Outside the Blogway

So which is it?

2010-01-07T15:54:00.000-08:00

I'm confused. Today we had the president of the United States finally admit that we're at war -- "We are at war, we are at war against al-Qaida," he said. Uh huh. Then about two articles down from that on my yahoo news comes this: "A Jordanian doctor-turned-suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees at a base in Afghanistan is regarded by his family as a martyr in Islam's holy war against the United States, his wife said Thursday."

So the people who hate us think what's going on is Islam's holy war against the United States while our president seems to think we're only at war with al-Qaida.

Oh, I feel in good hands.

Confused by Ft. Hood Incident? Don't be...

2009-11-20T11:55:00.001-08:00

Read a great article explaining why Maj. Hasan was definitely engaged in jihad and not just some random nut-job at the media/govt, etc. want us to believe. For most of the people reading this blog, you probably already know -- but feel free to direct those uninitiated to the article. The best was this summary at the end:

The ultimate lesson? So long as Muslim doctrines are downplayed in the West, so long will warning signs, even concrete intelligence, be ignored, so long will such seemingly inexplicable incidents occur, so long will the media continue grasping for straws and Americans be "completely blindsided," so long will "Muslim grievance" be the default answer, so long will appeasement and concessions (domestically and internationally) be the only solution, so long will jihadis and Islamists grow emboldened and contemptuous, expecting more. Ad infinitum.

Conversely, if the Fort Hood massacre causes Americans to begin taking Islam's doctrines more seriously, the thirteen slain, while dying tragically, will not have died in vain.

That lethal idiot, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan

2009-11-09T07:55:00.000-08:00

I know it's been forever since I've done a blog entry, but this lunatic has driven me to it. So he was soooo upset that as a Muslim, he was facing harassment? Really? Hey, brain surgeon, what do you think your homicidal actions have now accomplished? You have made every bigot who ever said anything to you feel justified for having done so and to make matters worse, you've now made life harder for your fellow Muslims in the service. Well done! I hope they all visit you and tell you exactly what your actions have done to help them fit in.

My Heart is Heavy

2008-07-16T15:10:00.000-07:00

I just read the news. Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, the Israeli soldiers kidnapped after a raid by Hezbolla, have finally returned to Israel -- in caskets. In return, the Hezbolla get like 200 dead bodies and several live prisoners, including a bloody murderer who killed a man in front of his little girl's eyes, and then crushed her skull -- HE gets to return to Lebanon a hero. Words fail me. My heart is broken ... and turned black at the same time, harded by an anger I can't even put words to.

Sorry for Being MIA

2007-02-01T08:23:00.000-08:00

I'm finally coming out an incredibly stressful quarter. During my time "away," I found out my boyfriend was being transferred to Las Vegas, we decided to buy a house, had to go find the house, had to find the financing, sign the papers, do the hidious move, start to unpack, find a job, start the job, etc., and now I'm just coming out the other side. So that's where I've been. Whew!

I'm still not completely settled so I can't promise what my blogging schedule will be, but I will try to visit all of you sometime soon. I have definitely missed you and want to wish a happy belated holiday season and New Year...and soon Valentine's Day.

Dancing With The Stars

2006-11-15T21:08:00.000-08:00

Mario Lopez was robbed.

FBI Witch Hunt Against Jews?

2006-10-25T08:52:00.000-07:00

Apparently, the FBI believes Jews are a huge threat. Why else do they keep investigating Jews and their ties to AIPAC? Their latest target is Congresswoman Jane Harmon. And I’m disgusted. This story doesn’t even make sense! How in the world would AIPAC’s support get her a chairwomanship? Smells like a witch hunt to me, and I find that very scary (I must be freaked out to actually do two posts in one day):

Probe of Harman's AIPAC Ties Confirmed
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 25, 2006; Page A06

Federal law enforcement sources confirmed yesterday that the FBI opened an investigation in 2005 into whether Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) improperly enlisted the aid of a pro-Israel lobbying group, but they cautioned that no evidence of wrongdoing was found.

The inquiry focused on whether Harman had made promises to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in exchange for its support of her desire to become chairman of the House intelligence committee if Democrats take control of the House, several law enforcement sources said.

Although the case is still considered open, officials said, the allegations have not been substantiated, and there has been no significant investigative activity on the issue in recent months. The inquiry was first reported by Time magazine.

Harman -- who has hired prominent GOP lawyer Theodore B. Olson, a former solicitor general -- told Time that the allegations were "irresponsible, laughable and scurrilous."

Sources said the Harman inquiry was an outgrowth of the ongoing criminal prosecution of two former AIPAC lobbyists who are charged with violating the Espionage Act in connection with receiving national defense information and transmitting it to journalists and employees of the Israeli Embassy who were not entitled to receive it. Lawrence Franklin, a former Pentagon analyst who pleaded guilty to passing government secrets to the two lobbyists, was sentenced this year to more than 12 years in prison.

Time reported that investigators were looking at whether Harman -- who is involved in an intraparty dispute over who might head the intelligence panel -- promised to try to persuade the Justice Department to "go lighter" on the former AIPAC officials.

AIPAC spokesman Patrick Dorton said yesterday that the group "would never engage in a quid pro quo in relation to a federal investigation or other federal matter."

Disturbing News From The Front, Part II

2006-10-25T08:33:00.000-07:00

Another note from my friend volunteering in Israel…

guys,

here is what i have for you this week....totally unbelievable....

1. we met and spoke with some medics who were on a infiltration during the war/action.....4 of their soldiers were injured including the commander but none were killed....here is the kicker....a reporter went with them and documented the whole event (we got to see it...amazing) ..and when they came across a house of hezbollah and the action started heating up....the commander yelled for his troops to take their helmets off....why???? because the hezbollah were dressed in israeli uniforms....he didn't want his men to shoot the wrong person....luckily they didn't.....

2. i found out why you are not hearing about any of this back there and none of it is hitting the news....the agreement was that israel pull out of lebanon....and that 15,000 UN troops...(only 5000 showed up and most are muslim)....and the lebanese army were to police and disarm hezbollah.....well....they aren't...israel has been doing flyovers and photographing hezbollah rearming....and this time with rockets that will hit tel aviv and jerusalem.....they have presented the evidence to the UN....and the UN told them that the information was obtained illegally via these flyovers and thus they would not act on them.....and by the way....the french have threatened to shoot down the israeli air craft......

to say i am angry just doesn't say it....not enough....some of the soldiers i spoke with feel that we are going to have to do this all over again in 6 months....maybe a year...some feel a little longer....on top of that...hamas has declared war on israel...again....and are ready to move against israel....

unbelievable....

Disturbing News From The Front

2006-10-20T08:31:00.000-07:00

This is an email I received yesterday from an old Sar-el buddy of mine, who is back in Israel volunteering, with some disturbing news from the front:

guys,

sorry for the mass e mail but so much has happened....it is now 1 week since i have been on base....a lovely place called bet hillel....we work at times just a few hundred yards from the border.....the work is hard but very rewarding.....there is so much i want to tell you and none of it good.....

first, some jobs....like building bunkers.....laying razor wire....clean machine guns....but yesterday i was rewarded with a great honor...10 of us were asked to help move something from one place to another but that was it....we showed up at a school for handicapped and challenged kids....the school was for all kids....jewish, christian, muzlim, druse....anyone who need this extra care....it was a school of peace....so w start moving things...tables....chairs....chest...blackboards....in the middle of the moving they asked us to come into the school....we had no idea why....to get more stuff....who knew.....until we were inside....the school was hit by a katusha rocket...destroying a class room....steel balls shoot into the hall way destroying it and then the infirmery next store was destroyed....the foundation on the second floor is craked and ready to fall out from under us.....what more could i say...what more could we do...we left and with a little more zeal and feeling better for what we were doing we finished our job with great pride....and as we headed to the new school to unload the classroom stuff a car came to a screeching halt....a women jumped out and hugged me....she was from houston....she had made aliyah 2 years ago and was a teacher at the school.....she said she had heard that some volunteers were moving the school and had to come down to see us and thank us.....incredible.....how she found out i had no idea....

then to top it off i was up to till 2 in the morning speak with the soldiers on the base....and was i educated....we had already heard that a patrol of soldiers had returned that afternoon patrol.....one of the volunteers is fluent in hebrew and translated what they were saying...they were on patrol on the israeli side and came in contact with hezbollah on the lebanese side of the border.....and they couldn't do a thing.....unless hezbollah shoots at them....they must leave them alone.....last nite i spoke with soldiers that were at an outpost where they watch hezbollah.....bringing in arms....rockets....ammunition....everything.....and they can do nothing about it.....they go to the UN outposts and trade food and items with the UN soldiers.....all the UN outposts are on the lebanese side....none on the israeli side.....information flows from israel to the UN and then from UN to hezbollah but not the other way....and by the way a lot of the UN forces here are muzlim....bottom line.....they feel that within 1 year they will have to be back and do it again....if not sooner......also the rockets are bigger and can hit tel aviv this time....

i don't know what to do....and am sorry for sharing this with you....but felt you needed to know....i am so outraged....the work i am doing just doesn't seem to be enough....

anyways...miss you all

Condi Wants To End 'Humiliation Of Occupation'

2006-10-13T07:34:00.000-07:00

If this is an accurate article, it makes me ill.

US Supplies Fatah With Arms, Rice Decries "Occupation"
By Ezra HaLevi & Hana Levi Julian

The Fatah faction received a new shipment of arms Thursday as part of a Western aid package to bolster forces loyal to Mahmoud Abbas. Secretarty Rice promises a PLO state.

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday America could have no greater legacy than to have divided the Land of Israel and established a Palestinian state to end the "humiliation of occupation." Rice made the statements at a dinner marking the third anniversary of the American Task Force on Palestine.

"The Palestinian people deserve a better life, a life that is rooted in liberty, democracy, uncompromised by violence and terrorism, unburdened by corruption and misrule and forever free of the daily humiliation of occupation," Rice said. "I promise you my personal commitment to that goal."

"I believe there could be no greater legacy for America than to help bring into being a Palestinian state for people who have suffered too long, have been humiliated too long," Rice added.

"I know that sometimes, a Palestinian state living side by side in peace with Israel must seem like a very distant dream but I know too... that there are so many things that once seemed impossible that after they happened they simply seemed inevitable," she said.

Rice praised Mahmoud Abbas, who is hanging onto his position as Palestinian Authority chairman, for his moderation. Arutz-7 reported Tuesday that Abbas dismissed demands that Fatah recognize Israel - just one day before he told Rice that such recognition is a must.

Made-in-U.S. Arms Arrive in PA
Thousands of M-16 assault rifles, made in the U.S., were delivered to Fatah forces in Judea and Samaria as part of the effort to strengthen Abbas in his opposition to Hamas leader and PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.

Fatah is the political party headed by the late terrorist chieftain Yasser Arafat. The Al-Aksa Brigades terror group operates under its authority.

According to PA security sources quoted by the Middle East Newsline (MENL), "The weapons are meant for PA forces but they end up with Fatah in the war against Hamas." The deal, meant to increase Abu Mazen's power in the struggle for control of the PA government, was approved by Israel.

The two factions have been fighting bitter clashes in Gaza, leading to speculation that a civil war may ultimately hit the streets. The Hamas terror organization is currently the majority faction in the PA after winning January 2006 elections in a landslide victory against Fatah.

The victory at the polls, however, led to a loss at the bank; international funding dried up as a result of the new regime. Hamas has continued to resist international pressure to force the terror organization to officially acknowledge Israel's right to exist, renounce violence and uphold peace agreements signed by the previous Fatah-led PA government.

The latest efforts by Qatari officials to build a unity government of Hamas and Fatah failed after Hamas once again insisted on maintaining its refusal to officially recognize the Jewish State. In the wake of that failure, Abbas again threatened to disband the current PA government and call for early elections.

Bill Clinton vs. Chris Wallace, Fox News

2006-09-24T20:31:00.000-07:00

So I saw the uncut version of this now infamous interview on Fox News Sunday. I'm proud of how Chris stood his ground. I couldn't tell whether Bill had just lost his mind, attacking Chris personally, or whether or not this was one of the more calculated moves of his career. Thoughts on this car accident?

Rosh Hashanah

2006-09-22T20:36:00.000-07:00

Wishing everyone a wonderful New Year filled with good health, hope, joy and perhaps most important of all... peace.

Shana Tova from the Blogway...

Pope Bruhaha

2006-09-18T07:58:00.000-07:00

So Muslims are upset with what the Pope... quoted?! I, for one, don't buy the Pope's denial that it was just a quote and not representative of his views. It's not like he just riffs a talk -- I'm sure he must give great thought to what he says in public or at least he should. Given that, what was wrong with what he said? Is it untrue? I imagine most of us would say it's true for a seemingly growing portion of the religion's followers. So then, what's the beef? Oh right. Only they can say that. If any of us infidels call a duck a duck, then the masses in Gaza, etc., have to freak out and make everyone pay. Doesn't that just prove the Pope's point?

Another Fallen Hero

2006-09-15T08:45:00.000-07:00

Oriana Fallaci, the brave writer who inspired all who knew of her, has lost her battle with cancer. Please visit Roman Wanderer's beautiful tribute to this amazing woman.

Timothy John "T.J." Hargrave: Husband, Father, Brother, Son... American Hero

2006-09-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

Timothy John Hargrave of Readington, N.J., was killed by Islamic fundamentalists while working at his job as vice president at Cantor Fitzgerald, in the North Tower, 105th Floor. He was 38 years old.

He is listed as victim #562, but as you will read, T.J. was so much more... an incredible man, who leaves this world greatly diminished by his absence.

This despicable act left his wife Patty without her beloved husband, his daughters Corey, 9; Casey, 7; Amy, 5 without their adoring father, his mom Kathryn, sisters Maureen, Pat, Kathy, Mary Ann, Jeanmarie, Carolyn and brother Jamie, as well as countless others in his extended family, heartbroken. But they weren't the only ones affected. T.J. had a huge impact on everyone's life he touched, as witnessed by the many testimonials to him on the Internet. They speak of his zest for life, his sincerity, kindness, brilliance and his loyal friendship.

T.J. started working at age 6 and didn't stop until Sept. 11.

As a child, his work was acting. He was in many television commercials. The first film he did was released in 1971 and called "Such Good Friends," exposing him to legends behind the camera as well as in front of it. The film was directed by Otto Preminger, written by Elaine May, and also starred Dyan Cannon, James Coco, Ken Howard, Burgess Meredith, Louise Lasser and Laurence Luckinbill. In 1974, he joined the longest running soap opera, "The Guiding Light," creating the character of Tim "T.J." Werner. He left the show in 1976, apparently because he had shaved his head along with every other wrestler on his high school team, freaking out the producers. T.J. didn't seem to mind; it was just another funny story he could tell. His leaving allowed a then-unknown actor by the name of Kevin Bacon to take over the role. T.J. then went on to star in a made-for-television movie called, "The Prince of Central Park," with Ruth Gordon, Dan Hedaya and Brooke Shields.

As an adult, he worked at Cantor Fitzgerald. "People were flabbergasted when they found out," said his wife, Patricia. "He was someone who knew a little bit about everything."

But most of his prodigious energies went to those close to him: his wife, Patty; the friends they had made as far back as the Wayne, N.J., high school, DePaul, they both attended; his seven older siblings; his three young daughters; and all the girls on the soccer teams he coached.

"He was passionate about everything, and he was an everlasting friend," his wife said. "Once you were in his life, you stayed there. And he was the most devoted father you can imagine. He'd never played soccer a day in his life, but he wanted the girls to be involved in team sports, so he learned. I tell them, 'Some parents have their kids in soccer so they can have some time by themselves, but your father had you in soccer because he wanted to be with you.' He was more than a devoted father, more than a devoted husband," his wife said. He was "an everlasting friend to anybody that he ever met." He and his wife would have celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary in November, 2001.

Of course, no one can honor him better than his own family. In 2002, his daughter left this note for him:

Dear dad,
I miss you. You have been very, very nice. I'd do anything to get you back.

I love you and miss you.
love your peanut cori

Corinne Hargrave (Stanton, NJ )

And then this one from his wife:

T - I've spent every second of every day of the last 4 1/2 months thinking about you. My mind will always be filled with wonderful memories of our 20 years together. Although way too short (no I don't mean you), I am so grateful for that time. I love you for so many reasons, way too many to go into, but... to list a few: your absolute devotion to and love for Cori, Casey, Amy and me, for all you taught me over the years, the confidence you instilled in me, your level-headedness with our girls, the fun we knew we would have when you were around, and in general, just the brilliant person you were. I thought about it the other day, and if I was asked to describe you in one word, it would be BRILLIANT - that was your entire being - you were the smartest person I ever knew, and your caring, loving personality shone on all of us, enabling us to bask in that brilliant light and warmth that was you.

I know the impact you have had on so many of us, through the way you lived your life, will stay with us, and guide us, forever.

I will love you forever and miss you always.

Love, Patty

May G-d bless T.J. and his family.

Information in this entry was taken from various publications and Web sites including a profile published in The New York Times on November 24, 2001 and an article from the AP. You can find information on T.J.'s acting career on the Internet Movie Data Base.

2996: Honoring the 9/11 Victims -- We will never forget

Find out more information on the project as well as a list of participants.

Fox News Crew's Kidnapping... A Commentary

2006-09-08T12:26:00.000-07:00

While covering the Palestinians in Gaza, Fox News reporter Steve Centanni and his cameraman Olaf Wiig were grabbed at gunpoint and then held hostage for almost two weeks. This incident was incredibly disturbing on so many levels.

These two were truly terrorized. Lucky for them, pressure was applied and the two were finally set free.

One of the most disturbing aspects of this, that has gotten very little attention, is that fact that the two were forced at gunpoint to convert to Islam. For all the people who insist that Islam is religion of peace and that they're not out to take over the world, this is pretty damning evidence to the contrary. This is our future, should Iran get a nuclear weapon. Convert -- or die at the sword!

Now I'm even more disgusted at the twosome immediately started begging media outlets not to pull out of Gaza, that "the Palestinian story needs to be told." Frankly, I think it was told quite well -- if you're not a Muslim and visit territory they control, you must convert or die. How brainwashed are these two or is their far-left philosophy (yet working for Fox??) so ingrained, that they still believe the 'noble savages' are good at heart and this must have just been a weird aberration? Or even worse, they were pushed to do something drastic because of mean, horrible Israel? Granted, they did say this while still in the Palestinians' control at that hotel but I'm not sure I've ever heard them denounce it once they were in a free country.

Once back in the states, the two set out on their speaker tour at Fox. Both appeared on Greta Van Sustren's "On The Record" show, along with the awesome Jennifer Griffin, who worked tirelessly to secure their release. She was telling an amazing story of being with all the terrorist groups' heads and she said, "It was obvious we were being played." That's right, she came right out and said the truth....finally. This was done, despite protests to the contrary, with the blessing of Hamas. And why? My guess (well mine and many others) was to take the pressure off them to release kidnapped Israeli soldier, Galid Shalit. With the world worried about the journalists, no one was making any noise over poor Galid. Why wasn't their release tied in with Galid? Why didn't everyone do cartwheels to try and prove these to be two totally different kinds of actions. They weren't. Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad, etc. and their hired freelance kidnapping goon squad are engaging in these 'adventures' in an attempt to free all of their homicidal brothers in Israeli jails. And this will continue as long as they're never forced to pay any price for anything they do.

Then the twosome went on Hannity and Colmes. I don't know what's happened to Alan Colmes. You have to wonder if he really believes the crap he says or if he's just trying to spice up the show. Regardless, Alan Colmes is an idiot, asking Steve after he retells his tale: "So they didn't threaten you at all?" No, Alan -- you moron -- they made him tea. They are terrorists! Get over your dangerously misguided love for the noble savage. Quickly, Steve answered, no, they did threaten us. We knew they had guns, grenades, etc. Steve said they told Olaf that he was CIA, a soldier, a very dangerous man and they were going to kill him [Steve].

These are dangerous people. We're in dangerous times. Unless people wake up and see the threat, I know we're in for much worse. The Daniel Pearl kind of worse.

Your Help Is Still Needed... Katrina -- 1 Year Later

2006-09-04T17:51:00.000-07:00

This note was written by my wonderful friend, Paula, who once again has volunteered to help people overwhelmed by Hurricane Katrina. Please read her note.

I am about to finish up my third stint in New Orleans as a hurricane relief volunteer. It continues to be the best worst thing I have ever done.

Worst when I'm tearing out drywall and insulation in a house we're gutting, and sweating so much that the mask over my nose and mouth is filling up with water so frequently that I feel like I'm going to drown...

Best when, as that's happening, one of the most adorable 5-year-old boys I've ever seen comes up to me, his child's Home Depot tool kit hammer in his hand, and says: Excuse me, ma'am, can I help you? I have a tool.

Worst when I pull at an overturned, ruined recliner to get it out of another house and two rats run out - and I scream like a girl and scare the rest of the crew to death...

Best because, even though it's rats - it's life returning to the area, something I had not seen during my first two trips down here.

Worst when we find an 80-year-old man sobbing on his front lawn when he got the first look at what was left of his house after the storm...

Best when, at the end of the day, he cries again, but this time tears of gratitude and joy as he insists on hugging every one of us, even though we are covered in dirt and mud and muck and sweat, and says we have given him hope...

I could go on with countless more examples - probably the worst of the worst being this past Friday, when someone decided to try to push a refrigerator that had been sitting in a house without power for 368 days without duct taping it closed first, and... you guest it... it opened. I'll leave the rest to your imagination.

The purpose of my email to you is twofold - first, to let you know - and ask you to spread the word - that it is not okay down here. In so many areas, it looks like the storm hit last week and not last year. So many people assume that because it's no longer the lead story on the news that everything is fixed. Nothing could be further from the truth.

And now, the parishes (counties to the rest of us) are starting to pass ordinances that homeowners must gut their houses, replace the doors and windows and mow and maintain their lawns. If they don't, the parishes will do it, put a lien on their properties for the cost of it, and take the house if they don't repay it. So many people, because they're still waiting for insurance settlements, or were uninsured, don't have the money to do this. They are exempt if they are on the list with a bonafide relief organization, so those list grow daily.

I have been working with Hilltop Rescue & Relief. They currently have over 900 houses still on their lists. What they don't have is enough volunteers, thus the second reason for my email.

Hilltop is a Church of Christ based relief organization - not my church - not even my denomination, but this is not about religion, it is about helping people. Check them out at hilltoprescue.org

They have been going non-stop since shortly after the storm but now, due to a lack of volunteers are scaling back. After this week, they are planning to work the week around Columbus Day weekend, a week to 10 days around Thanksgiving, and about 3 week over Christmas. I'm planning to come back between Christmas and New Year's. All you have to do is get yourselves here. They provide housing, meals, laundry facilities, electricity, indoor plumbing, hot showers - almost all the comforts of home.

I urge you all to consider making the trip down here. Come for a weekend, come for a week. If not with Hilltop, with another relief organization. Hilltop will even refer you to another organization.

If you are involved in any social, civic, fraternal, religious, professional or other organization, suggest this as a project. Talk about making airplane tickets to New Orleans the family Christmas presents this year - I guarantee you it will be remembered more than almost any other Christmas gift you have received or will ever receive.

It doesn't matter how much you've read or seen on TV. The scope of what happened down here is impossible to comprehend unless you see it with your own eyes. Every homeowner - Hilltop gives priority to those over 65 and/or handicapped - has told me how blessed they feel, but I'm telling you, I'm the one who has been blessed. I guarantee you that a trip down here will change your life forever. I have worked side-by-side with people from 8 to 80, from all walks of life, and from all over the country. This trip, I have worked with a wonderful and incredibly hard working family from Canada - although it is a little embarrassing that Canadians are showing up to help when our own citizens are not. I'm hoping that'[s because they don't know, so please help me spread the word.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like additional information. I would love to see you in the Big Easy... for the hardest work you'll ever love.

Paula

But First...

2006-08-30T19:20:00.000-07:00

In San Francisco, Omeed A. Popal, 29, mowed people down during a 20-minute rampage. He told investigators that he was angry by a family dispute (apparently over an arranged marriage in Afghanistan). Very few in the mainstream media are bothering to mention a few pesky facts that have come out. Facts like Popal is a muslim. Or that one place where he aimed to hit people was in front of was the local Jewish Community Center. And while witnesses say he looked calm afterwards, they also report he said, "I am a terrorist." Of course, authorities immediately dismissed this claim.

Stay Tuned...

2006-08-29T20:58:00.000-07:00

I will most definitely be doing a post on the Fox News journalists who were kidnapped and recently released...just getting the thoughts together.

Disappearing Act

2006-08-23T18:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry folks. Thanks for asking, Felis. All's good on my end, just a bit busy. I was so depressed during the war in Lebanon. It felt like this world was/is ass-backwards with its thinking/judging, and I'm sure most of you felt the same way. I work in news, sort of, and was doing my best to stop our coverage from being anti-Israel. Realized more than ever there's a lot of bias out there. And fighting it at work made me too tired to fight it here. G-d bless JonBenet Ramsey... my heart goes out to her family but I'm grateful for the break in coverage of the Middle East. Concentrate on her. At least if they muck that up, it affects fewer people.

You Knew It Was Coming

2006-08-08T19:31:00.000-07:00

Rumor has it that France is surrendering -- to its own resolution!

They have done an about-face and are now calling for an immediate Israeli withdrawl. Yellow-bellied losers.

Why The World Should Stand Back And Let Israel Do What It Has To Do

2006-08-03T18:37:00.000-07:00

July 19, 2006

By Dave Wilson, Capt. retired, US Navy....

When I was in the Navy, I once witnessed a bar fight in downtown Olongapo ( Philippines ) that still haunts my dreams. The fight was between a big oafish Marine and a rather soft-spoken, medium sized Latino sailor from my ship.

All evening the Marine had been trying to pick a fight with one of us and had finally set his sights on this diminutive shipmate of mine... figuring him for a safe target. When my friend refused to be goaded into a fight the Marine sucker punched him from behind on the side of the head so hard that blood instantly started to pour from this poor man's mutilated ear.

Everyone present was horrified and was prepared to absolutely murder this Marine, but my shipmate quickly turned on him and began to single-handedly back him towards a corner with a series of stinging jabs and upper cuts that gave more than a hint to a youth spent boxing in a small gym in the Bronx.

Each punch opened a cut on the Marine's startled face and by the time he had been backed completely into the corner he was blubbering for someone to stop the fight. He invoked his split lips and chipped teeth as reasons to stop the fight. He begged us to stop the fight because he could barely see through the river of blood that was pouring out of his split and swollen brows.

Nobody moved. Not one person.

The only sound in the bar was the sickening staccato sound of this sailor's lightning fast fists making contact with new areas of the Marine's head. The only sound I have heard since that was remotely similar was from the first Rocky film when Sylvester Stallone was punching sides of beef in the meat locker.

Finally the Marine's pleading turned to screams.... a high, almost womanly shriek. And still the punches continued relentlessly. Several people in the bar took a few tentative steps as though they wanted to try to break it up at that point, but hands reached out from the crowd and held them tight. I'm not ashamed to say that mine were two of the hands that held someone back.

You see, in between each blow the sailor had begun chanting a soft cadence: "Say [punch] you [punch] give [punch] up [punch]... say [punch] you [punch]were [punch] wrong [punch]". He had been repeating it to the Marine almost from the start but we only became aware of it when the typical barroom cheers had died down and we began to be sickened by the sight and sound of the carnage.

This Marine stood there shrieking in the corner of the bar trying futilely to block the carefully timed punches that were cutting his head to tatters... right down to the skull in places. But he refused to say that he gave up... or that he was wrong.

Even in the delirium of his beating he believed in his heart that someone would stop the fight before he had to admit defeat. I'm sure this strategy had served him well in the past and had allowed him to continue on his career as a barroom bully.

Finally, in a wail of agony the Marine shrieked "I give up", and we gently backed the sailor away from him.

I'm sure you can guess why I have shared this story today.

I'm not particularly proud to have been witness to such a bloody spectacle, and the sound of that Marine's woman-like shrieks will haunt me to my grave. But I learned something that evening that Israel had better learn for itself if it is to finally be rid of at least one of its tormentors:

This is one time an Arab aggressor must be allowed to be beaten so badly that every civilized nation will stand in horror, wanting desperately to step in and stop the carnage... but knowing that the fight will only truly be over when one side gives up and finally admits defeat.

Just as every person who had ever rescued that bully from admitting defeat helped create the cowardly brute I saw that evening in the bar, every well-intentioned power that has ever stepped in and negotiated a ceasefire for an Arab aggressor has helped create the monsters we see around us today.

President Lahoud of Lebanon , a big Hezbollah supporter and a close ally of Syria , has been shrieking non-stop to the UN Security Council for the past two days to get them to force Israel into a cease fire.

Clearly he has been reading his autographed copy of 'Military Success for Dummies Arab Despots' by the late Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt . Ever since Nasser accidentally discovered the trick in '56, every subsequent Arab leader has stuck to his tried and true formula for military success:

** Instigate a war. **

Once the war is well underway and you are in the process of having your ass handed to you... get a few world powers to force your western opponent into a cease fire.

Whatever you do, don't surrender or submit to any terms dictated by your enemy. That would ruin everything! All you have to do is wait it out and eventually the world will become sickened at what is being done to your soldiers and civilian population... and will force a truce.

Once a truce has been called you can resume your intransigence (which probably caused the conflict in the first place), and even declare victory as your opponent leaves the field of battle.

This tactic has never failed. Not once. In fact it worked so will for the Egyptians in 1973, that to this day they celebrate the Yom Kippur War - a crushing defeat at the hands of Israel - as a military victory! No kidding... it's a national holiday over there!

President Lahoud has already begun to shriek like a school girl to the UN Security Council to "Stop the violence and arrange a cease-fire, and then after that we'll be ready to discuss all matters."

Uh huh. Forgive me if I find that a tad hard to swallow. He allowed Hezbollah to take over his country. He allowed the regular Lebanese army to provide radar targeting data for the Hezbollah missile that struck the Israeli destroyer. He has turned a blind eye while Iranian and Syrian weapons, advisers and money have poured into his country. And now that his country is in ruins he wants to call it a draw.

As much as it may sicken the world to stand by and watch it happen, strong hands need to hold back the weak- hearted and let the fight continue until one side finally admits unambiguous defeat.

What You Need To Know And See

2006-07-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

Everyone must see this movie from Honestreporting.com called Obsession. Hat tip to AOW.

Caught Drawing Breath While Being Jewish

2006-07-29T15:13:00.000-07:00

And so it begins. A Muslim man breaks into the Seattle Jewish Federation, which only a week before hosted a pro-Israel rally, and shoots six women, killing 1, and among the wounded was a pregnant woman, all because he was 'angry' at Israel. The crime these women committed? Drawing breath while being Jewish. How dare they!

So how are the authorities in Washington State reacting? Apparently the local ADL has offered the courageous advice of telling Jews to not go to Shabbat services and stay in their homes. Can't imagine Abe Foxman is happy with that. And the police are now stepping up security at synagogues and mosques, the latter I'm not quite understanding why. Do they think the Jews will riot and attacks Muslims? Sounds like a waste of money and resources to me.

My fear? The anti-Semitic backlash is just beginning.

What You're Not Hearing On The News

2006-07-27T22:17:00.000-07:00

You've probably heard that Hezbollah hit an Israeli ship with a cruise missile right? But did you know that they hit an Egyptian freighter first? Why haven't we been hearing more about this? By the way, do you know the difference between a rocket and a missile? A rocket is a self-propelled munition with no guidance capability, while a missile has guidance capability and is a state-sponsored weapon. And Hezbollah has them. The trail leads straight to Damascus and Tehran.

Important Message From Israel

2006-07-27T07:20:00.000-07:00

I received the following note from my friend Pam, who runs Sar-El in Israel, which has civilian volunteers helping out soldiers on IDF bases.

I want to thank all of you for your e-mails & calls of support for the State of Israel & all the soldiers who are fighting so valiantly at this time. The soldiers really need to know that all of us are with them right now. Sar-El is doing its part in conveying this message to them. We have a very low percentage of volunteers who are leaving because of the situation. On the contrary, we have had many more people, young & old, who have signed up for the next few weeks BECAUSE of the situation—people who are paying very high airfares in order to come here. We thank all of you who are coming to join us.

We also thank all of our current volunteers who are working doubly hard at their bases. Many people are working day & evening shifts, without any complaints. They are working late on Thursdays; there are no trips during the week because there is work to be done & the army has cancelled all trips for soldiers. Our volunteers do not complain—they are happy to work; they are soldiers, too. This is what Sar-El is all about. It was created in a time of need and our volunteers are always available in times of need.

As you can imagine, the war is costing a fortune. The economy is suffering, tourism is down (except for our Sar-El volunteers). The army budget for “extras” such as trips, transportation, etc. will be affected. The Foundation which gets private contributions is a US tax deductible corporation. The Foundation has been able to buy many things for the volunteers at the bases, such as tools & equipment, refrigerators, museum trips, transportation, etc. All contributions to the Foundation are appreciated & you can contact me for information.

We also collected over 2000 shekels this week for special things for the soldiers up north. Yesterday Elaine, Kenny, Shira & I went on a fast shopping spree for snack foods, candy, drinks, toiletries, & sox for the soldiers. We delivered several carts full of items to a drop off place. The Table to Table organization will deliver it today directly to the soldiers on the front line. Gershon made dozens of his delicious cookies for the soldiers. In the near future, Gershon will be opening his new bakery here—Flo’s Pies & Cookies.

Sar-El has a special & unique connection with all soldiers in the IDF. We appreciate all of them & know that the soldiers who are now fighting up north or in Gaza are there for us—to defend & protect our country. All of us at Sar-El give them our total support.

I thank all of you for your hard work, prayers & support at this time.
If anyone wants to know how, email me at estherhoffmanAThotmail.com

Two Ways To Help

2006-07-25T17:11:00.000-07:00

Send a letter to an Israeli family sitting in a shelter.

Post a message of support that all of Israel can see.

Informative Note From Israeli Soldier

2006-07-23T10:38:00.000-07:00

Written by a soldier in the Nachal Haredi Unit. Hat tip to Naomi Ragen, cleaned up grammatically by me.

People jump to conclusions about the Israeli leadership and their strategies concerning Gaza and Lebanon. First of all, do not believe anything you read in a foreign newspaper or even half of the Israeli ones about this current situation. For example… just a few months ago an Arab Family in Gaza was killed on a beach. The Palestinians said the Israelis did the killing, as did international media. After research it was shown that in no way whatsoever was it an Israeli bomb that murdered that family, but a bomb that was left by HAMAS. However, by then, we lost the sympathies of world media, and Olmert apologized prematurely for something that Israel did not even do.

In Lebanon, you must understand that Hizbollah is not a "faction" it is part of the government. As we have seen lately as the puppet Lebanese government has come out and declared itself as defenseless against Hizbollah. However, that is not the case. Civilians in Beirut are handing out cakes and cookies as a celebration of the 8 dead Israeli soldiers and the two kidnapped ones.

What I have learned in three months of being at checkpoints is something I call the middle eastern personality, which is common in both Arabs and middle easterners. People who visit Israel have experienced it here too. It is the attitude that "I gotta get for me what I can at the expense of almost everyone else." The expression in Hebrew is to "work" someone. At the checkpoints people come and cry or claim they are sick and need to go to the hospital, or have important meetings, all in an attempt to get us to let them pass quickly into Israel. Most of the cases are false, and just the way to "work" or "hustle" the soldiers at the checkpoint. Most of this is witnessed by the Women in Black, who for some reason, believe these stories and only take the position of the Arabs, never that the soldiers are trying to protect the citizens of Israel from potential terrorists. So, the Arab citizens play up these stories to "work" the hearts and minds of the "human rights" activists and the media. These people do not learn through discussion or compromise because of Middle Eastern culture. Look at the history now in every Arab country about their ability to compromise where it be honor killing, jihad terrorism, constant civil war, pillaging and rape and all the other cultural riches of the Arab world. It is not within their mentality, which has been nurtured thought history to compromise civilly. (This does not in any way reflect on all Muslims or Arabs) However, it is the typical behavior you witness in the Arab marketplaces in Egypt and Israel If you have been to these marketplaces, then you will understand what I am talking about.

Israel is a westernized and Jewish society, which is all about discussion, analysis, and compromise Just look at the Talmud! What Israel is coming to realize now because of recent events and "compromises" such as leaving Gaza (while Israel reaps the rewards of daily punishment by missiles hitting several major cities such as Ashkelon and Sderot.
Our Jewish naiveté is that everyone is nice and perfect and can be dealt with through diplomacy. This is not true. Our enemies learn one way and the one and only way is through the language of war and the language of the sword. We did not set it up that way, they have. And now, going into Lebanon and destroying all of Hizbollah and their infrastructure and their supporters with a firm, unwavering hand is the only way. We were in Southern Lebanon for 20 years and there was "peace in the North" only when we "compromised" and pulled out. Our soldiers are getting kidnapped and missiles now fall on Haifa.

Now you have to understand the Arab guerilla tactics, both Palestinian and Lebanese. They never fight in a battlefield like a normal army. They retreat to civilian villages and cities and hide there until they poke their nose out of some window and shoot some anti tank or aircraft missile. So for defense, and I say DEFENSE forces, to succeed they must battle them even if they are in civilian territory. Again, We did not decide that, they did. So when civilians are killed unintentionally it is because THEY decided that it should be that way. The world is full of naive bleeding hearts that will bash Israel for doing what it has been FORCED to do. They forget the fact that when soldier go into an Arab town for the sole purpose of finding a group of terrorists, the "civilians" are suddenly not so civil. They have guns, they throw Molotov cocktails, and rocks, big large cement blocks at soldiers. That is what we experience everyday in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. We are fighting a guerilla and civilian army at ALL times. Suicide bombers are not part of an army they are civilians. There has never been a war fought like this in the history of humankind. But the "lefties" and even some on the right and the people who are not even connected and oblivious, including the international community think they have the right to tell Israel how to act, how to respond! Do you know why so many soldiers die in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon? Not because the enemy's army is better, they are not even close to the IDF. We have better equipment, more equipment, better training, so how is it that soldiers are kidnapped and killed? That's a good question. It is because the left and the international community is keeping such a close look, and bias toward Israel's defense tactics, that are hands are tied in defending ourselves properly. We take so many dangerous steps in order to protect civilians, that in return, we are killed and kidnapped. Did you know that at the Lebanon Border for the last ten years, because of "International" pressure, that if you see 500 Hizbollah terrorists with AK47's and rocket launchers and missiles coming up to the actual border fence, 50 feet from the Israel soldiers, 50 feet from Israel's soil, that the IDF cannot fire unless they fire first! They can aim, set up shop 50 feet from you, but until they fire and shoot at you, the Israeli soldiers cannot defend themselves. Is that logical? No, it is insane. The only reason why so many Israeli's both civilian and military are dying is explicitly the fault of the International Leftist agenda. The Left likes to see the minority win, even if it is Hamas and Hezbollah. We can only defend ourselves the way of the sword. Do not let anyone tell you anything differently. As I and the other soldiers and Israeli citizens have personal stakes in the matter, and as a supporter of the Jewish homeland, you do too.
Am Yisrael Chai!

The Animals Of Israel

2006-07-23T09:48:00.000-07:00

While many organizations are helping people, the animals of Northern Israel are also suffering. This organization is trying to help.

Action Needed For Israel-Loving Americans

2006-07-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

If you love Israel and you're an American, you need to write/call your elected representives in Congress, if they aren't any of the following people, and thank them for their support of Israel because you can bet they're hearing from the people who are pissed with how they voted (something like 20-to-1 are calling voicing their displeasure compared to thanking). Actually, you should also thank your senators regardless, since the vote in there was unanimous in favor of supporting Israel. To find out who your reps are, visit here. Now the list of those who did not support:

Those voting NO: Abercrombie (D-HA), Conyers (D-MI), Dingell (D-MI), Kilpatrick (D-MI), McDermott (D-WA), Paul (R-TX), Rahall (D-WV), Stark (D-CA).

Those voting present: Kaptur (D-OH), Kucinich (D-OH), Lee (D-CA), Waters (D-CA)

Those not voting: Davis (D-FL) Davis (R-VA), Duncan (R-TN), Evans (D-IL), Fortenberry (R-NE), McKinney (D-GA), Northup (R-KY), Nussle (R-IA), Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) -- but she has a good reason -- she was in the hospital, Westmoreland (R-GA)

Help Israel

2006-07-17T16:31:00.000-07:00

If you have any questions on how to stick up for Israel when questioned by people, this is a great primer.

State Department: Truth Or Furthering Anti-Israel Agenda?

2006-07-16T19:21:00.000-07:00

I find it very interesting that the State Department has issued an edict that Americans shouldn’t try to leave Lebanon, that they must stay put. Why do I find that interesting? Because as we were told this on Fox News by a priest who said he now knew what it was like to be a hostage (sorry, was there a gun pointed at your head? I think not), he openly pondered why it was that all the other foreigners’ countries were bringing in ships to rescue their citizens… why only the U.S. was leaving its people there? Why indeed? Could the State Department be trying to make things worse to have it reflect badly on Israel or am I getting paranoid?

Success! Iran Hijacks G8 Agenda

2006-07-14T16:36:00.000-07:00

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why Hezbollah (Iran/Syria's proxy terror group) chose now to stir the pot. Suddenly, pundits on the 24-hour News Networks have stopped talking about pressure on Iran or North Korea at the G8 Summit. It's all about the Mideast turmoil. Glad to know everyone is soooooo easily manipulated. And not like we couldn't see this coming... just like we could see a major attack coming. You can't say you're surprised that this is happening, right? Anyone who is surprised has had their head in the sand over the last several years.

How else do you explain that buildup of weapons we've been seeing (lord knows how many we haven't seen) flowing into Gaza and the West Bank via secret smuggling tunnels? How about the various times Israel has caught ships laden with missles headed for the PA? We know every time there's been call for a ceasefire (more aptly called a Hudna), it's been to build back up their illegal arms supply. The world and Israel have stood by as the terror groups have succeeded in rebuilding their arsenal with an obvious purpose -- this moment. And not like they hid their desires. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc. voiced their desire to do away with the Zionist Entity every time they got in front of a microphone. But they've been joined recently by a very powerful, delusional ally.... the president of Iran. And it is for him that this is all happening.

As the world watches the goings on in Lebanon and Israel, Iran has succeeded in buying themselves some more time for their nuclear ambitions. Israel can't make a plan to take out Iran's nuclear arsenal when they're busy fighting a two-front war. It's all coming up roses for Iran.

Rockets Do Land

2006-07-13T20:51:00.000-07:00

This time in Safed. This one was about 300 meters from my cousin's house. Thanks to her father for sending the photo.

Israel

2006-07-12T21:12:00.000-07:00

I know with the events of today I should have a post up. The thing is, I'm so worn out by my intense anger at the situation, that I have nothing left. I want Syria bombed. I want Iran bombed. I want justice. I know there will be none. It feels very hopeless. The world feels like it's falling off its axis, that black is white, wrong is right, etc.

Benjamin Hendrickson, Rest In Peace

2006-07-08T20:53:00.000-07:00

I was away all week in Las Vegas, but while there, I heard of the sad, shocking passing of Emmy-award winning As The World Turns actor, Ben Hendrickson, who played Chief of Detectives Hal Munson for over 20 years. He was a theater actor who thought he was only signing on to play a 1-day role. But Ben was so much more. His quiet, heartfelt portrayal moved all who watched him.

He'd suffered horrible losses over the last few years -- his beloved mother and brother -- which probably played a large part in his taking his own life. Hopefully he is finally at peace.

News From France

2006-07-01T18:19:00.000-07:00

My friend Sahbra forwarded this email to me with information about anti-Semitism in France from this site. I cannot verify it, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s true and thought you would all find it frightening. I know I do. Not surprised mind you, but scary nonetheless.

Once again, the real news is conveniently not being reported as it should. At present, in my Hebrew class, there is a woman who recently made aliya from Paris with her family. I have spoken with her about anti-Semitism in France and she confirmed that it is very, very serious and getting worse every week. She and her family fled Paris and came to Israel, fearing for their lives - literally. This is first hand, my friends.

To give you an idea of what's going on in France where there are now between 5 and 6 million Muslims and about 600,000 Jews, here is an email that came from another Jew still in France. Please read! Will the world say nothing - again - as it did in Hitler's time?

He writes, "I AM A JEW -- therefore I am forwarding this to everyone on all my e-mail lists. I will not sit back and do nothing." Nowhere have the flames of anti-Semitism burned more furiously than in France:

In Lyon, a car was rammed into a synagogue and set on fire. In Montpellier, the Jewish religious center was firebombed; so were synagogues in Strasbourg and Marseilles; so was a Jewish school in Creteil - all recently.

A Jewish sports club in Toulouse was attacked with Molotov cocktails, and on the statue of Alfred Dreyfus in Paris, the words "Dirty Jew" was painted. In Bundy, 15 men beat up members of a Jewish football team with sticks and metal bars. The bus that takes Jewish children to school in Aubervilliers has been attacked three times in the last 14 months.

According to the Police, metropolitan Paris has seen 10 to 12 anti-Jewish incidents PER DAY in the past 30 days. Wake up, world! Walls in Jewish neighborhoods have been defaced with slogans proclaiming "Jews to the gas chambers" and "Death to the Jews."

A gunman opened fire on a kosher butcher's shop (and, of course, the butcher) in Toulouse, France; a Jewish couple in their 20s were beaten up by five men in Villeurbanne, France. The woman was pregnant; a Jewish school was broken into and vandalized in Sarcelles, France. This was in the past week.

So I call on you, whether you are a fellow Jew, a friend, or merely a person with the capacity and desire to distinguish decency from depravity, to do, at least, these three simple things:

First, care enough to stay informed. Don't ever let yourself become deluded into thinking that this is not your fight. I remind you of what Pastor Neimoller said in World War II: First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.

Second, boycott France and French products. Only the Arab countries are more toxically anti-Semitic and, unlike them, France exports more than just oil and hatred. So boycott their wines and their perfumes. Boycott their clothes and their foodstuffs. Boycott their movies. Definitely boycott their shores. If we are resolved we can exert amazing pressure and, whatever else we may know about the French, we most certainly know that they are like a cobweb in a hurricane in the face of well-directed pressure.

Third, send this along to your family, your friends, and your co-workers. Think of all of the people of good conscience that you know and let them know that you and the people that you care about need their help. The number one best selling book in France is "September 11: The Frightening Fraud," which argues that no plane ever hit the Pentagon.

Is it any wonder that Aliya from France to Israel has increased dramatically?

30 Years Ago Today...

2006-06-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

Via IDF release: France Jet Hijacked

An Air France aircraft that had been on its way from Lod to Paris with 258 passengers aboard was hijacked after a stop in Athens and flown to Benghazi, Libya, and then on to Entebbe, Uganda. The hijackers demanded the release of terrorists imprisoned in Israel, Germany, Switzerland, and Kenya. The hijacking was done by the terrorist organization of Wadia Hadad, with the support of Ugandan leader Idi Amin. During the IDF's counterattack in Entebbe, the captives were freed. The operation was executed quickly and successfully. The seven terrorists were killed. Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Netanyahu, commander of the Israeli force, was mortally wounded during the battle and one soldier, Surin Hershko, was seriously wounded. Three of the captives were killed and six wounded. An additional captive, Dora Bloch, had been taken to a Ugandan hospital and was murdered there.

My Pal Paul Went To Israel To Volunteer Again!

2006-06-21T20:15:00.000-07:00

I realize my blogging has been less than stellar lately and for that I'm sorry. Health issues and 6-day work weeks have been hampering things but I'm very grateful to post my friend Paul's email from another Sar-El/Volunteers For Israel experience for you all to see, with his permission.

RANDOM THOUGHTS FROM AN AMERICAN VOLUNTEER IN ISRAEL

I have returned to Israel on at least an annual basis during the last third of a century to bear witness to, and contribute in a small way toward, the greatest experiment of the Jewish People in its nearly 3,000 year history..... the rebirth of Israel. As I journeyed one weekend from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, my mind attempted to digest a variety of thoughts:

It was an idyllic, sunny day as I ascended to Jerusalem on the winding train, with my nose pressed against the window, it suddenly dawned on me as I gazed at the beautiful landscape, that a majority of the world's Jews had already made a commitment to cast their lot with, and join, their people in Eretz Israel. (Yes, a majority of the world's Jews now live in Israel) Does it logically follow then, that the rest of us, dispersed around the globe, are destined to wander the world as a dwindling and perpetual minority, in The Diaspora?

Further, those of us who claim we are Zionists are merely armchair Zionists coming on occasion to stare through the window of a moving train or perhaps to participate in a brief volunteer program. Earlier this day, in Tel Aviv's Central Railway Station headlines in the Jerusalem Post declared that rockets have been raining down on Israel from Gaza on a daily and increasing basis, over 30 rockets in the last 24 hours. Iran is still bent on nuclear weapons (WMD) I wonder, will the threat of Jewish annihilation ever dissipate? At Pesach, in the Hagaddah we read that "in every generation they shall rise up against us"

Now, the train pulls into "Malha Station" in Jerusalem, and my thoughts are jarred to more mundane matters like catching a taxi to my hotel.

Shalom, Paul

Events On Gaza Coast

2006-06-13T10:05:00.000-07:00

Once again, poor Israel is taking a beating for something she didn't do. As more evidence piles in, it's becoming more and more apparent that it was a mine planted by Hamas that killed that family and not shelling from Israel. Hopefully this information will overtake the lies.

I Never Knew This About Actor James Woods & 9/11

2006-06-11T11:05:00.000-07:00

I was watching Raid On Entebbe on the History Channel and they gave a little fact about one of its actors, James Woods and 9/11. So I decided to look up James Woods on Wikipedia and found out more about it. Here's what it said about this very interesting incident:

On a flight to Los Angeles slightly more than a month before the September 11, 2001 attacks, Woods grew suspicious of four of his fellow-passengers: well-dressed men who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent. Throughout the flight, the men stared straight ahead, did not speak with one another except in low, hushed tones, and did not eat or sleep. Woods became so convinced that the men were "casing" the plane that he kept his cutlery after lunch and shared his suspicions with a flight attendant. "I said, 'I think this plane is going to be hijacked.' I told her, 'I know how serious it is to say this,' and asked to speak to the captain." The first officer promptly assured Woods that the cockpit door would be kept locked and the plane landed safely.

On the evening of September 11th, Woods told the FBI in Los Angeles about the encounter. At six-forty-five the next morning he was roused by a telephone call from an FBI agent. "I said, 'I'll get ready and I'll come down to the federal building,'" Woods recalled. "He said, 'That's O.K. We're outside your house.'" (I laughed myself silly over that line.) When he was shown photographs, Woods thought he recognized two of the hijackers - Hamza Alghamdi, who was on United Airlines Flight 175 (which struck the south tower of the World Trade Center) and Khalid Almihdhar, who was on American Airlines Flight 77 (which struck The Pentagon).

According to writer Annie Jacobsen, FBI agents told her in a private conversation that Mohammed Atta, who was the unofficial leader of the 9/11 hijackers, was in fact on the flight with Woods.

How wild is that??!

Blogway Is Handing Out Sweets Today

2006-06-08T07:32:00.000-07:00

Zarqawi's dead.

I Might Have Seen Everything, Now...

2006-06-05T19:08:00.000-07:00

Does this strike anyone else as putting the fox in charge of the hen house? Then again, the third paragraph at least addresses the elephant in the room, while the fourth is an exercise in understatement.

And So It Begins...

2006-06-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

Hurricane season is upon us once again. May I suggest everyone check out this fantastic video made by the Blogway's good friend, Seawitch, about the devastation last year's had on Mississippi.

Memorial Day

2006-05-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all the soldiers who gave their lives to protect us and have allowed us to live our lives in freedom.

We owe you so much. We owe you everything.

To those who are still with us, stay safe, stay strong. And know you are all in our prayers.

Part Of The Reason I Have Had Blogging Issues

2006-05-23T17:03:00.000-07:00

While most of the reason is because I now deal with news all day long for work that reading it/writing it in my down time wears me out (that and the BF would like me to spend some time with him), there is something else. I am going to repost a comment I made on Beak's site that explains something I have found very troubling.

I find it fascinating that people will take issue with Muslims for their strict interpretation of the Koran, hail the reformations that took place in our own religions like Christianity, etc., call us all enlightened (and therefore better than them) and then claim they know G-d hates gays cause it's in the bible. I have seen this hypocrisy around the blogway and in a way, that is one of the reasons I've been staying away from doing too much blogging. Seeing such blatant bigotry from people who call themselves religious (and their religion as being a "loving" one -- and this includes followers of my OWN religion) makes me want to pop a blood vessel. Sorry to write this here, Beak. But I saw these posts, and it just brought it all back. I've been planning to do a post on this, to explain why I've been away (in addition to just being overwhelmed by too much time reading news), but I guess this just inspired me. It's not an attack on any one person (and my apologies that it probably feels that way). Just voicing my incredible disappointment in general. It freaks me out to no end to read comments from people I adore and respect on the subject of terror only to see them able to turn around and make such upsetting statements.

The Ultimate Humiliation?

2006-05-20T16:00:00.000-07:00

We all know what a huge component "humiliation" plays in the mindset of many Palestinians. They want revenge on Israel for the humiliation they feel over losing several wars, yadda, yadda, yadda.

My question: If humiliation is such a horrible thing in their culture, why is it they have no problems accepting, begging or demanding a handout from international donors like the EU or the US? They are the equivalent of the old squeegee guys who wanted to do your car windows as you entered NY from the Lincoln tunnel but would then bash your window in if you didn't tip 'em. Only at least those guys would clean your window!

What the hell do the Palestinians do to deserve one red cent of the handouts they feel so entitled to and why don't they feel humiliation over this when most of us would?

Support From Jews But Not For Jews?

2006-05-18T11:02:00.000-07:00

GREAT article from our pals at Democracy Frontline. Check it out .

What World Are We Now Living In?!

2006-05-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

I just read an alarming article, AIPAC Case Impacting Security Clearance by Josh Gerstein in the New York Sun.

The Pentagon is invoking the prosecution of two pro-Israel lobbyists and a Defense Department analyst for illegal use of classified information as a basis for stripping security clearances from government contractor employees who have dual citizenship in America and Israel or family members living in the Jewish state.

Never mind the fact that they haven't been convicted (the case might even end up getting thrown out) -- the witch-hunt is underway. You’d think Israel wasn’t our ally. Wonder if they’re questioning people with relatives in Saudi Arabia. Vile.

Defying Stereotypes

2006-05-16T17:47:00.000-07:00

A while ago, I blogged about the evening I spent at an AIPAC event listening to one of the most amazing people I've ever met, Ilka Schroeder. When I went to the AIPAC convention a year later (this past March), I got to meet Ilka again and spend time with her. She is inspiring. She told me about a dream of hers she's hoping to make a reality. Recently, Ilka did a full blown article about this dream with Washington Jewish Week. I probably should just give you the link, but I don't want to give anyone an excuse to miss it. So read it here.

Defying Stereotypes:Ilka Schroeder starts center on anti-Semitism

Author: Eric Fingerhut - Washington Jewish Week
Source: http://www.standwithus.com

Defying stereotypes
Georgetown visiting prof starting center on anti-Semitism in Germany
by Eric Fingerhut
Staff Writer
Washington Jewish Week

When Ilka Schroeder, a non-Jew from Germany, starts talking about Israel and anti-Semitism, she says people in the United States are usually pretty astounded.

"They expect something else -- I'm European and leftist," she said.

But Schroeder has defied the stereotypes of those labels -- and is trying to get other Europeans to get over their stereotypes of Israel and the Jewish people.

The 28-year-old is starting a center in Berlin to fight anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, and she spent much of her five-year term as a member of the European Union Parliament trying to get the organization to reconsider its financial support of the Palestinian Authority.

She is in Washington this year, teaching a class this semester and next for Georgetown University's Center for Jewish Civilization on anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism.

Schroeder sees her planned Center Against Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism, for which she's currently raising funds, as an "action-based" organization focusing on Germany that will respond "whenever anti-Semitism comes up."

She hopes, for instance, to provide explanations for why a particular offensive statement by a politician or prominent figure should be considered anti-Semitic, such as outlining the stereotypes upon which a particular remark draws. And she wants to collect data on anti-Semitic incidents around the country that she can disseminate to the media and others.

There are other institutes devoted to studying anti-Semitism in Germany, such as the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Technical University in Berlin, but Schroeder is more interested in commenting on day-to-day political developments than academic research.

She supports the efforts of Jewish organizations that fight anti-Semitism in Germany and Europe, but said that she can add a different perspective because she is not Jewish.

When a Jewish person calls something anti-Semitic, she noted, some Europeans discount it because it is coming from a Jew.

This kind of bias is not uncommon among Europeans, said Schroeder, and she has been fighting it ever since she decided that it was essential to speak out about the E.U.'s support of the Palestinian Authority.

Elected to the E.U. Parliament as a member of the German Green Party in 1999 (she later left the party to become an independent, but still allies with the left), Schroeder said she came to the body without a particularly strong view on the Middle East.

The Sept. 11 attacks changed that, she said, making her realize how widespread anti-American and anti-Semitic attitudes were in the E.U. countries.

She saw the attacks not only as directed against the U.S., but against Jews as well, since al-Qaeda was attacking what it sees as the hallmarks of Jewish influence -- Wall Street and the U.S. government. But many Europeans reacted to Sept. 11 not with outrage, but with cries of "These people are poor, we have to understand them."

It was then she realized that she had to become an activist.

In the ensuing months, after published reports revealed that the P.A. was directing E.U. financial aid toward the financing of terrorism, she pushed the E.U. Parliament to open an investigation into the matter. She said the only way she could get fellow legislators interested in the matter was to emphasize the P.A.'s corruption, since not many were particularly concerned about the diversion of the money for violent acts.

Eventually, she said the Parliament did convene a "working group" on the matter -- on which she was not included -- but that no investigation was launched because it could not be proven that the E.U.'s money went directly from their pocket to paying for suicide bombs, which Schroeder found ridiculous.

"They were asking for something impossible" to prove, she said.

Since Hamas took over the Palestinian government, the E.U. has suspended its $600 million in aid to the Palestinians, but Schroeder is not optimistic that the freeze will continue indefinitely. She believes that the eventual E.U. goal is to "challenge the U.S. position [of pre-eminent power] in the Middle East" and across the globe, and funding the Palestinians is one way to do that.

The E.U.'s failure to take Palestinian terrorism seriously is one manifestation of a common theme among many in Europe, particularly on the left: an unwillingness to believe that "Israel may not always be the perpetrator ... [and] Palestinians the victim," she said.

Schroeder estimates that as many as one-third of Europeans might believe that Israel was behind a conspiracy to commit the Sept. 11 attacks. And she says that displaying sympathy for Israel has led to accusations from fellow legislators that she is being "paid by the Mossad."

For many, their anti-Israel and anti-Semitic views fit into their anti-globalization ideology, which states that the "financial sphere" dictates how the world operates and that Jews are influential in that sphere, Schroeder said.

She has continued to press these themes around the world since leaving the E.U. Parliament in 2004, even testifying before the U.S. House of Representatives' International Relations Committee last month about the E.U.'s support of the Palestinian Authority.

Deidre Berger, managing director of the American Jewish Committee's Berlin office and its Ramer Center for German-Jewish relations, said Schroeder has demonstrated a "long-term commitment" to the issues of anti-Semitism and Israel.

"She is one of the most prominent representatives of a phenomenon in Germany of young non-Jewish activists who are focused on issues of antisemitism, due to a number of factors, including a strong feeling of responsibility for their past as well as for the danger to democracy today posed by antisemitism," Berger wrote via e-mail.

Schroeder said her devotion to this issue doesn't really come from a desire to atone for the sins of Germany's past, but because it is the right thing to do -- and she believes more people would come to her side if they simply "use their brain."

"I'm not a big fan of identity politics. ... I really think [this issue] is universal," she said. "This is not because I have a Jewish grandmother," which she doesn't.

"It's purely from reason."

I Am Angry

2006-05-14T10:53:00.000-07:00

To my mind, if an American is killed anywhere in the world by a terrorist, the U.S. government should either take part in the investigation or contribute to the retalitory response. Daniel Wultz, from Weston, Florida, the American teenager who had been barely hanging on since being in the terrorist bombing that happened about a month ago in Tel Aviv, finally succumbed to his injuries (talk about the worst Mother's Day of all time). Granted, this is just one of many instances where Palestinian terrorists have killed one of our own. But enough already. I don't know how Israel can deal with this (and since I don't live/vote there, I won't presume to tell them how), but I'm sick of my own country putting up with it. It's about time we send troops into the territories ourselves, find any and all responsible and unleash a bit of biblical retribution on their asses. It is vile that we don't lift a finger.

There was a time during Rome's rule where every Roman traveling felt perfectly safe anywhere they were because it was known world-wide the price for harming a citizen of Rome -- Rome would have razed the entire village and then salted the earth. The U.S., as the only Super Power currently on earth, should be that way. It wouldn't need to be done often. Perhaps just once. And the world would be a better place for it.

Yes, I am angry.

Sorry For The Disappearing Act

2006-05-12T15:39:00.000-07:00

I wish I had a good excuse. I just haven't been into it lately. It's not that I haven't been busy because I have. I think the fact that I work in news (in a way) now has made me less anxious to read more about it on my off-time. It's all been so depressing, day in and day out. I hope to kick this funk soon, and my apologies for not visiting your blogs. I have a few things I do want to share, which I'll do at some point but here is an article that friend to the Blogway, Jonathan -- of the late-great Noble Savage fame, sent to me that if you haven't already seen it a cazillion times on the 'Net, you should check out.

Never Again?

By Charles Krauthammer

The Washington Post
Friday, May 5, 2006

When something happens for the first time in 1,871 years, it is worth noting. In A.D. 70, and again in 135, the Roman Empire brutally put down Jewish revolts in Judea, destroying Jerusalem, killing hundreds of thousands of Jews and sending hundreds of thousands more into slavery and exile. For nearly two millennia, the Jews wandered the world. And now, in 2006, for the first time since then, there are once again more Jews living in Israel -- the successor state to Judea -- than in any other place on Earth.

Israel's Jewish population has just passed 5.6 million. America's Jewish population was about 5.5 million in 1990, dropped to about 5.2 million 10 years later and is in a precipitous decline that, because of low fertility rates and high levels of assimilation, will cut that number in half by mid-century.

When 6 million European Jews were killed in the Holocaust, only two main centers of Jewish life remained: America and Israel. That binary star system remains today, but a tipping point has just been reached. With every year, as the Jewish population continues to rise in Israel and decline in America (and in the rest of the Diaspora), Israel increasingly becomes, as it was at the time of Jesus, the center of the Jewish world.

An epic restoration, and one of the most improbable. To take just one of the remarkable achievements of the return: Hebrew is the only "dead" language in recorded history to have been brought back to daily use as the living language of a nation. But there is a price and a danger to this transformation. It radically alters the prospects for Jewish survival.

For 2,000 years, Jews found protection in dispersion -- protection not for individual communities, which were routinely persecuted and massacred, but protection for the Jewish people as a whole. Decimated here, they could survive there. They could be persecuted in Spain and find refuge in Constantinople. They could be massacred in the Rhineland during the Crusades or in the Ukraine during the Khmelnytsky Insurrection of 1648-49 and yet survive in the rest of Europe.

Hitler put an end to that illusion. He demonstrated that modern anti-Semitism married to modern technology -- railroads, disciplined bureaucracies, gas chambers that kill with industrial efficiency -- could take a scattered people and "concentrate" them for annihilation.

The establishment of Israel was a Jewish declaration to a world that had allowed the Holocaust to happen -- after Hitler had made his intentions perfectly clear -- that the Jews would henceforth resort to self-protection and self-reliance. And so they have, building a Jewish army, the first in 2,000 years, that prevailed in three great wars of survival (1948-49, 1967 and 1973).

But in a cruel historical irony, doing so required concentration -- putting all the eggs back in one basket, a tiny territory hard by the Mediterranean, eight miles wide at its waist. A tempting target for those who would finish Hitler's work.

His successors now reside in Tehran. The world has paid ample attention to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's declaration that Israel must be destroyed. Less attention has been paid to Iranian leaders' pronouncements on exactly how Israel would be "eliminated by one storm," as Ahmadinejad has promised.

Former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the presumed moderate of this gang, has explained that "the use of a nuclear bomb in Israel will leave nothing on the ground, whereas it will only damage the world of Islam." The logic is impeccable, the intention clear: A nuclear attack would effectively destroy tiny Israel, while any retaliation launched by a dying Israel would have no major effect on an Islamic civilization of a billion people stretching from Mauritania to Indonesia.

As it races to acquire nuclear weapons, Iran makes clear that if there is any trouble, the Jews will be the first to suffer. "We have announced that wherever [in Iran] America does make any mischief, the first place we target will be Israel," said Gen. Mohammad Ebrahim Dehghani, a top Revolutionary Guards commander. Hitler was only slightly more direct when he announced seven months before invading Poland that, if there was another war, "the result will be . . . The annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe."

Last week Bernard Lewis, America's dean of Islamic studies, who just turned 90 and remembers the 20th century well, confessed that for the first time he feels it is 1938 again. He did not need to add that in 1938, in the face of the gathering storm -- a fanatical, aggressive, openly declared enemy of the West, and most determinedly of the Jews -- the world did nothing.

When Iran's mullahs acquire their coveted nukes in the next few years, the number of Jews in Israel will just be reaching 6 million. Never again?

Letters@charleskrauthammer.com

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

Hell Must Have Frozen Over... Again

2006-05-01T09:10:00.000-07:00

Cause I'm agreeing with Egypt's Mubarak and Jordan's Abdullah's joint statement. What is this, you ask? The two are against Ehud Olmert's planned transfer of vast areas of Judea and Samaria to the control of Hamas. They get that it will spell trouble for them to embolden Hamas. Why don't Israel's leaders get that?

Sweden Now Anti-Israel

2006-04-27T09:18:00.000-07:00

Sweden is boycotting International Air Force exercises because of Israeli Air Force participation. Charming.

So what's exported from Sweden that I now must boycott ever buying? Anyone?

The Last Laugh

2006-04-25T09:26:00.000-07:00

Batya over at Shilo Musings has an excellent post, very thought-provoking. Please go check it out.

Et Tu, Penn State?

2006-04-24T14:21:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: In comments section.

****************************

Lovely greeting to Yom Hashoah or Holocaust Remembrance Day from Penn State University. There was supposed to be an exhibit about the cost of terrorism in the Palestinian territories, but it was cancelled with very little notice due to "the exhibit does not promote cultural diversity." Charming. PSU had an article by Jessica Remitz and one at Arutz Sheva by Ezra HaLevi.

I just continue shaking my head, though why I'm surprised by anything anymore is a mystery. Hat tip to Naomi Ragen.

Freedom Of Speech In Danger On Campus

2006-04-18T09:24:00.000-07:00

The American Thinker had an article by Brigitte Gabriel about her experience trying to speak at the University of Memphis and the local Muslims attempt to block her freedom to speak. We need to take back our universities. It’s frightening what’s happening on our college campuses. I wonder how many parents are aware. Hat tip to StandWithUs.com.

Sweet Reunion

2006-04-09T10:04:00.000-07:00

I realize this story is a few days old already (sorry, I was in Las Vegas all week with the bf and Big Sister) but I'm sure you all expected me to have it and I don't want to disappoint: Cousins reunite after 66 years! If you don't have access to The Jerusalem Post, I will copy the article below.

For 66 years, Ella Friedvald, 82, and her 79-year-old sister Lila were sure that their cousin Krystyna had been killed in the Holocaust, just as she was convinced they were long dead.

After all, the three women were barely teenagers when the Germans invaded Poland and their families were separated, their paths seemingly forever split as their world shattered before them.

After the war, Ella and Lila settled in Israel, while Krystyna, 79, made her home in the US, all having failed to find traces of their respective parents.

But, as fate willed it, a faded postcard sent from a German labor camp 60 years ago and the determination of a very persistent octogenarian to claim her family's pre-war life insurance benefits led to their reunification here this week.

The Friedvald girls grew up in Warsaw in the 1930s. After the Nazis invaded Poland, their families fled to Lvov, at the time still part of Poland, but under Soviet control.

Although they escaped the Germans, Ella, Lila and their parents were forcibly taken by the Soviets to a closed labor camp, while Krystyna and her parents eventually made their way back to Warsaw once the Germans entered Lvov.

Krystyna's last childhood memory of her two cousins was that of her father racing to the train station in Lvov in the hopes of bribing the Russian soldiers to free the two girls, only to come back home empty-handed having failed to find the family at the station.

Her last piece of information about her cousins for the next six and half decades was a letter that Lila wrote her from the Soviet camp in which she said that her parents and older sister were dying of hunger.

The two sisters were indeed soon orphaned, but they managed to survive the war, and eventually made their way to Israel where they married and had families.

Their cousin's parents fared no better than their own, as both were killed by the Nazis in Warsaw.

But young Krystyna, who was living on the Aryan side of the city and who took part in the Warsaw uprising, managed to survive the war against all odds, largely since the Germans had no clue that the Polish-speaking teen was Jewish.

After the Nazis crushed the Polish rebellion, she was taken, together with a group of Poles, to a labor camp in Germany, where she remained until the war ended with the Red Army liberating the camp.

While she was still at the camp, Krystyna sent out postcards to various places in Poland in search of family members and friends, but they were returned to the camp with no such persons found.

"I was positive they were dead," Krystyna told The Jerusalem Post, "and they were sure I was killed with the rest of the Jews of Poland."

After the war, Krystyna's uncle brought her to England, where she would meet her future husband. After the young couple married, they decided to move to the US since they did not want to start a family in war-ravaged Europe.

For the next 50 years, Krystyna, of Eastchester, NY, was unaware that her two cousins were alive and well in Israel.

Then, five years ago, her cousin Ella began to make inquires about possible remuneration from the Generali company for life insurance taken out by her family members before the war. The Polish offices of the company did not find any policies for her parents or grandparents but they did find one for her cousin's father.

Ella Friedvald then contacted a Polish organization of authors and composers, where he had worked, to see if they had any record of him. The organization wrote back that their cousin had informed them in a letter in 1947 that her father had been killed in 1942.

That letter opened up a whole new world for them.

"At that moment we knew that she had survived the war," Ella said.

The next thing to do was to see if she were still alive.

Coincidentally, around the same time that Ella began to make inquiries, her cousin had answered an advertisement put out by the Polish Consulate in New York in search of survivors of the Warsaw uprising.

A representative of the consulate then visited Krystyna in her home, and when he asked her if she had any memento for a museum to mark the uprising, she gave him a postcard she had written from the German labor camp 60 years earlier that had been stamped "return to sender." The Polish official was very happy with the postcard, and the museum subsequently put it on its Internet site, which would prove critical in her cousins' search for her, which they carried out with the help of two Polish friends. Last month, Krystyna Friedvald got a call from the Polish museum. "Someone is looking for you," the voice on the other line said in Polish. "Who?" she asked. The museum staffer asked her if she had any cousins, using their married names. Krystyna said she did not know of any such people. "How about Ella and Lila?" the voice - like a dream out of the past - asked. "Where are they?" Krystyna cried, thinking her cousins were in Poland. "They are in Israel," came the reply. The next morning at 5 a.m. Krystyna's phone rang. It was her long-lost cousin calling from Israel. "We talked and we talked and we talked," she said.

The following week Krystyna was on a plane to Israel to reunite with her cousins.

After 66 years, the three, who look remarkably alike and who communicate with each other in Polish, were clearly trying to squeeze a lifetime into Krystyna's one-week visit, her first ever to Israel.

"It's these two stubborn ladies, they decided to find me," she concluded with a smile.

Ibrahim's Mirror

2006-04-02T11:45:00.000-07:00

Soccer Dad asked that fellow bloggers alert everyone to this very important post. Please check it out and be sure to read it to the very end.

Another Soap Legend Dies

2006-03-31T20:23:00.000-08:00

Sorry to my political readers but as you know, there is another facet of my life that occasionally I need to address. Today is one of those days.

Gloria Monty, the former executive producer of General Hospital who made the couple Luke and Laura into iconic figures in pop culture as she saved that show from cancellation, died yesterday of cancer. She was a fascinating woman. She was a small and frail looking woman who could instill more fear in a person than a 4-Star General. She changed the face of daytime, turning the 'washboard weepers' into fast-paced action-packed episodes with sweeping romantic adventures, turning love-on-the-run into a soap staple -- copied by everyone else. She was an original. May she be creating some incredible soap opera in heaven with Irna Phillips, Douglas Marland and all the other tremendously talented people we've lost from this dying genre.

I Don’t Get It

2006-03-29T10:14:00.000-08:00

Kadima won the Israeli election. Apparently, Labor will be making up a large portion of the government as well, so much that some say Peretz could become prime minister. I realize there was low voter turnout but to my mind, this spells disaster. How can Israelis think Kadima and Labor are a recipe for success? Or am I completely wrong to be worried?

Politically Incorrect? Who Cares?

2006-03-27T10:08:00.000-08:00

On the run-up to the Israeli elections, I thought we could probably use some comic relief. So, when a friend of mine who lives in Italy sent me some Muslim jokes, I decided I would share the most offensive ones with you.

What do you say to a Muslim woman with two black eyes? Nothing! You told her twice already!

A Palestinian suspect was being grilled by Israeli police. "Honest, I'm not a suicide bomber," he pleaded. "I didn't say I wanted to blow myself up so I could sleep with 72 virgins. All I said was I was dying to get laid!"

What does the sign say above the nursery in a Palestinian maternity ward? "Live Ammunition."

Obviously, the word "offensive" is a relative term, and compared to the genocidal ideology of Hamas, the Hitlerian rantings of Mahmoud Amadinejad, and the carnage in Iraq, this sort of politically incorrect humor somehow seems to pale in comparison. But then, a lot of us probably felt the same way about those Danish cartoons.

Prime Minister Candidates Speak To AIPAC

2006-03-19T10:20:00.000-08:00

All three candidates for the job of Israeli prime minister had an opportunity to speak to the AIPAC delegates gathered at the 2006 policy conference. The following are my miniscule notes on all of the speeches.

Olmert: I found only one thing he said worthy of writing down. He called for a Palestinian state to be contiguous. I was appalled.

Peretz: They will not negotiate with someone who won't disarm. Israel will leave every option on the table. He finds that poverty is what's separating people. He stopped just short of calling for socialism. I was a bit appalled by him as well.

Netanyahu: I didn't even take any notes on him. Not sure why. He seemed to not be his usual blustery self. More tired, unkept... like he'd worked a full day and was staying up way past his bedtime to speak with us. I'm guessing he didn't say anything terribly egregious or I would have written it down, so no notes probably means I was okay with what he said. I know he's pretty controversial, but there really seems to be no good choice for Israelis. He really does seem to personify the idea of the lesser evil.

Diversion From AIPAC To Address Stupid Article

2006-03-15T11:09:00.000-08:00

I have to ask, WTF? So I’m checking out this article that says the Jericho raid was a blow to Abu Mazen’s prestige. WHAT?? And what was this smack?

"What happened is an unforgivable crime and an insult to the Palestinian people," Abbas said as he toured the complex.

If I’m not mistaken, for the last week or two, I’ve seen article after article with Abu Mazen threatening to release Israeli Cabinet Minister Rehavam Zeevi’s killers while at the same time saying he couldn’t guarantee what Israel would do if that release were to happen. I remember thinking, “Wow, he’s letting everyone know that if they’re released, Israel can/will kill them. Interesting.” But if he didn’t want Israel to take matters into their own hands, why constantly say you plan to release these men?

But what’s more, why the hell is AP accepting Mazen’s rhetoric of being “shocked” or “upset” about it all? And saying this “weakened” him as a leader is ridiculous. It’s like calling someone very dead. Once you’re dead, you can’t be very dead. Mazen has never proven to be anything but weak. Then again, I expect Mazen to be brazen with his inane rhetoric. I just didn’t realize AP wouldn’t mind looking galactically stupid.

AIPAC Policy Conference Speeches

2006-03-11T11:20:00.000-08:00

I finally found where they hide the transcripts! OK, so they aren't hidden. I'm just slow. But you can read Bolton's amazing speech, as well as many others, right here. I will still write up stuff from my take, as well as things of interest from some of the breakout sessions but I learned my lesson last year. I didn't take many notes this time since I realized everyone puts their speeches online. This year... I enjoyed.

David Kay: Former U.N. Weapons Inspector

2006-03-09T00:11:00.000-08:00

OK, disclaimers once again: keep in mind that I try my best with my notes but there is a chance I've misunderstood something, so don't hold me to it.

He said his reports were open to the public so every time they were released, the first three people in line were always representatives from Iraq, Iran, and North Korea -- so they know how to cheat.

He thinks it's impossible to ever have "surprise" inspections.

In Iraq, records were found of every fax sent to Vienna/New York -- actual faxes, not just electronic copies!

Non-proliferation treaty has lots of flaws. Once you have enrichment, you have military capability.

They lie about their true purpose, site locations, etc.

One thing you need to understand about countries like Iran/Iraq, is that there is no embarrassment about lying OR getting caught telling a lie.

Iran has best cloaking ability to hide their nuclear facilities.

OK, now some decent, if not good news:

IAEA finally knows they lie.

Inspectors do slow things down even if it is easy to circumvent inspectors. On the down side, International inspections can delay other actions that should probably be taken.

Inspections can't do:

Hard to tell when country has program. And then most importantly, by itself, they can't stop a country from making nuclear bombs.

*************
I wish I could remember the story he told about Hans Blix but suffice it to say, it illustrated why we've been in such a mess thanks to weapons inspectors.

AIPAC: Now Is The Time

2006-03-08T10:39:00.000-08:00

I’m back. My hope is to type up some notes later this afternoon, after work, but in the meantime, there is some stuff you guys can check out if you want. First off, the speech by Dick Cheney was positively historic. He vowed that the U.S. will not allow Iran to get a nuclear bomb. This was HUGE. If you can, catch it on C-SPAN or their Web site to see it or some of the other speeches for yourself. Another great one, which I’m hoping will have a transcript turn up, was John Bolton. Amazing! More later…

Off To Policy Conference

2006-03-03T19:31:00.000-08:00

Headed for the plane in a few minutes. Click on the ad I made on the right if you want to learn more about the AIPAC Policy Conference. I'm very excited to hear John Bolton speak, in addition to the many others. Will give reports when possible but it might not be before Wednesday, when I return. In the meantime, take care all!

Paradise Never

2006-03-02T16:22:00.000-08:00

Forget the film, Paradise Now, that's nominated for an Oscar. As we all know, it's a bunch of baloney. See the real thing here, final tapes of violent suicide bombers, ones that are raw and not gussied up for Hollywood glorification... see the villainy in all of its ugliness. Hat tip to Naomi Ragen.

Want To Help IDF Soldiers?

2006-02-27T11:26:00.000-08:00

Send them a pizza by clicking here.

Where Are The Protests?

2006-02-26T12:07:00.000-08:00

Naomi Ragen rightly points out that after the mosque was destroyed in Iraq, there were tons of articles written in understandable protest. But at the same time, the one functioning synagogue in Tajikistan was destroyed to make room for a presidential palace but barely anyone has heard about that. Shamsuddin Nuriddinov, head of the City of Dushanbe, Religious Affairs Department even made the callous comment that if the Jews want a new one, they can pay for it. Unreal.

It's Not Too Late To Stand Up For Israel

2006-02-24T21:53:00.000-08:00

March 5-7 is AIPAC's Policy Conference, where people like John Bolton, Dick Cheney, John Edwards and Newt Gingrich will be speaking to us about the latest happenings with Iran, Hamas, etc. I'll be there. I hope you will be too. Click on the ad I have made on the right nav bar to find out more.

Balata Refugee Camp Controversy

2006-02-23T09:26:00.000-08:00

I am seeing some coverage about the excursion made by the IDF into the Balata Refugee camp which resulted in more dead than any day since the Hamas election win (like that was so long ago??). But my favorite excerpt, which I added below, does a wonderful job of showing how most of the violent rhetoric out of the Palestinians is just foolhardy posturing that can't be backed up:

One of the dead is identified as a top fugitive interviewed by The Associated Press yesterday. He told the AP, "They will never catch me."

D'oh! First rule of thumb, young terrorist, is never say never. Course, he's not alive to be humiliated. We know how they hate that so.

Have We Learned Nothing?

2006-02-22T09:04:00.000-08:00

Yeah, yeah, I know the answer to that, don’t worry. So apparently a revered Shiite shrine has been bombed and in our usual, obliviously generous way, the US has offered to help rebuild it. What??? On what planet do we think that offer would be welcomed? Have we learned nothing over the last 5 years about how we’re viewed in that part of the world? I can’t see this offer being seen as anything more than completely offensive. Am I wrong?

Happy Presidents' Day

2006-02-20T10:11:00.000-08:00

Though I'm not terribly happy with some of our presidents and would-be's lately. It used to be the unwritten code that ex-presidents don't bad-mouth a sitting president. Of course, we all knew those days were over even before Coretta Scott King's funeral. It used to be considered bad form to go to another country and bad-mouth our country. Clinton called Iraq a "big mistake" while in Dubai, of all places. And now former presidential hopeful-turned-nutjob Al Gore decides to tell Arabs that we're mistreating them -- to an audience in Saudi Arabia -- the place where 15 of the 19 hijackers of 9-11 came from!

Is there a way to exclude them from the celebrations of this day?

Reporting From Inside The Palestinian Solidarity Conference

2006-02-20T08:19:00.000-08:00

GEORGETOWN -- February 18th 2005 [I think they meant 2006--esther]

Written by StandWithUs Campus professionals

We are still here in Washington D.C., having just attended the much anticipated Palestinian conference where approximately 200 students and community activists gathered to learn how to promote "divest from Israel" campaigns, how to work with the media and church groups, and how to frame campaigns that demonize Israel.

We cannot help but wonder why the people under the PSM umbrella did not gather to teach or learn how to improve the lives of ordinary Palestinians by building hospitals and schools or how to build peace-directed coalitions by promoting dialogue with pro-Israel, pro-peace advocates around the world. Nor did anyone address the tragic outcome of the recent Palestinian elections, or whether HAMAS will change its charter and work towards peace in the region. Instead, the sole purpose of this conference was to create campaigns that would hope to label Israel as a “pariah” state.

Many of the campaigns involved deception, and the agendas were the same as those in prior years, ignoring the fact that so much has changed in the Middle East during the last year in the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians. This conference simply ignored that so much has changed on the ground.

Non-violence was not high on their agenda. Opening panelist Philip Farah told the audience that Mahatma Ghandi had once said that “If the choice were between violence and submission, we would choose violence a thousand times.” And there was an acceptance of the art of deception throughout the conference. For example, opening panelists advised the audience to “inoculate” themselves against the charge of anti-Semitism by working with “Jews and Israelis.” The message was that when you have Jews on your team, you obviously cannot be accused of being anti-Jew.

Holding the conference on the Sabbath did not seem to trouble the two ultra-orthodox Neturei Karta rabbis who showed up and stayed all day so they could attend this conference. Neturei Karta and Hamas coincidentally have the same agenda-- they just come to it from different angles. Both want the the “dismantlement of the State of Israel.” The two rabbis were well known and greeted warmly by many of the conference leaders, speakers and participants. This is because many of the more radical Muslim groups on campuses invite Neturei Karta to speak to their student body about their vision of the end of the state of Israel.

Sadly, we found tee shirts, buttons and pins on sale at this conference that promoted the same extremist goals as Neturei Karta and HAMAS. As you can see from the photos included in this report, we found pins that depicted a fist clasping a machine gun, machine guns alone, and maps of Israel with the Territories all painted green with “Palestine” written on the entire map. The extremist message of the various maps was obviously Palestine INSTEAD of Israel, not NEXT to Israel. Simply put, this is what is meant by the term “Free Palestine.” Look at the pin showing a terrorist with a suicide belt holding two machine guns and a tag line that reads: “Revolution til victory.” And in case there remained any doubt, one could purchase tee shirts in a variety of colors with the words: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” This refers to the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The only land they are talking about would be Israel.

Granted, not all the vendors selling these messages in the form of pins or shirts represented the PSM conference organizers. The ones shown in this report were found at a table organized by the New Jersey (Palestine) Solidarity Movement. But we are certain that the PSM organizers would not have allowed the KKK to sell its paraphernalia at their conference because it would clearly have tainted the reputation of the PSM. Why, then, would they allow Charlotte Kates and the New Jersey Solidarity group to sell its radically violent materials that reflect the goal of eliminating Israel? You might remember Charlotte as the organizer of the controversial Rutgers conference two years ago. She was upset when her conference was moved off campus by Rutgers University. Maybe Rutgers administration saw Charlotte's pins.

All the sessions that we attended had a single end goal: demonize Israel to your local church, your campus, and your communities in order to convince them that they should push divestment from companies that do business in Israel. Create hatred for the Jewish state by linking it to images of Nazis and to South Africa’s apartheid system so that there is absolutely no question about Israel's guilt for everything that has ever gone wrong with the Palestinian people.

Participants were taught how to frame divestment, how to work with the media, how to manipulate church communities, etc, all for the purpose of creating a grassroots movement that will lead to Israel being seen as a pariah state. There were no references to the painful steps that Israel has taken by moving Jews from Gaza in order to make way for a Palestinian State. There was no reference to the Hamas victory unless it was brought up in questioning. There was never a hint of the attacks that led Israel to decide to build a security fence. Everything was presented out of context, as though Israel is deliberately erecting walls and checkpoints in order to harass the Palestinian people.

Some incredible examples of the training we witnessed that teach deception, follow:

Maher Bitar and Nadeem Muaddi told people how to infiltrate churches in order to gain support for an anti-Israel agenda. They emphasized “targeting” small churches that don’t have their own political agendas already. “Be patient about bringing up the divestment issue with your new Christian friends”, Mauddi advised. To win the congregants’ trust, he encouraged activists to deceive their new prospective friends by “looking and acting Christian.” “Dress conservatively,” he said. No kyffias, sandals or jeans. Instead, “men should wear button-down shirts, sports coats or khakis”. He went on to say that women should wear mid-length skirts with colored pantyhose. He told them to be well-groomed and to speak nicely, avoiding curse words and slang.” “Mind your manners." he said. "If someone sneezes, say ‘God Bless you. And always come bearing gifts, especially something from the Holy Land like holy water or rosary beads.” He further advised the activists to get involved in the church community. “Don’t look down on the church ladies’ clubs—join them”. All the participants regarded the Presbyterian vote (that has been considering divestment) as an exciting victory. They gave credit to Sabeel, the Palestinian Christian group that has worked hard to demonize Israel and promote divestment in North and South American mainline churches. The people in all these sessions seemed to welcome the advice about how to deceive and manipulate the churches so they could spread the virus of hatred through well meaning religious communities..

In another session, University of Wisconsin philosophy graduate student Mohammed Abed told participants that the two-state paradigm would never give Palestinians their full right to “cultural self-determination.” In order to flourish, he said, the Palestinians need access to the ENTIRETY of their homeland, not just the West Bank and Gaza. Abed was giving a clear message to eliminate Israel.

Other sessions focused on training college students how to work more effectively with the media and how to plan and implement divestment campaigns. Students were encouraged to monitor and become involved with the school paper and to make news dramatic enough so journalists would report the stories. The goal, of course, is to get the Palestinian message out—which is implicitly translated by the speakers at the PSM conference as the demonization of Israel. Students were also told to build coalitions in order to bring a multi-cultural face to their (anti-Israel) efforts. Even though this might mean that groups will have to listen to people with other agendas, that’s part of the way to build a larger group that will ultimately promote divestment or other anti-Israel agendas on campus.

The fact that this conference was about how to demonize Israel and how to make people want to punish Israel through divestment is deeply disturbing. Not just because it is wrapped around negative goals and the ultimate demise of one state, but also because the end goals centered on the necessity of deceiving people. There was no mention of suicide bombing unless it was brought up in questions, and the answers always referred to Israel’s responsibility for any acts of Palestinian terrorism and equated Israel’s methods of self defense with terrorist attacks.

The irony is that now, particularly on capital hill, Arab groups will begin working hard and fast to spin HAMAS, to push for the continuation of US funding for the Palestinians because after all, (they argue) its the Palestinian people that will be hurt by the US divesting from the newly elected Palestinian leadership. They will site examples like Iraq, how babies and ordinary people were hurt by divesting dollars from Iraq. And these same people will work endlessly to promote hatred and divestment from Israel, completely unconcerned about the effect on the ordinary Israeli citizen.

Israel is not perfect, and we all know that Israelis of all faiths and their supporters regularly debate policy. But the extremism represented at this conference does not lend itself to a discussion about how a Palestinian and a Jewish State can live peacefully side-by-side. Maybe one day there will be conferences held by people who don’t promote lies, hatred or divesting from one side in a conflict, but instead encourage honest dialogue and sincere reflection that will lead to stable peace in the region.

Not To Be Cartoon-Happy, But Still...

2006-02-18T19:33:00.000-08:00

Hat tip to my friend Scott for this lovely show of tolerance from the left, Harper's Magazine.

Aren't they a charming bunch?

Perspective -- Courtesy of My Pal Sahbra

2006-02-15T18:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day

2006-02-14T06:24:00.000-08:00

No, Rory didn't paint her cat just for today. But we thought Patches illustrated our sentiments -- we would like to wish everyone inside and Outside the Blogway a wonderful Valentine's Day. We're so happy you're our Valentines.

Palestinians Ransack Gush Katif Greenhouses

2006-02-12T21:00:00.000-08:00

Arnon Regular’s article in Ha'aretz is very revealing. Apparently, some 200 dunams of greenhouses in Gaza were overrun by dozens of armed Palestinians.

International donors had purchased the greenhouses for the benefit of the Palestinians. According to Palestinian sources, two militias affiliated with Fatah were hired by the PA to guard the greenhouses, which were all under cultivation. But instead, the guards decided to rob them. They used bulldozers to break the iron supports of the buildings' frames, then swarmed over the equipment inside, which included piping and irrigation computers. The damage to the greenhouses, meant to provide employment for hundreds of Palestinians, is irreparable, the sources said.

I wish I could say I’m surprised. As the saying goes, the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. I fully expect to hear spin any moment making this Israel's fault.

Tuesday: A Day Of Political Stumping

2006-02-08T17:23:00.000-08:00

And here I thought the former presidents and others attended a funeral to... like... actually bid farewell to a woman who had died. I didn't realize it was a time to forget her and make political jabs at the sitting president. Now that's class.

The U.S. Threat – Do Countries Care Anymore?

2006-02-06T11:16:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe there was once a time when losing financial support from the U.S. actually mattered. Those days are obviously over. Threats of sanctions to Iran have them laughing. Hamas gives a metaphorical middle finger to us over pulling funding from them due to their stance on Israel. They have no intention of mellowing and will seek funding elsewhere. Sucks to be irrelevant. Sucks worse to have genocidal maniacs like these regimes being allowed to draw breath.

An Update On My Pal's Sister

2006-02-03T07:40:00.000-08:00

I spoke to my friend about her sister today. The news knocked the wind out of me. The tumor is very agressive. They're thinking six months with surgery, 1/3 of that without. Please keep her in your prayers. Her sister and her family, including very young children, really need her.

Right Up There With Pali "Work Accidents"

2006-02-01T10:31:00.000-08:00

Palestinian sources said electricity was cut off in large parts of northern Gaza after two rockets aimed at Israel landed in Palestinian territory and struck a main electrical pole. (Ynet News)

A Thought-Provoking Article

2006-01-31T09:03:00.000-08:00

The whole article is excellent, but I found two items of keen interest from Ari Shavit’s piece in the New Yorker, "Watching Hamas," that I thought would be good for us to discuss.

Shalom Harari is a former Israeli military intelligence officer who has been following the rise of Hamas for almost a quarter century. While most TV channels were broadcasting scenes of Hamas celebrating its victory, Harari had tuned in to a seemingly tedious military ceremony on Egyptian state television. "Look at the wives of the generals," he said. "Many of them are wearing traditional head scarves. This was not so ten years ago. And this tells you where we are heading. When the women of Egypt's pro-Western military elite are dressed like that, you know that the Hamas victory is not about Palestine. It's about the entire Middle East."

And then there is this one….

The impact of the Hamas victory, he said, is not local but regional. "As we speak, there are growing fears not only in Israel but in Jordan, Egypt, and even Syria. The Hamas victory is a Middle East earthquake. Its shock waves will be felt in every town between Casablanca and Baghdad."

One Life, Many Voices For Hurricane Relief

2006-01-27T19:29:00.000-08:00

Please read this post and even spread the word. One Life, Many Voices is a wonderful CD, a true labor of love that has been done by the actors on the soap opera, "One Life To Live," wanting so desperately to find a way to help. Everyone lent their voices for free, as did all aspects of production, lawyer fees, etc, all to raise money to help those affected by the hurricanes of 2005. So if you've been looking for a way to donate that could help our friends and loved ones down South, try this and get some beautiful music in return.

Dark Day

2006-01-26T09:19:00.000-08:00

Not sure how else this could have turned out...the elections in the Palestinian territories. Was there really a win scenario? I don't think so. At least Hamas says out loud their intentions where the PA just did backroom deals, having Fatah do their dirty work. There is no peace partner. There never was.

Just When You Thought I Had No More To Say On Munich

2006-01-23T21:06:00.000-08:00

My fabulous pal who took me to see Munich for free gets a hat tip for letting me know the “writer,” if you can call him that, Tony Kushner, decided to try to stick up for his sorry self in an article in – surprise, surprise – The L.A. Times.

Here are only a few bits and pieces of the whole article, but they're the ones I had specific comments for...

There is no definitive account of what was, after all, a covert operation. But no one is challenging the central historical fact in the debate that "Munich" is meant to catalyze: These Palestinians were assassinated by Israel, following the Palestinian murder of the Israeli athletes in Munich.

So the athletes were murdered, but their murderers were assassinated??

I've never killed anyone, but my instincts as a person and a playwright — and the best books I've read about soldiers or cops or people whose jobs bring them into violent physical conflict — suggest that people in general don't kill without feeling torn up about it. Violence exacts a psychic toll, unless you're a sociopath, and who wants to watch a movie about sociopaths?

He misses the point. The fact is, the killing of the PLO murderers was righteous, hence why there was no need for conflict or guilt. Sort of like when he writes. Does he feel guilt when he has to cut out a paragraph that wasn’t well written? I think not. If you let yourself get too emotional in your job (whatever it may be), it makes it that much harder to do it well.

Here was another gem:

In the film, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is presented not as a matter of religion versus religion, or sanity versus insanity, or good versus evil or civilization versus barbarism or Judeo-Christian culture versus Muslim culture, but rather as a struggle over territory, over geography, over home.

Yes, true. THAT is what is wrong. That is not what the Middle East conflict is about and it’s his inability to grasp that has the rest of us exasperated. The Palestinians don’t care about a home of their own. That’s leftist baloney. Read their charter! They say what they want clear as day – “From the river to the sea…” They want Jews GONE. It really is that simple. They don’t want a homeland next to Israel but rather in place of Israel. He just doesn’t get that.

"Munich" insists that this characteristic of human behavior is not meaningless in the struggle against terrorism. In other words, we believe that one aspect of the struggle against terrorism is the struggle to comprehend terrorism. If you think understanding the enemy is unimportant, well, maybe there's a job in Washington for you.

And if he thinks he understands terrorism, I have a wonderful little bridge to sell him.

My Mouth Is Hanging Open

2006-01-22T10:31:00.000-08:00

After one of my worst night's in a while (this bug is not going away), I woke up this morning to watch my TiVo'd Fox News Sunday. I'm fast forwarding the commercials when I see something quickly flash by that looked like the cover of "The Third Terrorist" book. But it wasn't. It was for a book called "Jerusalem Countdown." As I watch the commercial, I hear about it being a warning of a nuclear showdown between Iran and Israel. Then the kicker.. "This is a wake-up call for Christians to stand in absolute solidarity with Israel." While I realize people feel this way, it was a shock to my half-awake ears to hear it in a voice-over like that on a commerical. Had to hit pause and run to my computer to quickly blog about it while it was fresh in my head! Has anyone else seen this ad or this book? Wild.

Israel... Straight To The Point

2006-01-20T15:32:00.000-08:00

From my friend Paul: Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, says Israel is an alien implantation whose people should return to Europe or perhaps settle in Alaska. So it is an irony that Israel's president, Moshe Katzav, is in fact a Farsi-speaker born in Iran. Ditto Israel's defence minister, Shaul Mofaz, who is doubtless preoccupied nowadays with how to destroy Iran's nuclear programme. He is advised by Dan Halutz, Israel's former air-force commander and now chief of staff. Lieut-General Halutz was born in Israel, both his parents in Iran. They seem to have taught him a sense of humour. Asked how far Israel would go to stop Iran's nuclear programme, he replied "two thousand kilometres".

Mazen Is Too Much

2006-01-19T07:41:00.000-08:00

Another suicide bombing (or work accident, since it happened in the bathroom) occurred in a restaurant in Tel Aviv, near the old central bus station. Abu Mazen's reaction? "This is sabotage and aimed at sabotaging the elections, not only the elections, but also the security of Palestinians." So Islamic Jihad's maiming Israelis was really about destabilizing security for Palestinians? If I connected dots like that in school, I'd get an F.

The Master Speaks

2006-01-17T08:46:00.000-08:00

One of the great strategic minds on counter-terror in Israel, Boaz Ganor, has written an article entitled, Israel continues to face three strategic terrorist threats . It is wise to listen to him.

If You Could...

2006-01-16T19:10:00.000-08:00

We make many friends in cyberspace. I was lucky enough to meet one of mine in New York City several years ago. We had an awesome time, and I even got the chance to meet and spend time with her sister, who had accompanied my friend to the big city on this rare trip. Yesterday, my dear friend told me her sister has learned that she has a large mass in her brain. Sister is a young mom. Please add her to your prayers. You guys are capable of amazing things.

Sick as a Dog

2006-01-14T21:01:00.000-08:00

That would be me. And working two full time jobs... no days off this week cause I was called in to one job on my one day off, that being today, for six hours for a seminar. Can't even bring myself to comment on my own blog. Want to sleep or at least cough some more. Where's the tissue box? Miss you guys. Stay healthy.

The Threat That Is Iran’s President

2006-01-10T09:35:00.000-08:00

You need to read Daniel Pipes’s article, The Mystical Menace of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It’s not that long, but it’s an eye-full.

Vote For The Greatest Moonbat

2006-01-08T16:49:00.000-08:00

Our buddies at Democracy Frontline need our help, so please go vote.

I've Been Tagged!

2006-01-08T14:16:00.000-08:00

Always On Watch has tagged me with the latest germ being passed around the blogosphere--the Childhood Meme.

My life as a child (under 15) in 50 words or less: I was the third out of three girls. A pain in the ass to my sisters, no doubt. I'm very grateful to them for letting me live cause had they done the same to me, I probably would have smacked them upside their heads. I was such a brat.

Where were you a kid? Silver Spring, MD... inside the beltway, btw.

Given the choice, were you barefoot or shoed [sic]? Barefoot whenever possible.

Were you a city kid or a country kid? Suburban, a couple of miles from the D.C. line.

Stupidest thing you did before the age of 15: Gee, so much to choose from. Hmm...I browbeated Big Sister (who's like 5 years older) to take me out rolling (toilet-papering a house) with her and her friends for her high school homecoming duties (she was a cheerleader--they hit the football players houses). She did one round without me and then returned to the house. When the gal who was supposed to pick her up to do more didn't show, I was allowed to go with to do her house. Well, apparently no one ever gets to finish her house cause her neighbor always catches them and calls the police. A cop came, caught my sister's best friend's younger sister (tho older than me) and threatened to take her to the police station if the rest of us didn't come out. Being I was only 10, I thought he was really going to do it so I came out of my hiding space. Big Sister was like, "oh shit, now I have to come out because my little sister did." The funny part is that he took us to my folks' house, who were away on vacation having left my sister in charge. The cop insisted on calling them. There wasn't a phone in their room so the manager of the hotel had to wake them. My mother was PISSED. She was like, "Is anyone hurt? (No) Are the people whose house they did pissed? (No, they were thrilled someone finally finished and decided to leave it up til the morning) Then get out of my house." And I think she hung up after that, lol. We tease my mom all the time that she's great when the big things happen but G-d forbid you forget to bring up the paper towels when she asks.....

Do you know how to play Kick the Can? Yes, but never really did it.

What else did you play in groups? Swim team, basketball.... and I believe I always played Sabrina in a game of Charlie's Angels.

Worst injury? I would say when I fell down on glass and got stitches. That was probably worse than when I fell off the skate board and skinned my knee (still have that scar too) cause I thought the knee pads I had weren't cool enough to wear.

Do you agree with Bob Seger’s line in Against the Wind, “I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then”? I prefer reality these days to the fantasy world I lived in as a kid.

I'm not going to tag anyone but if you want to do it, feel free to say you're going to and leave a link here for everyone to check it out.

Ariel Sharon Timeline For Reference

2006-01-07T14:33:00.000-08:00

The Life and Accomplishments of Ariel Sharon

Written by Gilead Ini of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA.org). This timeline may be reprinted without CAMERA's permission.

Feb. 27, 1928: Born in Kfar Malal, a Jewish-owned agricultural community (or moshav) north of Tel Aviv where his parents, Samuel and Vera Scheinerman, settled after fleeing the Red Army in Russia.

Aug. 23-26, 1929: Arab anti-Jewish violence erupts across British Mandate Palestine. Rioters destroy several Jewish communities, but unlike in 1921, when Kfar Malal was razed by Arabs, Sharon's moshav survives.

1942: Joins the Haganah, a militia formed to defend Jewish villages against Arab attacks.

1947-49: After the United Nations votes to partition Palestine into two states (one Arab and one Jewish), Arabs renew anti-Jewish attacks; Sharon joins Israeli army.

May 1948: Takes part in battle for Latrun to break the siege of Jerusalem during Israel’s War of Independence and is seriously wounded.

1953: Father of Counter-Terrorism. Heads Commando Unit 101, formed after repeated Arab infiltrations kill hundreds of Israelis. The unit specializes in counter-terror strikes behind enemy lines. Sharon invents many counter-terror methods still in use today.

October 1953: Two Arabs infiltrate Israel from Jordanian-occupied West Bank town of Kibya, murdering a woman and her two young children. In retaliation, Sharon’s Unit 101 raids the town and destroys 42 houses. Although Sharon says the demolished houses appeared to have been evacuated, Jordan reports sixty-nine civilians killed in the operation.

1956: As raids against Israel from the West Bank and Gaza Strip continue, Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal and blockades the Straits of Tiran to Israeli ships. This prompts a British-French-Israeli invasion of the Sinai peninsula. Sharon is criticized for disobeying orders while taking part in the invasion.

1962: Wife Margalit dies in car accident.

1967: Egypt's Nasser again blockades the Straits of Tiran, expels UN peace-keeping troops from the Sinai Peninsula and masses troops on Egypt's border with Israel. From Golan Heights, Syria bombards Israeli settlements with mortars. Israel reacts on June 5 with a pre-emptive attack against Egypt. Sharon, in command of an armored division, is pivotal in Israel's success on the Egyptian front.

October 1967: Eleven-year-old son Gur dies, accidentally shot by a friend playing with an antique rifle.

1971: Sharon is given assignment to fight terror emanating from the Gaza Strip. Arab attacks go from 34 in June to one in December.

1973: Retires from military and helps found Likud, a new coalition of political parties. He rejoins military and is instrumental in repulsing the Egyptian-Syrian surprise attack. After the war, Sharon is elected to the Israeli Knesset.

December 1974: Resigns from Knesset.

June 1975-Feb. 1976: Serves as advisor to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

1976: Forms new political party, Shlomtzion.

1977: Shlomtzion wins two Knesset seats, and merges with Menachem Begin's Likud.

1977-81: Sharon serves as Minister of Agriculture. Spurred by security and ideological considerations, he expands Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

1981-83: Serves as Defense Minister. During his term, he oversees the evacuation of Israeli settlements in the Sinai, which Israel turns over to Egypt as part of peace treaty.

1982: Oversees Israeli invasion of Lebanon, where the PLO has a multi-thousand-man army, in an attempt to halt terror attacks and to rid Beirut of Syrian troops. After Palestinian terrorists shoot and wound Israeli ambassador to Britain Shlomo Argov in June, Israel launches "Operation Peace for the Galilee" and invades Lebanon. The PLO retreats from Lebanon, and Syrian troops evacuate Beirut.

August 1982: Bashir Gemayel, a Lebanese Christian, is elected president of Lebanon, but is assassinated before taking power.

September 1982: Israel assigns its ally, the Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia, the mission of rooting out remaining terrorist cells in two Palestinian refugee camps, Sabra and Shatila. Phalangists kill not just terrorists, but civilians as well.

Feb. 8, 1983: Israeli investigation into events at Sabra and Shatila, the Kahan commission report (http://tinyurl.com/e3wt8), finds that "absolutely no direct responsibility devolves upon Israel or upon those who acted in its behalf," but says Israel is indirectly responsible because it did not consider the danger posed by the Phalangists and did not restrain them after hearing reports about a massacre. The commission concludes that Sharon had "disregarded the danger of acts of vengeance and bloodshed by the Phalangists against the population of the refugee camps" and failed to order "appropriate measures" to prevent or reduce the danger.

Feb. 14, 1983: Sharon resigns as Defense Minister.

Feb. 21, 1983: Time magazine claims a secret "Appendix B" to the Kahan commission report details a discussion between Sharon and the Gemayel family during which Sharon "discussed with the Gemayels the need for Phalangists to take revenge for the assassination of Bashir" Gemayel. Sharon denies the claim and files a libel suit against Time.

Jan. 14, 1986: A U.S. court finds that Time defamed Sharon with false information in the February 1983 article.

1990-92: Appointed Minister of Housing and Construction. Heads program to absorb thousands of Russian immigrants.

1996: Appointed National Infrastructure minister

1997: Appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs.

October 1998: Participates in negotiations with Palestinian Authority at Wye Mills, MD. Under "Wye Accords" agreement, Israel agrees to redeploy from 13 percent of "Area C" in the West Bank, and Palestinians agree to prevent terrorism, collect illegal weapons, outlaw terrorist organizations, and end incitement.

September 1999: Elected chairman of Likud party.

Aug. 3, 2000: Palestinian Media Watch raises concerns about "eve of war atmosphere" generated by official Palestinian media outlets.
http://tinyurl.com/dh6rk

Sept. 18, 2000: Israel radio reports Palestinian Authority releasing prisoners, including terrorists, for extended furloughs.

Sept. 27, 2000: Bomb explodes near Israeli convoy in Gaza Strip, killing one soldier. The following day, an Israeli patrol is ambushed.

Sept. 28, 2000: Sharon visits the Temple Mount, the most sacred site of Judaism. He does not enter any Islamic mosques. After he leaves, Palestinian stone-throwers attack Israeli police. Later in the day, Palestinian rioters clash with Israeli troops in Jerusalem and Ramallah.

Sept. 29, 2000: A Palestinian on joint patrol with an Israeli soldier in the West Bank kills the soldier. Palestinians in Jerusalem's old city attack Jewish worshipers at Western Wall and Israeli police. In the ensuing clashes, four Palestinians are killed.

Feb. 6, 2001: Elected Prime Minister.

May 4, 2001: International commission set up to investigate cause of violence releases "Michell Report," which concludes that "the Sharon visit did not cause the 'Al-Aqsa Intifada.' "

March 27, 2002: A terrorist attack on a Passover Seder in Netanya kills 30, including elderly Holocaust survivors. Terrorist fatalities rose to 452 in 2002 with the number of injured reaching 2,309.

March 28, 2002: Sharon launches Operation Defensive Shield to root out terrorist bases in the West Bank.

June 16, 2002: Israel begins building security fence.

April 2003: The U.S., E.U., Russia and the U.N. propose a road map to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace.

May 2003: Sharon's government accepts the road map with 14 conditions

2004: Israel continues to build security fence, which is credited with helping to reduce sharply the number of terrorist attacks.

Feb. 20, 2005: Route of fence altered in wake of Israel Supreme Court ruling.

Aug. 14-Sept. 12, 2005: Sharon achieves disengagement from Gaza. Israeli settlers and troops evacuate Gaza Strip and four settlements in West Bank.

Nov. 21, 2005: Establishes centrist Kadima party after quitting Likud. In the weeks that follow, politicians from across the political spectrum join Kadima, and polls predict the party will win in upcoming elections.

Dec. 18, 2005: Suffers mild stroke, returns to work few days later.

Jan. 4, 2005: Suffers massive stroke.

My Take On Munich

2006-01-05T21:10:00.000-08:00

I didn't pay, don't worry. Got in free with someone from the Writers' Guild. And boy did he have questions for me after the movie ended. That said, here's my take.

Let's start at the very beginning. Flashing across the screen were the words, 'Inspired by real events.' Why not just say the truth? Inspired -- but it's FICTION. That I could have respected. As my bf said, all people will catch are the words real and events. He's probably right.

The film had fine production values... just a questionable script. In the beginning, they show a bit of what happened in Munich but not all. Yet as I watched it and Hatikva played, I found myself getting very emotional. But a strange thing happened by the end, when they showed what "really" happened to the athletes. The movie had been so violent, just like the characters, I had become immune to the violence and the deaths of the athletes did nothing to me but rather I really saw myself detaching to the point that I was noticing the lightening, the other production parts... I was numb. I'm guessing that was sort of the point, but if I'm not engaged in the film anymore, that's really not a great way to make a point. And it's not like I am one to not lose myself in a movie. Hell, I will lose it at well done commercials. I'm a sap. I love losing "me" and getting so into what I'm watching. So if I had that reaction, I'm guessing almost everyone did. Beak?

The movie was very graphic... very graphic with the killings, with sex, dead naked bodies, etc. I felt about Spielberg doing that the same way I laugh at every former female child star having to get caught partying and posing nude in Maxim. So desperate to shed their former persona that they're shouting, "Look world, I've changed!" Spielberg, you're still simplistic. Showing naked bodies and graphic violence doesn't mean your movie-making has matured. Get over it.

Another thing that bothered me was that Palestinians were allowed to make their case, spew their lies and no one in the movie challenged them! Things like the PLO thug saying things like Israelis spill Palestinian blood, all they want is a homeland, a nation (rather than dead Jews), then one of the Mossad said, "We've acted like Europeans toward the Palestinians! Another lovely moment was when one of the team said the only blood that matters is Jewish blood. What??? What a bunch of propaganda hooey! Now anyone who doesn't know any better is going to think what they said is the gospel. For that alone, he deserves to have his Jew card revoked! (No, we don't really do that but you get what I mean.) And no, Schindler's List doesn't make up for that. Only SS could make a movie about the Holocaust and tell it from a gentile's point of view! Would people have embraced Hotel Rwanda had it been told from the useless white UN worker, Nick Nolte's, point of view??? I can't imagine the African-American community not being up in arms about that if it had happened that way. Anyway, I digress.

Then we get Castro's stooge (SS) saying that the CIA paid the mastermind, Salameh, not to kill American diplomats and when Avner and his men were set to do the hit, 3 Americans messed it up, most likely Salameh's CIA buddies. As far as I know (and feel free to correct me), this is soooooooo NOT true! He really made the US look pretty horrible in this movie. But that shouldn't be a shock coming from Spielberg. I'm sure many of you will have comments about this point!

They were also very big on showing how scared the terrorists were, in an effort to humanize them.

They constantly had people making speeches -- pontificating on SS's liberal, pie-in-the-sky, cycle of violence bullshit. At one point, I leaned over to my friend and asked him, "Isn't this getting a bit redundant (showing each killing)?" He was like, no, he was into it. After the movie ended, he said about a minute after I asked that, it totally hit him and he felt the exact same way. Made me giggle.

All in all, unless you want to raise your blood pressure...take a pass.

Sharon Has 'Significant' Stroke

2006-01-04T13:54:00.000-08:00

Holy shit. My prayers are with him....and with Israel.