Sunday, July 23, 2006
Elder of ZiyonThe great Yogi Berra once said, "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."
I am not a columnist - just an ordinary American citizen living in Israel - but I have gained some insight into both cultures, some might say mentalities. Here is what many Israelis are feeling nowadays.
The first point concerns some unwritten American values I grew up with:
* Problems are solvable.
* Good will is returned in kind.
* In general, favor the underdog over the top dog (unless you're the top dog).
* If two sides are fighting, they must both have some justification.
* Be reasonable; split the difference.
But what if you are living in a neighborhood where they are not quite as reasonable as you? Where your attempts to reason and split the difference backfire? Or worse, where concession is laughed at as weakness.
The second point concerns Israel in particular. We are 6.6 million people, toughened but pragmatic. At 8,020 square miles, we have an area 25% smaller than Maryland. The difference is that, unlike America's vast power, with oceans and peaceful neighbors on all sides, the Jewish state is surrounded on several sides with people who actually want to kill us. Not subdue us - destroy our country.
It would be convenient to think that this must be because of something we did. But Hamas and Hezbollah say it out loud and crystal clear. The "occupation" is the whole works. Their final solution is the total destruction of Israel. Iran, a member state of the UN, holds conferences called "A World Without Israel."
This is the backdrop against which most civilized countries would have us turn the other cheek. As social writer Eric Hoffer once said, "We really do expect the Jews to be the only good Christians in the world."
To put things in perspective, imagine, if you can, that Arlington lobbed 1,000 shells at Georgetown. Or sent suicide bombers. How exactly would you react? Imagine that Mexico was calling for the destruction of the United States, backing it up with cross-border raids and missiles.
The third point is that Israel already withdrew from every last inch of southern Lebanon and Gaza, as the international community demanded. But the provocations and terror - violence aimed intentionally against civilian targets - continued. This is why we entered this conflict. Enough is enough.
This is a horrible situation to be in, fighting Hezbollah behind its human shields. But before bombing southern Lebanon and the Hezbollah neighborhoods of Beirut, Israel dropped leaflets encouraging evacuation. Confronted with terrible choices, we are trying to fight while minimizing civilian casualties.
It was wishful thinking to hope that joining the government would make Hamas and Hezbollah more responsible. Sometimes putting the bully in charge of the playground works, and sometimes it doesn't.
The operative emotion in Israel right now is sadness, sadness for what is being done to us, sadness for what we must do to defend ourselves. The missiles shot at Haifa landed a few miles from the research labs of Intel, IBM, Microsoft and Google. Israelis would much rather continue working on desalination, stroke treatment, and alternative fuels (see www.israel21c.org). We would rather that our adversaries developed their own economies pragmatically.
We hate this conflict, but we will not commit suicide. As Golda Meir said, "We will have peace when our enemies love their children more than they hate ours."
My father was a survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, was the most optimistic person I ever knew, but he once taught me, "Above all else, when someone threatens to kill you or your loved ones - just believe him!"
The lesson for America is simple. Do not hide from international responsibility. Do not assume the oceans offer protection. Iran is behind Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria, and, of course, the insurgents in Iraq. If Iran gets nuclear bombs, do you want to bet they won't sponsor a radical Islamic group to eradicate American cities?
You want to know what Israelis are thinking? Theory and practice are intertwined. We are on the front line, but we will show patience and strength. That's why 89% of Israelis, Left, Right and Center, support the army right now. A mere 61 years and 10 weeks after V-E day, we know that evil and blind hatred exist. And that they can be beaten.
-- Bob Rosenschein is CEO of Answers.com (NASD:ANSW); he can be reached at rrosenschein at gmail.com; this piece reflects his own views
Sunday, July 23, 2006Elder of Ziyon
Saturday, July 22, 2006Elder of ZiyonThe Meron A-Ras area of southern Lebanon has been taken by IDF ground troops. The Hizbullah bunkers in, around and below the village have all been raided and the IDF has now stationed troops in the village. Security forces in the area report scores of Katyusha shells, missile storage areas and missile-launchers, which were concealed in the village's mosque.From YNet:
“We searched through the village carefully, we went house to house, and we found three sites where Hizbullah operatives had been hiding out. We could tell by the flak jackets, helmets, and even the cups of coffee still sitting on the table – but the Hizbullah men apparently fled when we entered. We also found a lot of ammunitions, including weapons, Lau rocket launchers in the yard of a mosque, binoculars, and various rockets,” said battalion commander Lt. Col. Wajadee.Just waiting for the massive worldwide Muslim protests in Pakistan and Indonesia that people actually use mosques for storing deadly weapons.
Wajadee said the terrorists used sites in the village to survey and collect information on Israeli communities across the border. An 80-year-old Lebanese man, who remained nearly alone in the town, told soldiers that residents did not cooperate with Hizbullah, but Hizbullah forced themselves on the village and used the residents in operations against Israel.
Friday, July 21, 2006Elder of ZiyonSpecial note to readers who claim to be anti-Zionist but not anti-Jewish: you should have no problem contributing to Zaka, Yad Sarah and MDA. Let's see you put your money where your mouth is!
BurgerIDF.org and PizzaIDF.org delivers great food and morale to the brave soldiers defending their land.
Zaka is the world famous organization that offers first response service to terror attacks.
American Friends of Magen David Adom.
Yad Sarah is bringing medical equipment to the northern communities that are under attack.
Friends of the IDF provides equipment and morale-boosting for the soldiers.
Friday, July 21, 2006Elder of Ziyon
Friday, July 21, 2006Elder of Ziyon* Confirm the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon;
* Restore international peace and security;
* Assist the Government of Lebanon in ensuring the return of its effective authority in the area.
The U.N.'s years-long record on the Israel-Lebanon border makes mockery of the term "peacekeeping." On page 155 of my book, "Inside the Asylum," is a picture of a U.N. outpost on that border. The U.N. flag and the Hezbollah flag fly side by side. Observers told me the U.N. and Hezbollah personnel share water and telephones, and that the U.N. presence serves as a shield against Israeli strikes against the terrorists.
This picture is all you need to know about the utterly sickening moral posture at the UN.
Friday, July 21, 2006Elder of Ziyon
Thursday, July 20, 2006Elder of Ziyon
BurgerIDF.org and PizzaIDF.org delivers great food and morale to the brave soldiers defending their land.
Zaka is the world famous organization that offers first response service to terror attacks.
American Friends of Magen David Adom.
Yad Sarah is bringing medical equipment to the northern communities that are under attack.
Friends of the IDF provides equipment and morale-boosting for the soldiers.
Thursday, July 20, 2006Elder of ZiyonResults of Palestinian Public Opinion Poll 3-5 November 2004So 56.3% of Palestinian Arabs supported attacking Israel from Gaza at the time even after an Israeli withdrawal.
An-Najah National University
Center for Opinion Polls and Survey Studies
If Israel withdraws from the Strip do you support or reject launching attacks against Israel from inside the Strip?
- I strongly support 22.5 [Gaza Strip 30.2]
- I support 33.8 [Gaza Strip 20.8]
- I reject 26.5 [Gaza Strip 24.6]
- I strongly reject 10.4 [Gaza Strip 17.6]
- No opinion; I do not know 6.8 [Gaza Strip 6.8]
Thursday, July 20, 2006Elder of ZiyonListened to an interesting audio blog post from Stuart Hughes, a journalist for the Beeb who is in Beirut now, covering the war. He woke up to find a larger-than-normal SUV in his hotel parking lot:My question is, why a hotel full of journalists don't feel this is newsworthy and only one of them mentions it in passing on his personal blog?A new arrival in the parking lot next, to my hotel, in the form of a Lebanese Army rocket launcher, I came out to work this morning to find a camouflaged rocket launcher sitting in the car park, pointing at the sky, and I thought “Well, that wasn’t there yesterday”. I think that tells you everything you need to know about the situation here.
Whether or not the launcher is Lebanese army or Hezbollah (no pictures to tell the difference, and it might be a loaner to Hezbollah or perhaps simply stolen) — the fact that it’s parked next to a hotel housing journalists speaks volumes about the kinds of tactics used to ensure civilian casualties.
What, precisely, is Israel supposed to do? Sit back and let the rockets be launched? Attack the missile battery, and risk hitting a hotel full of journalists? I’m sure this launcher is positioned next to journalists for all of the cynical reasons I can imagine.
Also consider: unless Israel uses a large enough explosive charge to ignite the warhead in place and destroy the missiles without igniting their propulsion element, the damage will be even greater as the missile fuel ignites and the rockets launch. Short of sending somebody down there to manually disarm the missiles, it’s actually worse to underuse munitions in destroying these missiles.
Thursday, July 20, 2006Elder of ZiyonTEHRAN –– Iran on Wednesday launched a major campaign urging consumers to stop buying "Zionist" products, ranging from Coca-Cola and Pepsi soft drinks, to Calvin Klein clothing and Nestle food products.As a public service, I would like to add a few companies to Iran's list that do business in Israel:
"Pepsi stands for 'Pay Each Penny to Save Israel", viewers in the Islamic republic have been warned in an oft-repeated three-minute infomercial on state television, prompted by Israel's ongoing assault against the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.
"Zionists are the biggest shareholders in the soft drinks industry, and each year they make billions of dollars for their colonialist aims," consumers with a thirst for fizz have been told. Coca-Cola is also not left unscathed by the new twist to the cola wars.
"This firm openly supports Israel and has even said that it is ready to allocate great deal of money to topple the Islamic republic," state television said.
Both Pepsi and Coca-Cola have factories in Iran, although state television gave no indication over whether their operations would be affected. (This may explain the cola boycott a bit more fully - EoZ)
A popular British high-street retailer, as well as a number of multinational firms, were also singled out for their links to the alleged international Jewish conspiracy to control the world. "Marks and Spencer has very close relations with the Israeli regime and one its primary aims is to help the development of the Israeli economy," the infomercial claimed.
"Nestle is a Swiss food processing firm which in 2000 announced that it will invest millions of dollars in Israel to build a factory there," it added, while neglecting to mention that Nestle also has a factory in Iran.
The world's largest chip maker Intel was also branded as "one of Israel's biggest supporters".
"Its first overseas branch was set up in Haifa in 1974. In 2000 it employed more that 4,000 Israelis. Its top managers have said that they are going to invest 6.5 billion dollars in Israel," would-be Intel customers have been told.
"McDonalds, Timberland, Revlon, Garnier, Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and L'Oreal are only some of the firms which belong to the Zionist regime," state television said, before taking a swipe at what it said were less vigilant Arab nations.
"Unfortunately most of the streets of Arab nations are filled with commercials which advertise Israeli products. For each purchase, the money is converted into bullets piercing the chests of the Lebanese and Palestinian kids," it fumed. –– AFP
Wednesday, July 19, 2006Elder of Ziyon
Wednesday, July 19, 2006Elder of Ziyon
Wednesday, July 19, 2006Elder of ZiyonBy Ahmed Al-JarallahWhile this is hardly pro-Israel, it shows some clear thinking that is sorely lacking in the Arab world. More importantly, it shows that the Arab world does not have to be held hostage to their terrorists - it is all too rare to see any real criticism in the Arab world towards the extremist elements.
Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times
PEOPLE of Arab countries, especially the Lebanese and Palestinians, have been held hostage for a long time in the name of “resisting Israel.” Arab governments have been caught between political obligations and public opinion leading to more corruption in politics and economics. Forgetting the interests of their own countries the Hamas Movement and Hezbollah have gone to the extent of representing the interests of Iran and Syrian in their countries. These organizations have become the representatives of Syria and Iran without worrying about the consequences of their action.
Recently Hamas kidnapped an Israeli soldier and bombed Israeli settlements with locally manufactured missiles. Soon Hezbollah followed suit, kidnapping two Israeli soldiers. Both these organizations claimed they had kidnapped Israeli soldiers to exchange them for Arab prisoners who are being held in Israeli jails. The fact that Hamas and Hezbollah gave the same reason for kidnapping Israeli soldiers gives us a glimpse their agenda, which is similar to the one followed by Syria and Iran in their conflict with the United States.
While the people of Palestine and Lebanon are paying the price of this bloody conflict, the main players, who caused this conflict, are living in peace and asking for more oil from Arab countries to support the facade of resisting Israel. With the Palestinian Authority close to collapse and the Lebanese government beginning to give up responsibility for what is happening in its territory, Saudi Arabia has been forced to come out of its diplomatic routine and indirectly hold Hezbollah responsible for what is happening Lebanon.
Without mentioning Hezbollah by name Saudi Arabia blamed certain “elements” inside Lebanon for the violence with Israel and said “it is necessary to make a distinction between legitimate resistance and uncalculated adventures adopted by certain elements within Lebanon without the knowledge of legal Lebanese authorities.” While reiterating its support for Palestinian and Lebanese resistance against Israeli occupation, Saudi Arabia has clearly said it is against irresponsible adventures undertaken by certain elements in the region without consulting the legal authorities putting all Arab nations at risk. The Kingdom has also said “these elements must take responsibility for their irresponsible actions and they alone should end the crisis created by them.”
This angry response from Saudi Arabia has politically isolated Hezbollah and Hamas besides holding them responsible for their actions.
This attitude of Saudi Arabia, which has been doing all it can to protect the Arab world from Israeli aggression, is enough to unmask the adventurers, who have violated the rights of their own countries and tried put their people under the guardianship of foreign countries like Iran and Syria. A battle between supporters and opponents of these adventurers has begun, starting from Palestine to Tehran passing through Syria and Lebanon. This war was inevitable as the Lebanese government couldn’t bring Hezbollah within its authority and make it work for the interests of Lebanon. Similarly leader of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas has been unable to rein in the Hamas Movement.
Unfortunately we must admit that in such a war the only way to get rid of “these irregular phenomena” is what Israel is doing. The operations of Israel in Gaza and Lebanon are in the interest of people of Arab countries and the international community.
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PROTOCOLS: EXPOSING MODERN ANTISEMITISM
