A message of tolerance from a Christian

Posted on 03/21/2008 by Meryl Yourish

CNET discusses German Jews’ attempt to get YouTube to remove Nazi propaganda from its ranks. The commenters take this opportunity—of course—to bash the Jews. But not in the way you think. No, on the eve of Good Friday, one of our tolerant Christian friends chooses to point out that, gee, it’s always a good time to blame the Jews.

Let the Central Council of Jews in Germany view / not view, and / or post, what they want; and let all others view / not view, and / or post, what they want. With regards to … ‘Honestly, killing people because of their religion is pretty lame.’ – I agree; especially with tomorrow being ‘Good Friday’ – the day that Jesus died at the hands of the Jews.

Yeah, you gotta love the attitude that blames the Jews for killing Jesus, even though they’re taught that Jesus had to die to save their sins.

Once again, however, The Exception Clause corollary is proven: In any internet discussion involving religion, politics, or Jews, the probability of it devolving into anti-Semitism is 100%.

Posted in Anti-Semitism, Religion | 7 Comments

Terrorists terrorize Purim festival in southern Israel

Posted on 03/21/2008 by Meryl Yourish

The terrorists achieved their goal on Friday, sending 600 people running for cover as the Color Red alert sounded.

Palestinian terror groups launched three Qassam rockets from northern Gaza towards Israel on Friday afternoon, as residents of southern Israel celebrated the Purim holiday in street shows and fairs.

And they almost hit one of their own, again, because they truly don’t care whom they hurt, so long as they achieve their goal: Which is to push Israelis out of Israel.

One of the rockets reportedly landed on the Palestinian side of the security fence along the border between Gaza and Israel, security forces are currently deployed to locate the other two rockets. No injuries have been reported and no damage was caused.

They held their fire while John McCain visited Sderot. Gee. I wonder why. Couldn’t be because Hamas told them they couldn’t, could it?

In Kibbutz Alumim a panic broke out as Color Red rocket sirens sounded, sending the assembled crowd of some 600 people running for cover. “It was very unpleasant. Many of the participants aren’t from the area and came here to visit, they grew frightened and left very quickly,” said one of the festival-goers.

“It was very sad to see the panic that was created. Afterwards it (the festival) just didn’t go back to normal. Unfortunately our enemies just won’t leave us alone,” he said.

Actually, they will, if the government finds the stones to do what needs to be done and send the IDF into Gaza in force. Apparently, 900 rocket attacks in three months doesn’t count as a good enough reason to clean out the terrorists.

Posted in Gaza, Israel, Terrorism | Comments Off on Terrorists terrorize Purim festival in southern Israel

The new AP boilerplate: More anti-Israel bias

Posted on 03/20/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Have you seen the new AP boilerplate lately? It’s in a ton of articles about Gaza or Hamas. It goes like this:

Israel has been battling Hamas since the Islamic group violently seized control of Gaza last June. In addition to its military activity, Israel has imposed a tough economic blockade on the strip.

This paragraph, in two sentences, displays the entirety of the AP (and world media) bias against Israel. First, it blames Israel by saying that the Jewish state is “battling” Hamas. Israel, in fact, is responding to thousands of terrorist attacks in the forms of rockets and mortars fired, shootings, stabbing attacks, bombs planted, snipers firing on farmers, soldiers, and reporters—all of these since Hamas took over Gaza.

As for that, the phrase “violently seized control” blithely overlooks the vicious murders that Hamas committed on its enemy, the Fatah members and their families. It overlooks the fact that Hamas still maintains “order” by using violent methods, including shooting at protesting Gazans.

And last, the language about “imposing” a “tough economic blockade” is given without context. The blockade was imposed after Hamas failed to stop the near-daily rocket fire into southern Israel.

Funny, after all those articles by all those analysts, and all those words by all those Palestinian spokesliars, all insisting that Hamas has absolutely no control over the terrorists firing rockets into Israel (just as Arafat used to lie that he could not stop Hamas or other groups from carrying out attacks), now, when Egypt is trying to get a “truce” in place, the rocket fire has nearly completely stopped.

Isn’t that amazing? It just stopped all by itself. Hamas has no control over it. But now that Hamas really wants the IDF to stop pounding it, the rockets have mostly stopped.

Will the media acknowledge this, ever?

Of course not.

Posted in AP Media Bias, Gaza | 2 Comments

Russian parents, beware

Posted on 03/20/2008 by SnoopyTheGoon

Beware Russian parents. Keep watch over your children before the coming of April 2008, the Jewish holiday of Passover. These disgusting people still engage in ritual practice to their gods. They kidnap small children and remove some of their blood and use it to prepare their holy food (matza). They throw the bodies (of the children) out in garbage dumps.

Nope, it is not a quote from some XIX century anti-Semitic pamphlet. It comes from a text distributed in fair Russian city of Novosibirsk these days.

Hundred of anti-Semitic announcements warning Russian parents to beware of the supposed Jewish practice of using children’s blood to prepare Passover matza were put up around the city of Novosibirsk, Russia in southwest Siberia on Wednesday.

Amos Hermon, the Jewish Agency official in charge of the fight against anti-Semitism, told Ynet following the incident in Novosibirsk that “this is an appalling and extraordinary incident.

Beg your pardon, Mr Hermon – this is where you are mistaken. While the incident is appalling, it is in no way extraordinary.

Watch this page for more in a few days.

Update: for readers of Russian here is the text.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.

Posted in Anti-Semitism | 6 Comments

Political correctness hits Israeli airline security

Posted on 03/20/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Oh, no way this could go wrong. Civil rights groups in Israel are trying to stop Israeli security, which has successfully stopped all hijacking of Israeli planes, from profiling potential hijackers/bombers.

Airline security faced a legal challenge yesterday from a civil rights group charging that its practice of ethnic profiling is racist because it singles out Arabs for tougher treatment.

At a Supreme Court hearing, civil rights lawyers demanded an end to the policy, which they say violates Israeli law. Such profiling is illegal in the U.S., where passengers must be singled out for security checks on a random basis.

And the whining:

[…] there hasn’t been a successful attack on an Israeli airliner in decades, and experts point to Israel’s security procedures as a key factor.

Many of the measures are kept secret, but known precautions on Israeli airliners include armored luggage compartments, armed sky marshals and reinforced cockpits.

But a key to preventing attacks, experts say, is the screening process on the ground, and that is the focus of the civil rights complaint.

Israeli Jews and Arabs get dramatically different treatment when boarding Israeli planes, as anyone who’s ever stood in line at Ben-Gurion International Airport has seen.

Hanna Swaid, an Israeli Arab, remembers being strip-searched by gruff security guards and having his luggage taken apart piece by piece 20 years ago before he flew from Israel to London, where he was a post-doctoral student.

Let’s stop for a moment and think back all of two weeks. Who, exactly, was the perpetrator of the largest massacre of Jews in the last several years? That’s right. An Israeli Arab. So excuse me if I don’t shed any tears over the different treatment of Arabs and Jews boarding Israeli planes.

I think, however, the lawsuit will fail. In Israel, security trumps political correctness.

“A bomber on a plane is likely to be Muslim and young, not an elderly Holocaust survivor. We’re talking about preventing a lot of casualties, and that justifies inconveniencing a certain ethnic group.”

Uh-huh. You’d think the U.S. would have figured that out by now.

Posted in Juvenile Scorn, Terrorism | 4 Comments

McCain in Sderot

Posted on 03/19/2008 by Soccerdad

Rick Richman wrote at the end of last year that when he visited Israel, President Bush should be Following Kennedy’s Lead.

When he visits Israel next month, President Bush can immerse himself in the details of the “peace process,” perhaps resolving the issue of 300 new homes in Jerusalem, or discussing the release of more prisoners, or considering other steps to “strengthen” a Palestinian leader who does not control even his own “military wing” and cannot promise even eventual recognition of a Jewish state. 

Or he — or they — can go to Sderot.

The president can address the citizens there and say there are those who claim that peace is simply a matter of withdrawal from disputed land; or that one can satisfy those committed to one’s destruction with concessions; or that a people choosing life will eventually run from the threat of death.

And he can respond by saying: “Let them come to Sderot.”

 

Given that the withdrawal of Jews from Gaza directly led to the barrage of rockets aimed at Sderot and given that President Bush gave his full support to the withdrawal, it would have been an important gesture. (I didn’t think that such a trip was likely due to security considerations.)

President Bush didn’t make the trip to Sderot, but today France 24 reports that McCain takes pro-Israel stance in Sderot.

US Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Wednesday showed vigorous support for Israel, where he made a highly symbolic visit to a town hit by near-daily rocket fire from Gaza.

“No nation in the world can be attacked incessantly and have its population killed and intimidated without responding,” McCain said in the southern town of Sderot, where he visited a house hit by a rocket fired by Islamists in the Gaza Strip, just a few kilometres (miles) away.

The Arizona senator was in Israel on a fact-finding mission which has also taken him to Iraq and Jordan and has been widely seen as a bid to polish his credentials as a statesman.

“Seeing it first-hand, the situation here is one that is very compelling,” McCain told reporters in Sderot after touring the town with Defence Minister Ehud Barak.

“Nine hundred rocket attacks in the last three months; this puts an enormous strain on everyone here, especially the children.”

 

It’s an important point.

Israel has been remarkably restrained (despite what its critics say). McCain went further though:

McCain warned in an interview with the Jerusalem Post that Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia threatened not only the Jewish state but also US and Western interests.

“If Hamas-Hezbollah succeed here, they are going to succeed everywhere.

“They are dedicated to the extinction of everything that the US, Israel and the West believe and stand for,” the Republican candidate added.

 

It was a little disconcerting though to read the following spin in an AP article about the visit.

While billed as routine congressional business, the visit appeared to be aimed at burnishing McCain’s leadership credentials and courting Jewish voters for next fall’s election. Jews make up large voting blocs in several key swing states, including Florida and Michigan, and could help influence the outcome of the election. 

Though McCain did not visit Palestinian areas, Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat said the senator has always been accessible to the Palestinians and is “committed to peace.” But he suggested McCain’s visit was aimed more at attracting Jewish voters than promoting negotiations. “Maybe one day Palestinians will have money for your campaigns in the United States,” he said.

 

As McCain made clear the fight against Islamic extremism is an American, not a specifically Jewish, issue. Polls show that most Americans agree. And Erekat’s sly Walt-Mearsheimer evincing comment deflects that.

I wish that he were a little more skeptical towards Abbas, but when even the Israeli government doesn’t show that skepticism, it’s hard to fault McCain.

I expect that whoever is elected will not do everything I think he or she ought to regarding Israel. However this trip by McCain is more than I expected from any candidate.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Posted in Israel, Politics | Comments Off on McCain in Sderot

Humoring the extremes

Posted on 03/19/2008 by Soccerdad

A month ago JoshuaPundit questioned the wisdom of President Bush naming an envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference. After noting some previous antics of the OIC, JoshuaPundit writes:

This is the racist, anti-American group our president legitimized and is now sending an official US envoy `to listen and to learn’.

Daniel Pipes observes that the envoy, Sada Cumber, didn’t just “listen and learn” but also whitewashed:

as paraphrased by Agence France-Presse, he found “a new more moderate leadership in the Islamic world.” He will report to President Bush and Secretary of State Rice that the OIC is changing: “the way things are going on in this conference I can almost see the new leadership moving into moderation and that alone is very encouraging news.”

Roger Kimball also finds the cheek turning in the face of aggressive Islamism rather unsettling:

What makes this little pow-wow among “leaders of the world’s Muslim nations” significant is not what might follow from it in the way of positive legislation—though you never know—but rather what it betokens as a sign of the times. It is part of a large if still more or less amorphous mobilization of anti-Western sentiment on the part of people who detest Western mores but crave its wealth and Lebensraum. It is not at all clear that we have formulated any compelling response. Mostly what we find are anodyne bleatings like those of Sada Cumber, U.S. envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, who kept trying to burnish “America’s image” in Muslim countries and find what the AP called “common ground” with Muslim nations by championing “universal values the U.S. holds dear like religious tolerance and freedom of speech.” Gee whiz.

We see similar behavior regarding the Palestinians. Recently AFP ran a story Israeli-Palestinian peace talks renewed on sour note. What was the sour note? That Mahmoud Abbas had hysterically claimed that Israeli was ethnically cleansing Jerusalem and got the OIC to deem Israel guilty of war crimes? That he couldn’t unequivocally condemn the Merkaz Harav massacre? That he declared his pride in engaging in “armed struggle?” No. None of those:

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks resumed on a sour note on Monday with the Palestinian negotiator blasting Israel for vowing to continue settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.

And how did the Americans react? Why Ambassador to Israel, Richard Jones said:

“Sometimes people do have to move to a different location. They cannot always stay close to their families.”

Elder of Ziyon commented:

He was clearly talking about Israel building new houses and apartments in Jerusalem.

Elder of Ziyon also links to a number of bloggers who objected to Ambassador Jones’ comments. The approach was generally that building around Jerusalem is an internal issue. But there’s a different problem with the Ambassador’s remarks. He essentially was validating the claims of the Palestinians. He was giving legitimacy to their “causus terrum.” (I just made that up.)

While Mr. Cumber simply said why can’t we all just get along, Mr. Jones essentially explained why the Palestinian ought not to get along. He confirmed their grievance. In the West we are facing a very real and possibly existential threat from radical Islam.

We are not going to win the war by sitting around the campfire and singing “Kumbaya” or by saying, “you know you just might be right.” Radical Islam in its various forms must be confronted and challenged.

Being silent or encouraging is not going to reduce their grievances with us. It will perpetuate the grievances.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Posted in Israel, Israeli Double Standard Time, palestinian politics | Comments Off on Humoring the extremes

Polling for peace

Posted on 03/19/2008 by Soccerdad

A few weeks ago, Glenn Greenwald argued that

Underscoring that point rather vividly is the issue of negotiations with Hamas. Needless to say, isolating the democratically elected Hamas government and childishly pretending that they don’t exist is a central prong of the Bush administration’s policy, and few American politicians could ever get away with advocating that Israel attempt diplomatically to negotiate its conflicts with Hamas. Cascades of “anti-Israel,” “soft-on-Terrorists” and other related accusations would pour down on any person suggesting such a thing.But a new poll of actual Israelis — the people who have to live with the consequences of their choices as opposed to those who can beat their neoconservative, protected chests from a safe distance — reveals:

Sixty-four percent of Israelis say the government must hold direct talks with the Hamas government in Gaza toward a cease-fire and the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit. Less than one-third (28 percent) still opposes such talks.

Leaving aside the hyperbole, which, in Greenwald’s case, is most of what he’s written, he’s arguing that since a majority of Israelis support negotiations with Hamas, the United States ought to consider the same thing. I had thought that the polling was specific to the issue of freeing Gilad Shalit, but apparently it may have been more general.

Still, Fugitive Peace points out in Hands up if you want to talk to Hamas that results of a poll are often dependent on what choices are presented to the interviewee.

In the poll cited by Greenwald no alternatives were presented by the pollster.

Three weeks ago Ha’aretz’s pollster, Camil Fuchs, published a poll showing that 64% of Israelis favour holding talks with Hamas in order to get a ceasefire and release Gilad Shalit, the captured soldier. Today the Tami Steinmetz Centre has issued the latest monthly Peace Index. It says that only 25% of Israelis and just 17% of Israeli Jews favour negotiating with Hamas.Puzzled? So was I. I reported on the Ha’aretz poll a couple of weeks ago as evidence that Israeli opinion is shifting towards talks with Hamas. So I called Ephraim Yaar of the Steinmetz Centre for an explanation, and it turns out to be simple.

The Ha’aretz poll asked people if they supported talks with Hamas: yes or no. The Steinmetz poll asked them the best way for Israel to deal with the Qassam rockets from Gaza: (1) talks with Hamas; (2) a relatively restrained military response (though Israel’s idea of “restrained”, I should point out, still means several Palestinians killed every week); (3) a bigger but still limited response (ie, like the ground incursion that killed 110 people or so earlier this month); (4) a massive ground operation to reoccupy Gaza; (5) another option of your choice; (6) don’t know.

Leaving aside the snark, it’s pretty clear that when Israelis are presented with the choice of actually fighting their enemies instead of talking with them, most Israelis would prefer to fight back.

Israeli, Israel Matzav find the polls results heartening..

A new poll of Palestinians finds that most of them support Hamas and terror.

A new poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Palestinians support the attack this month on a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem that killed eight young men, most of them teenagers, an indication of the alarming level of Israeli-Palestinian tension in recent weeks.The survey also shows unprecedented support for the shooting of rockets on Israeli towns from the Gaza Strip and for the end of the peace negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli leaders.

The pollster, Khalil Shikaki, said he was shocked because the survey, taken last week, showed greater support for violence than any other he had conducted over the past 15 years in the Palestinian areas. Never before, he said, had a majority favored an end to negotiations or the shooting of rockets at Israel.

And what might the reasons for these results be?

“There is real reason to be concerned,” Mr. Shikaki said in an interview at his West Bank office. His Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, which conducts a survey every three months, is widely viewed as among the few independent and reliable gauges of Palestinian public opinion.His explanation for the shift, one widely reflected in the Palestinian media, is that recent actions by Israel, especially attacks on Gaza that killed nearly 130 people, an undercover operation in Bethlehem that killed four militants and the announced expansion of several West Bank settlements, have led to despair and rage among average Palestinians who thirst for revenge.

Except as Mere Rhetoric points out, the poll results were already showing this before Israel started to defend itself.

Unlike the Israeli poll showing that Israel wants it government to fight back, this is a poll that supports blatant terror attacks, like the one at Merkaz Harav.

Elder of Ziyon adds:

The PCPSR is somewhat disingenuous as well. The last time that they even asked in a poll if the respondents supported attacks against Israeli civilians inside the Green Line was September, 2006, when 57% supported and 40% opposed. So while the number that supported this specific attack is higher, that could just as easily mean that while the people polled are against terror in the abstract but support it in reality. Either way, a convincing majority of Palestinian Arabs have consistently supported terror against civilians, over decades. For the pollster to say that he hasn’t seen such support for a specific terror attack before indicates more that he hasn’t asked.In 2001 and 2002, between 52% and 58% supported terror attacks against civilians inside the Green Line and over 90% supported terror attacks against civilians in the territories. Even before the intifada, 52% supported terror attacks versus 43% opposed.

These are the real facts, that the NYT is downplaying and the PCPRS is willingly ignoring: the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs want to see Jews killed, on both sides of the Green Line, and they have always felt that way.

What motivates the Palestinians is not a failure of the peace process to accomplish anything, but rather a hatred of Jews. The Palestinian leadership – even “moderate” Fatah reliably reflects this reality. Talking won’t work.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Posted in Hamas, Israel, Israeli Double Standard Time | 1 Comment

Admiral Grace Hopper

Posted on 03/19/2008 by Soccerdad

In honor of Women’s History Month at work, we were given a talk on women in computing. Part of the presentation was playing this YouTube video of the late Rear Admiral Grace Hopper on Late Night with David Letterman. It was extremely entertaining. Letterman seemed a bit unsure of the technical side of Adm. Hopper but he was a gracious host.

Admiral Hopper was known for many things including writing the programming language COBOL. She also found the first computer bug. (Go to the bottom of the page.)

Moth found trapped between points at Relay # 70, Panel F, of the Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator while it was being tested at Harvard University, 9 September 1945. The operators affixed the moth to the computer log, with the entry: “First actual case of bug being found”. They put out the word that they had “debugged” the machine, thus introducing the term “debugging a computer program”. In 1988, the log, with the moth still taped by the entry, was in the Naval Surface Warfare Center Computer Museum at Dahlgren, Virginia

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Posted in Computers, Girl Talk, Humor | Comments Off on Admiral Grace Hopper

Got a spare kidney for a minister?

Posted on 03/19/2008 by SnoopyTheGoon

In a sense. The kidney in question is not meant to save a life of a minister, rather the opposite – to croak the minister in question. In fact, you have got a choice of three targets: Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Mossad Chief Meir Dagan orHead of Military Intelligence Amos Yaron.

The initiative comes from an NGO (so to speak) – an Iranian students organization calling itself Islamic Student Justice Seekers.

The Justice Seekers also called for volunteers to donate a kidney in order to offer the money acquired via the act to increase the financial prize.

Is the Iranian treasury so down on funds these days that they should resort to such amateurish methods?

But this post is not just about the Justice Seekers and their foray on the health domain. Look at this picture:

Aside of the call to invest your money or organs into the demise of the threesome pictured on the poster, it states quite clearly, and in the best Queen’s English what exactly should be done with Israel. I’m curious: what will Juan Cole and his ilk make of this statement? Blame the Iranian translators this time?

Another refreshing detail – the poster says “Israel” and not “Zionist entity” or some such. Interesting…

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.

Posted in Iran, Israel | 2 Comments

PA calls for return of refugees; I say call their bluff

Posted on 03/18/2008 by Meryl Yourish

The Palestinian Authority wants the return of all Palestinian refugees for Israel’s 60th anniversary. I say that’s a great idea, provided you also extend the return call to the Jewish refugees from Arab and Muslim lands since the founding of Israel.

The Palestinian Authority is planning to mark Israel’s 60th anniversary by calling on all Palestinians living abroad to converge on Israel by land, sea and air.

The plan, drawn by Ziad Abu Ein, a senior Fatah operative and Deputy Minister for Prisoners’ Affairs in the Palestinian Authority, states that the Palestinians have decided to implement United Nations Resolution 194 regarding the refugees.

Article 11 of the resolution, which was passed in December 1948, says that “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.”

The initiative is the first of its kind and is clearly aimed at embarrassing Israel during the anniversary celebrations by highlighting the issue of the “right of return” for the refugees.

Entitled “The Initiative of Return and Coexistence,” the plan suggests that the PA has abandoned a two-state solution in favor of one state where all Arabs and Jews would live together.

“The Palestinians, backed by all those who believe in peace, coexistence, human rights and the UN resolutions, shall recruit all their energies and efforts to return to their homeland and live with the Jews in peace and security,” the plan says.

Yeah, sure. I believe that. Of course.

However, since half of Israel’s current population is made up of refugees from the Arab and Muslim nations and their descendants, and I doubt their countries of origin want them back, let’s just call it even-steven. No Palestinians need apply.

Res ipso loquitur. It’s a done deal.

Posted in Israel | 4 Comments

My hosting debut at SNN is up

Posted on 03/18/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Go listen.

Posted in Podcasts | 2 Comments

Processing …

Posted on 03/18/2008 by Soccerdad

Michael Goldfarb was recently in Israel, among his observations:

The land for peace paradigm is dead. It didn’t work. The Israelis gave up southern Lebanon and got a war with Hezbollah. They gave up Gaza and they now have a hot war in the south with rockets hitting Sderot daily. There is no chance that the Israelis give up the West Bank only to see the same thing happen, especially given the West Bank’s proximity to the economic heart of Israel. Which only further contributes to the paralysis–the old paradigm is dead, but nothing has yet developed to take its place. Even the country’s peaceniks are horrified by the turn of events in Gaza–they are no longer pushing for a similar withdrawal from the West Bank.

The people we spoke with painted a very bleak picture, and yet life goes on in Israel. The economy is booming, the bars and clubs are full, and the country, outside of Sderot at least, is enjoying something resembling peace. We drove around the West Bank and saw almost no evidence of violence. The security fence has had the desired effect, and despite all the talk about checkpoints and their impact on the daily lives of Palestinians, we moved relatively freely from one end of the territory to the other. I was also struck by how empty the West Bank is. Despite the attachment some settlers have to the land, most Israelis seem willing to cede the area in exchange for peace. That just isn’t possible given the current fractures in the Palestinian body politic.

Yet Ha’aretz goes on promoting more active American involvement (even pressure on Israel) in the “peace process.”

The senior official saw fit to explain that when it comes to the peace process, Bush does not intend to behave like a lame duck. We can hope that he will follow in the footsteps of the three presidents who preceded him: Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, who did not end their involvement with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict even after the American people had elected their successors. Pressure to put an end to the bloodshed and guarantee the Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic country is welcome pressure.

Yes, that involvement from President Clinton really helped matters didn’t it?

I think that his comment really hit much closer to the mark though.

If the Palestinian extremists were only willing to throw stones and tear down the occasional structure, then I am sure that more Israelis would be willing to negotiate with Hamas. Until that time, Palestinian extremism will be a much more significant obstacle to peace.

If Israel thought that ceding land was safe there’d be peace. No amount of American involvement though, is going to move the peace process forward unless there’s a significant change of heart from the Palestinians. Ha’aretz, though, is only capable of blaming Israel first and not of any measure of critical thought.

Crossposted on SoccerDad.

Posted in Israel, Israel Derangement Syndrome | 2 Comments

German in the Knesset

Posted on 03/18/2008 by Meryl Yourish

History is being made in Israel with Angela Merkel’s visit. On Tuesday afternoon, Israeli time, she’ll address the Israeli govenment. She’s already visited Yad Vashem and other sites. A few MK’s are boycotting her speech.

However, not everyone at the Knesset is interested in hearing a German-language speech at Israel’s parliament. One of them is MK Arieh Eldad (National Union-NRP.) Fellow party member Yitzhak Levy also told Ynet that he will not be entering the plenum to begin with.

“It is very very difficult to hear the German language at the Knesset. We want to remind people that even though Germany certainly displays friendship towards Israel these days, we still remember what happened,” he said. “I do not want to come in and then leave, because there is no reason to hurt her personally. Therefore, I won’t come in at all.”

Likud Knesset Member Yisrael Katz said he also intends to stay away from the special session.

“I have no intention to take part in an event in the presence of German figures in light of their responsibility for the massacre of the Jewish people,” he said. “I do not intend to forgive or forget. I do not take part in any ceremony that includes the participation of a German figure.”

Another Likud MK, Limor Livnat, will also stay away from the Knesset.

One MK is a Holocaust survivor, who isn’t boycotting:

“It does not bother me at all that Merkel chose to deliver her speech in German,” Marom Shalev said. She added that she will not be present at the Knesset because of previous obligations, but said that the objection to a German-language speech is “no more than populism.”

I think that the MK’s who are boycotting are missing the real point: Angela Merkel represents the current incarnation of the nation that Hitler tried, in every way possible, to use to eliminate the Jews. He’s long since turned to ash and dust.

We’re still here.

And we have a nation.

If Hitler were in a grave, he’d be setting the record for most number of spins in a single week.

One other note: The enemy isn’t in Germany. It’s right next door, with the Holocaust-denying heirs of the Nazis in the Arab and Muslim world. Perhaps the MK’s should stop pissing around boycotting Angela Merkel’s speech, and instead, work on the current leadership to stop kowtowing to the terrorists. That would be a much more worthwhile project.

Posted in Holocaust, Israel | 2 Comments

“Terror attacks are no reason to terminate peace talks”?

Posted on 03/17/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Here’s the Foreign Minister of Israel, on why the Knesset shouldn’t pass a no-confidence motion, which would finally take down the government of Ehud Olmert, and force new elections:

… terror attacks are no reason to terminate peace talks with the Palestinians…

Um. Yes, they are.

Yes, they are.

YES THEY EFFING ARE.

Terror attacks have not stopped, no matter how much Israel has given the Palestinians. The Gaza Strip is now completely in the hands of the Palestinians. There are no more Jews. The “settlers” left more than two years ago. That was the stated reason for launching terror attacks and rockets from the Gaza Strip, remember? And yet, the rockets continue.

Every time Israel concedes control or territory, terrorists continue to find a reason to attack Israel. Yasser Arafat launched a terror war after being offered almost everything he had previously stated were his demands. By continuously denying this reality, successive Israeli governments—pushed, prodded, and forced by the U.S., the UN, and Europe—have gotten nowhere. As Soccer Dad points out, Hamas now has territory and long-range rockets, which they did not have before. What does Israel have to show for it? More universal opprobrium, more venom from the UN and its bodies, and more pressure from the world to kowtow to Palestinian demands.

I had hopes, months ago, that Tzipi Livni would be a politician that could wrest control away from Ehud Olmert and put Israel back on course again. I lost those hopes some time ago, but never before have I begun to wonder exactly whose side she is on. Only the other day, she echoed the State Department’s language that settlements (e.g., new suburbs of Jerusalem) are “unhelpful.”

You know what’s unhelpful? Having Israeli politicians who don’t seem to have Israel’s best interests at heart.

Please, Knesset. Pass the no-confidence motion. Bring this government down. Give Israel someone who will actually take the fight to the enemy.

Posted in Israel | 9 Comments