4 More Dead

Michael L.

Y-Net reports:

Four people were killed Tuesday morning when two terrorists brutally attacked worshippers in a synagogue and yeshiva in the Har Nof neighborhood in Jerusalem. Seven people were wounded, including two police officers.

At around 7am, the terrorists - wielding massive knives and a gun - entered the Kehilat Yaakov synagogue on Harav Shimon Agasi Street, which includes both a synagogue and yeshiva (rabbinical seminary), and carried out attacks in more than one location.

The two were killed following a gunfight with security forces who arrived at the scene.

The Jews deserve whatever beating we get.

I know because they tell me so on Daily Kos and the Huffington Post and the Guardian.

I know because the Democratic Party thinks that anti-Semitic anti-Zionists deserve a place at their table.

I know because Barack Obama thinks that Jews building homes for themselves in Judea is a crime.

It is early in the morning and I actually have jury duty today, but I bet they are dancing in the streets of Ramallah.

Mahmoud Abbas needs to be imprisoned for incitement to genocide.

It is Simply Not Up to Us

Michael L.

The truth of the matter is that if we end up with two states for two peoples on historically Jewish land depends on the will of the misogynistic Arab majority in that part of the world, not the egalitarian Jewish minority.

We can continue to beg them to accept a state for themselves decade upon decade, but they have refused every such offer since 1937.  Unless you have an interest in setting up democratic Jews for never-ending bullying by authoritarian Arabs and their western-left allies than the status quo is not desirable.  It may be sustainable, but it is certainly not desirable because vicious Arab and western-left malice toward Jews is not desirable, however much Barack Obama may suggest otherwise by pressuring the Jews.

When Barack Obama said that the status quo was unsustainable he did not have Jewish well-being in mind.  He was talking about what he considers a Jewish assault on the "indigenous" Arab population with the implication that the international community - led by the European Union, the Arab League, and the United Nations, with Obama helping to coordinate from the rear - would punish the Jews of the Middle East unless they give in to terrorist demands for Jewish land.

When Barack Obama and John Kerry said that the status quo was unsustainable, what they meant was that unless we Jews know our place that we would get our asses kicked.  If this is not what they meant it is exceedingly difficult to see in what manner the status quo could be unsustainable.  The status quo has been around for one heck of a long time and can continue unless Obama and the EU want to put the screws to the Jews.  In truth, the status quo has been relatively good because it represents Jewish sovereignty and self-defense.

The fact of the matter, of course, is that the small Jewish nation has already given in to terrorist demands by agreeing to allow the vast Arab nation to take a mighty bite out of the tiny Jewish state for the purposes of creating yet another vicious, racist Arab-Muslim dictatorship.  Obama and the Europeans are twisting Jewish arms to accept what we have already accepted for almost one hundred years and, yet, refuse to simply take "yes" for an answer.

It is not enough, apparently, that we agree to allow the Arabs to gobble up Judea and Samaria, the heart of the Jewish homeland, but we must also force Jewish people out of that land according to the racist whims of not only the Arab street and the EU, but also of the Obama administration.

And make no mistake.  We have not seen a presidential administration as racist as this one since the early part of the twentieth century.

The Obama administration supported the Muslim Brotherhood with both money and heavy weaponry and the Brotherhood called for the conquest of Jerusalem.



{Case closed.}

But the larger point is that it is simply not up to us.

The Palestinian-Arabs can have a state for themselves at any time if only their dictatorial leadership would declare the long Arab war against the Jews over with and promote the normal aspirations of economic and social development via education, infrastructure, finance, and diplomacy... in contrast to running Jewish babies down with their automobiles.

The old cliché is that if the Israeli-Arabs put down their weaponry there would be peace, but if the Jews did so there would be a horrific genocide.

This is true.

All the Jews want is to be left the hell alone on their tiny bit of real estate, while political Islamists, filled with visions from the Koran of head chopping, want to see the Jews dead or gone.

So, it is simply not up to us.

Israel is Fortress Israel precisely because the Arabs have made it so with their never-ending Koranically-based malice and violence and in the process they have ruined the lives of perhaps millions of Israeli-Arabs who might otherwise have sought education and prosperity for themselves and their families.

My challenge to those who want a negotiated two-state solution is to explain how it can come about without Arab cooperation?  

And, furthermore, it is for this reason that European and American arm-twisting on the Jewish-Israelis is so cruelly unjust and counter-productive.  They are pressuring the wrong people.

If Barack Obama honestly wanted peace between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East he would pressure the parties responsible for the continuation of the conflict, not the party who has for many decades agreed to two states for two peoples.

A Challenge to Two-State People

Michael L.

I am getting ready to hit the road, so I may not be quite as available as usual, but before I do I have a question for those who still insist upon the two-state solution.

It is this:

Just how the heck do you expect to implement it without Palestinian-Arab cooperation?

Decade after decade we beg them to accept two states and decade upon decade they refuse and we get the blame from people like John Kerry.

Fuck it.

Laurie and I are headed for Baja in celebration of Laurie and Danika's 40th birthday - crazy twins - where I intend to catch many innocent fishes.

Maureen is going to come and stay at the house and take care of Georgy-McPorridge.

Little Snort croaked, by the way, the other day.

At first I thought that the athletic and bouncing-around 3 year old George gave Little Snort a heart attack, but dogs do not get heart attacks.

He was only 8 years old, but he just up and died on Wednesday of symptoms from an enlarged heart.

I feel like G-d just reached down his hand and took this little poooch out of our life.

I loved that little creature and he is just gone.

There is now a Snort-Shaped-Hole in my world.

George, a 65 pound black and white Border Collie, is Fred's worthy successor.

But Little Snort cannot have a successor for the simple fact that there are no other dogs like Little Snort.

{That is, if he actually was a dog and not King of the Hamsters.}

We are going to miss this little guy very much.

I cannot even tell you.

Christ Amighty, they're dropping like flies.

Arab Saves Jew from Lynch Mob in Israel

Michael L.

Tova Dvorin, writing in Arutz Sheva, tells us:

Moshe German, 47, who survived a lynching attempt on the Taibe bridge Sunday night, met the man who saved him from the mob on Monday, in a heartwarming gesture of gratitude.

Majdi Baloum, 37, pulled Moshe from his vehicle after an Arab mob began pelting it with rocks, eventually setting it alight.

Moshe, who recounted his experience in previous interviews to the media, related that he had been hiding under his seat; if Baloum had not pulled him from the vehicle, he likely would have died in the blaze.

Moshe revisited Taibe, meeting Baloum at the Hydraulic Institute where he works, to thank him.

"You don't understand how moving this is," German told Yediot Aharonot. "I went here via the same road where I was almost killed yesterday. I saw the remains of my car, now just ashes. Images of what happened just flash in front of me all the time. They threw rocks at me, concrete blocks and fireworks. I was terrified."

"I thought about my wife, Eina, and my sons Roey (16) and Eitan, who is two and-a-half," he continued. "I thought my family would lose me."

"I tried to hide in my Toyota, but the crowd continued to attack me, and in a moment [Baloum] came up to me yelling, 'come, come!'. I tried to figure out who is calling me, and you pulled me out of your car and into your Jeep. You saved me," Moshe recounted. "I found it hard to comprehend what is happening, but I realized that you were afraid for my life. Even though they threw blocks at your Jeep, you just went faster."

"Did you understand that you were saving my life?" he asked.

Baloum, who is a father of five, replied warmly.

"Calm down," he reassured Moshe. "Friend, you and I are the same. If I were in trouble, wouldn't you help me?"

G-d bless Majdi Baloum and when you see the guys above in their hoods, think the Klan.

Coming Out in Favor of a Single State

Michael L.

{Originally published at the Elder of Ziyon and cross-posted at Jews Down Under.}

For many years I advocated for the two-state solution because I believed that Israel could be a democratic state, a Jewish state, or a single state from the river to the sea, but not all three at once.

This is, of course, the common analysis and it is a perfectly reasonable and logical analysis.

Throughout the Clinton years, I believed that the Palestinian-Arabs wanted a state for themselves in peace next to the Jewish one, but this was before I freed myself from the so-called "Palestinian narrative" or what I have called The Palestinian Colonization of the Jewish Mind.

The obvious problem is that in annexing Judea and Samaria Israel would introduce a large and hostile enemy population as citizens into the country and thereby undermine its ability to maintain itself as the national home of the Jewish people.

So long, therefore, that I understood that the Palestinian-Arabs wanted a state for themselves distinct from their Palestinian-Jewish neighbors, I supported the two-state solution.  Once it became clear to me that this is emphatically not what the Arabs want then I gradually came to the conclusion that president Barack Obama was correct.  After the failure of the first round of non-negotiations Obama said that the sides needed to want peace.

The problem is both sides do not want peace.  The Jewish side mainly wants be left the hell alone to write computer software, litigate against one another, and send Natalie Portman's out into the world.

The Arab side, on the other hand, wants to see Jews either dead or gone from the land that we come from.

Thus there can be no conclusion of hostilities through the implementation of a peaceful, but separate, negotiated coexistence.

The Palestinian-Arabs, unlike the Palestinian-Jews (i.e., Jewish-Israelis), will not accept a two-state solution because that has never been their goal.  If they honestly wanted a state for themselves in peace next to the Jews then the local Arab leadership would have accepted the Peel Commission Report of 1937 which called for two states, but they did not.

The map on the right represents what the Jews reluctantly accepted and what the Arab majority emphatically rejected right before the Holocaust.

Even a tiny indefensible strip of land between Tel Aviv and Haifa to be reserved for Jewish autonomy in the face of genocide was too much for Arab-Muslim pride.  How dare those dhimmitudenous Jews think that they can rule themselves?  How dare they think that they even have any such right?

So, the Arabs turned down Palestinian-Arab autonomy in 1937 and 1947 and 1967 and 2000 and 2008, and I am probably missing a few.  In 2000, of course, Arafat rejected Ehud Barak's offer of pretty much everything as Abbas rejected Olmert's offer of pretty much everything eight years later.  Both Barack and Olmert offered the Palestinian-Arabs the entirety of Gaza, almost the entirety of Judea and Samaria with land swaps, and much of the eastern section of Jerusalem as a capital.

They turned the Jews down flat, but there is no more than we can possibly offer them.

There comes a point wherein one must take "no" for an answer.

Since it is clearly the case that the Palestinian-Arabs - and the rest of the larger Arab and Muslim worlds - have, decade upon decade, rejected the two-state solution, it now becomes incumbent upon Israel to declare its final borders and remove the IDF to behind those borders.  In previous months and years, I have argued that the borders of Israel should be determined by Israeli leadership and it should be, but in previous months and years I stated no preference.

I have now come to the conclusion that the annexation of Judea and Samaria by the state of Israel is probably the best way to go forward.

What has convinced me, aside from persistent Arab rejection of the two-state solution, is the revelation that the numbers of Arabs in Judea and Samaria are significantly lower than the Palestinian Authority reported.

Furthermore, after annexing Judea and Samaria, there is no reason for Israel to give local Arabs automatic full rights to citizenship.  A path to citizenship should be available however and any non-Jew in the area should be afforded rights to citizenship once they have demonstrated an inclination toward peaceful co-existence.  Given the millennia of hostility toward the Jewish people, such a precondition for non-Jewish citizenship is more than reasonable.

I would offer all resident non-citizens of Israel the opportunity of two to three years of national service and those who complete that national service with a good record should be free to apply for, and receive, full citizenship.

It also must be understood that an Arab state in the small Jewish heartland would, in fact, represent a dagger at the heart of Jewish sovereignty, if not Jewish lives, with the full weight of the Arab and Muslim worlds behind that dagger.

In other words, an Arab state superimposed upon the Jewish highlands will not bring peace.  It will merely represent a new phase in the Long Arab War against the Jews.  It will represent a phase characterized by Arab advantage and gain at the expense of Jewish possibilities for survival.  It will also represent a phase wherein the same malicious voices who disparage and demean the Jews of Israel now will continue to do so by claiming that while the Jews used to persecute the Palestinian-Arabs, now they persecute the Palestinian state, as well. Or such is my prediction.

It is unfortunate, but true, that the Oslo Peace Process has failed.

Barack Obama helped kill it through his dogmatic, racist, and counterproductive insistence on forcing Jews out of our traditional heartland.  By insisting upon "total settlement freeze" - and thereby effectively denying Jewish rights to live on traditionally Jewish land - he enforced a policy that was doomed from the start and that gave the Palestinian-Arabs all the excuse that they needed to avoid a peaceful conclusion of hostilities within the two-state paradigm.

Obama, however, only deserves a certain percentage of the blame for the failure of the two-state solution, although it should be noted that if he did not absolutely kill it, he helped and it was done on his watch.

The reason that two-states failed is not primarily because of the Americans or the Europeans or the United Nations or, even, the Israelis.  The main reason that two-states failed is because the Arabs never wanted it to begin with.  They walked out of the United Nations in November of 1948 in order to tell us that Jewish sovereignty on that land is entirely unacceptable to Arab sensibilities.

Such it was then and so it is now.

If they simply will not accept a Palestinian-Arab state in peace next to Israel, then that is what they will not get.  It is not up to us.  It is up to them.