Professor Ruth Wisse: The Arab War Against the Jews

Mike L.

{Cross-Posted at Geoffff's Joint and the Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers.}

Harvard Professor of Yiddish and Literary Studies, Ruth Wisse, is the author of the very important work, Jews and Power.  I've put a recent video of Professor Wisse on the right side-bar of Israel Thrives and will leave it there for a week or so.  I would very much encourage you guys to give her a close listen because her view is both pristine and correct.  This is someone who is not the least bit muddled in her thinking on the Long Arab War Against the Jews.

This conflict is not a conflict between equals.  It is an aggression from the much larger Arab-Muslim population in the Middle East toward their former dhimmis and slaves.  It represents a hatred toward pluralism in that part of the world by the Arab majority and the refusal to accept the legitimacy of another people on their own land.

She argues, correctly, that anti-Zionism is actually worse than anti-Semitism because it incorporates all that anti-Semitism is while expanding it to deny Jewish sovereignty and Jewish self-defense on the land where Jews historically came from.

She also maintians that the organization of politics around hatred for the Jew within the Muslim Middle East, as well as within the international left, is not really about the Jews, at all, but about opposition to liberal democracy.  The Jewish State of Israel is merely a proxy.  It is a fashionable target through which opposition to liberal democracy, and therefore the United States, organizes itself.

One thing is certain, if political anti-Semitism, which is the very definition of anti-Zionism, means anything it means portraying Jews as a villain, either as Jews, individually, or in the collective, for the purpose of building political bridges with others around a common hatred.

My problem with the international left, and with "progressive Zionists," the political movements that I come out of, is that they accept the fundamental notion of Jewish guilt upon which the entire ideological structure of political anti-Zionist anti-Semitism is built.

In this way, whatever their best intentions, they nonetheless promote the kind of hostility toward us that results in violence and mass killings and war.

Until we recognize that we are not guilty of the charges leveled against us (and we aren't) then we can never convince anyone else of this truth and therefore we can never relieve ourselves of this perpetual hostility.

If "as-a-Jew" you tend to think that the Jews of the Middle East, via the government of Israel, is persecuting the Arabs under an imperialistic "Occupation" then you are promoting hatred toward us based on false grounds.  There is no "Occupation."  There is 6 million Jews surrounded by 400 million Arabs and those Jews want nothing so much in this world other than to be left the hell alone.

What you call the "Occupation" is nothing other than the means of an historically abused minority to finally protect itself from a much larger and hostile majority population in a part of the world where, outside of Israel, itself, very few people share your alleged values of "social justice" and "human rights."

British fascists disrupt Israeli official's lecture

Mike L.

British students turn against Israel: Dozens of hecklers prevent deputy ambassador from getting word in at University of Essex. Jerusalem: 'The situation on campuses is grim’

Protests against Israel on UK university campuses are growing: Dozens of students disrupted last week a speech by Israel’s Deputy Ambassador to Britain Alon Roth-Snir at the Essex University, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Thursday.

A lecture scheduled to be given by Daniel Taub, the Ambassador to Britain, was also cancelled at the University of North Ireland, due to fear of disturbances.

Roth-Snir’s speech was scheduled at the invitation of the University of Essex’s Middle East club. But before the deputy ambassador had begun speaking, dozens of Pro-Palestinian students besieged the hall in which the lecture was to take place. They were eventually pushed out by security personnel.

Yet as Roth-Snir began to speak, some 30 students began to call out against Israel, labeling it a “criminal apartheid state,” and preventing the Israeli official from getting a word in.

Every once in awhile someone will (here, there, or elsewhere) say something to the effect of, "It's starting to look like 1930s Germany all over again!" or something quite like that.

My immediate reaction tends to be one of withdrawal.  Whenever I hear or read someone say something along those lines I almost always tend to think of it as a severe overreaction.  But now I am seriously beginning to wonder if I have not been mistaken.

It should come as no surprise to people that Nazism was exceedingly popular among the university student population in Germany at the time.  The reason for that is because Nazism was a highly idealistic movement.  The National Socialists... and they were socialists, after all... were not just knuckle-dragging thugs, but were often very well regarded intellectuals, philosophers, and scientists.

From their perspective, much like the perspective of today's anti-Zionists and Israel Haters, the Jews were something akin to evil and that they needed to be severely dealt with for the best benefit of the down-trodden German people and for humanity as a whole.  This is pretty much what BDSers think, as well, if you simply switch-out the word "Jew" for the word "Zionist."

All these people on places like Daily Kos or the Huffington Post or the UK Guardian and throughout the progressive-left blogosphere and within the universities and the various left-leaning magazines and newspapers, such as the New York Times, honestly believe that the Jews of the Middle East, via the government of Israel, are the aggressors against the innocent "indigenous" Arab population. They know nothing of Jewish history in the Middle East but they love the moral schadenfreude in portraying the Palestinian-Arabs as the New Jews and the Palestinian-Jews as the New Nazis.

My guess is that it relieves them of whatever residual guilt some people may have concerning the long history of western persecution of the Jews among them.  But whatever the psychological reasons that may play a role, there is no question but that every generation they tell one another just why it is that we deserve a good beating... before they give us a good beating.  This generation is no exception.  If you were to speak with your average progressive-left anti-Zionist or Israel Hater they would probably acknowledge, most of them, that in the past the Jews have gotten a raw deal and did not deserve all the various pogroms and persecutions and mass killings and expulsions.

But that was then and this is now.

Now, apparently, we honestly do deserve whatever beatings that are dished out by the majority population in either Europe or the Arab-Muslim Middle East, or both.  Yes, we were innocent in the past, but we are not innocent today and therefore if millions of Arabs want to kill "Zionists" it's because the Jewish state represents an aggressive cancer within the pure greater Arab nation.

But that's more or less equivalent to what the Nazis thought, too, now isn't it?

The pattern repeats.

Dreyfus Downunder

geoffff

Anyone from an old Australian family can talk about our relatives and I am no exception. The contributions they made to the advancement and defence of our country,  in peace time and in war, and the sacrifices they made.  Common decency forbids it. One thing is for sure. I'll match my family's  record, and  that of Australian Jewry in general, with that  of  AFR international editor, and all round scum bag Tony Walker, any day of the week and any hour of the day.

Right now the Australian military is actively recruiting specialist officers  and others in Britain from the Royal Navy and Air Force made redundant by defence cuts. That in itself should tell you something about the British commitment to the defence of humankind. Let alone Britons.

How many Brits and New Zealanders are there in our armed forces and for that matter in the security and intelligence agencies?  I would  argue that Australian interests have less in common with Britain than with say, the US and Canada, and that Australian foreign and defense policies are less aligned with either Britain or New Zealand  and that has been the case ever since the Kiwis tore up their part of ANZUS and decided the best policy for them was to bludge off us.

For that matter the Israelis are as well. Can the the Israelis help in this filthy war? Answer the question yourself.

So we shun them. Treat them as aliens as if they are enemies of our state. As if their enemies are not our enemies. Are we insane?

Are these British  recruits  refused Australian passports? Would anybody have the unmitigated gall to accuse these serving officers of suspect loyalties?

I will tell you something else that is true. Anyone who wants to question my loyalty as an Australian had better do it from a distance. Because I'll come looking for you.  Something else. I have never felt more like a stranger in my own country than I do right now.

Assault on Australian Jewry

By Gabriel Sassoon

This week, public discourse over the Zygier affair in Australia has reached a fever pitch, this time over Dreyfus-style allegations about the “dual loyalties” of Jewish Australians. The neutral-sounding phrase, which at on first hearing could apply to people of any ethnic or national origin, in practice acts as a canard almost exclusively and reflexively leveled at Jews. 

Implying disloyalty is a convenient − and familiar − way to impugn the integrity of Diaspora Jews. It attacks their very identity. There are legitimate, substantive questions about dual Australian-Israel citizen Ben Zygier’s treatment by the Israelis and his alleged use of an Australian passport for foreign intelligence purposes. These questions, far from being unanswerable, ought to be separated, unpacked, and dealt with. But Zygier isn’t alleged to have worked to undermine Australian interests abroad. Working for a foreign army or intelligence service does not contravene Australian law.

While the Australian security service ‏(ASIO‏) and the Mossad have been embarrassed by the story, the apoplectic reaction from certain elements in the Australian media would drive anyone to believe Zygier had stolen nuclear codes and defected to North Korea. Clearly the Mossad has no monopoly on the use of foreign passports for espionage, but it seems clear that because it’s the Mossad and not the CIA, and because Zygier was a Jew, that the affair has been referred to in terms of a “betrayal” or “double dealing.” The sheer vindictiveness of these accusations brings us to the broader charge of “dual loyalty” against Jewish Australians and other Diaspora Jews.

First, Zygier is one man, and whatever he did or did not do should not be used to impugn the loyalty of all Jews. Jewish Australians are among Australia’s most loyal citizens. They love their country, and regard their Australian identity with deep pride. That is why the blanket intimation of disloyalty made by the Australian Financial Review’s international editor, Tony Walker, stings: “Australian passport holders who enjoy the privileges of citizenship might reflect on the sacrifices made on their behalf over the years by those who fought and died for the country in various conflicts.”

This suggestion of a purely instrumental view of citizenship without duties intentionally ignores the contributions of Jewish Anzacs ‏(Australia and New Zealand Army Corps soldiers in World War I‏) and other Jewish Australians who served in the country’s other wars. Like Gregory Sher, a Jewish Australian soldier killed recently in Afghanistan. Many of these unquestionably loyal Australians were no doubt also great supporters of the Jewish state.

Although this should suffice, for some it is still not enough. Suspicions unlikely to be aired against Australians of French, Greek, British or American extraction have been aired openly and vigorously against Australian Jews. Indeed, one opinion writer has gone so far as to write: “A Jewish person can’t faithfully be Australian and Israeli,” but a week previously, he wrote that “Many Australians would not be alarmed if Australians were serving in Britain’s MI6 or America’s CIA, or with other allies.”

A simmering suspicion of Jews, and especially of pro-Israel Jews, remains. The dual loyalty canard always contains elements of anti-Semitism. The accusers are often from among a certain class of estranged Jews who seek to loudly “prove” their loyalty to their adoptive country by casting suspicion on other Jews’ loyalty. But you only have to read the online reader feedback − much of it so hateful it beggars belief − to observe how the basest elements in society have responded to the Judeophobia of the “dual loyalty” mob.

It is simply un-Australian to query the loyalty of a group of citizens on the basis of their ethno-religious/national affiliation. And it should be truly unacceptable to attack all Jewish Australians on the basis of the alleged actions of just one man. Without marginalizing these views, we are incapable of dealing with the substantive issues of the Zygier case in the serious, rational way it deserves. 

Gabriel Sassoon was a campaign coordinator for the Labor Party in the last election and served as public affairs director for Advancing Human Rights, a New York-based NGO. He is Australian and lives in Tel Aviv.

cross posted Geoffff's Joint

Oxford students vote down Israel boycott

Mike L. 

The Oxford University's student union has rejected a motion to impose a ban on Israeli products and companies. 

According to several media outlets, the students rejected the motion with a majority vote of 69 against, 10 in favor and 15 abstaining. 

A second motion, proposing that the student union join the global boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS) was also voted down, with the same result.

Seeing how both motions failed, they will not be presented to the National Union of British Students conference in April.

A bit of sunshine on a cloudy day.

My guess is that Galloway gave us a few points on that campus.

Latest Piece for The Jewish Thinker

Mike L.

Mahmoud Abbas and Progressive-Left Racists Spread the Blood-Libel

Abbas claims that Israel tortured an Arab prisoner to death and the progressive-left laps it up like cream.

Hagel Confirmed as Secretary of Defense

Mike L. 

Chuck Hagel’s painful, prolonged and divisive nomination battle in the Senate finally ended Tuesday, but it is only a prelude to the national-security challenges that will greet him on his first day of work at the Pentagon.

Hagel is scheduled to be sworn in Wednesday as secretary of defense after he scraped together enough support to win Senate confirmation by a 58 to 41 vote. Until the very end, he had to overcome fierce opposition from pro-Israel groups and a filibuster led by fellow Republicans who neither forgot nor forgave his withering criticism of the George W. Bush administration’s handling of the war in Iraq.

The above link is to the Washington Post, but it is a lie.

There was no "fierce opposition from pro-Israel groups."

Morton Klein of the Zionist Organization of America stood up.

A few other Jewish groups snapped out of their vegetable torpor in time to scratch their heads, but that was basically it.

There was no "fierce opposition."

There was nothing even remotely close to "fierce opposition."

And now, due to American Jewish progressive-left ideological blindness, we have the first openly anti-Semitic Secretary of Defense in modern times; a man who favors Iran and Hamas and Hezbollah over the Jews in the Middle East.

"Progressive Zionists" should be very proud.

{Fools.}

Gazan Arabs Launch Rocket Into Israel

Mike L.

For the first time since Operation Pillar of Defense in November, a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip struck Israel on Tuesday. There were no injuries.

The rocket fired at Ashkelon was of the advanced Grad type, which can reach up to 80 kilometers (50 miles). The rocket was fired from the Rafah area of the southern Gaza Strip.

It is the first time a rocket has been fired at Israel since the end of Operation Pillar of Defense three months ago. The alarm sirens in Ashkelon did not go off as the rocket was fired. Alon Shuster of the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council told Israel Radio that he demanded that an investigation be launched into why the alert did not sound.

The Fatah military wing, the Al-Aqsa Brigades, claimed responsibility, saying the attack was a response to the "assassination" in prison of Arafat Jaradat. A top official in the Palestinian Authority security apparatus told Israel Hayom that a rocket launch from the Gaza Strip could only have taken place with a "green light" from Hamas.

It seems to me that we have absolutely got to stop putting up with this kind of thing.

Would any other sovereign nation allow rocket fire at its citizenry?

Do you think that the United States or China or Russia would put up with this kind of thing for even one moment?

How many children in southern Israel need to get Post Traumatic Stress Disorder before the government of Israel stands up for its people?  All throughout last year southern Israel was bombarded by Arab rocketeers and virtually no one outside of Israel gave a damn.  Certainly the president of the United States did not care, otherwise he might not have been so quick to save Hamas from Israeli retaliation last November when literally hundreds of rockets were fired into the country.

I am sick to death of the fact that Jews perpetually take it on the chin and the very moment that we stand up for ourselves we are called "fascists" by progressive-left morons.

The Palestinian-Arabs have got stop trying to kill Jews and if they refuse then we need to make them stop.

If they cannot find it within themselves to cease fourteen centuries of violence toward us then we need to compel them to stop while we still have the ability to do so, because, I tell ya, if we refuse to honestly defend ourselves we may, at some point in the not too distant future, lose the ability to do so.

Jewish group slams 'Ted' Oscars sketch

Mike L.

VIDEO – The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Monday derided as “offensive and not remotely funny” an Oscars sketch featuring Seth MacFarlane’s character “Ted,” in which the animated bear tells actor Mark Wahlberg that if “you want to work in this town” you have to be Jewish.

Excuse me, but doesn't Abe Foxman have other things to concern himself with?

I am about the last person on the planet that people would claim is insensitive toward anti-Semitism, but really.  We've got G-d Only Knows how many crazed imams in the Middle East screaming for Jewish blood in the most outrageous and violent terms possible and this is what the ADL concerns itself with?

The stupidity is so shocking one hardly knows what to say.  It's already hard enough to be an advocate for the Jewish people and the Jewish State of Israel without getting offended at our friends when they give us a little friendly ribbing during the Academy Awards.

All we want, it seems to me, is for non-Jews to stop beating up on Jewish people.  Period.  From my perch here in the Oakland foothills it's obviously not a problem.  In the United States the Jewish people have it as good as it gets.  We are not persecuted and there is no de jure discrimination against us and very little de facto discrimination.

This is much less the case in Europe and in the Middle East, fuggedaboutit.

I have to say, it pisses me off when some Jewish people whine and bitch and moan about virtually non-existent threats, like Mets102 did with the Westboro Baptist Church, while almost entirely ignoring the real and present danger posed by political Islam.  Has Foxman come out unequivocally against the Hagel nomination?  Not that I am aware of, he hasn't.  Hagel favors Hamas over the Jews and yet this is what Foxman complains about?

Ted??

Look, I love complaining.  I live for complaining... just ask Laurie.  But this is just nonsense.

We have got to get our priorities straight and standing up against Ted, for chrissake, should not be high on the list.

Besides, I love Ted.  He is the cutest, crudest, most obnoxious stoner Teddy Bear in the long and dishonorable history of Teddy Bears.  Teddy Roosevelt, himself, would laugh his ass off.  Have another taste:

End the Occupation of the Jews in the Middle East

Mike L.

{Cross-Posted at Geoffff's Joint and Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers.}

I know that this is a radical notion, particularly in the violent Arab-Muslim Middle East, but I recommend that the majority non-Jewish population in that part of the world, both the governments and the people, cease trying to murder the Jews and end their theocratically-based occupation of the Jewish people.

I do not see anyone else recommending this obvious solution to what Harvard Professor, Ruth Wisse, calls the Arab war against the Jews, but I thought that I might put it forward.  The Middle East is a vast area.  It's huge.  Within it is the majority Arab-Muslim population that constitutes something close to 400 million people.  A much smaller population is the Christian population, but they are leaving the area, an area that largely belonged to Christians for many centuries, because of religious hatred toward them.  Certainly the Copts in Egypt are among the most abused population in that part of the world and they are departing because of chronic abuse by the majority Muslim population.

The Jews, of course, are another matter.  We used to be spread throughout the region, but after we established Jewish autonomy on Jewish land in the State of Israel our rather intolerant Arab-Muslim cousins booted us out of our homes in places like Egypt and Iraq and Lebanon and thereby compelled Jewish aliyah to Israel shortly after the re-founding of our national homeland.

The truth is that the tiny minority of Jews in the Middle East have been under Arab-Muslim imperial domination for thirteen of the last fourteen centuries.  (That's a very long time, by the way.)  Throughout the first thirteen of those centuries we were largely something akin to slaves within the Muslim colonial system of dhimmitude.  We were abused as second and third-class citizens by a people who held us in theological contempt, and although dhimmitude varied in its degree of malice from time to time and place to place, we never had it better than Black people did under the system of Jim Crow in the United States.  Malice toward Jews is hard-coded in the Koran and, in fact, is stressed in the opening sentences of that particular book.

What I say is that it should stop.

I understand that ending violent, genocidal Arab-Muslim hatred toward Jews is inconceivable for most people, particularly western "progressives" many of whom honestly believe that the Jews richly deserve whatever beating we get, but I request that you consider it.  It does not take that much of a stretch of the imagination to consider the possibility that maybe, finally, the Jews do not really deserve the never-ending aggression toward us.

Think of it this way:

The Jews are a tiny minority amongst a much larger, generally hostile, majority population who have within living memory come through the slaughter of one-third our number in Europe, in part because the Arabs did not want us to escape from Europe to Palestine.   After thirteen centuries of perpetual abuse the Jews of the Middle East gained their freedom because the allies defeated Germany and the imperial Ottoman Empire in World War I and because us Jews, ourselves, fought for our own freedom within our historical homeland.

Once the Jews of the Middle East secured their freedom, and the defeat of dhimmitude, the larger Arab-Muslim majority in the region declared war upon us and that war continues to this day.  The stages of the Long Arab War Against the Jews in the Middle East are as follows:

Phase 1, 1920 - 1947: Riots and Massacres

Phase 2, November 1947 - April 1948: The Civil War in Palestine

Phase 3, 1948 - 1973: Conventional Warfare

Phase 4, 1964 - Present: The Terror War

Phase 5, 1975 - Present: The Delegitimization Effort

This war has resulted in the relative impoverishment of the Palestinian-Arabs who refuse to accept the fact that the Palestinian-Jews have, after 2,000 years, regained our national home.  If they would kindly reconcile themselves to the fact of the State of Israel they could go about making their lives better for themselves, their children, and their grandchildren and would be gratefully accepted by the Jewish population within Israel.

The western left, including G-d Knows how many western Jews, tend to believe that the reason that Arabs throw rocks at Jews is because the Jews have been mean to the Arabs.  This is false.  Arabs throw rocks at Jews out of Koranically-based race hatred toward the Jewish people, just as they have always done, combined with an intense bigoted resentment toward the fact of Jewish sovereignty on Jewish land.  This is why the Palestinian-Jews have placed check-points and a security barrier between themselves and much of the Palestinian-Arab population.  What the Arabs call the "occupation" is merely Jewish measures of self-defense and nothing else.

We are free now and we intend to stay free.

The Day of the Dhimmi is Done and when the greater Arab-Muslim majority accepts this fact then the long Arab War Against the Jews of the Middle East will end and the lives of the Palestinian-Arabs will greatly improve.

I say, give it a shot.  If Barack Obama did not encourage otherwise, the United States and the west could promote Arab liberality toward us.

The Arab acceptance of Jewish sovereignty on Jewish land is the only possible hope for peace, after all.

Until that day comes the Palestinian-Arabs will continue to ruin themselves and they will do so at the encouragement of their own leaders and at the encouragement of their cruel fellows in the greater Arab-Muslim world.

Buy Israel Goods week starts Monday February 25!

Mike L.

{Editor's note - I received the email below from DrMike of the Blue Truth blog whom some of you may know from Divestthis!  Mike works with, among other groups, the San Francisco chapter of Stand With Us.  The reason that I am posting what he has written below is not because I expect our readership in the Bay Area to turn out in great numbers for the Buycott, although that would be the right thing to do, but because I want to emphasize  that Jewish people, and friends of Jewish people, are working on the local level all around the country to help bring justice to the besieged Jews of the Middle East. - ML}

Buy Israel Goods week starts Monday February 25!

Once again, it's time for a BIG week-- Buy Israeli Goods.

One of the most important things we can do to support Israel is not only to buy Israeli goods, but to buy them from merchants who have been the target of BDS bullies because they sell them.

As many of you have read in J Weekly (http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/67833/buy-israel-week-standwithus-stands-by-area-shops/) or seen on our Facebook page, two weeks ago we quietly organized a group of shoppers to support Cliff's Variety, a small family-owned store in the Castro district of San Francisco that has specifically been targeted by the BDS hate crew for defying their orders and continuing to sell Sodastream devices and mixes. Watch this short clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl85AL1l0H0 to see how SodaStream promotes coexistence, and meet some of the Arab employees whose jobs the BDSers want to take away.

The staff at Cliff's was delighted to see several dozen shoppers (carrying Buy Israeli Goods shopping bags) coming in to buy from them to thank them for standing up to BDS intimidation. And once again, a positive, friendly BUYcott overcame a negative, hate-filled BOYcott effort.

Especially for San Francisco residents, those who wish to buy a Sodastream device (or need to stock up on the mixes) will get a very friendly welcome at Cliff's Variety (479 Castro St between 17th and 18th).

Another small, locally owned store repeatedly targeted by hate groups is Zand Market at 1401 Solano Avenue in Albany. They not only carry imported goods but also their own Mediterranean and Middle Eastern foods.

A partial listing of stores that carry Israeli products is at BuyIsraelGoods.org (note that some of the information there may not be current).

Solano County Israel series--final event this Tuesday

The fifth and final talk in the Israel: Separating Fact from Fiction series will take place in Fairfield on Tuesday night February 26. The speaker will be Gary Kenzer, US director of Honest Reporting (www.honestreporting.com). Honest Reporting is one of the major media watchdog organizations addressing biased media coverage about Israel. This will be a very informative evening! You can register at jewishsolano.com/israelcourse.

San Francisco Voice for Israel/Stand With Us
www.SFVoiceForIsrael.org
www.StandWithUs. com

Join the SF Voice For Israel group on Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22259707003

Follow us on Twitter @sfv4i

Visit our Youtube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/SFVoice4Israel/featured

The Pure Stupidity of Barack Obama

Mike L.

{Editor's note - This piece was written by the FresnoZionist and published on Februrary 19.  Helping the Muslim Brotherhood come into power in Egypt has to be among the most horrendously stupid acts of foreign policy by any American president in the modern era.  What's even more incomprehensible to me is how so many "progressive Zionists" can support an American president who, himself, supports the Brotherhood, which is the world's premier genocidally anti-Semitic organization in operation today. - ML}

“An act of stupidity that will resonate for generations”

The replacement of dictator Hosni Mubarak with the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi has had serious negative consequences for Egyptian liberals, Christians, and women; for Israel, which now must treat Egypt as a hostile power rather than a peace partner; and for the US, which is in the uncomfortable position of financially supporting a radical Islamist, anti-American, antisemitic regime.

So did this have to happen? Some say yes, there was no way the 82-year old corrupt, brutal Mubarak could have been propped up (but note that the new regime is no less, possibly more, brutal and corrupt). And shouldn’t the Egyptian people be allowed to choose their own rulers?

If you listen to Rafi Eitan, a former Mossad official who led the capture of Adolf Eichmann in 1960, the answer is that it definitely did not have to happen — and the US is responsible. An interview with Eitan appeared today in the Times of Israel:

This slight man, with his trademark thick-rimmed glasses, did not mince his words when speaking of what he perceives as fatal American mistakes in handling the “Arab Spring” — particularly at that crucial moment in June 2012 when the administration could have imposed a secular president on Egypt, Ahmad Shafiq — and by doing so change the course of that country’s history. …

“The military unequivocally decided that [Ahmed] Shafiq will be president, not [Mohammed] Morsi,” Eitan told The Times of Israel. “But the Americans put all the pressure on. The announcement [of the president] was delayed by three or four days because of this struggle.”

Immediately after Egypt’s presidential elections in June 2012, Eitan spoke to unnamed local officials, who told him that with a mere 5,000-vote advantage for Islamist candidate Morsi, the military was prepared to announce the victory of his adversary Shafiq, a secular military man closely associated with the Mubarak regime.

But secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Eitan said, decided to favor democracy at all costs and disallow any falsification of the vote.

“This is idiocy. An act of stupidity that will resonate for generations,” Eitan said. “I also thought Mubarak should be replaced, but I believed the Americans would be smart enough to replace him with the next figure. Mubarak would have agreed to that, but the Americans didn’t want that; they wanted democracy. But there is no real democracy in the Arab world at the moment. It will take a few generations to develop…” [my emphasis]

If you believe that the ideology of radical Islamism represents a real challenge to the Enlightenment values of Western civilization, then the takeover of the largest and most important Arab nation by the Brotherhood is a significant defeat for America and the West. Although historical analogies are notoriously misleading, in a sense it is as if the US had intervened on behalf of the Bolsheviks in 1917 or helped Hitler attain power in 1933.

The appeal to ‘democracy’ is particularly ludicrous. Although Morsi uses the word a lot, his actions in consolidating power in the hands of the Brotherhood have been anything but democratic. And the philosophy of the Brotherhood itself makes it clear that regardless of the means by which power is attained, the goal is a state — and ultimately an expansive caliphate — governed according to shari’a, ruled by religious authorities, a regime in which Muslims (male) will dominate all others.

It seems that the Obama Administration has made a distinction between Islamists, with al-Qaeda and Hizballah in the category of ‘bad’ Islamists because they have directly attacked us, while the Brotherhood and (for example) the Turkish AKP are ‘good’ because they have made the tactical decision not to wage war on us (at least not yet). But their ideology is no less anti-Western and anti-American.

If Eitan’s analysis — that the US chose to support Morsi because it would be ‘more democratic’ — is true, it reveals a shocking ignorance on the part of our leaders about the nature of the Brotherhood, of Egypt, and yes, the real meaning of ‘democracy’.

The Chuck Schumer Prize for Quivering Chicken-Heartedness (full text)

Mike L.

{Originally published at the Times of Israel.}

Israel Thrives is pleased to announce that it is has nominated United States Senator from New York, Chuck Schumer, for the first annual Chuck Schumer Prize for Jewish Political Prostration and Quivering Chicken-Heartedness!  This is a very exciting day for those of us in the offices of Israel Thrives... deep in our well-fortified bunker in the Oakland hills.  We have decided that on an annual basis (or, really, whenever we feel like it) we are going to award a worthy Jewish political leader the Chuck Schumer Prize for Jewish Political Prostration and Quivering Chicken-Heartedness.

This year the first prize may go to Schumer, himself, because nothing screams weak-willed servility more than supporting an enemy of the Jewish people, like Chuck Hagel, out of political cowardice, misplaced loyalty, personal ambition, and ideological blinkertude.  Hagel is a friend of Barack Obama.  Hagel is also a friend of Hamas.  He is a friend of Hezbollah and he is a friend of Iran.  He is not however a friend of either the Jewish people or the Jewish State.  In fact, he believes that Jews, via the vicious "Jewish Lobby," whatever that is, exactly, terrifies well-meaning, red-blooded American politicians (some of whom were at one time Boy Scouts) into supporting Jewish interests over American interests.

Excuse me, but doesn't this notion ring a bell for people?  This idea that nefarious Jews are working behind the scenes, pulling the strings in order to force autonomous governments to do our bidding has a rather lengthy, and not particularly pleasant, genealogy.  I'm pretty sure that by the end of the nineteenth-century there were all sorts of Europeans yammering at one another precisely the same nonsense that Hagel repeats.

Nonetheless, Jewish U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer is supporting Hagel's nomination for the position of Secretary of Defense.

Hagel also apparently believes that you guys, you Israeli Jews, control the U.S. Department of State.   When did you manage that one, by the way?  I find myself reasonably certain that Harry Truman would very much have disagreed with any such assessment, but Truman's days were quite some time ago.  My guess is that sometime around the time that you figured out how to create killer Mossad squirrels and Zionist Shark Agents and various other forms of animal and furied and feathered commandos, you must have managed to put the U.S. State Department under the heal of the international Jewish conspiracy.

{And I very much thank you for that, by the way, but where the heck is my check?}

In any case, for the moment Schumer has yet to receive this very high honor.  The U.S. Senate will reconvene this Monday, February 25.  Sometime during next week they will probably vote Hagel in as Secretary of Defense.  When Schumer votes for Hagel we will award him his prize.

I am sure that his children and grandchildren will be very proud.

Arab Group: Kotel is a Muslim Site, And Jews Don't Belong There

Mike L. 

An Israeli Arab group says, Israel is “defiling the holiness" of the Kotel - as defined by Islam - by conducting Jewish prayers there.

An Israeli Arab group, “The Al-Aqsa Heritage Institute,” on Thursday issued a statement demanding that Israel halt its plans to bring more Jews to the Kotel (Western Wall) – which, the group claims, is holy not to Jews, but to Muslims.

In fact, the group says, Israel is “defiling the holiness of the site” by conducting Jewish prayers there.

In Jewish tradition, the Kotel is the outer retaining wall of the Holy Temple, which stood on the Temple Mount, approximately at the same location as the Al-Aqsa Mosque. When the Holy Temple was destroyed nearly 2,000 years ago, Jews were prohibited from worshipping on the Mount, first by the Romans and then by the Muslims, and proscribed from doing so by Jewish law – and adopted the Kotel as a place of prayer, as it was the closest place to the Holy Temple as the could get.

This is part of the ongoing Arab-Muslim theft of Jewish history and identity.  The truth of the matter, of course, is that Jerusalem is not even mentioned in the Koran.

We must come to understand, or so it seems to me, that the ones who are "occupied" in the Middle East are not the Arabs, but the Jews.  It is our brothers and sisters in Israel who are under siege and they have been since the 7th century.  Jewish rights to the land of Israel (which is to say, the land of the Jews) is based on history not legend or "tradition" or, even, religion.  Israel is Jewish in the same way that China is Chinese or France is French.  Others may live there and have something very close to full and equal rights to citizenship, but they do not get to usurp Jewish sovereignty on historically Jewish land.

The fact of the matter is that Arab-Muslim citizens of Israel have more civil liberties than do Arabs anywhere else in the entire Middle East.  When Arabs throw rocks at Jews they are not doing so because the Jews are mean to them.  They do so for the same reason that the majority population has always thrown rocks at the Jews, out of a truly malignant religious and racial bigotry toward us.  Furthermore, if they do not appreciate Jewish means of self-defense, such as check points or the security barrier, which is what they call the "occupation," then they need to teach their children that throwing rocks at Jews is not very neighborly.

We've allowed ourselves to be entirely bamboozled.  The Arabs claim that the Jews are evil and the international left, essentially, believes them and thereby repeats the lies.  Over and over and over again they tell one another that the Jews "stole the land" or that Israel is "occupying" Arab land, despite the fact that a goodly portion of this so-called "Palestinian" land was known for thousands of years as Judea.

The truth is that all of Judea and Samaria is Jewish land and it represents only a very tiny percentage, under 1 percent, of the Middle East which the Arabs stole for themselves when they came marching out of Saudi Arabia shortly after the death of Muhammed.  If the Israelis think that carving out a huge chunk of our historic homeland as a gift to the Arabs will bring peace they are mistaken.  There will be no peace in the Middle East so long as Jews are in the Middle East and so long as Muslims control the vast reaches beyond Israel.  Nonetheless, Judea and Samaria is where the Jews come from and if we wish to give away a large part of our land to the Arabs in order to gain peace then I would not object.

The problem is that it simply will not bring peace.  The two-state solution will not bring peace and for "progressive Zionists" to malign our friends and relatives who live in areas of the country where neither Mahmoud Abbas, nor Barack Obama, want them to live is a desecration.  It is to be bigoted against one's own people.

And this is why progressive-left Jews refused to support Tamar fogel, the young girl whose family was slaughtered by "Palestinian" Jihadis.  It is because the Fogels dared to live in Itamar, beyond the green line.  They honestly believe the kind of Arab-Soviet propaganda that seeks to delegitimize the Jewish presence on Jewish land and in this way they justify Arab-Muslim genocidal racism toward their fellow Jews.

This may not be their intention, but it is their effect.

Australia's Answer To Pat Condell

geoffff

All is not lost while we still have young people in our country like this one.

Do listen to what he has to say while you can.

I have a horrible feeling YouTube will silence him soon enough.

And congratulations to Pat Condell for the inspiration to us all.

cross posted Geoffff's Joint

Esther Schapira..."You Go Girl!"

by oldschooltwentysix

Esther Schapira is a German journalist and filmmaker, the current politics and society editor for German public broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk. She has produced two award-winning documentaries, Three bullets and a dead child in 2002, about the "death" of Muhammad al-Dura in Gaza in 2000, and The day Theo van Gogh was murdered in 2007, about the real murder in 2004 of Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, which won her a Prix Europa award. She produced a second documentary about the death of al-Dura, The Child, the Death, and the Truth in 2009.

Last month, Schapira gave expert testimony in the legal battle between Charles Enderlin and Phillipe Karsenty over Al-Dura fraud. Her testimony is described:

Esther Schapira, producer for the German public network ARD, and author of two documentary films on the al-Dura case, went to Israel in 2001 to get the story-behind-the-story of soldiers who shot a child and a father who couldn’t protect his son. But due diligence led her to question the authenticity of the news report. Though France 2 and ARD are both members of a pan-European group, Charles Enderlin was aggressive and uncooperative. He refused her request to see the master tape of Talal’s film, saying he would only show it if there was a court order. He threatened to sue her if she claimed the report was falsified. “I was shocked,” said Schapira. “For a journalist, every question is open to question.” She calmly expanded on her reasons for concluding that it is highly unlikely that Israeli soldiers killed Mohamed al-Dura, but “didn’t want to accuse anyone of lying or fabrication, I didn’t have the smoking gun”.

If interested, there is more about al-Dura here and here and in the following clip. It is Pallywood at its finest, if only it was not so tragic in its consequences, for both Jews and Arabs.



Anyway, Ms. Schapira has unloaded on Charles Enderlin in a open letter. Read it and rejoice that there are still journalists on the planet that actually care about presenting facts and trusting consumers to make their own opinions and conclusions.

A couple of excerpts:

It may sound silly to you, but as a journalist I feel personally insulted by your behavior because it is a disgrace for our profession. As journalists we have the duty to find out the truth and tell it. We are not part of any campaign. We are eyewitnesses and we tell our audience what we have seen, what we heard, and what we found out. We ask critical questions and we insist on getting answers. We act according to our best belief — or at least we should. And when we get criticised, when people question our work, when they have doubts and even when they attack us in an unfair way, we have to deal with that by giving more and better and more convincing answers, by presenting more facts.

***

After more then ten years and after two documentaries I have completed during that time, after so much research, all I know for sure is that there is no proof that Mohammed Al-Dura is dead. We simply don’t know what happened to him after your cameraman Talal Abu Rahme filmed him. Let’s hope that he is still alive. That would be the best, of course, first and foremost for him. He might have survived, he might be 23 years old now, he might be a member of the Facebook generation and he might even have taken part in the Arab Spring in Egypt. Who knows? We do know, however, that the story is very different from the way you told it. We know that this false story killed people because it became a major tool of propaganda and was used as a justification for murder, as in the slaughter of Daniel Pearl.

And I know you are a liar. If you lie on purpose, or if you tell a lie because you are a bad journalist and don’t know the truth, it doesn’t matter. The result is the same. You tell lies and I want your audience to know this as well, and I am going to prove this.

This is why after all this time I have changed my mind, and why, after our new encounter, when once again you called me a “militant journalist,” I decided to write this open letter to you. No worry, I am not going to tell once more why your story on Mohammed Al-Dura is wrong. This was what I did in my documentaries, and for good reason, you and your company didn’t sue me as “Charles big mouth” had threatened he would after the second film had aired. No, quite simply, I’ll talk about the passage in your book where you write about me. I could take nearly every sentence and show how wrong you are, what a cheap mixture of insinuations, generalizations, and false statements it is, but it is not worth the effort. Instead I’ll take a few examples that speak for the rest.

 As I said: "You Go Girl!" Thank you, Esther Schapira!

(cross-posted at oldschooltwentysix)

The Stupidity of Humankind

by oldschooltwentysix

I received a link to the video below in the mail a day or two ago, and put aside the 40 minutes to watch it. I hope whoever reads this will do the same.

Step Up for Israel, in my mind, is where it's at! It is an initiative of JersualemOnlineU.com, an organization committed to teaching and inspiring people of all ages about Judaism and Israel. It is a grassroots Israel education campaign created to promote broad awareness of the growing anti-Israel movement on college campuses in North America, especially as too many young Jews feel disconnected from their heritage and lack a solid understanding of Israel, its history, and its challenges.

On many campuses, anti-Israel rhetoric and anti-Jewish sentiment are becoming accepted and some faculty indoctrinate and intimidate students in the classroom, as administrators look the other way. Through innovative educational methods, SUFI seeks to energize communities and individuals to confront and combat these harmful actions.

Much of the media also seeks to delegitimize the state of Israel. There is power in knowing what’s out there and to spread the word. The fact is that Israel is committed to improving the world through its innovative ideas, technologies, and its humanitarian aid and relief efforts around the globe. Israel values freedom, human rights and cultural diversity, and has the only western democracy in the Middle East. Arabs that live in Israel have a better quality of life than in any Arab state.

The video, Israel Inside: How A Small Nation Makes A Big Difference, is narrated by bestselling author and acclaimed former Harvard lecturer, Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar, and showcases Israel’s unique relationship with the rest of the world.

The contributions of Israel are incredible, especially if one considers the obstacles it has overcome, and which remain. Imagine if the stupidity of humankind could cease, and Israel was freed to use it resources as it wishes, rather than as it must. Some of the greatest beneficiaries would be the Arabs, but we would all be better off.

SUFI tells us:

All of us are responsible for the future of Israel and the Jewish people. If we don’t take a stand and become personally involved today, we will deny future generations the opportunity to understand their role in Israel’s history, and to be part of Israel’s future.

Enjoy the video. It may even bring a tear to your eye. Then, spread the word!



(cross-posted at oldschooltwentysix)

Announcing the Prestigious Chuck Schumer Prize!

Mike L.

Announcing the Chuck Schumer Prize for Jewish Political Prostration and Quivering Chicken-Heartedness

I am very pleased to announce (in the pages of the Times of Israel) that Israel Thrives has nominated Chuck Schumer for this very prestigious honor.

It is likely that sometime next week that the Jewish Senator from New York, Charles Schumer, will vote for his friend Chuck Hagel to be our next Secretary of Defense.  That being the case he is most certainly worthy of this prize that henceforth will go to Jewish politicians who are willing to screw the Jewish people out of some combination of political cowardice, misplaced loyalty, personal ambition, and ideological blinkertude.

I'm sure that his children and grandchildren will be very proud.

Galloway won't debate a pariah Jew

British MP storms out of debate with Israeli student

George Galloway, a British lawmaker known for his anti-Israel positions and support of Hamas, caused a minor uproar at Oxford University when he abruptly left a debate after realizing his opponent is Israeli.

"I have been misled," said Galloway when Eylon Aslan-Levy, an Israeli student, confessed his nationality.

The debate discussed an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. Galloway argued that Israel should pullout immediately, while Aslan-Levy claimed that a withdrawal should take place only as part of a negotiated peace agreement in which two states will be recognized.

Aslan-Levy, a third-year Philosophy, Politics and Economics major, used the term "we" to describe Israel's stance. "You said 'we,'" Galloway interrupted, "are you Israeli?" to which the student answered affirmatively.

"I don't debate with Israelis," Galloway said, got up hurriedly, got his coat, and stormed out.

Galloway did not "storm out" of anything.  He was quite calm, cool, and collected.  The problem is that he likes his Jews weak, docile, and without the means of self-defense and therefore will not debate with any Jew who comes from Israel.

And this man is actually still a member of Parliament?

Also note that there was a smattering of applause after Galloway's departure.  Just what were they applauding do you suppose?

There are about 150 comments under the Y-Net article and that is a lot for Y-Net. Here are a few:

5. Galloway is a perfect example of  

the depraved and primitive irrationality of the ISM/BDS crowd which understands perfectly that the elimination of Israel will lead to a bloodbath of the Israeli Jews. Are there any secular democratic states in the Arab world?  

Stephen in New York (02.21.13)

And:

14. let's face it

We have friends and we have enemies. Our enemies act of out an irrational hatred for Jews and Israelis and are not willing or able to hear the other side of the story. Sadly, this is the way it is in this world.

Larry , Los Angeles (02.21.13)

And:

18. ahaha well, you cannot blame him can you?

you can bring the best philosopher in the world to argue about that a square is a square with an israeli jewish and he'll be made wrong....so what do you think about an argument about the state of israel?? no matter what israel did, or what crimes it committed, Israeli jews will always make it like the virgin mary.. so there's no point in arguing

Feras (02.21.13)

Certainly there is no point in arguing with the likes of Feras.

Anti-Jewish Violence Explodes in France

Mike L. 

French Jewish Leader: “The Number of Anti-Semitic Acts Has Exploded”

France saw an increase of 58 percent in anti-Semitic incidents in 2012 compared to the previous year, according to a report released Tuesday by the SPCJ, the security unit of France’s Jewish communities.

The report showed that 614 anti-Semitic acts were documented in the country last year compared to 389 in 2011.

Incidents in which the victims were accosted physically or verbally on the street increased 82 percent, to 315 last year from 177 cases in 2011, SPCJ said. A fourth of the 96 physical anti-Semitic assaults involved a weapon.

The head of France’s CRIF Jewish representative group, Richard Prasquier, said the increase in incidents “damages the image of France.”

Well, this kind of thing may damage the image of France or it may not.  In fact, my suspicion is that it will not because most people neither know nor care.

Another question to ask, needless to say, is to what degree anti-Jewish violence in France is coming from native Europeans and to what extent is it coming from Muslim immigrants and the children of Muslim immigrants.

One thing is certain all the hate crime statistics show that anti-Jewish violence is far and away more of problem than violence against the Muslim community, either in the United States or in Europe.

Progressives may care about "Islamophobia" but they very definitely do not care about rising levels of anti-Semitic violence within their communities because they help promote that violence through defaming and demonizing the Jewish State of Israel.

This is why I take such exception to a raging hypocrite like David Harris-Gershon, "The Troubadour" on Daily Kos.  He claims to speak for peace and for social justice whereas, in fact, he encourages hatred toward his fellow Jews via his defamation of the Jewish State.

This Goes Up To Eleven

Empress Trudy

{Editor's note - Israel Thrives is pleased to announce that Empress Trudy is the latest writer to grace our pages.  Trudy is, I am happy to say, a solid, strong, and knowledgeable supporter of the Jewish State of Israel and I am very much looking forward to her participation going forward.  Please welcome our newest contributor. - Mike L.}

I've been looking at the news this week. Prisoner X, a report by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry applauding 'opening of probes into the matter' and reports in Ha'aretz that 'information is being drowned out by hate speech'. Information which clearly points out that he was a traitor, he sold or gave information to a foreign government, he was tried and convicted, he was given a false name for his own protection and the protection of his family, his family was notified, the Australian government was notified, the Israeli courts were notified and he wound up hanging himself with a bed sheet. And all of this seemingly points, to the liberal left, of the horrors of the Jews and their brutal treatment of people and puppies and the planet.

I've been reading about the 3^rd or 4^th very public speech Chuck Hagel made lamenting the evil Jews and their apartheid, a report in EoZ that quotes some Lebanese 'academic', Sari Hanafi, who accuses the Jews of killing 'space itself'. Yeah me neither, who knows?

I'm reading how one of the Cardinals in the running for Pope, Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras, is a naked and outspoken antisemite, blaming the “Jews” for the sexual offenses of Catholic priests.

I'm reading that unsurprisingly, Honest Reporting tallied that in 2010 68% of their Op-Eds were anti Israel, 32% were blandly neutral and 2 columns in total could be called pro Israeli.

I was looking at the IDF COGAT website's PDF reports that showed 47 thousand tons of material and goods shipped into Gaza this month, 279 tractor trailer trucks alone last week; there are the obligatory screams of 'blockade!” and such.

And of course the fallout from 60 Minutes favorite anti Israeli partisan, Bob Simon, who indicated that because of Iron Dome, somehow Jews not volunteering to commit suicide is itself some form of crime against humanity.

And I concluded that all our hasbara, itself now a dirty word on blogs like CNN or Huffington Post, all our efforts to get the word out, to speak the truth, every polite comment and studied response is not only a complete failure it's never been in the same world as the Arabs. It's not built to fight that battle it needs to win. It doesn't understand what the battle even is.

The Arabs win because they have a brilliant simple impenetrable strategy. It consists of one word. Occupation. One word. That's it. That's their response to every question every comment every news byte, every complaint, every fact. Occupation, or some variation on that single word - “apartheid”, “illegal”, “barrier”, “blockade”. Complain about rockets? “Occupation”. Bus bombing? “Occupation”. Killing 'collaborators'? “Occupation”. And so on to the millionth degree. The great beauty is that it's stupid, it's easy to chant, it's vague, it means whatever you like, it's angry and self righteous and it defeats all attempts to argue with it. It's like shouting 'racist' when you run out of energy to talk about US domestic policy. It's meant to shut you up. It is the self proving accusation. And it goes to the core of 2000 years of antisemitism. The same J'accuse!. The same unfounded unhinged supernal cosmic hatred. The screams of “Occupation!” exist outside of fact and history, outside of reality. This is what makes them so hard to defeat so hard to argue with. It's not meant to BE argued with. You can't engage an opponent who starts out by saying everything in your whole being is illegal, wrong, racist and a lie. You can't confront a million repetition of 'Zionazi' with calm lists of facts proving otherwise.

We live in many ways, in post-factual world. The recently dead 'historian' Howard Zinn, Marxist, communist and occasional anarchist, revisionist, hater of America and Israel and author of one of the most heavily used college history textbook in America once said, and I paraphrase, I don't care about historical accuracy, I care about politics, my political agenda. That is what he was selling. He was selling propaganda, not history. He was selling revisionism. He, like fellow 'historian' Gar Alperovitz openly talked about their own revisionist views and agendas. So that Hiroshima became a specifically racist war crime and Israel became a racist colonial invasion. An Occupation.

But what do we Zionists do in this so called 'post Zionist' world? We argue politely. We tabulate facts, we footnote. We quibble about international law. No one cares about international law. International law is war by other means. France has stated numerous times that they use the UN and international law as a bludgeon to push their own foreign policy because it allows them to punch far above their weight otherwise. There is no international law. Arguing what Arthur Goldberg thought about in the precise language of Res 242, whether he meant 'the' or not is utter silliness. It means nothing. It misses the point, it is a distraction.

I'm reminded of a movie. The remake of “The Stepford Wives” made a few years back with Chris Walken and Glenn Close. Ms. Close's character, talking about her project says “While women were becoming men, men were becoming GODS.” The women were fighting the wrong war. They won the battle and lost everything.

This is where we are today. We Jews, we Zionists, we're arguing and parsing and footnoting. We're pointing out to every screaming maniac waving a sign telling us to be gassed “Oh no you have that wrong historically, that's too mean to say.” We're fighting the wrong war. We're justifying ourselves to ourselves. We feel good about feeling good about it. We think right is on our side and eventually we will win out because people are fundamentally sane and good and just.

5,000 years of blood guzzling insanity would tend to demonstrate that's not the case. People aren't good, they're sort of good, or good enough, to some people, some of the time. They're occasionally just but mostly they're expedient. They're parochial. People are typically sane but groups of people rarely are. They are mobs and herds. Go read Elias Canetti's “Crowds and Power” if you're curious about that.

But all of this is incidental. The point is, what do we say, what do we do? How to manage the old ladies and geezers marching around outside of a performance of an Israeli dance company while they wave their Palestinian flags. We bring it to them. We have one answer. Mass Murder. Terrorism. Child Killing. Torture. Wife Beating. Terrorism, violence, murder. That's our answer. Why is there a fence? Terrorism. Why are there berms and checkpoints in Yesha? Terrorism. It matters to NO ONE that the number of those checkpoints has been reduced 90% to 27, only 12 of which are even manned. Maybe my numbers are slightly off but not by much. Arguing there are 'only' 12 is a waste of time. The correct answer is Terrorism, murder, shooting pregnant women. That's the answer. The only answer.

There are NO settlements. That's not the answer. There are Jews who live in suburbs in Yesha, 90% of whom are closer to downtown Jerusalem than almost anyone in America drives to Starbucks. But that is also not the answer. The correct answer is “You're savages who murder our women and children wherever they live whether you suffer to permit that or not.”

Why are there closely controlled crossing points that abut Gaza? Terrorism. There are no restrictions for non-terrorists. There are plenty of restrictions to terrorists. “Collective Punishment?” Terrorism and mass murder. It doesn't matter how many sick Gazans are treated in Israeli hospitals for free. It could be one person or all of them. Irrelevant. Not worth the time spent mentioning. Woman goes into labor waiting to cross into Israel? Because your people wage indiscriminate mass murder. No further explanation is required.

We live in a post-factual world. We live in a world where the IDF sends field hospitals to Haiti and Jenny Tonge in the UK House of Lords accuses Jews of stealing livers from living people. Israel has more legal gay rights than even the UK and Code Pink accuses them of 'pink washing'. It's not worth discussing because it's not supposed to be discussed. It's a hand grenade. Desmond Tutu accuses Israel of apartheid knowing with 100% absolute certainty he is lying about it. And on every college campus some angry group of overfed undereducated fools 'debates' whether Israel even has the right to exist. Not Worth Discussing. The correct answer is mass murdering terrorist psychopaths. If that's who they're rooting for, stand up and be counted!

Our response should be simple, it should be direct and it should be uncompromising. And it needs to be repeated a hundred million million times, banged into the mob's head until it's so familiar they think they thought of it in the first place.

I remember hearing once that more words had been written about Clinton-Lewinsky than the total output of all human endeavors in the history of the world from the invention of cave drawings to the year 1900. I don't know if that's true. It sounds true. But that's what matters in the end. This goes up to eleven.

Diplomats: Iran starts upgrade of nuclear site

Mike L. 

IAEA inspectors touring Natanz nuclear plant see some 100 advanced enriching centrifuges. Analyst: West should consider 'rolling back some sanctions' if it wants Iran to respond

In a disheartening signal to world powers at upcoming Iran talks, Tehran has started installing high-tech machines at its main uranium enrichment site that are capable of accelerating production of reactor fuel and - with further upgrading - the core of nuclear warheads, diplomats said Wednesday.

Iran already announced last week that it had begun mounting the new enriching centrifuges, but one diplomat said at the time that the announcement was premature with only a "small number" on site and not yet installed.

Diplomats told The Associated Press on Wednesday, however, that installation was now well on its way, with inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency seeing close to 100 or more machines mounted when they toured the site a few days ago. Depending on experts' estimates, the new-generation centrifuges can enrich uranium three to five times faster than Iran's present working model.

The Islamic Republic insists it is not working on a nuclear weapons program, but rather is enriching uranium only to make reactor fuel and for scientific and medical purposes - as allowed by international law.

Obama will not prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weaponry.

Of that you can be certain.

 

Kerry to skip Israel on first Middle East trip

Mike L. 

New U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to depart on Sunday for nine-nation trip through Europe and the Middle East • Despite not coming to Israel this time, Kerry will take part in U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to the country next month.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will bypass Israel on his first official trip to the Middle East, U.S. officials said Tuesday as they announced a jam-packed itinerary through nine nations, including several in Europe.

Kerry's maiden voyage begins Sunday. He will visit close U.S. allies and partners in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

Kerry's trip will focus on the conflicts in Mali, Syria and Afghanistan, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

Nuland said the U.S. was waiting for Israeli political parties to form a new government after the recent Knesset election.

"The Israelis are still working on their coalition," she told reporters, adding that Kerry won't travel to Israel or the Palestinian territories until next month — when he will accompany President Barack Obama to the region.

Until we have a new administration it's best that Kerry and Obama and Hagel stay away from Israel.

These people cannot do any good because they simply do not understand Jewish history in the region and have no honest sympathies for those of us who live there.

They still believe that the reason that so many Arabs want to kill Jews is because the tiny Jewish minority are mean to the overwhelming Arab majority.  This is what "progressives," including "progressive Zionists," tend to believe.

The best that we can hope for is that Barack Obama will not cause even further damage than what he has caused already.  But I would not count on that.

Just as I do not believe that Obama is anti-Semitic, so I do not believe that he intentionally wants to cause additional harm to Israel.  The simple fact of the matter is that Obama is not nearly so bright as they tell us he is and that when it comes to the Middle East the man is absolutely clueless.

That much is simply undeniable and what is also undeniable is that Obama is no friend of either the Jewish people or the Jewish state.

Any American president who thinks that Muhammed Morsi is something akin to Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King, Jr. needs to have his head examined.  The man is simply not competent to broker any meaningful peace because he is ignorant, highly ideological, and out of sympathy with the Jewish people in that part of the world.

Is Barack Obama anti-Semitic?

Mike L.

{This was originally published at the Times of Israel.}

Is Barack Obama bigoted against Jews?

I have never thought so, but the question has arisen at Israel Thrives.  And the fact of the matter is that many Jewish people do believe that Obama is anti-Semitic.  That is a simple fact.  What the percentages are I do not know, but a significant minority of Jewish people, or at least a significant minority of Jewish Americans, hold to this belief and therefore it should be discussed.

Let me start by saying that, no, I do not believe that Barack Obama is an anti-Semite.

An anti-Semite is someone who repeats certain specific tropes that have historically gotten Jews killed in pogroms great and small.  Anti-Semitism is characterized by the repetition of particular themes.  If someone suggests that Jews are blood-thirsty, or that the Jewish state is blood-thirsty, then that person is spreading anti-Semitism.  If someone suggests that Jews control sovereign governments outside of Israel or that Jews have an undue and malicious influence over those governments, then that person is also spreading classic centuries' old anti-Semitic themes.

Barack Obama has never done any such thing.

I defy anyone to show me a quote by president Barack Obama in which he has expressed anything that could possibly be considered anti-Semitic.  I have never seen anything of the sort.  Therefore I cannot, and will not, consider Obama anti-Semitic until he does so.

If this is the case, and it is, it raises the question as to why so many Jews do consider the president of the United States to be racist against the Jewish people.  The answer to that question is fairly obvious.  Obama is not an anti-Semite, but he does support anti-Semitism throughout the world and at home.  After all, does one need to be a racist to be friendly toward racists?  If that is the standard than everyone is a racist because we all have a certain degree of racist tendencies and we all have friends who do so, as well.

So Barack Obama is not an anti-Semite, but merely a friend and supporter of anti-Semites.  The obvious difference is that Obama is the president of the United States and the anti-Semites that he is friendly towards are not just some shmoes who live down the street, but highly influential political movements, such as political Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as highly influential American politicians, such as Chuck Hagel.

Obama supports the Brotherhood and he supports Chuck Hagel and both are deeply anti-Semitic.  Obama knows this, of course, but he doesn't care which is why he gives very many Jewish people the impression that he, himself, is also anti-Semitic.  What I would suggest is that the question of Obama's anti-Semitism is irrelevant.  Whether or not Obama is racist toward Jews, the fact remains that he is a great supporter of those who dislike Jews including those, like Egyptian president Muhammed Morsi, who control armies directly adjacent to the border of the Jewish state.

This is what should be our focus of concern.  Obama supports political Islam, and thus supports the Muslim Brotherhood.  The rise of political Islam, under the misnomer "Arab Spring," is the most genocidally anti-Semitic movement on the planet today.  The mullahs and the ayatollahs and the various religious leaders who are part of this movement consistently pour forth the most violent hatred toward the Jewish people and perpetually suggest that it is Allah's will that the Jews be annihilated.

Excuse me, but my father's side of the family was slaughtered during Operation Barbarosa during World War II by people who thought in a similar fashion.  My father's side of the family comes from a town called Medzhybizh in the Ukraine.  Medzhybizh, much to my astonishment, is also the shtetl where Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidic Judaism resided, taught and is buried.  The Nazis came through in July of 1941 and forced the residents, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, to road building and the digging of ditches.  Once the ditches were completed they lined up the Jewish population of the town, about 3,000 people, including all my relatives there, and shot them dead.

Anyone who knows anything about the history of the Muslim Brotherhood knows that they were allied with the Nazis during World War II and, yet, this is who Barack Obama supports, so how could it be any wonder that some Jewish people would consider Obama hostile towards Jews and thus anti-Semitic?

The Hagel nomination is just the icing on the cake.  Of all the people that Obama could have chosen for Secretary of Defense he chose a man who apparently claimed in public that Israel controls the U.S. Department of State.  The Department of State!  The U.S. Department of State is the very least friendly branch of the American government toward Israel and, in fact, opposed its creation during the Truman administration.  Traditionally, the Department of State has been "Arabist" and has sought to withhold U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish State of Israel.  Yet, somehow, against all reason, Chuck Hagel thinks that the Jews of Israel control the American State Department.

And this is the guy that Obama puts forward for Secretary of Defense?

So how can Jewish people not wonder if Obama is anti-Semitic?

I don't think he is because he doesn't blather anti-Jewish racist themes in public, but ultimately who cares?  Obama promotes movements and organizations, including genocidal organizations like the Brotherhood, that are anti-Semitic.

So who am I to quibble?