Archive for the 'Israel' Category

Military Options Are Not Hopeless

Published January 30, 2012 Iran , Israel 2 Comments
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Jonathan S. Tobin, writes in Commentary blog Contentions: Echoes of 1967 in Israel’s Iran Dilemma.  This is a refreshing counter-point to Barry Rubin’s depressing piece (cited below).

I myself don’t know what Israel’s leadership should do.  I have no inside information on Iranian defences or Israeli military options.

But I like what Tobin is saying.  He simply argues that the military option is not hopeless.  Iran is not invulnerable.  This doesn’t sound particularly controversial until you consider how many supposed “realists” treat with the contrary proposition as a default axiom, a matter that must be taken on faith.

Tobin also points to the similarity with 1967, when world opinion was united in urging Israel not to take preemptive action against Egypt’s planned holocaust.

What is most surprising is today’s “realist’s” claim that an Israeli strike would turn Iran into an implacable enemy of Israel!  Have these guys been listening to Iran’s leaders lately?  It’s worse, more openly genocidal, than anything Nasser ever spouted.

Barry Rubin is wrong!

Published January 29, 2012 Iran , Israel Leave a Comment
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I never thought I would write these words, but Barry Rubin over at Pajamas Media is wrong in his effort to reassure us that Israel will not attack Iran’s nuclear program.  Rubin is a perceptive and courageous analyst of the Middle East and its problems.  But this piece is merely a rehash of “realist” pap about how Iran is so well protected that an Israeli or US attack “will not stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons.”  There is also the usual stuff about how Iran’s leaders can’t really be as crazy as they sound, and how deterrence just might work on these 12th-Imam fanatics.

Now, we’ve been hearing about Iran’s invulnerability for years.  Yes, we know that some of Iran’s facilities are deep underground.  We’ve been hearing that for years from those urging inaction.

Fact:  In May of 2006, James Fallows wrote in the Atlantic: “Now that Iran unquestionably intends to build a nuclear bomb, the international community has few options to stop it—and the worst option would be a military strike.”

Fact: In 2009,  Defense Secretary Gates, obviously speaking at the president’s direction, has announced that the US has no military ability to destroy the fast-developing Iranian nuclear program.  All we would do would be “send it further underground.”

Fact:  In May of 2011, The AP reports that “Iran has moved some of its centrifuge machines to an underground enrichment site that offers better protection from possible airstrikes, the country’s vice president said Monday.”

Questions:  If they’ve been so bloody invulnerable for so long, why are the Iranians suddenly burying them? Continue reading ‘Barry Rubin is wrong!’

Sieg Heil, Palestine!

Published January 26, 2012 Israel Leave a Comment
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From the vigilant folks at the invaluable memri.org, a reminder that the roots of Islamist anti-Semitism are not all from their ancient culture and religion.  There is a significant modern source as well.

“Palestinians in Lebanon Shown Saluting Nazi/Hezbullah Style

Palestinians in Lebanon Shown Saluting Nazi/Hizbullah Style

Palestinians in Lebanon Shown SalutingPalestinian salute..

(You can view the TV footage here.)

Paul Berman, in the days after 9/11, wrote an interesting and perceptive book about the Fascist and Nazi roots of Islamist terrorism.  The book is Terror and Liberalism, and it was a call for the Left to remember which side it belongs on.  Sadly, too few on the Left have done so.

Netanyahu speaks truth to closed minds

Published September 23, 2011 Israel Leave a Comment
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I just heard Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to the UN General Assembly.  The full transcript is here.

It was a powerful, no-nonsense statement of the unvarnished truth.  Israel is committed to negotiating peace.  The Palestinian leadership and a sizeable portion (possibly the majority) of the Palestinian people are committed to the elimination of Israel.

“Moderate” leader Abbas said so this week. Not at the UN, where he blamed Israel for, well, everything.  But earlier that day, here.

“They talk to us about the Jewish state, but I respond to them with a final answer: We shall not recognize a Jewish state,” Abbas said in a meeting with some 200 senior representatives of the Palestinian community in the US, shortly before taking the podium and delivering a speech at the United Nations General  Assembly.”

There you have it.  His “final answer”.  One wonders what his final solution might be?

Here is Netanyahu:

President Abbas just said on this podium that the Palestinians are armed only with their hopes and dreams. Yeah, hopes, dreams and 10,000 missiles and Grad rockets supplied by Iran, not to mention the river of lethal weapons now flowing into Gaza from the Sinai, from Libya, and from elsewhere.     Continue reading ‘Netanyahu speaks truth to closed minds’

The AP conceals Mideast truth…again

Published September 16, 2011 Israel Leave a Comment
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Once again, an Associated Press story smearing Israel conceals more facts than it reveals.

In this week’s “Israel Prevents Palestinians From Free Movement”, an AP “reporter” describes the sufferings of the Palestinians while concealing the true authors of their plight.

A West Bank Palestinian loses his job in Israel, and (says the AP) the result is a drive for UN recognition of the Palestinian/Hamas regime. For years, he earned a good living working as a laborer in Israel. But then…

“After peace proposals were rejected in 2000, a violent Palestinian uprising against Israel’s occupation flared, and his job quickly
ended.”

The reporter’s careful use of the passive voice conceals the actual agents of the change.

Who rejected the peace proposals mediated by Bill Clinton in 2000? The Palestinian leadership.

Who accepted them? Israel. Continue reading ‘The AP conceals Mideast truth…again’

Can You Love Freedom and Hate Israel?

Published September 1, 2011 Israel , Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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I was discussing philosophy recently with my friend Ben Finiti.  The queston arose of whether it is repressive “political correctness” to consider a person’s extreme prejudices (in this case, anti-semitism) when evaluating their position on a philosophical question.

Our initial reaction was that, if at all possible, the philosophical question should be considered separately.

This got me thinking about a question I often ask myself:  how can someone who does A also do B?  Specifically on the question of Israel and Zionism.

How can one preach democracy and hate the most democratic state ever to exist in the region?

How can one value freedom and yet hate the freest, arguably the only free state in the region?

How can one espouse peace and yet hate the only state in the region willing to establish peace with all its neighbors?

And finally, the most perplexing of all: How can one love God and hate Israel?

I know, I know.  Anti-Zionism and opposition to Israel is not the same as anti-semitism.  Supposedly, not every anti-Zionist advocate of return to the indefensible pre-1967 borders hates Jews.  Not every pious critic who screams “Apartheid” and “Imperialism” at Israel’s every measure of self-defense is an anti-Semite.  Not every college professor demanding disinvestment from all Israeli companies would be happy to see Hamas achieve its bloodthirsty dreams.  Not every anti-Zionist wants to see Israel swept off the map, or even the more moderate proposal of allowing Hamas missiles to be positioned 11 miles from Tel Aviv.

But still…

When I hear someone say “I am not anti-Semitic; I am just anti-Israel” I wonder.  Continue reading ‘Can You Love Freedom and Hate Israel?’

You Gotta See This

Published June 3, 2011 Israel 1 Comment
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Are you familiar with the Pajamas Media website? If not, you should take a look.  Their coverage of a wide range of issues is  often provocative but (and?) always interesting and fact-based.

An outstanding post specific to the Israel-Palestinian issue is currently running there.  “Darkness In Palestine”, is a poignant and troubling on-the-ground look at the West Bank town of Hebron.  The author, Michael J. Totten, describes the reality of the Jewish settlers’ life in some of the most hostile areas outside the “pre-1967 borders” that our president is so insistent on.  He reveals the history of Arab anti-Semitism and “ethnic cleansing” (i.e., genocide) which have produced the nearly “Jew-free” areas in the West Bank.  He exposes the real meaning of opposition to the settlements; the Jewish settlements are hated because Jews are hated. Continue reading ‘You Gotta See This’

The Latest Palestinian Peace News

Published May 27, 2011 Israel 1 Comment
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Palestinians Endorse “Country-Of-Origin Labeling”

Here are two news reports from the invaluable Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

First, Hamas clarifies its position on future Israeli borders.

“Osama Hamdan, Head of the Hamas Foreign Liaisons: Armed Confrontation Will Continue to Be “the Backbone of the Resistance”, the Israelis Must Return to Their Countries of Origin” - interview aired on Al-Jadid/New TV on May 4, 2011: (that is 2 weeks before recent the Netanyahu/Obama exchanges):

“There is no doubt, however, that the armed confrontation will continue to be the main effort and the backbone of the resistance, until the liberation of Palestine.”

“I think that politically, the two-state solution is over. The people who suggested this notion are the ones who say so. Therefore, trying to talk about a two-state solution again is like talking about something that is over and done with.” 

“I think that we are entering the phase of the liberation of Palestine. When we talk about the liberation of Palestine, we are talking about the notion of Return: the return of the refugees to their homeland, and the return of the Israelis to the countries from which they came.”

So there you have it: the Palestinian view of future Israeli border is not pre 1967, but rather pre-1948.  Actually, it is even worse.  Though Jews have lived in the area for thousands of years, they are now to…get out.

At least the Palestinians support “Country-Of-Origin Labeling”

And here is news of the welfare state, Palestinian Authority style: Continue reading ‘The Latest Palestinian Peace News’

Moderate Terrorists Make Peace!

Published May 5, 2011 Israel Leave a Comment
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So, let’s see what else has been happening while US forces finally caught up Osama Bin Laden.  

Well, here on a back page of the newspaper I read that the Palestinians have finally negotiated a peace agreement…with themselves.  The Hamas terrorists in Gaza have formed a “unity” alliance with the Palestinian Authority/Fatah government in the West Bank, so that they can work together for their common aims.  The story did not mention what those aims are.

There are, at least in theory, some big differences between Hamas and the PA/Fatah.  Hamas is an openly terrorist organization, committed to the total destruction of Israel, and deeply hostile to the US.  Fatah? Well, not so much. 

The Fatah-controlled PA is generally regarded as “moderate”, meaning that they changed their constitution in recent years to erase their commitment to Israel’s destruction.  Fatah recently gave up promoting suicide bombings of civilians when Israel built a wall to keep them out.  This is why Fatah/PA is considered “moderate”: so much so that, in the interests of peace, the US now gives $400 million a year to Fatah/PA, and provides it with military training.  

So now moderate Fatah/PA and terrorist Hamas are united.  What does that make them? Moderate terrorists, I guess.  And how different are they?  Take the Bin Laden killing, for instance. Ismail Haniya, the leader of the Hamas government, called it a “continuation of the United States policy of destruction” and “state terrorism that America carries out against Muslims.”  The PA officially applauded the US action, but Fatah’s official military arm, The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade,  echoed Hamas: Continue reading ‘Moderate Terrorists Make Peace!’

Reasons to Hate Israel #123 and #124.

Published June 22, 2010 Israel 2 Comments
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I have just read an intriguing and beautifully written post on National Review’s Corner blog by Mike Potemra, entitled “Why Do They Hate Israel?”.  The question seems presumptuous, since the haters have never experienced a shortage of anti-Semitic justifications. But still.

Potemra, about whom I know nothing, raises a thought I have often had.

As he puts it, “Part of the problem, in the United States at least, has to do with elitist contempt for Evangelical Christians”.  I am beginning to believe that much of the global elite’s anti-Americanism stems from just this contempt, which is actually embarrassment with the subject of Christianity.  Evangelicals are the ones consistently bringing up God and morality in public discourse, making us all feel awkward since we have nothing much to say on the subject.  So we treat vocal Christians as embarrassing redneck relatives, changing the subject when they’re listening, and mocking them when they’re not.

And Israel, since the rise of Likud, with sytrong voices of Russian refuseniks, has seemed to resemble Evangelical Christianity at least as much as it does liberal cosmopolitan European Jewry.

I must write more on this soon.  In the meantime, here is the post.

_____________________________

Why Do They Hate Israel?   [Mike Potemra]

 Mark Steyn recently reminded us of some European polling from a few years ago, showing that the public consensus was growing on the Continent that Israel is the greatest threat to world peace. Continue reading ‘Reasons to Hate Israel #123 and #124.’

Agnostic about Genocide?

Published June 20, 2010 Iran , Israel 1 Comment
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My friend Ben Finiti talks of having become a political agnostic, uncomfortable taking sides on many of the most contentious issues of our time. I feel the same – up to a point. I agree that many questions (stimulus, bailouts, immigration, health care, etc.) offer at least two sides with plausible concerns, relevant facts, and about the same level of good- and bad-faith arguments.  To invest in one position, I must do one of two things. I must decide that I know what this is all about and am sufficiently informed, disinterested, and dispassionate to be able to say which position should prevail. Or I must use my affiliations as guides to my positions (“My friends/family/party are for it, so that must be the right position.”) Like Ben, I find it increasingly difficult to do either on most issues.

But not on all issues. In the Middle East and around the world today, a struggle of titanic proportions is taking shape. The battles are still small by 20th-century standards. In Afghanistan and Iraq, US troops fight in the field.  Around the globe, security forces try to thwart murderous terrorists before they can strike at civilian targets.  Under multiculturalist banners, unassimilable immigrants demand recognition of Sharia law, accommodation of “honor killings”, and punishment for anti-Islamic speech. Continue reading ‘Agnostic about Genocide?’

Paging Dr. Walt and Dr. Mearsheimer

Published March 8, 2010 Iran , Israel Leave a Comment
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I Have a Question, Doctors

A few years ago, two professors wrote a book.  Stephen Walt (Harvard) and John Mearsheimer (Chicago) published The Israel Lobby in 2007, and it made quite a splash.  Its central thesis was that US foreign policy was directed by Israel and its friends, to the detriment of America’s real interests.  In other words, the Jews are running this country.

 Accusations of anti-Semitism arose, but were deftly parried by the authors and their defenders.  It’s about Israel, they responded; it has nothing to do with Jews!

(This is why I wish that Ben Gurion had given the Zionist entity a different name, like maybe Semitia.  But then the world’s W’s and M’s would have patiently explained that they are not anti-Semites, but anti-Semitians.  If he’d named it Jewland, W and M could explain that their problem is with Jewlandians, not Jews. Oh, well.)

 Here I note that I venture no judgment on the inner prejudices of W and M.  But I do note that if you check their book on Amazon, you will learn that “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought: The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine; Beyond Chutzpah; On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism; Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid (by Jimmy Carter); The Holocaust Industry; and The Power of Israel in the United States.”  I know that guilt is not proven by association.  You may draw your own conclusions.

 So, in the dark days of the dreaded neocon likudnik administration of George W. Bush, professors M and W surveyed US mideast policy and made an interesting discovery.  Every action occurred in Israel.  The Muslim states were mere passive observers, reacting to Israeli and US provocations.  The best example was in their look at Iran. 

 “Israel’s perception of the Iranian threat underwent a fundamental change in the early 1990’s, as evidence of Teheran’s nuclear ambitions began to accumulate.  Israeli leaders began warning Washington in 1993 that Iran was a grave threat not only to Israel but to the US as well.  There has been no letup in that alarmist and aggressive rhetoric since then, largely because Iran has continued to move ahead on the nuclear front.” Continue reading ‘Paging Dr. Walt and Dr. Mearsheimer’

Russia, China Doom US Appeasement

Published October 14, 2009 Israel 1 Comment
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Today’s news:  Russian leaders Vladimir Putin rejects sanctions against Iran, even as China indicates willingness to consider more sanctions.

Tomorrow’s headline:  China rejects Iran sanctions, even as Russia softens its position.

The Day after Tomorrow’s headine: China tags out, Russia tags into Iran-defense match.

Several things become clearer every day.

First, Iran is playing its diplomatic stalling game with masterful finesse.  They have been at the table for years with the Europeans, and now with us. Feeble sanctions are enacted, and then flouted by various nations.  And in the background, the steady hum of thousands of gas centrifuges, both in Qom and Natanz, creating the stuff of Iran’s dream: the Jew-liquidating Final Solution: the Mullah Of All Bombs.

Second, Russia and China are not displeased with Iran’s challenge to the West, and will not impede it in any way.  But, to avoid burning all bridges to the West, Russia and China will continue to play tag-team in threatening to veto any UN Security Council action, swapping the good-cop/bad-cop roles from time to time.  They know that the present US administration will not consider military pressure on Iran without a UN mandate.  Russia and China are Iran’s insurance policy against any possible UN action.  With their backing, Iran fears no sanctions, and has zero incentive to negotiate in good faith. Continue reading ‘Russia, China Doom US Appeasement’

The Next Holocaust

Published October 8, 2009 Israel , McCain Leave a Comment
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I have just finished reading an interesting and disturbingly timely book. Why We Watched: Europe, America, and the Holocaust, by Theodore S. Hamerow, a history professor at the University of Wisconsin, chronicles and analyzes a story too rarely told:  why the USA and Western European democracies exerted so little effort to prevent Hitler’s genocide of the Jews of Europe.

Hamerow gives full credit to the supreme efforts made by the allies in the war to defeat Hitlerism – once the allies belatedly recognized that their appeasement and isolationism would not avert the danger of further territorial aggression.

But he focuses on the numerous instances when the US and Britain failed to take available steps to assist Hitler’s victims.  The public silence about the death camps.  The repeated failure to offer wholesale welcome to refugees.  And, above all, the refusal to divert even limited military resources to disrupting the railroad networks supplying the death camps.

In the final analysis, there were three reasons why the West only watched the Holocaust.  Continue reading ‘The Next Holocaust’

Israel Sees Secret Holocaust Plans

Published August 27, 2009 Israel 2 Comments
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On an official visit to Germany, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu received an unusual gift.  This gift was a set of plans for the Nazi Holocaust.  (It was not an “official gift”, but rather one from a private citizen, a newspaper publisher.  The official gift was an iPod loaded with the speeches of Angela Merkel.)

The documents, “which include architects’ drawings of rooms including one marked ‘Gaskammer’, or gas chamber…”, gave Netanyahu a welcome opportunity to remind the world that the next round of the Holocaust is being prepared right now in Teheran.  Continue reading ‘Israel Sees Secret Holocaust Plans’

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