Yourish.com

11/13/2010

The anti-Israel bias, exposed again

Filed under: AP Media Bias, Israel, Lebanon — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 7:49 am

In this AP article on Congress lifting the holds on sending money to the Lebanese army (and gee, having Obama assure them that the money won’t be hijacked by Hezbollah in any way sure makes me feel better, how about you?), we see the constant anti-Israel bias of the mainstream media.

Let’s parse this paragraph:

Lowey and Berman were among several lawmakers to express concern about the aid and placed holds on it in August after Lebanese soldiers opened fire on Israeli troops. Two Lebanese soldiers, a Lebanese journalist and a senior Israeli officer were killed.

Reading this account, the reader is led to believe that there was an exchange of fire after the Lebanese started it, but Israel, as usual, killed more people and managed to get a journalist, too. What really happened?

Let us review. The IDF notified UNIFIL that they were going to do their regular tree-pruning of the Israeli side of the border. As they were pruning trees, a Lebanese sniper opened fire—but not at the soldiers doing the pruning. He directed his fire at the officers observing the pruning—who were even further inside Israel. The sniper killed Lieutenant-Colonel Dov Harari and wounded another officer. And the world media slammed Israel, of course.

Also unmentioned: For some reason, there were a ton of Lebanese journalists on the other side of the border where the IDF would be pruning the trees. UNIFIL asked the IDF not to do the work at the time the IDF first mentioned, but to delay until a time that UNIFIL wanted this to occur. And there were blue helmets on the Lebanese side of the border, waving and yelling at the Israelis. (Reuters and other news media managed to make this look like the Israelis were ignoring warnings to approach the border, but it turned out that the Blue Helmets were actually trying to prevent the shootings from occuring.) This was an ambush by the Lebanese, plainly seen, and even admitted to by the Lebanese. But none of these facts manage to make it into the description of the attack above. I have a simple rewrite that you’ll never see the AP, or any other mainstream media outlet, attempt:

Lowey and Berman were among several lawmakers to express concern about the aid and placed holds on it in August after Lebanese soldiers ambushed Israeli troops pruning the brush on the Israeli side of the border, killing Lieutenant-Colonel Dov Harari and wounding another officer. Two Lebanese soldiers, and a Lebanese journalist were killed when Israel returned fire.

No, you’ll never see anything like that outside of the Israeli press. And the Jblogosphere.

11/12/2010

Palestinian Arrested for Criticizing Islam on Facebook

Filed under: Bloggers, palestinian politics — Tags: , , , — Rabbi Kaufman @ 5:37 pm

Today, a young man from Qalqiliya, Walid Husayin, was arrested by the Palestinian Authority for writing on Facebook in criticism of Islam. He wrote parody. Some, if not much of what he wrote was highly insulting of Islam, and he went so far as to write under the name of “God” in some Facebook groups. It is understandable that many Muslims were offended by what he wrote. In fact, considering the lack of tolerance in the Arab world, it is astounding that a Palestinian MUSLIM, his family are MUSLIMS, would write in this manner. Needless to say, he tried to keep his identity a secret. Husayin is an atheist who proclaimed the evils of his family’s faith in public. He aired dirty laundry. Hussein committed heresy.

If you have not read the story in today’s Haaretz about the Palestinian man jailed for criticizing Islam on Facebook, you should. I think that nothing comes closer to illustrating the depth of the difficulty in achieving peace and explain why it detail on the We Are For Israel blog, for which I also write.

In this case, this man may well never be let out of prison, if he is not sentenced to death. You read it right, “DEATH.” Of course, if he were let out of prison, he might well be murdered in the streets by someone “acting in defense of Islam.” The article relates the following:

Now, he faces a potential life prison sentence on heresy charges for insulting the divine essence. Many in this conservative Muslim town say he should be killed for renouncing Islam, and even family members say he should remain behind bars for life.

“He should be burned to death,” said Abdul-Latif Dahoud, a 35-year-old Qalqiliya resident. The execution should take place in public to be an example to others, he added…

Two cousins attributed the writings to depression, saying Husayin was desperate to find better work. Requesting anonymity because of the shame the incident, they saidHusayin’s mother wants him to remain in prison for life – both to restore the family’s honor and to protect him from vigilantes.

The Haaretz article went on to note that:

A small minority hasquestioned whether the government went too far. Zainab Rashid, a liberal Palestinian commentator, wrote in an online opinion piece that Husayin has made an important point: that “criticizing religious texts for their (intellectual) weakness can only be combated by oppression, prison and execution.“

I agree. How is condemning a person to life in prison or even sentencing such a person to execution for expressing unpopular views in accord with either modernity or Western morals and ethics? The terms that come to mind to describe such a government are “oppressive,” “tyrannical,” and dare I say it, “fascist.”

Merriam-Webster’s definition of Fascism is pretty much on the mark here:

a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition

Should America support such a government??? How can it???

Mediterranean conference cancelled on account of cooties

Filed under: Israel, Jew Cooties, Juvenile Scorn — Soccerdad @ 11:00 am

When I read something like this Mediterranean summit canceled again due to Arab threat to boycott over Israel (via Daily Alert Blog)

An international summit of Mediterranean leaders has been canceled for the third time because Arab states threatened to boycott if Israel was invited.

I wonder how there’s ever going to be peace.

So many in the media, along with diplomats and politicians fall all over themselves to criticize or condemn Israel for building in its own capital and yet not a single one seems concerned by this infantile hatred of the Jewish state.

Is there a single world leader willing to speak up and say to the Arab/Muslim world, “I know that you’re concerned about the Palestinians, but when you treat Israel as a pariah because Israel hasn’t made peace with the Palestinians, you demonstrate that the issue isn’t fundamentally about Israel failures on any level. Given that you treat your own citizens worse than Israel treats Palestinians – to whom they’ve granted, despte many risks that were realized, more freedom that you grant your own citizens – your outrage is misplaced.

The only reason you avoid Israel is hatred, not justified outrage. In 21st century diplomacy there is no room for such juvenile behavior.”

No one will.

Presumably many Arab states are concerned with Iran and yet won’t even participate in a meeting that could help shore up opposition to Iran. No, Israel would be there and we’d get cooties. Better, I suppose, to get radiation poisoning than to get cooties.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Friday, briefly

Filed under: Holocaust, Israeli Double Standard Time, Lebanon — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 10:00 am

So it’s only bad when Israel does it: Remember all the brouhaha over Israel’s refusing to go along with the UN’s one-sided Gaza war investigation? Well, there doesn’t seem to be an eye being batted over Hezbollah declaring that no matter what the UN investigation into Rafik Hariri’s assassination turns up, they won’t turn over the suspects. He has even threatened a coup over the results. So, how many editorials, op-eds, and statements you figure were made over how Israel should cooperate with the UN no matter what? Shyeah. What time is it? That’s right, Israeli Double Standard Time—but no worries. It only occurs on days that end with a “y.”

Yes, Glenn Beck was over the top. I can’t believe I have to say this, but Media Matters isn’t wrong on this part of their most recent complaint against Glenn Beck. (Broken clock, etc.)

On his November 10 radio show, Beck described how Soros, who was born in Hungary to Orthodox Jewish parents, “used to go around with this anti-Semite and deliver papers to the Jews and confiscate their property and then ship them off. And George Soros was part of it. He would help confiscate the stuff. It was frightening. Here’s a Jewish boy helping send the Jews to the death camps.”

Soros did not help send Jews to the camps, and Beck is wrong to say so. The ADL is right to call him out on this, and he should be ashamed of himself. There are plenty of other rotten things to say about Soros, but he did NOT help round up the Jews and send them off to the death camps.

11/11/2010

On Veteran’s Day

Filed under: American Scene — Meryl Yourish @ 6:40 pm

I really don’t have any profound thoughts. All I can say to those of you who are or were in the armed forces: Thanks for doing what I didn’t have the courage to do.

One thing I will say: This ex-liberal hippie-type who came of age in the 70s never, EVER disrespected the military, even when I was completely against the Vietnam war. I’m proud of that, at least.

My nephew is enlisting in the Marines. I expect I’ll have more to say this time next year.

Peace: it’s not about what might have but about what couldn’t have been

Filed under: Israel — Tags: — Soccerdad @ 11:00 am

Last week, Former President Clinton wrote an op-ed making the fanciful claim that there would have been peace in the Middle East had Yitzchak Rabin not been murdered. I showed from the historical record that his claim was not accurate.

But there’s another assumption that’s faulty here. Implicity Clinton is blaming Israel. But by making Yitzchak Rabin the one indispensible person for peace to succeed he ignores that Rabin’s positions and those of current Prime Minister Netanyahu are actually pretty close. It’s a point that Yaacov Lozowick makes in two recent posts. In one he writes:

Mitchell Plitnick and many of his co-activists seem to accept the Palestinian narrative: the peace process was supposed to end with Israel on the 1967 border, Jerusalem divided, and some Israeli accommodation of the refugee problem. This, however, is counter factual. No Israeli government before 2000 ever accepted those positions (Yitzchak Rabin was openly against them); and while arguably some official Israeli negotiators may have come close since 2000, they were never authorized to do so by the Israeli electorate.

In the other he writes, more generally:

But perhaps it might be reasonable for self-proclaimed Israeli champions of peace to recognize that on Jerusalem, their anointed saint the martyred Rabin held the same position Netanyahu does.

But even if Yitzchak Rabin promoted the Peace Now vision of peace there was a major reason even such an accomodating would not have brought peace. Israel wasn’t negotiating with itself to make peace. It was negotiating with an unrepentant terrorist as Meryl reminds us:

The AP also did not cover things that Arafat said that utterly belied his cover of seeking peace:
Our basic aim is to liberate the land from the Mediterranean Seas to the Jordan River. We are not concerned with what took place in June 1967 or in eliminating the the consequences of the June war. The Palestinian revolution’s basic concern is the uprooting of the Zionist entity from our land and liberating it.
There is also the confession from Hamas that Arafat directed them to commit terror attacks during the height of peace negotiations with Israel.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Christian woman sentenced to death in Pakistan for defaming the Prophet Mohammed

Filed under: Politics, Religion, World — SnoopyTheGoon @ 8:00 am

The police were under pressure from this Muslim mob, including clerics, asking for Asia to be killed because she had spoken ill of the Prophet Mohammed.

Weigh carefully what this quote says and means. There is no mention of religious fanatics, fundamentalists, Islamists, Al Qaeda, Wahhabi etc.

It is regular folks, described as “Muslim mob, including clerics”, baying for blood. Regular folks, like you, me and, of course, the Rage Boy:

So, going a few days back to that uninspired and overused:

I made clear that America is not, and never will be, at war with Islam. Instead, all of us must work together to defeat al Qaeda and its affiliates, who have no claim to be leaders of any religion –– certainly not a great, world religion like Islam.

Does anyone want to reconsider? No? OK, I shall do some homework of my own then…

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

Thursday morning briefs

Filed under: Gaza, Holocaust, Iran, Israeli Double Standard Time, United Nations — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 7:00 am

The more you learn, the worse it gets: Really, first we learn (shock!) that German diplomats were complicit in murdering Jews. Now we learn that at least a third of the German war effort was supported by stolen Jewish wealth and property. One of the Germans who stole Jewish wealth? George Soros’ Christian guardian, paid by Soros’ father to swear that George was his godson. You can’t call Soros a collaborator, as some have. But the lesson he learned from that sure seems to be that it’s okay to take things from other people regardless of the cost.

UN keeps up the Gaza cover story: They’ve got to do something in order to guarantee their jobs. So of course, even though they swore for years that the Gazans were starving, desperately in need of medical aid, and about to keel over from various diseases unless the blockade was lifted, now that they got the blockade effectively lifted? It’s still not enough. The fact that a terror organization is still smuggling weapons into Gaza? Irrelevant. The fact that John Ging needs automatic weapons for his bodyguards to protect him from Hamas? Irrelevant. The only relevant fact is the Palestinians can’t have everything they want.

Good for the goose, etc.: Danny Ayalon is right. If the Palestinians are third- and fourth-generation refugees, then so are the Jews who fled from Arab lands after the founding of Israel. Then Israel can make a one-for-one swap of the original refugees, and everything is settled. Will that happen? Sure, when pigs sprout wings and fly.

Fifteen miles on the Irani Canal: Just when you think the nutcases can’t get any nuttier, they give you something else to laugh at. Iran, Venezuela, and Nicaragua say they’re going to build a rival to the Panama Canal. Because it’s going to be so easy to build, just like it was to build the Panama Canal. Good luck with that, guys! (Well, at least it got me to find one of the songs from my childhood. Suzanne Vega covered it.)

11/10/2010

But Sunnis would never ally themselves with Shi’ites …

Filed under: Iran, Israel — Tags: — Soccerdad @ 11:00 am

Tweeted by Martin Kramer – Ehud Ya’ari writes:

For the last few months, a forty-three-page Arabic-language booklet has been emailed to Hamas activists in the Gaza Strip and to select members of the group in the West Bank and elsewhere. Titled The Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Revolution in Iran, this new publication represents the most important attempt to date to connect the growing cooperation between Hamas and its Iranian mentors to religious affinities, rather than political expediency. The argument, in essence, is that the Muslim Brotherhood — with Hamas as its Palestinian branch — is a natural partner of Iran, with which it shares a common set of values and a joint vision of the revival of the caliphate, despite the divide that historically separates Sunnis from Shiites and often sets them against each other.

Hmm. So I shouldn’t be surprised to read that Hamas Invites Ahmadinejad to Visit Gaza(via Daily Alert Blog)

So then Iran sees Sunni Hamas as much as its ally as Shi’ite Hezbollah. Iran and its proxies know that their enemies are the Great Satan and the Little Satan; differing religious beliefs are subordinate. The West must not ignore this.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

The whitewashing a of terrorist mass murderer

Filed under: AP Media Bias, Terrorism — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 9:00 am

Arafat’s dead, but the tongue-baths and whitewashing live on. Wow, what a nifty-keen profile of the Yasser Arafat museum in the AP! Why, if you read this profile, you would hardly know that the biggest mass-murderer of Jews since Adolf Hitler was, well, a mass-murderer of Jews who was almost solely responsible for the wave of suicide attacks that now threaten the entire world. Yes, it was he who popularized them, though it was Hamas and PIJ that performed most of them. The AP’s take on Arafat?

In his four decades as Palestinian leader, Arafat was a complex and often divisive figure – branded by some as an arch-terrorist and celebrated by others as the father of the Palestinian national movement. His nomadic lifestyle, penchant for late-night meetings and flair for dramatic gestures fanned a fascination that has outlived him.

Yeah. “Some.” Arafat was the father of modern terrorism. He founded Fatah in 1959, while the West Bank and Gaza were under Jordanian and Egyptian control. He took over the PLO in 1964.

In Syria, however, he managed to recruit members by offering them higher incomes to enable his armed attacks against Israel. Fatah’s manpower was incremented further after Arafat decided to offer much higher salaries to members of the Palestine Liberation Army (PLA), the regular military force of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which was created by the Arab League in the summer of 1964. On December 31 of that same year, a squad from al-Assifa, the armed branch of Fatah at the time, attempted to infiltrate Israel, but they were intercepted and detained by Lebanese security forces. Several other raids with Fatah’s poorly trained and badly equipped fighters followed this incident. Some were successful, others failed in their missions. Arafat often led these incursions personally.[12]

He killed Jews long before Israel controlled “Palestinian” lands. And then there was Black September, where the PLO sought to take over Jordan, and thousands of Palestinians were killed by the Jordanian army. That’s all on him. It’s not mentioned at all in the article. Because of course, Arabs killing Arabs gets a pass. As did his years of terrorism, which the AP boiled down to this:

In the 1970s, Arafat’s name became a household word after Palestinians launched a series of hijackings and attacks to publicize their struggle. In 1974, he famously addressed the U.N. General Assembly in New York, entering the chamber wearing a holster and carrying an olive branch.

The AP also did not cover things that Arafat said that utterly belied his cover of seeking peace:

Our basic aim is to liberate the land from the Mediterranean Seas to the Jordan River. We are not concerned with what took place in June 1967 or in eliminating the the consequences of the June war. The Palestinian revolution’s basic concern is the uprooting of the Zionist entity from our land and liberating it.

There is also the confession from Hamas that Arafat directed them to commit terror attacks during the height of peace negotiations with Israel.

And last, but not least, they repeat the lie that Israel poisoned Arafat, adding “balance” by saying that the claimants have no proof.

Yasser Arafat is dead, but his PR department lives on.

Legality and morality of drone attacks

Filed under: Israel — SnoopyTheGoon @ 8:00 am

Warning: long post!

The use of armed drones in the conflict areas is not exactly new, as are arguments for and against the use of this weapon. Found to be quite effective in getting to the various terrorist chiefs and their lieutenants, drones and their use are questioned for the two chief legal reasons:

Legal Reason One. Is the extra-judicial execution of a person legal, even if there seems to be enough intelligence proving the person’s terrorist activities? If you listen to US State Department legal advisor Harold Koh, the drone strikes are legal because of the right to self-defense. If you consider other voices, including these of some left-wing politicos and lawyers, the picture is strikingly different:

US Congressman Dennis Kucinich asserted that the United States was violating international law by carrying out strikes against a country that never attacked the United States.

Whatever you think of Kucinich and his free use of very vague term “international law”, the argument sounds plausible: Pakistan as a country didn’t attack the United States. And we didn’t even mention the targeted person’s entitlement to the due process of the law… and a new challenge, that of targeting terrorists who happen to be American citizens:

The Obama administration will on Monday try to persuade a U.S. judge to throw out a lawsuit challenging its program to capture or kill U.S. citizens who have joined militant groups like al Qaeda, including Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

(more…)

11/09/2010

Playing into Hamas’s hands

Filed under: Israel, Israel Derangement Syndrome — Tags: — Soccerdad @ 11:00 am

Thomas Friedman who is an expert – “expert” in this case means being able to say things with no factual support and have no one question you – wrote The Reality Principle in 2003.

Have you noticed how often Israel kills a Hamas activist and the victim is described by Israelis as ”a senior Hamas official” or a ”key operative”? This has led me to wonder: How many senior Hamas officials could there be? We’re not talking about I.B.M. here. We’re talking about a ragtag terrorist group. By now Israel should have killed off the entire Hamas leadership twice. Unless what is happening is something else, something I call Palestinian math: Israel kills one Hamas operative and three others volunteer to take his place, in which case what Israel is doing is actually self-destructive.

Note his certainty. Killing terrorists actually is counterproductive. He did not acknowledge that fighting terrorism may be a long process. He merely assumed – with no evidence – that killing terrorists simply breeds more terrorists.

I wonder if he will adjust his thinking because of the recent news that West Bank Terrorist List Dwindles (via Daily Alert Blog via Ha’aretz)

For the first time since the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000, not a single security suspect is being sought by Israel in the northern West Bank.

In the southern West Bank, there are only a few names on the wanted list, a reflection of both the improved security situation in the West Bank and the increasing cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian Authority security forces.

The last fatal suicide bombing emanating from the northern West Bank occurred in April 2006, committed by Islamic Jihad in Jenin.

In the last year, several major terrorist attacks have been carried out in the West Bank, but Israel located the perpetrators, Fatah members from Nablus and Hamas members from the Hebron area, and killed them.

Among the few wanted figures still at large are Hamas members operating in Hebron.

Friedman, to be sure, was correct in observing that Israel needed help from the PA to accomplish this, but as Barry Rubin points out, that help came due to enlightened self-interest.

Six years ago there were hundreds of them.Israel-PA coordination helps a lot and is partly itself the product of Hamas’s seizure of the Gaza Strip, which scared the hummus out of PA leaders lest they themselves end up deep in the humus.

However, according to Barry Rubin, the current situation is the best that can be hoped for for now. The Palestinian Authority still won’t accept any political solution that is minimally acceptable to Israel. Rather than seeking a solution, the proper approach is to maintain the status quo, until such point that the Palestinians become serious about peace.

That’s in sharp contrast to Friedman’s approach which was that further Israeli concessions would bring peace.

But then Barry Rubin is an academic who actually has studied the situation; Thomas Friedman is basically a pop star who is handsomely paid to express unsupported opinions in an entertaining fashion.

According to Friedman, Israel’s successful anti-terror strategy was playing into Hamas’s hands. I’m guessing that Hamas – in Judea and Samaria – wishes that it hadn’t been quite that successful.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Tuesday post-op briefs

Filed under: Gaza, Israel, Media Bias — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 7:31 am

My pupils aren’t really dilating, but I can still see to read.

But—but—Hamas would never harm UN personnel: John Ging doesn’t feel safe in Gaza, so Israel has approved four submachine guns for use of his personal bodyguards. Say, how’s that Hamas moderation coming along, guys? Exit statement: Ging needs exactly zero bodyguards when visiting Israel. Hey, I have an idea! Let’s get rid of Hamas, then Ging can do his work without fear.

So that Goldstone civilian body count? Dead as the Hamas terrorists. Hamas has admitted to at least 700 more terrorist deaths than they did after the end of Operation Cast Lead, which puts even the Elder’s body count off—in favor of fewer dead civilians. You know what’s missing from this story? Any reaction from the organizations that slammed Israel for all those “civilian” casualties. Are we surprised about that? Please. Have we been reading or writing this blog for ages? Would Meryl love to see someone question Richard Goldstone about this on camera? You betcha!

So much for that Obama Arab outreach: The Saudi prince says there’s NFW that Saudi Arabia will make any kind of gesture to Israel unless Israel vacates to the pre-1967 borders. Period. End of story. You know, if anyone in the Obama administration had been reading this blog, they could have saved themselves a world of trouble trying to convince the Arabs to make any kind of gesture of peace toward Israel.

So howcome they’re still arresting terrorists? I will believe that the PA is truly cooperating with Israel when there are no more arrests of terrorists, anywhere. But Ha’aretz says the PA security forces are truly cooperating with the IDF, and that there hasn’t been a major terror suspect arrest in quite some time. (Psst… they’re all hanging out in Gaza.)

EU to Israel: Stop building in Jerusalem. Meryl to EU: Stop telling Jews what to do. You lost that right over the centuries of pogroms and annihilation. Shorter Meryl: STFU. Oh, wait. It’s just Jew-hater Catherine Ash[ole]ton. Well, STFU anyway, you Jew-hating witch.

Well, that’s that, then: John Kerry is telling the Lebanese to just accept the results of the Hariri assassination tribunal. I’m sure they’ll listen to him. Sending him to Syria kept Baby Assad from firming up ties with Iran. Oh. Wait.

Breakfast time for me and the kitties. This is what comes of going to bed at 10:30. Stupid daylight savings time. Up an hour early.

11/08/2010

The little anti-Israel lies

Filed under: Israel — Soccerdad @ 11:00 am

In a recent essay describing her alienation from NPR, Bookworm identified the first point of departure:

There was only one problem with this neatly enclosed little universe: Israel. You see, unlike stories about domestic politics, where my only understanding of the facts came from NPR itself, when it came to Israel, I actually knew one important thing: Israel wanted to live peacefully on the small plot of land given her by both the League of Nations and the UN, and won by her in subsequent wars; and the Palestinians wanted every Jew in the world dead. This meant that all the spin NPR put out about Israeli brutalities against innocent Palestinians, and the poor, suffering, peace-loving Palestinians, didn’t touch me. I knew NPR was spinning or, worse, lying.

The problem is that, once you realize that a narrator is comfortable abandoning the truth, you start to wonder, “Where does that end? I know NPR is lying when it tries to make a moral relativism argument re Israel or, worse, when it presents the Israeli military as an out-of-control killing machine, so I have to wonder if it’s lying about other things too.”

What’s remarkable is how many lies propagated by the media – not just NPR – and anti-Israel activists (but I repeat myself) persist.

For example during Cast Lead the Hamas policeman Israel killed were really civilians. Or that during Cast Lead Israel caused an unprecedented amount of collateral damage.

Or that Gaza is so impoverished the population couldn’t afford a second luxury shopping mall or 5 star hotel.

Or that the current moderate Palestinian leadership is committed to living peacefully with israel.

Or that Israel is somehow comparable to South Africa.

Generally, though, outgoing Israeli director of the foreign press office Danny Seaman said (via Barry Rubin):

“There were certain `truths’ that we were told: That if we adopt UN resolutions, there’ll be peace. If we recognize the Palestinian right to self-determination, there’ll be peace. If we remove settlements, there’ll be peace. And over the past 25 years, there’s been a progression in the Israeli position: Israel recognized the PLO as the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people; relinquished territory; removed settlements.Regarding Lebanon, Israel fulfilled all the UN resolutions.

“Yet the end result was not the peace that we were promised. In no way am I criticizing the efforts for peace. Peace is a strategic necessity for the State of Israel. But here, in this case, these `truths’ that we were promised never came about. On the contrary, it only increased violence, increased extremism. Yet there was a failure by a lot of the media to be intellectually honest, to say `maybe we need to reevaluate….’”

Put a different way, if, in 1993, someone had told you about the terror, diplomatic isolation and perfidy Israel would suffer AFTER engaging in the peace process; you probably would have said, “Why bother?” Israel persisted in pursuing peace with faithless partner’s sponsored by often disloyal friends. One would think that after 17 years, Israel would have earned some benefit of the doubt, if not goodwill. That it hasn’t reflects poorly on those who urge Israel to make peace for its own good.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Another wall of Goldstone report crumbles. What now?

Filed under: Israel — SnoopyTheGoon @ 10:25 am

During Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, Israel targeted the Hamas police infrastructure, killing approximately 250 officers on 27 December 2008. Their status as combatants was disputed and Israel’s actions were widely condemned. The UN investigation into Cast Lead headed by Richard Goldstone stated that:

…[the mission] believes that the assertion on the part of the Government of Israel that ‘an overwhelming majority of the police forces were also members of the Hamas military wing or activists of Hamas or other terrorist organizations’ appears to be an overstatement that has led to prejudicial presumptions against the nature of the police force that may not be justified…

This finally appears to be based on same bullshit as many other pieces of Hamas propaganda.

What now, Judge Goldstone?

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

11/07/2010

Taking more of a break

Filed under: Life — Meryl Yourish @ 4:47 pm

You know, getting Lasik surgery does, indeed, take a fair amount out of you, at least if you’re middle-aged.

I’m staying with friends in NJ, and today, for the second day in a row, I saw Bob’s dad. He said, “Oh, you look much better today. Yesterday you had two black eyes.”

Uh….

Well, today, for the first time since I was a child, I watched a movie without wearing glasses. (Megamind. It was fun.) I found myself unconsciously reaching to straighten them from time to time, and I think I should not watch another movie until my eyes settled down some more, but it was nice.

So no, posting will not be returning to normal anytime soon. Tomorrow is a travel day. I’ll be stopping at the office for a bit, then heading back home. I hope to be back to normal by Tuesday, but we shall see.

Got an extra hour of sleep last night, thanks to Daylight Savings Time. Which reminds me… gotta go change the time on these posts.

Gabriel Latner and Philip Weiss, his dim opponent

Filed under: Israel — SnoopyTheGoon @ 8:00 am

Sometimes I enjoy writing about assaJews, the valiant Jooish anti-Zionists, I have to say. No matter how many dumb things our own politicos say and do, assaJews will always leave them standing in the race for ultimate dumb act. I know that this is a lame kind of consolation, but it’s always good for the morale of the troops, so here comes Philip Weiss, tireless anti-Zionist dullard, to make your day.

If you aren’t aware of the (really unimportant) Cambridge debate that was lost by the incomparable Lauren Booth and her companions, you will have to browse this post to get up to speed. You will notice there a reference to a post by Mr Weiss:

Cambridge debate on Israel is undermined by wily neocon (is that redundant?)

Apparently, tireless Mr Weiss didn’t want to stop there and continued to sort the sinister neocon out. His next article on the subject is here:

More about trickster/debater/Canadian Gabriel Latner, 19

A bag of free laughs, I promise. Apparently, Gabriel decided (what for, I cannot grok) to start a dialog with Weiss and sent him some information about himself and, in addition, the transcript of his speech at the debate. I recommend that you read the speech, attached to the post linked above, but this is a separate task. Let’s go for the fun part now. Weiss quotes Gabriel:

“I am not a neocon. I have absolutely no patience for any ideology that promotes the use of military force in any situation where the preservation of human life does not demand it.”

Hmm… OK, this is something one can take at face value or disbelieve, it depends on one’s tendency. What does Philip Weiss say about this statement?

I don’t know what that means.

Yeah, that was complicated for Mr Weiss. Long words and stuff…  Somebody better draw him a picture, preferably with colored pencils?

But Mr Weiss doesn’t stop at this point, he delves deep into the “neocon’s” sinister link to Israel (Gabriel has been there twice, so thats’ where he must have caught the ziohitleroneocon bug) putting Gabriel to a serious questioning. Well, since the answers Gabriel provided don’t hardly draw a picture of a fully formed red-toothed Zio-bot, Weiss just doesn’t know what to do about the situation and simply stops there, without giving us the benefit of his analysis. Oops… the great hunt for a Zionist beast turned into a flop… too bad.

But before you go to read the speech mentioned above, I would like to show you the level of Mondoweiss’ captive audience. Since any “dissenters” are swiftly ejected from his blog, Mr Weiss remains alone with the kind of commentators that gravitate to him naturally. Well, yeah, the brain-challenged good-for-nothing dumbos that mostly echo his own level of knowledge and intelligence. I shall start with this:

Draconian bill and a Zionist “barrier” – about a perfectly legal fence on the border. When any other country does it, it’s most probably OK with this DIKERSON3870 fellow…

Apparently Weiss encourages wits on his comment board. Pity he gets only 50% ones…

Walid here is another expert in the area of “walls” and “barriers”. In other words, you see here a propagandist that has choked on his own propaganda. Since the “wall” he so assuredly and professionally discusses is in fact a fence (only 10% of it is actually an 8 m tall wall), he could hardly have noticed that puny security fence that separates Lebanon and Israel, in existence for too many years to remember.

And here comes another expert. Where does he draw his knowledge about high windows like IMF, I shudder to think… it ghettoizes my mind.

I don’t know how the issue of the Canuck debater was derailed to get to the subject of same sex marriage, but here we are. That one (his moniker is Piotr, apologies for not displaying the whole text) is something else. Read the above copy, it’s unforgettable. It will learn you, for sure…

The last but not the least. Iranian National Health Service, according to RoHa… take a deep breath. Is it like a voluntary organization or more in lines of Revolutionary Guards? And what kind of change operation did they put RoHa through? Something along the general lines of this? Or, rather, through a brain surgery?

Enough for today. I already feel an urge to place a comment on Mondoweiss… then it will all end in tears…

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

11/06/2010

A new worldview

Filed under: Life — Meryl Yourish @ 4:15 pm

Well, the Lasik went well, but boy, it takes some getting used to. My near vision is gone. Kaput. Finished. I was pretty darned nearsighted, so I could basically count the numbers of hairs on my arm if I wanted to (and ew, I just got that concept and, ew). It was actually pretty good for untangling jewelry chains and things like that. Fine work was easy. Yesterday, I couldn’t so much as see the channel numbers on the remote, and I was thinking this was the biggest mistake of my life, even though I could see the time on the DVD player from across the room, which I couldn’t the day before.

This morning, my friends gave me an old pair of reading glasses that’s less powerful than they can use anymore, and my whole world changed. I can use the computer again. I can see the keyboard. And I’m no longer worried that I’m partly blind.

Of course, I also want everything to be healed and done and ready to go. What? I need more than 29 hours to heal? You’re kidding.

This morning’s conversation with [very hot] post-op doctor:

“I’m going to remove the bandages from your eyes now.”
“WHAT? THERE ARE BANDAGES IN MY EYES?”

Yes, indeed. There were bandages in my eyes, and I didn’t even know it.

My old glasses are utterly useless now. I’ll be donating them all to the Lions’ Club. And I get to go and buy a new pair of way-cool sunglasses. They gave me a pair for now, but I know what I’m looking for. Actually, I want several pairs, and most especially, I want that pair that Linda Hamilton wore in T2. I’ve wanted that pair for years. Time to go look up what they were.

I’m here in NJ until Monday. Oh, I didn’t tell you. My doc is in NJ. He’s really good, and this way, I can rely on my family to do things like take me to the surgery early in the morning and make sure I get back home safely hours later. (They gave me Valium to calm me down for the surgery. It was necessary. I was nervous.)

The most awesome thing isn’t that I can see the time on the TV across the room. It’s the utter clarity of my vision as I look at the autumn leaves on the trees. It’s the ability to see almost everything around me. I may not be able to count the hairs on my arm, but I can count the leaves in the trees now, and that’s a trade I’m happy I made.

I can see. I can read half-inch type from eight feet away. Clearly. This is amazing. Like Scott said, it’s a man-made miracle.

11/05/2010

Sticks and stones, Palestinian edition

Filed under: Israel, Israeli Double Standard Time, palestinian politics — Tags: , , — Soccerdad @ 11:00 am

In January 1998 when Binyamin Netanyahu was serving his first term as President and Bill Clinton was President of the United States, Clinton was pressuring Netanyahu to cede territory to the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu refused until the Arafat and the Palestinian Authority started observing the agreements they signed. These points had been reaffirmed after the Hebron Accords in a Note for the Record. Among other provisions, the note demanded:

Preventing incitement and hostile propaganda, as specified in Article XXII of the Interim Agreement

Here’s the relevant text of THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN INTERIM AGREEMENT

28 Sep 1995

CHAPTER 4 – COOPERATION

ARTICLE XXII
Relations between Israel and the Council

1. Israel and the Council shall seek to foster mutual understanding and tolerance and shall accordingly abstain from incitement, including hostile propaganda, against each other and, without derogating from the principle of freedom of expression, shall take legal measures to prevent such incitement by any organizations, groups or individuals within their jurisdiction.

2. Israel and the Council will ensure that their respective educational systems contribute to the peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples and to peace in the entire region, and will refrain from the introduction of any motifs that could adversely affect the process of reconciliation.

Note the date. Yitzchak Rabin was still alive and yet Clinton who recently mourned the death of Yitzchak Rabin treated Netanyahu as if he were making some new uncalled for demands on the Palestinian Authority.

The incitement still has not stopped. Clinton is no longer President but Netanyahu is again Prime Minister. Once again, Netanyahu is demanding that the Palestinians observe past agreements, by publishing an incitement index. (via Israel Matzav)

The [incitement] meter comprises four central components: clear incitement to violence; an atmosphere that encourages violence and terror; incitement to hatred, demonization and failure to create an environment for positive progress.

The ratings are based on analysis of institutionalized Palestinian media and Palestinians schoolbooks and remarks of senior Palestinian Authority officials.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that, “Achieving an historic peace with the Palestinian people requires a change of approach by the [Palestinian] Authority and the recognition of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish People. Just as in Israel there is no denial of the other side, so we expect the Palestinians to act likewise and to educate for peace.”

Check this out and see why 15 years later, this is still an issue.

For all those who insist that Israel do more for peace, it’s worth asking why they don’t condemn the Palestinians for failing to make good on so many of their commitments over the past 17 years. Incitement is just one of those failures.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

11/04/2010

Lasik office things

Filed under: Life — Meryl Yourish @ 8:23 pm

Thing 1: The most annoying test for Lasik surgery? Putting these papery things in my eyes (yes, really) to test if my eye were dry (yes, really). “Well, they’re drying NOW,” I told the tech, what with her sticking paper in my eyes.

Thing 2: My friends in NJ have four tickets to the Pee-Wee Herman Broadway show, and I’d like them to sell the tickets so they can come to my birthday party that weekend. They’re amenable to that. The tickets are for the Saturday, Nov. 20 matinee. If you’re interested, leave a comment here and I’ll get you in touch with each other.

Thing 3: While I was sitting in the office with those paper things in my eyes, all I could think of was the old Cheech & Chong routine where they’re changing channels on late-night TV and come across an old, horrible movie where one guy is torturing a captive. “Oh, wow, man—they stuck it in his eye!”

Thing 4: The techs at my doctor’s office call stink bugs “Fred bugs.” I didn’t ask why, I was just astonished at the size of the giant stink bug that scared my personal tech out of her office and caused her to warn me not to go in there. WAY bigger than the stink bugs I’ve seen in Richmond.

Clinton: nostalgic for a past that never was

Filed under: Israel — Tags: — Soccerdad @ 11:00 am

In the weeks following the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin, Israel handed over control of six cities to the Palestinian Authority. The New York Times reported at the time.

For Mr. Abu-Ghdeib, a local wallpaper dealer who had enlisted in the police, the building carried added significance, for it was there that he had been imprisoned by the Israelis.

“I shook the door of the cell where I was held,” he said today. “It made my hair stand on end. I saw the place where they had beaten me. I had dreamt of freedom, and today I feel free.”

Mr. Abu-Ghdeib, who had been jailed in Nablus and elsewhere in the 1970’s for taking part in weapons training and a grenade attack on Israeli soldiers, joined the several hundred Palestinian police officers, whose arrival today from the self-rule enclave of Jericho was met by ecstatic throngs.

Tens of thousands of people spilled into streets covered with brightly colored banners and pennants in the largest outpouring of jubilation since Israel began withdrawing its troops last month from West Bank cities and villages under an agreement signed in September. Most of the pullout will be complete by January, ending Israeli rule over much of the West Bank.

And two weeks later:

Under a final cascade of stones, Israeli troops withdrew today from Ramallah, completing a pullout from six West Bank cities and their neighboring villages in preparation for Palestinian elections next month.

“Out!,” shouted youths as a column of Israeli jeeps moved away from a police station downtown, trailed by scores of cheering Palestinians. As stones pitched by the crowd arched toward the receding vehicles, Palestinian officers entered the station, raised a flag and greeted the throng from the roof, waving their rifles.

The scene was similar to others played out this month across the West Bank, and it set the stage for Palestinian elections planned for January 20.

Under an Israeli-Palestinian accord signed in September, Israeli forces have left six cities and more than 400 villages and towns in recent weeks, ending 28 years of control over much of the West Bank.

Then a few weeks later the terror started:

A six-month lull in terror attacks in Israel was shattered in the early morning today when militant Muslim suicide bombers detonated pipe bombs in Jerusalem and Ashkelon, killing 25 people and wounding 77, some critically. Among the dead were two Americans.

Messages received by news organizations said the attacks were an act of vengeance for the death of Yahya Ayyash, a Palestinian known as “the Engineer” for the bombing attacks he organized in recent years against Israel. Mr. Ayyash, who belonged to an armed wing of the militant Islamic movement Hamas called the Qassam Brigades, was killed by a booby-trapped mobile telephone on Jan. 5.

The terror lasted for about two weeks killing over 60 people.

No. 18 buses have been traveling across this tense city largely empty since two recent suicide bombers killed 45 people on the line. Today, as Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani expressed his solidarity with Israel by climbing aboard the 6:30 A.M. run trailed by staff members and a gaggle of television crews, the problem was finding space.

“Who in their right mind is going to get on this bus?” said Cristyne Lategano, the Mayor’s spokeswoman, surveying the mob of photographers, bodyguards and aides wrestling around the Mayor and his host, Mayor Ehud Olmert of Jerusalem. About 10 regular riders found seats in the commotion, only to flee when it became clear that the driver would not be making the regular stops.

Instead, the bus delivered Mr. Giuliani to the scenes of the bombings, where he laid wreaths bearing the banner of New York City. “We’re doing this in memory of the people who lost their lives,” he said.

Suicide bombers have killed 62 people in four attacks in Israel since Feb. 25, including the two bus attacks. The militant Islamic group Hamas, which is opposed to the peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians, has claimed responsibility for the explosions.

When Israel withdrew from those six cities, responsibility for security was given to the Palestinian Authority. Rather than fulfill its obligations to secure the areas it was now in charge of, Arafat (and the PA) ignored (if not encouraged) Hamas. I know that most people don’t connect the withdrawals with the subsequent terror, but I don’t think that there’s any other way to explain. Sure the killing of Ayyash provided a pretext, but the laxer (if not negligent and not complicit) security provided Hamas with an opportunity to operate.

I recall this bit of history because in an op-ed today, former President Bill Clinton asserts:

A decade and a half since his death, I continue to believe that, had he lived, within three years we would have had a comprehensive agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians. To be sure, the enemies of peace would have tried to undermine it, but with Rabin’s leadership, I am confident a new era of enduring partnership and economic prosperity would have emerged.

Nonsense. That assumes that Arafat was negotiating in good faith and was committed to peace. Subsequent terror demonstrated otherwise. Arafat’s claim that there was no Jewish temple in Jerusalem to Clinton in 2000 should have cemented that fact in Clinton’s mind. Instead Clinton waxes nostalgic for a past that never could have been. He does it here too:

There is a real chance to finish the work he started. The parties are talking. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has the necessary support from his people to reach an agreement. Many Israelis say they trust him to make a peace that will protect and enhance their security. Because of the terms accepted in late 2000 by Prime Minister Ehud Barak, supported in greater detail by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and approved by President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinians, everyone knows what a final agreement would look like.

If “everyone knows” then nobody told Arafat or Abbas, because Arafat in 2000 and Abbas in 2008 rejected deals that “everyone knows” would bring peace.

Look Clinton has to believe what he wrote. It’s easier to believe that he would have been successful had Prime Minister Rabin not been assassinated. But he was dealing with one party, which has demonstrated time and again, that it is not interested in peace. I’m sure it’s difficult to acknowledge that his work on peace was based on a false premise.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Delusions of the self kind

Filed under: Israel, Politics — Tags: , — Meryl Yourish @ 8:30 am

Soccer Dad is writing about Bill Clinton’s imaginary Israel/Palestinian negotiations, where Yasser Arafat was not an unrepentant terrorist who launched countless terror attacks in the hopes of defeating Israel, but a partner in peace.

But he missed the most deluded portion of the Times op-ed:

The remaining issues can be resolved, and the incentives to do so are there. Israel has its best partner ever in the Palestinian government on the West Bank led by President Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, with its proven ability to provide security and economic development. The peace alliance put together by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia offers Israel full political recognition and the prospect of security and economic cooperation with a host of Arab and other Muslim nations in exchange for an agreement. And many Arab states are engaged in their own economic and social modernization efforts, which prove they are ready to let go of past differences and eager to reap the possibilities of cooperation with Israel.

Let’s take it one bit at a time. Israel’s “best ever partner” says it will never, ever recognize Israel as a Jewish state. They refuse to sit down with Israel for direct negotiations, after stalling for ten months. Abbas has made it de rigeur to now get “permission” from the Arab League for any negotiation with Israel, thus adding an extra, more difficult layer to the peace process—especially because the Arab League has declared that Israel was always Arab land.

Compare the paragraph above to Clinton’s recent statements that Russian immigrants are the real reason there is no peace. (Yes, he apologized and backtracked, but he said it. He must have meant it.)

Israel’s “best partner ever” does not see fit to stop Palestinian TV from saying that Jews praying at the Western Wall are “sin and filth.” Israel’s “best partner ever” is constantly pictured with maps of “Palestine” that include all of Israel. Israel’s “best partner ever” says that “resistance” can never be counted out as a way to attain Palestinian goals. And he will never compromise.

Why is it we don’t have peace, exactly? It’s simple. The self-delusion of people like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama prevent them from seeing the truth: The Palestinians don’t want peace. They want the land of Israel for themselves.

11/03/2010

Not to bring you down a notch but…

Filed under: American Scene, Israel, Politics — Tags: , , , , — Rabbi Kaufman @ 1:40 pm

Friends, I know that many out there are thrilled that the Republicans control Congress. You were shouting for joy at times last night and have a big grin on your face and a spring in your step this morning. I understand that you’re happy. Myself, I’m a big fan of gridlock and of forcing the parties to work together to accomplish goals. I don’t like it when either party controls the Executive and Congress. Gridlock brings about moderate and centrist policies. So I’m happy that one party isn’t in that position anymore. Others among you are not happy that the Democrats will not be able to bring hope and change to America anymore. Stop the snickering, you with the grin. I know. I know. However, I’m not happy with something else that occurred last night and none of you should be either, no matter whether you consider yourself to be red or blue.

Gridlock will make it very difficult, if not impossible, for the President to advance his domestic agenda. You might like that. You might be saying, “And I’m happy!” However, what this means is that for the next two years, the President can almost solely affect foreign policy and foreign trade. Guess what he thinks are two of the primary problems facing the world? Israel-Palestinian peace and Nuclear Arms Control. Guess where much of President Obama’s attention is going to be focused over the next two years? On a tiny sliver of land in the Eastern Mediterranean.

You may say, “Yes, but the country has spoken. The country rejects the Obama Administration’s policies!” That may well be true, but look at the choices presented to President Obama at this point. The first option is that he could admit defeat and alter his policies to please the bulk of the American population, assuming that he believes that the bulk of the population disagrees with him on those issues. To alter his path could displease his own party, actually it almost certainly would. It might please those on the political right, but will any of them vote for him in 2012 if he changes his policies over the next two years? Probably not enough to matter. He may be able to win over some centrist independents by changing his policies, but he cannot count on that. To put it bluntly, changing his policies will likely not help him at all in 2012.

The President’s other options are to try to prove himself correct on foreign policy, potentially, if he is in fact correct, swaying voters to come back to his side, or he can attempt to accomplish the things that he wishes to see accomplished as long as he has the ability to do so regardless of what may or may not happen to please the bulk of the voters or even his party. In other words, he can admit, if he believes it, that his policies are unpopular and alter them while likely accomplishing little to help him in 2012 or he can forge more strongly ahead. This last option may or may not make things better for him in 2012, but might make him feel better.

I think he’s going to choose the latter option, especially if he feels that his policies are correct. He may even believe that he has nothing to lose that has not already been lost, including the 2012 Presidential election. If so, should his actions upset a few voters more than they please, it will not matter.

So not to bring you celebrants down a notch, but for those of you who are not big fans of the President’s foreign policy positions and who are cheering Republican victories in Senatorial, Congressional, and Gubernatorial elections, things might not be great for the next two years.

US election results, Palestinians vs Elders and more

Filed under: Israel Derangement Syndrome, palestinian politics — SnoopyTheGoon @ 8:00 am

The latest outcry by secretary-general of PLO’s Executive Committee, Yasser Abed Rabbo, shows how difficult it is for Palestinian propaganda to get a handle on a simple and unified Elders’ theory. Abed Rabbo said:

Israel intervened in the American mid-term elections in a bid to disrupt the Middle East peace process.

It’s hard for an outside observer to figure out why the cousins’ propaganda is so inconsistent. Holocaust is the more obvious example: first they deny that it happened, then they thank Hitler for a job well (but not completely, to their chagrin) done. First they deny the mere existence of Israel, then demand that it return to 1967 borders… Etc.

As for Israel “intervening” in some measly American mid-term elections: Abed Rabbo has to make up his mind. Either we, the Elders, control the Big Satan and then “intervention” is a totally wrong term or we don’t and then what “intervention” could have occurred?

I don’t know. The guy sounds confused. I am confused. Are you confused? Let’s decide that we are all confused, OK?

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

My personal NY Post headline for tomorrow

Filed under: Politics — Meryl Yourish @ 12:05 am

REPUBLICANS TO OBAMA:

WE WON

Going to bed now. And fairly content.

11/02/2010

The UNESCO outrage

Filed under: Israel, Israel Derangement Syndrome — Tags: — Soccerdad @ 11:00 am

UNESCO has declared that Ma’arat Hamachpelah and Kever Rachel (the cave of the Patriarchs and the tomb of Rachel) are Palestinian mosques.

The UNESCO board voted 44 to 1, with 12 abstentions, to declare Rachel’s Tomb, which it referred to as the “Bilal bin Rabah Mosque,” as “an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territories.” Israel says Muslims had also traditionally referred to Rachel’s Tomb in Arabic as “Qubat Rachel,” and the claim that it was a mosque was coined by Palestinians for political reasons only following Arab riots in 1996.

(via Daily Alert blog)

This outrage is compounded by the fact that during the Arafat orchestrated tunnel riots of September 1996, the Palestinians attacked the tomb of Rachel.

The Tomb, located on the outskirts of Bethlehem, is the burial site of the Biblical matriarch Rachel and is under Israeli control. During the September 1996 riots, Palestinian mobs assaulted the site and hurled rocks and firebombs at it, causing damage to the outer part of the structure. Palestinian policemen on the scene shot and wounded Israeli soldiers guarding the Tomb. Today, Rachel’s Tomb is again a major target for Palestinian attacks.

And during “Aqsa intifada” Israeli soldiers guarding the tomb were targeted.

Nov 10, 2000 – Sgt. Shahar Vekret, 20, of Lod was fatally shot by a Palestinian sniper near Rachel’s Tomb at the entrance to Bethlehem.

Apr 2, 2001 – Sgt. Danny Darai, 20, of Arad, was killed by a Palestinian sniper after completing guard duty at Rachel’s Tomb at the entrance to Bethlehem.

In Context provides background:

The “unilateral action” to which UNESCO is referring is Israel’s inclusion of these pivotal places in a list of Jewish heritage sites published last winter. And while the lack of broad coverage doesn’t make the UNESCO declaration any less repulsive, it may reflect on the seriousness attributed to it by rational people not immediately affected. Really, who cares what UNESCO says?

The trend exemplified by such perfidious proclamations, however, is cause for concern. For more on that, see my post on the earlier salvo in this particular battle, from back in February when the Heritage Sites were first announced.

Those who choose to blame Israel, solemnly declare that the acquisition of territory by force is inadmissible. In this case, it doesn’t seem to bother the idiots at the UN, that they are effectively doing just that. I guess it’s hardly surprising that an agency of the UN would abet Palestinian efforts to deny the historical ties between Jews and Israel. What’s next?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Election Day briefs

Filed under: American Scene, Lebanon, Politics, Terrorism — Tags: , — Meryl Yourish @ 8:00 am

Oh, the horrors! Best headline of the day: On Election Day, Democratic Party control in peril. It’s like the AP thinks that Dems are tied up on the railroad tracks by those evil Republicans

Oh, the disappointment: Eric Cantor only called me twice, and the second time, he didn’t even say hello. (Because I didn’t. Works for most robocalls. Say “hi” and see what happens.)

Oh, I feel so much safer now: American intelligence officials told the New York Times they think they’ve found the dry run for the Yemen package bombs, which apparently were not directed directly at Jews, after all—they wanted to blow the flights up in the air. Too bad these brilliant officials didn’t figure it out at the time, and lucky for us, the PETN bomber doesn’t seem to be as good as he thinks he is—yet.

Oh, that Obama outreach is going gangbusters! Hezbullah is planning to take over Lebanon if their members are charged in Hariri’s murder. Watch the world stand by and do nothing.

11/01/2010

Things

Filed under: Life — Meryl Yourish @ 12:00 pm

Thing 1: Remember that scene in Home Alone when McCauley Culkin went screaming down the hall after applying the aftershave? That’s how I felt this morning when I found my first-ever trojan report on my personal (not work) computer. It’s the first since I bought my IBM PC-XT back in 1984. I had one virus on a work computer in 2000, and it was sent to me by my then-boss, who infected anyone who clicked on the link he sent. Yay, Trend Micro! Yay me, come to think of it. I think I got it from an infected PDF. Make sure your Acrobat is updated; there are some nasty trojans out there.

Thing 2: Aaaaah, cinnamon brooms. They’re back in the stores, and Trader Joe’s has them for several dollars less than Kroger, so I picked one up and put it in my office. My two favorite scents are cinnamon and vanilla. I prefer natural scents to man-made, apparently. Vanilla candles. Cinnamon brooms. Life is good.

Thing 3: Speaking of scents, I heart sulfur matches. When Gracie drops a stinkbomb in the litterbox (and boy, does she drop odor bombs; worst of all the cats I’ve ever had), I light a few matches afterward and things are much better.

Thing 4: I am going to be out of action most of Thursday and Friday. I am getting Lasik surgery done, all things permitting. Posting will be light, and when I post again after the surgery, I will be posting with an entirely new view on life. (Yes, I did have to say it. I’ll stop now.)

Stones of gold; feet of clay

Filed under: Israel, Israel Derangement Syndrome — Tags: — Soccerdad @ 11:00 am

Recently, reports appearing the media contradicted assertions made by the Goldstone report. These go to the beliefs promoted by Judge Goldstone and his confederates that Israel’s restrictions imposed on Gaza constitute collective punishment, that Israel did not take adequate care to avoid civilians casuatties and members of the Hamas police force should not automatically be considered terrorists.

From the executive summary of the Goldstone report:

The Mission is concerned by declarations made by various Israeli officials who have indicated the intention of maintaining the blockade of the Gaza Strip until the release of Gilad Shalit. The Mission is of the opinion that this would constitute collective punishment of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.

From Mitchel Prothero’s Under the gun in Gaza:

I ask him if that means the human rights situation was better under Israeli occupation that it is today for residents of both the West Bank and Gaza. “Why do you think I ask you not use my name? Yes, 100 percent yes,” he said. “At least the occupation had a positive effect of drawing the Palestinian people together instead of dividing them. I now fear that we’re seeing a systematic effort by Hamas and its religious backers to enter every component of society.”

From Peter Hitchens’ Lattes, beach barbecues (and dodging missiles) in the world’s biggest prison camp

Can anyone think of a siege in human history, from Syracuse to Leningrad, where the shops of the besieged city have been full of Snickers bars and Chinese motorbikes, and where European Union and other foreign aid projects pour streams of cash (often yours) into the pockets of thousands? Once again, the word conceals more than it reveals.
In Gaza’s trapped, unequal society, a wealthy and influential few live in magnificent villas with sea views and their own generators to escape the endless power cuts.
Gaza also possesses a reasonably well-off middle class, who spend their cash in a shopping mall – sited in Treasure Street in Gaza City, round the corner from another street that is almost entirely given over to shops displaying washing machines and refrigerators.
Siege? Not exactly. What about Gaza’s ‘refugee camps’. The expression is misleading. Most of those who live in them are not refugees, but the children and grandchildren of those who fled Israel in the war of 1948.
All the other refugees from that era – in India and Pakistan, the Germans driven from Poland and the Czech lands, not to mention the Jews expelled from the Arab world – were long ago resettled.

These and similar data lead Michael Horesh to conclude (h/t Barry Rubin):

Is Gaza rich? No. It still needs the tons of daily aid, which Israel facilitates. On the other hand, a utube video from an unknown source shows beyond doubt just what multiple resources are available in wide parts of the territory.

Again from the executive summary of the Goldstone report:

589. Even if the Israeli armed forces were under fire from anti-tank missiles from Palestinian armed groups at the time, all of the information referred to above indicates that the commanders in question did not take all feasible precautions in the choice of methods and means of warfare with a view to avoiding or, in any event, to minimizing incidental civilian casualties or civilian property damage.

The recent Wikileaks revelations about Iraq though give a much different perspective. Joshua Mitnick wrote in the Christian Science Monitor:

Gerald Steinberg, an Israeli-American professor of political science at Bar Ilan University, shares the view that the volume of international criticism of Israel is out of proportion, though he departs from Ben Ari when it comes to the case of the US.

“In the US, we already have a greater understanding. They know that they are vulnerable and they will be the next in line”‘ to be accused of wartime misconduct, says Mr. Steinberg, who also runs NGO Monitor, which has criticized non-profits that criticize Israel. “If this was a fair world and there were universal human rights, then Goldstone would open up an investigation, and the United Nations would meet to investigate the allegations… There would be more Wikileaks about violations in China and Saudi Arabia.”

Or to generalize and put it into numbers, as Evelyn Gordon did:

This elicits an obvious question: if civilians routinely account for 90 percent of all casualties in modern warfare, why is the world up in arms about the civilian casualty rate in last year’s Israel-Hamas war in Gaza — which, by even the most anti-Israel account, was markedly lower?

Then there’s the matter of the members of the Hamas police force. The Goldstone report found Israel’s striking of the graduation ceremony to be excessive:

To examine whether the attacks against the police were compatible with the principle of distinction between civilian and military objects and persons, the Mission analysed the institutional development of the Gaza police since Hamas took complete control of Gaza in July 2007 and merged the Gaza police with the “Executive Force” it had created after its election victory. The Mission finds that, while a great number of the Gaza policemen were recruited among Hamas supporters or members of Palestinian armed groups, the Gaza police were a civilian law-enforcement agency. The Mission also concludes that the policemen killed on 27 December 2008 cannot be said to have been taking a direct part in hostilities and thus did not lose their civilian immunity from direct attack as civilians on this basis. The Mission accepts that there may be individual members of the Gaza police that were at the same time members of Palestinian armed groups and thus combatants. It concludes, however, that the attacks against the police facilities on the first day of the armed operations failed to strike an acceptable balance between the direct military advantage anticipated (i.e. the killing of those policemen who may have been members of Palestinian armed groups) and the loss of civilian life (i.e. the other policemen killed and members of the public who would inevitably have been present or in the vicinity), and therefore violated international humanitarian law.

However it was recently reported that:

An admission by a militant named Abu Khaled, whose interview appeared in the Christian Science Monitor in its Nov. 1, 2010 edition, that “two thirds of Hamas policemen are police by day and Al Qassam by night” lends support to those who all along contended that the overwhelming majority of the police were Hamas militants. Al Qassam is the Hamas military formation which is also responsible for carrying out terrorist acts. Israel claims that at least 709 of 1166 Palestinian fatalities were combatants, approximately 61 percent. This figure includes the policemen as combatants. PCHR claims that only 236 of 1,417 fatalities were combatants, calculating 83 percent as civilians. Palestinian Policemen are described by PCHR as “non-combatants.”

More directly, those newly graduated police cadets are now acknowledged to have been terrorists.

And thought Goldstone actually makes a mention of the arbitrary killings of others by Hamas, Hamas’s procedures for executing rivals should make it clear that Goldstone’s expectation that Hamas could properly investigate itself, is bogus.

Richard Goldstone was set up as some sort of demigod. These latest details suggest that he was a hack whose main purpose was to convict and condemn Israel. It would be fair to say that Judge Goldstone’s feet are of clay.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Monday briefs

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, News Briefs, United Nations — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 10:00 am

UN to Israel: What Jewish history? UNESCO has declared the tombs of the Patriarchs and of Rachel to be “Palestinian.” Because the Palestinians named them mosques. City of Hebron the oldest Jewish city in existence? Doesn’t matter. It’s Palestinian, because it fell outside the lines of the Jewish state at the end of the War of Independence, just like the eastern half of Jerusalem, which houses the Jewish Quarter and the remains of the First and Second Temples. The Arabizing of Jewish heritage sites continues apace. The fact that thousands of Arabs and Jews had a day of successful interaction in Hebron last week? Hey, stop messing up the narrative! Evil settlers are stealing Palestinian heritage sites!

Hamas to world: Uh, a couple hundred of our guys died in Operation Cast Lead. Hamas is finally admitting that their death toll of “less than 50″ was a lie. They’re also finally admitting that Gaza “police officers” are card-carrying members of Hamas, thus lowering by hundreds the “civilian” toll of Cast Lead, and making the Goldstone Report even more filled with lies.

UNRWA helping Hamas with that human shield thing: UNRWA is going to build a UN school right next to a Hamas military base. Israel is asking them not to. I wouldn’t even waste a penny betting on the outcome of this one. The question isn’t if there will be civilian casualties; it’s when.

Jeffrey Goldberg gets the emails from my ex-commenters: You know, having moderate comments and a small following means I don’t have to get the asinine comments from Jew-haters like the ones Goldberg is getting for daring to suggest that al Qaeda’s targeting of synagogues means they want to kill Jews. I know a lot of Jew-haters read my blog, but not nearly as many as read Goldberg’s. Sometimes, it pays to be less popular.

Powered by WordPress