number of
seconds before the missile meant to intercept it is even launched.
But besides not being able to protect the border communities, Iron Dome will
also not be able to cope with rockets that are launched much farther away.
According to data available from Rafael, the average flight time of the
intercept missile to the point of encounter is another 15 seconds. In other
words, to intercept a rocket using Iron Dome requires at least 30 seconds.
This is the time it takes a Qassam to cover six kilometers.
The disturbing question is why no one bothered to apprise the prime minister
of this simple calculation, to make it clear to him that Iron Dome, in the
development of which his government decided to invest hundreds of millions
of dollars, will not be able to protect Sderot. The questions multiply when
it emerges that on January 13 an urgent personal letter was sent to Defense
Minister Ehud Barak by the head of the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council, Alon
Schuster. He referred to the Qassam's short flight time, noted that the
reaction time of Iron Dome is too long to cope with the rockets, and added
that the system is incapable of protecting Sderot and many of the
communities bordering the Gaza Strip.
The reply of the Defense Ministry was sent to the council head on February
10. The letter is signed by attorney Ruth Bar, the defense minister's
assistant. "The analysis [done by the Defense Ministry] found that in regard
to the threats that were identified by the warning system during
April-November 2007, one Iron Dome battery has the ability to cope and cover
an area far larger than that of Sderot. The capability of Iron Dome to cope
with mortar shells has not yet been examined in depth. I will add that the
issue of the flight time cannot be detailed in this letter, owing to
security considerations."
The money issue
An examination of the economic aspect also casts grave doubts on the
decision to choose Iron Dome. The cost of each intercept missile will
probably be about $100,000. (Rafael claims the cost of a missile will be
about $40,000, but given the cost of similar missiles, that does not seem
reasonable.) In contrast, the cost of making a Qassam rocket is well under
$100,000. So, if the Palestinians produce thousands of Qassams, the Israeli
defense establishment will have to respond by manufacturing thousands of
Iron Dome missiles, at a prohibitive cost of hundreds of millions of
shekels. On the assumption that this information is known to everyone
involved, it must be asked, again, how it came about that Iron Dome was
chosen as the preferred solution to the Qassam rockets while other options
were vehemently rejected.
The decision was made, seemingly, via a proper, orderly procedure. The
Defense Ministry set up a professional committee to look into the matter,
headed by Yaakov Nagel, the deputy chief for scientific affairs of the
ministry's Directorate of Defense R&D. The committee examined 14 proposals
for anti-rocket defense systems and chose Iron Dome. Two defense ministers
approved the choice - Amir Peretz and Ehud Barak.
However, the impression of an orderly decision-making process is upended
when it turns out that the senior staff at the Defense Ministry's R&D
directorate strongly rejected the proposal to bring into Israel the
laser-based Nautilus defense system, whose development is nearly complete
and whose effectiveness was proved in a series of tests (100 percent success
in 46 tests, including success in intercepting mortar shells).
Nautilus was developed in the United States in conjunction with Israel, but
the Israeli defense establishment ended its participation in the project in
2001. The Americans went on with it, improved the system and changed its
name to Skyguard. Northrop Grumman, the company that is developing the
missile, promises that it can be delivered within 18 months at a relatively
low cost. The Nautilus system itself, devised to protect Kiryat Shmona
against Katyusha rockets, can be installed in Sderot within six months. By
comparison, the development of Iron Dome will take another three years.
The major advantage of Skyguard is its use of a laser beam for
interceptions. The beam travels at the speed of light, allowing the system
to intercept short-range rockets like the ones aimed at Sderot. The cost of
implementing the laser system is also far lower than Iron Dome. The cost of
launching one laser beam will be between $1,000 and $2,000. On February 6,
2007, Mike McVey, vice president of Northrop Grumman's Directed Energy
Systems business area, sent a letter to Ehud Olmert, with copies to the
defense minister at the time, Amir Peretz, and the then director general of
the Defense Ministry and present chief of staff, Gabi Ashkenazi, undertaking
to install in Israel an operational system within 18 months and at a fixed
price ($177 million for the first system). As far as is known, McVey has not
received a reply to this day.
Asked why Israel rejected the laser system, the Defense Ministry's spokesman
replied: "The Nautilus system is defined as exemplifying technologies and
not as an operational instrument. Bringing the Nautilus system into Israel
today will cost about $100 million, and it might take up to two years for
the system to become active. The Nautilus system is operationally inferior
to the Iron Dome system, is far more costly and does not provide an answer
to volleys of missiles, as Iron Dome is meant to do. Tests of Nautilus did
not achieve the goal of 100 percent hits but far less, and even that under
optimal conditions, which, regrettably, do not exist in the western Negev."
The reply is studded with inaccuracies, to say the least. The Nautilus /
Skyguard will not be "far more costly" than Iron Dome, but probably "far
less costly." Nor is it clear what the Defense Ministry spokesman is
referring to when he states that Nautilus "did not achieve the goal of 100
percent hits but far less." For his part, the IDF Spokesman, who was also
asked to comment on the decision not to acquire the laser system, copied the
reply of the Defense Ministry spokesman. Former air force commander Major
General (res.) David Ivry is one of those who favors adopting the laser
system, but the ministry's R&D directorate did not accept his position.
Another former air force commander, Major General (res.) Herzl Bodinger,
also tried to persuade the ministry to purchase the laser defense system,
again to no avail.
Buy blue-and-white
Part of the explanation for the opposition to the laser system may lie in
remarks made by Shimon Lavie, from the R&D directorate, who was the officer
of the Nautilus project in the United States, on the "Fact" TV program,
broadcast on Channel 2 last December. "We in the directorate are responsible
for developing blue-and-white [Israeli-made] systems, which the Nautilus was
not. We had hoped for intense cooperation with Israeli firms. If that had
happened, it might have had an influence [on the decision about whether to
acquire the laser system]."
Another question concerns the extent to which decision-makers were
influenced by an export deal with a foreign country not among those under
the jurisdiction and protection of NATO. Under the deal, said country was to
purchase the Iron Dome system and share in financing the project. Also worth
looking into is the influence exerted by MK Isaac Ben-Israel (Kadima), a
professor and retired major general, who was formerly head of the R&D
directorate, on the decision to choose Iron Dome. Until not long ago,
Ben-Israel was an enthusiastic advocate of the laser-based system,
explaining his position in detail in an interview with the newspaper Makor
Rishon in December 2006. "The limited range between the launch site and its
target allow a very short time for intercepting efforts," he said, and
stressed the high cost of rocket-based interception systems. "Those the
issues decide in favor of the laser weapon," he added. What made him change
his mind?
In a conversation this week, Ben-Israel denied that he had changed his mind
regarding the anti-rocket defense system. He says he continues to advocate
the laser-based defense, but believes that the technology by which the laser
beam is produced in Nautilus / Skyguard is obsolete. A little more than a
year ago, Ben-Israel still believed that the laser system was preferential
and efficient. It would be interesting to know what caused him to consider
this system obsolete not long afterward. When asked if he serves as an
adviser to the Singapore government, he said that being an MK does not allow
for it. When asked if he had served as an adviser to the Singapore
government in the past, he said: "I don't have to answer that question."
It is possible that some of the answers to these questions will be
forthcoming in court. This week, 50 Sderot residents petitioned the
Jerusalem District Court against the defense minister, requesting that the
court instruct the minister "to install and operate in the city of Sderot,
within six months from today, the laser-based intercept system (known as
Nautilus) to provide an immediate solution to the shelling of Sderot by
Qassams; to instruct the completion of the laser-based intercept system in
its full operational version, known as Skyguard, and to order deployment of
Skyguard systems for defense of all Western Negev settlements ... within two
years from today."
Sderot inhabitants continue to wait for fortification of their houses and
installment of a system that will stop the Qassam barrages. In the time that
has elapsed since the decision to develop Iron Dome, they could at least
have had their houses fortified. Will the public again require the help of
the court to figure out what is really going on in the corridors of the
Defense Ministry, because the policymakers, who are supposed to supervise it
and examine the peculiar decisions made there, are not doing their job?
*** Balanced Middle East News ***
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IDF Response to the Report of the Winograd Committee

January 30th, 2008

IDF SPOKESPERSONS ANNOUNCEMENT

IDF Response to the Report of the Winograd Committee

The IDF views the report of the Winograd Committee as an important document,and is obliged to evaluate its contents and act accordingly to correct anyshortcomings. As a body that is constantly under public scrutiny, the IDFconsiders this report to be important tool for detecting and correcting itsproblems and shortcomings.

The IDF is fully aware of the failures and lessons that were revealed in thedifferent fields during the Second Lebanese War, and to the perception thatwas created among the Israeli public, therefore it is in a midst of acomprehensive and continuing process of correction.

The IDF did not wait for the report and immediately after the war, on theorders of the Chief of Staff, at the time, Lt. Gen. (res.) Dan Halutz,initiated a thorough process of inquiries which resulted in an extensivelist of lessons and conclusions.It is emphasized, that this list was translated to an encompassing work planwhich constitutes a major change.The process began during the year of 2007, which was declared in the IDF as"the year of strengthening and preparedness", during which priority wasgiven to operational frameworks and infrastructure.

Accordingly and as a result ofthe size of the challenges and gaps that were identified, it is important tostress that there is no single and immediate solution to these issues, butrather in a multi-year program, which will provide a comprehensivesystem-wide solution, according to the priorities defined within theprogram.

Following the war, the IDF operative conception was updated and the prioritywas placed on the joint training and combat operation of the differentbranches, as well as the strengthening of the IDF land maneuver capability,alongside the clarifying of fighting values and the foundations of the moralspirit of the IDF.The IDF operative plans and orders were examined and rewritten according tothe IDF's needs in a clear and professional manner.

These plans areconstantly reviewed, and their goals are updated on a multi-annual basis.During the past year, the IDF has implemented a training program which wasunprecedented in its scale for many years.

One of the lessons from the wardealt with the need to exercise the senior command, thus during 2007 theGeneral Staff, the Air Force, the Navy and the four Commands (Central,Northern, Southern and the Home Front) participated in exercises.In addition, divisional training exercises as well as brigade level(permanent army and reserve), combat support level, Air Force and Navy level(permanent army and reserve) exercises took place; all of which includedmobile elements and live fire, while implementing the lessons andconclusions which were reached during the war inquiries.

A special emphasiswas placed on the reserve forces that have been defined as the "corestrength" of the IDF.The IDF is operating according to a multi-year plan, to restock ammunitionand weaponry in order to replace the weapons that were used by the IDFduring the war.

Additionally, a five year plan named "River Rapids" was inaugurated, with a total budget of nearly 2 billion shekels, for the completing and improving of the equipment in the IDF's emergency warehouses.

As for the training of commanders, there has been a revolution in the instruction doctrine, as well as a decision that no officer should be appointed to a position for which he does not have the appropriate professional trainings while emphasizing the continuing nature of this training and instruction.

Since the war programs for training commanders were developed (some of themfrom the foundations), improved and implanted this year, including a Division Commanders Course, a Brigade Commanders Course and unification of the Air, Land, Navy and Intelligence Command and Staff Colleges into one.

In the field of the Home Front, the Command had undergone a long and thorough process of lesson studying, an extensive exercise took place and the Home Front Command's activity of the learning process was presented tothe political echelon as well as to the State Comptroller Committee.

The implementation of the lessons learned from the war was integrated in the work plan for 2008 as well as in the multi-year work plan "TEFEN" that was finalized and authorized last September. During the last year, many organizational changes were finalized with the objective of strengthening the General Staff capability to activate the force while focusing the land forces on building the land forces; two directorates were rebuilt: theDeputy Chief of Staff will serve as the head of the army's headquarters, with responsibility for activating and building the force.

Medical,Logistics and Centers Branch will transform into a "Logistic Command" inwhich a logistics section was built.The chief corp. commanders - logistics, armaments, manpower andcommunications will return to the directorates of the General Staff. TheOperating Division that was built in the Intelligence Branch will lead into an improvement in the procedures and operational synergies.

In addition, in the Teleprocessing Branch, a Teleprocessing Brigade was established. Alongside the criticism and feeling of disappointment after the war, one must remember that IDF troops have shown great courage in the battlefield, and that in every contact between IDF soldiers and terrorists, the IDF forces prevailed. During the inquiries into the war, many stories of valor and bravery were discovered which led into awarding of different medals and decorations to the soldiers and officers involved.

The IDF continues and will continue to act in order to gain and maintain the trust of the Israeli public, to retain quality commanders in career service and to strengthen the value of serving the country in the regular, career and reserve forces.

The IDF Spokesperson wishes to emphasize that in order to withstand its tasks and future challenges, the IDF will need the trust, support and assistance of the Israeli people, as well as constructive criticism that the IDF is obligated to study and implement.

The Two Faces of the War on Terror - Palestine or Else!

Blogmaster's comments: The U.S. State Department and CondiSleeza Rice have sunk to a new sleazy low. Now, according to Rice, palestinian murder and terror against Israelis will not be an adverse factor when considering "Statehood" for the palestinians. Such betrayal of ideals certainly will come as no surprise from the country that since the 1950s has routinely abandoned its allies (remember the Bay of Pigs - Cuba; how about running out on Vietnam or the first (unfinished) Iraqi war?). Trust the United States, hell, even we who are citizen’s mistrust and are fearful of the Government, why should their international integrity be judged differently? The only thing preventing the U.S. from severing Israel's umbilical cord is the voice and influence of American Jewry... and those of us in that category are beginning to feel the squeeze. Israel, keep your friends close and your enemies closer... the question is, how close should Israel keep the United States? We who are close to the situation can only feel a deep sense of humiliation and betrayal from a Government who once stood a bastion of Freedom and Democracy for the rest of the world to emulate. When the State Department can openly contradict Presidential policy and win... who controls the United States...really?

Death of the Bush Doctrine

By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist
January 16, 2008

THE Bush Doctrine - born on Sept. 20, 2001, when President Bush bluntly warned the sponsors of violent jihad: "You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists" - is dead. Its demise was announced by Condoleezza Rice last Friday.

The secretary of state was speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route with the president to Kuwait from Israel. She was explaining why the administration had abandoned the most fundamental condition of its support for Palestinian statehood - an end to Palestinian terror. Rice's explanation, recounted here by The Washington Times, was as striking for its candor as for its moral blindness:

"The 'road map' for peace, conceived in 2002 by Mr. Bush, had become a hindrance to the peace process, because the first requirement was that the Palestinians stop terrorist attacks. As a result, every time there was a terrorist bombing, the peace process fell apart and went back to square one. Neither side ever began discussing the 'core issues': the freezing of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the right of Palestinian refugees to return, the outline of Israel's border, and the future of Jerusalem.

"The reason that we haven't really been able to move forward on the peace process for a number of years is that we were stuck in the sequentiality of the road map. So you had to do the first phase of the road map before you moved on to the third phase of the road map, which was the actual negotiations of final status," Rice said. . . . What the US-hosted November peace summit in Annapolis did was "break that tight sequentiality. . . You don't want people to get hung up on settlement activity or the fact that the Palestinians haven't fully been able to deal with the terrorist infrastructure. . ."

Thus the president who once insisted that a "Palestinian state will never be created by terror" now insists that a Palestinian state be created regardless of terror. Once the Bush administration championed a "road map" whose first and foremost requirement was that the Palestinians "declare an unequivocal end to violence and terrorism" and shut down "all official . . . incitement against Israel." Now the administration says that Palestinian terrorism and incitement are nothing "to get hung up on."

Whatever happened to the moral clarity that informed the president's worldview in the wake of 9/11? Whatever happened to the conviction that was at the core of the Bush Doctrine: that terrorists must be anathematized and defeated, and the fever-swamps that breed them drained and detoxified?

Bush's support for the creation of a Palestinian state was always misguided - rarely has a society shown itself less suited for sovereignty - but at least he made it clear that American support came at a stiff price: "The United States will not support the establishment of a Palestinian state," Bush said in his landmark June 2002 speech on the Israeli-Arab conflict, "until its leaders engage in a sustained fight against the terrorists and dismantle their infrastructure." He reinforced that condition two years later, confirming in a letter to Ariel Sharon that "the Palestinian leadership must act decisively against terror, including sustained, targeted, and effective operations to stop terrorism and dismantle terrorist capabilities and infrastructure."

Now that policy has gone by the boards, replaced by one less focused on achieving peace than on maintaining a "peace process." No doubt it is difficult, as Rice says, to "move forward on the peace process" when the Palestinian Authority glorifies suicide bombers and encourages a murderous goal of eliminating the Jewish state. If the Bush Doctrine - "with us or with the terrorists" - were still in force, the peace process would be shelved. The administration would be treating the Palestinians as pariahs, allowing them no assistance of any kind, much less movement toward statehood, so long as their encouragement of terrorism persisted.

But it is the Bush Doctrine that has been shelved. In its hunger for Arab support against Iran - and perhaps in a quest for a historic "legacy" - the administration has dropped "with us or with the terrorists." It is hellbent instead on bestowing statehood upon a regime that stands unequivocally with the terrorists. "Frankly, it's time for the establishment of a Palestinian state," Rice says.

When George W. Bush succeeded Bill Clinton, he was determined not to replicate his predecessor's blunders in the Middle East, a determination that intensified after 9/11. Yet now he too has succumbed to the messianism that leads US presidents to imagine they can resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. Clinton's legacy in this arena was the second intifada, which drenched the region in blood. To what fresh hell will Bush's diplomacy lead?
Jeff Jacoby's e-mail address is jacoby@globe.com.

Rift Widening in Chabad over Rabbi Wolpe's Tirade against Olmert

Rabbi’s Incitement Against Olmert Threatens To Split Apart Chabad

Lubavitch Messianist:
Prime Minister Should Be ‘Hanged From the Gallows’

By Nathan JeffayWed. Jan 09, 2008/posted B'nai Elim 10 Jan 08

In a major blow to a decade-long campaign to play down divisions within the Chabad-Lubavitch ultra-Orthodox movement, the sect’s Israeli leadership appears ready to publicly distance itself from a significant messianic strand within the movement.

The unexpected development has been forced on the Chabad leadership by a spreading tide of anger toward the movement this week, after a rabbi from the messianic strand declared that, were Israel properly run, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would be “hanged from the gallows.”

Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe, a Chabad educator and author, launched into a tirade about Israel’s negotiations with Palestinians at the conference of a right-wing organization he runs, S.O.S. Israel.

“The terrible traitor, Ehud Olmert, who gives these Nazis weapons, who gives money, who frees their murderous terrorists, this man, like Ariel Sharon, collaborates with the Nazis,” Wolpe said on Wednesday, January 2, in remarks that were shown on Israeli television news.

A Chabad spokesman in Israel, Moni Ender, lashed out at Wolpe for his comments.
“This is not Lubavitch. Rabbi Wolpe is talking by himself. We have nothing to do with him. He makes dirt for Chabad,” Ender said.

Wolpe is the most popular leader of the messianic strand of Chabad, which holds that the 1994 death of the Lubavitcher rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson did not challenge the belief held in parts of the sect that he was the messiah. Wolpe was the first rabbi to go public with this position in 1994. A conflict has festered since then between followers of this belief and others, who present themselves as the mainstream and who reject such overt messianic claims.

Leaders on both sides have struggled to honor a ruling of a Brooklyn-based rabbinical court, issued immediately after the rebbe’s death, that said the movement should not split in two and the factions should not publicly undermine each other. This week, though, Ender told the Forward that Wolpe’s comments are doing such damage to the sect’s reputation that it could become necessary to publicly declare that the messianists cannot act or speak on its behalf.

“If we are needed to make it black and white we are different to [the messianists],” Ender added. “We never talk about politics. If necessary, I will do that.”

Some Chabad leaders in America also directed strong words at Wolpe. Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the Chabad representative in Washington, told the Forward that Wolpe’s comments “contravene the most basic tenets of Chabad philosophy” and are “beyond the pale of what the rebbe would tolerate.”

Mainstream Chabad newsletters did not reference the matter.
Wolpe’s outburst is so problematic because incitement to violence by rabbis has become the ultimate taboo, since rabbinical injunctions were blamed for inspiring Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin in 1995.

In the past, mainstream Chabad leaders have been on the right side of the political spectrum in Israel. During the 1990s, a number of leading Chabad rabbis in Israel were involved in the opposition to the Oslo peace process.

During that time, one messianist rabbi, Yitzhak Ginsburgh, was put in administrative detention for incitement to violence. But at that time, few observers connected Ginsburgh to the Chabad movement.

This time around, the backlash to Wolpe’s comments is taking on Chabad more generally, even resulting in calls to stop it from engaging in its trademark task — taking Judaism to secular Jews. Meretz party Knesset member Chaim Oron has urged the Knesset to issue a blanket ban on all Chabad activists from Israeli army bases. Other politicians have also responded angrily.

Chabad occupies a privileged position among Israel’s ultra-Orthodox groups, being the only major Hasidic group whose members serve in the army. Its rabbis are also regarded as informal chaplains.

It is the threat to this activity that could force Chabad to declare the messianists separate from the movement, Ender said. The sect would “prefer to get to every soldier and every Jew wherever they are, rather than pay the price of Rabbi Wolpe’s comments.”

In America, Shemtov said that Chabad would not comment on whether it would back such a move “unless or until such a situation arises.” He did say that as a rule, Chabad headquarters back Israel: “In general, when the Chabad rabbinate in Israel makes a decision, you don’t find opposition to them in America or around the world. They have a force of authority.”

Wolpe went beyond criticism of Olmert. He claimed that if justice were done, Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak would hang, as well as Olmert. In an interview with the Forward last Tuesday, Wolpe stood by his comments, adding that they were an acceptable way to “show how far [Olmert] has gone.”

The determination of Wolpe and other messianists to make political statements is integrally connected to their belief that the rebbe is the messiah. Working from statements that Schneerson made, opposing land for peace and calling for expansionist policies for Israel, the messianists have tended to promote hard-line right-wing positions.

As to the heat he is feeling from other Chabad leaders, Wolpe said: “What is embarrassing Chabad is that we don’t do anything to stop the Holocaust Olmert is bringing to Israel. What are they doing?”

Statements of condemnation have come from American Jewish organizations, including the Orthodox Union, which has been critical of the Olmert government but said the comments were “beyond the pale of legitimate democratic protest and have no basis in Jewish law or hashkafa (philosophy).”

President George W. Bush -The father of the state of Palestine

The farce called democracy

David WilderJanuary 09, 2008

A couple of days ago a few young people were arrested for pasting posters of Bush, Peres and Olmert wearing Kafiyas, in Jerusalem. Today, three others were arrested for distributing information about our 'moderate piece partner,' Fatah, to foreign journalists. (It should be remembered that moderate Fatah security forces were responsible for the murder to Achikam Amichai and David Rubin two weeks ago.)

Israeli democracy at its best.

This is, of course, nothing compared to the police brutality used against demonstrators against Oslo during the dark days of the Rabin-Peres regime. But fear not, the present opposition has just begun, and too, the rallying forces of those bent on quashing any and all opposition Olmert's follies.

This is not the only example of Israeli despotism. In a week and a half the Supreme court is scheduled to again meet concerning Beit HaShalom in Hebron. The justice heading the supreme court panel of three judges is the court's president, Dorit Beinish. Beinish was reported to have met with the American ambassador to Israel a few weeks ago. The subject of their discussion: Judea and Samaria. This is a judge? This is a justice on the supreme court? This is the equivalent of the Chief justice of the supreme court? No, no, and no. Beinish is a politician, of the worst kind, who is utilizing her position on the high court of justice to espouse and implement her own political ideologies, without any hint of law or justice.

However, the problem is not only on the Israeli side. Our prestigious visitor's country has it's problems too.

U.S. presidents are experts in involving themselves in Israeli political activity. George W's daddy can be held responsible for knocking Yitzhak Shamir out of office. George Sr. refused to allow Israel to hit back when we were being bombed by Saddam, during the first Gulf war. He realized that Shamir's 'inaction' wouldn't play well in Israel. He rewarded Shamir's patience by intentionally refusing to grant Israel (Shamir) necessary load guarantees, which played up by the media, led to Shamir's defeat and Rabin's victory in 1992. We are still eating the fruits of Shamir's defeat today.

During the 1996 election between Peres and Netanyahu, then President Clinton came to Israel for a special 'conference' during which he addressed the Israeli public, saying, 'you have to choose between peace and the alternative.' The American president was, for all intents and purposes, campaigning for Peres. So much for foreigners not getting involved in internal Israeli politics.

And so it is today. It is quite customary that a foreign leader, when visiting Israel (or other countries for that matter), meet the premier, the president, the defense and foreign minister, and usually also the leader of the opposition. George W, however, refuses to meet opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu and hear his objections to the Annapolis process, which includes dividing Jerusalem, expulsion of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Jews from their homes, and creation of another terror state in the Middle East.

Bush's short conversation with Shas leader Eli Yishai has already made headlines. Would Shas really pull out of the government as a result of negotiations? "Meet the chairman of Shas," said Olmert to the American president, who shook Yishai's hand warmly. Bush had done his homework. Bush said he understood he needed to talk to Yishai the next day to convince him to stay in the government, and Olmert translated. Yishai smiled. "We will definitely talk about it," Yishai said. [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/943324.html]

I have no doubt that Bush will attempt to 'lean on' Yishai, and who knows, maybe even pay a surprise visit to Rav Ovadiah Yosef, who determines Shas policy. Yishai isn't the only politician in Bush's sights. Avigdor Lieberman can't be far behind. He is also threatening to walk out of the Olmert circus should 'core issues' Jerusalem, borders and refugees be discussed. And these are the exact topics Bush is pressuring Israel to negotiate away.

Bush is pushing. He is determined to be the father of the state of Palestine prior to the conclusion of his presidency. Olmert is feeling the heat – lots of heat. He knows that in three weeks, with the release of Winograd, his position in Kadima and as prime minister is in jeopardy. The only way he can save himself is to prove that he, and only he, can be the savior of Israel, palestine and the piece process. This being the case, both will know no limits; whatever it takes to achieve the goal is legitimate. The ends justify the means.

This is the farce called democracy.