I'm only going to point to 4 articles this week.
The first article is an interesting analysis of the what may happen in Lebanon following the demise of Assad in Syria. The situation is, of course, complex. On the one hand, Hizbollah owes most of its strength to the arms it had received and continue to receive from Syria. Of course, most of them really are from Iran, but Syria is the key link in the supply chain. On the other hand, Hizbollah is now the most powerful and best armed group in Lebanon, and the Shiite community that they are associated with constitute probably about half the current population of the country. Of course, as usual, NONE of the outcomes are particularly positive for Israel.
Another big item in the news this week was the refusal of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to accept a minute of silence in memory of the Israeli athletes brutally murdered by a terrorist attack at the Munich olympics, 40 years ago. The craziness around this has been absolutely astounding! They claimed that they refused this because it would "politicize" the Olympics. What b***s***! They had no problem with remembering the victims of 9/11, which had absolutely NOTHING to do with the Olympics. THIS massacre, however, happened specifically AT the Olympic Village, and Olympic players and their coaches were explicitly targeted! This, in reality, was an attack on the very spirit of the Olympic Movement itself.
This brings us to our next article. The president of the Palestinian Olympic Committee sent a letter congratulating the IOC on their decision, saying that a moment of silence remembering these athletes would be "racist"! Huh?!? One could certainly argue that the attack ITSELF was racist, since it targeted Israeli athletes. But then a moment of silence would actually be blow AGAINST racism!
Of course, as our article point out, the REAL reason that the "Palestinians" are opposed to any kind of memorial is that they do not consider the attack terrorist or even bad. In fact, to them, it was a "glorious operation", something which they continue to glorify. Peace, peace, who wants peace? Certainly not THEM!
The last 2 articles are both on the topic of Judea and Samaria (the territories misleadingly named "The West Bank" by the Kingdom of Jordan during their illegal occupation of the area from 1948 to 1967).
The first article of these two points out that, while far from ideal, the status quo (i.e. the current situation there) is better liked by nearly anyone who is directly affected by it than any "2-state solution" that could conceivably replace it. This, of course, is very disturbing to people for whom such a solution is the only possibility, but these people generally are not really aware of the actualities of the territories. If you happen to be one of these people (and most people outside the immediate area are), you should read this article carefully and become more enlightened.
The last article is about Sheikh Farid Khadar Al Jaabari, a very important Muslim Arab leader in Hebron. Although he is NOT a Zionist, he actually believes in coexistence with the Jews and is very much a pragmatist. His ideas certainly are much more grounded in reality than most others and would be much more beneficial for both Israel AND the Arab inhabitants of Judea and Samaria. I think they merit serious consideration.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Week ending 21 July 2012
Let's start this week by talking about summer camp. "Summer camp?" you say. "What's that got to do with a serious blog like this?" Plenty, as it turns out.
To most of us, summer camp is a time for kids to get out away from the city and enjoy good times, healthy exercise, and fun learning, with nice campfire sing-a-longs in the evenings.
But for the would-be "Palestinians", it is apparently MUCH more serious. As you can read in this article, they apparently view this as the perfect opportunity to convince tender young minds that their main purpose in life should be to blow themselves up in some area where they will take lots of Jews with them. This goes beyond mere incitement; this is also child abuse!
In previous years, there have been summer camps in Gaza run by Hamas, the rulers there, and others run by the UN (their aiders and abettors). Nevertheless, the UN at least TRIED to have some traditional elements in their camps. This was MUCH too liberal for Hamas, so they have now shut down ALL of the UN summer camps.
In some ways, though, the situation in Fatah-controlled territories is even more insidious. After all, Hamas doesn't even make any PRETENSE of wanting peace or even co-existence with Israel. But Fatah supposedly IS willing to make some kind of a deal with Israel (although they have, of course, been refusing to negotiate at all until Israel FIRST agrees to all their most important demands). As the same article points out, Fatah has just named a summer camp after Dalal Mughrabi. In case you don't remember, she was the leader of the most lethal terror attack in Israel's history, which resulted in the deaths of 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children. If you think that's just ancient history, or "water under the bridge", the article reminds us that, just this week, the governor of the Jericho district of the Palestinian Authority told campers (those tender young minds!) that Mughrabi "should be a beacon for us in our activities." (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 16, 2012) Keep this in mind next time someone talks about the "moderate" Fatah!
Now we'll move on, to Syria, where Assad has been continuing to slaughter his own people. Not so surprisingly, they're beginning to fight back more seriously now. This has got to have Assad more than a little worried. But, as this article in The Daily Star, an English-language site in Lebanon, reminds us, his friend, Nasrallah, the head of Hizbollah, is still supporting him. Of course, Nasrallah owes him big time for all the missiles and other weapons that he shipped to Hizbollah (most of them, of course, originated in Iran, but Syria was the go-between). This is just a bit personal for me, since 2 of those missiles landed close enough to my house in Tsfat 6 years ago to break windows and cause other minor damage. Some of the missiles he fired at northern Israel that summer, of course, did MUCH worse than that!
But Nasrallah is certainly NOT Assad's only supporter. Russia, whose only naval base on the Mediterranean Sea is located in Syria, has also continued to back him. But, perhaps most absurdly of all, as this article points out, Syria is about to be "elected" (we use that word VERY loosely in the case of anything having to do with the UN) as a member of, wait for it, ... the Human Rights Council.
Unfortunately, this is pretty much par for the course for the UN these days. When the UN was established after World War II, there were many high hopes that it would succeed in bringing world peace after the failure of the League of Nations. But there were some fatal flaws, one of the most egregious of which was giving exactly one vote to each nation, no matter how big or small, important or unimportant, it was. Of course, there have been other faults, as well. Now, the UN has become worse than useless -- it's actually DANGEROUS to world peace! It really SHOULD be abolished completely, but there's not any chance at all of that happening anytime soon, I'm sure.
Finally, we move to Israel and the so-called "territories". Our last article is a continuation of one I talked about last week. The author, as he promised, continues this week with more clear thinking about the folly of the 2-state solution. One of his most interesting arguments has to do with the issue of building in disputed areas. This arises from the notion, often proposed, that the first issue to be resolved should be borders, or at least some agreement about which areas will definitely be included in Israel, which areas remain disputed, and which will definitely be part of a Palestinian state. Then, of course, Israel would be free to build as much as it wanted in the first case and not at all in the last. The middle set, though, is where the problem lies. Proponents of the 2-state solution generally say that Israel should not be allowed to build at all in these disputed areas either. But they do NOT say that there should be NO building by EITHER side in these areas. In other words, they essentially give them away at the very beginning! The other BIG problem, of course, is that no "Palestinian" is ever likely to agree to any of this anyway. Actually, maybe that's a good thing!
To most of us, summer camp is a time for kids to get out away from the city and enjoy good times, healthy exercise, and fun learning, with nice campfire sing-a-longs in the evenings.
But for the would-be "Palestinians", it is apparently MUCH more serious. As you can read in this article, they apparently view this as the perfect opportunity to convince tender young minds that their main purpose in life should be to blow themselves up in some area where they will take lots of Jews with them. This goes beyond mere incitement; this is also child abuse!
In previous years, there have been summer camps in Gaza run by Hamas, the rulers there, and others run by the UN (their aiders and abettors). Nevertheless, the UN at least TRIED to have some traditional elements in their camps. This was MUCH too liberal for Hamas, so they have now shut down ALL of the UN summer camps.
In some ways, though, the situation in Fatah-controlled territories is even more insidious. After all, Hamas doesn't even make any PRETENSE of wanting peace or even co-existence with Israel. But Fatah supposedly IS willing to make some kind of a deal with Israel (although they have, of course, been refusing to negotiate at all until Israel FIRST agrees to all their most important demands). As the same article points out, Fatah has just named a summer camp after Dalal Mughrabi. In case you don't remember, she was the leader of the most lethal terror attack in Israel's history, which resulted in the deaths of 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children. If you think that's just ancient history, or "water under the bridge", the article reminds us that, just this week, the governor of the Jericho district of the Palestinian Authority told campers (those tender young minds!) that Mughrabi "should be a beacon for us in our activities." (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 16, 2012) Keep this in mind next time someone talks about the "moderate" Fatah!
Now we'll move on, to Syria, where Assad has been continuing to slaughter his own people. Not so surprisingly, they're beginning to fight back more seriously now. This has got to have Assad more than a little worried. But, as this article in The Daily Star, an English-language site in Lebanon, reminds us, his friend, Nasrallah, the head of Hizbollah, is still supporting him. Of course, Nasrallah owes him big time for all the missiles and other weapons that he shipped to Hizbollah (most of them, of course, originated in Iran, but Syria was the go-between). This is just a bit personal for me, since 2 of those missiles landed close enough to my house in Tsfat 6 years ago to break windows and cause other minor damage. Some of the missiles he fired at northern Israel that summer, of course, did MUCH worse than that!
But Nasrallah is certainly NOT Assad's only supporter. Russia, whose only naval base on the Mediterranean Sea is located in Syria, has also continued to back him. But, perhaps most absurdly of all, as this article points out, Syria is about to be "elected" (we use that word VERY loosely in the case of anything having to do with the UN) as a member of, wait for it, ... the Human Rights Council.
Unfortunately, this is pretty much par for the course for the UN these days. When the UN was established after World War II, there were many high hopes that it would succeed in bringing world peace after the failure of the League of Nations. But there were some fatal flaws, one of the most egregious of which was giving exactly one vote to each nation, no matter how big or small, important or unimportant, it was. Of course, there have been other faults, as well. Now, the UN has become worse than useless -- it's actually DANGEROUS to world peace! It really SHOULD be abolished completely, but there's not any chance at all of that happening anytime soon, I'm sure.
Finally, we move to Israel and the so-called "territories". Our last article is a continuation of one I talked about last week. The author, as he promised, continues this week with more clear thinking about the folly of the 2-state solution. One of his most interesting arguments has to do with the issue of building in disputed areas. This arises from the notion, often proposed, that the first issue to be resolved should be borders, or at least some agreement about which areas will definitely be included in Israel, which areas remain disputed, and which will definitely be part of a Palestinian state. Then, of course, Israel would be free to build as much as it wanted in the first case and not at all in the last. The middle set, though, is where the problem lies. Proponents of the 2-state solution generally say that Israel should not be allowed to build at all in these disputed areas either. But they do NOT say that there should be NO building by EITHER side in these areas. In other words, they essentially give them away at the very beginning! The other BIG problem, of course, is that no "Palestinian" is ever likely to agree to any of this anyway. Actually, maybe that's a good thing!
Friday, July 13, 2012
Week ending 14 July 2012
We start our review this week with an article about a former Islamic jihad member from Egypt who is now a strong Muslim supporter of Israel. The article is well worth reading because he gives a lot of insight into the dynamics of radical Islam and how it seduces young people, especially men, into its service. The article is a little on the long side, but it is worth taking the time to read.
Our second article is also about radical Islam in Egypt. This story is a bit sensational, and the practice it is talking about, sex slavery in Egypt, is certainly still controversial even there. However, it does show how far radical Islam can go from anything remotely acceptable in the modern Western world, a fact worth pondering now that the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate will soon be President of Egypt. This article is NOT very long.
The third article is very short and reports about a recent Friday sermon of the Muslim Brotherhood's Supreme Guide in Egypt (remember, they're the ones whose candidate just won the presidential election there). In it, he says that ALL faithful Muslims have an individual duty to do everything they can to "free al-Quds", i.e. to force Israel out of its capital, Jerusalem. If his advice is actually followed, Egypt will have to attack Israel, violating the peace agreement which was paid for many years ago by transferring the entire Sinai peninsula (nearly 3/4 of the area Israel controlled at the end of 1967) to Egyptian sovereignty (the "land for peace" deal). Did I mention that their candidate just won the presidential election there?
Our fourth article outlines the Muslim Brotherhood's ideas of the goals of an election. And what are these goals? Not merely that their people should win, but that Sharia law will be established. As the article states, the directives were: "Cheat, fight, and kill during elections, as long as doing so enables Sharia; vote only for whoever will enable Sharia; avoid hell by enabling Sharia." Will the Muslim Brotherhood candidates, including President Morsi, actually takes steps to implement Sharia law in Egypt? We can hope not, but, remember, it IS what they were ELECTED to do!
We now turn to Israel and the areas under its control. The first article in this category proposes something a bit radical, at least at first blush: applying Israeli law over all of Judea and Samaria (the area, part of the ancient heartland of the Jewish People, that Jordan dubbed "The West Bank" during its years of illegal occupation there, from 1948 to 1967). But if you read further, the author makes a good argument for this. In particular, this would stop the use of the Jordanian land registry as the main the authority on land ownership there. This is important because this registry is mostly fictitious, awarding ownership of land to people who had NO idea that they were its owners and had never made any claims to the land in 40 years. This is the supposedly "private" land that you see headlines about Jewish settlements being built on. It's important to know the truth about this, I think, because the headlines make the "settlers" look like thieves, when they actually are NOT.
Our second article in this category is a light-hearted, heart-warming story about a personal friendship between a "settler" (i.e. a Jewish resident of Samaria) and an Israeli Muslim Arab. If there is EVER to be anything even RESEMBLING peace here, THIS is how it will start.
The next article starts out with some rather strong, critical language, just short of name-calling. However, the author supports his statements well, and I recommend reading his clear-headed analysis, as opposed to the muddy thinking that he is debunking.
The bizarre title of our next article, "Is Israel in danger of becoming a failed state?", is actually what made me read it. As a citizen and resident of Israel, I can assure you with rather high confidence that Israel is not anywhere NEAR becoming ANYTHING like a "failed state" in the near future! Even the parts of Judea and Samaria under the control of the Palestinian Authority are doing better than most of the Arab world right now, and, of course, the parts of Israel under direct Israeli control are booming! The strange thing is that strong proponents of the 2-state solution are trying to use this classification to argue that Israel must relinquish territory in order to avoid being dragged under. But this is insane! First of all, Israel is doing very well, even WITH the support that it gives to the PA areas. Releasing those areas in order to form a Palestine state very likely WOULD lead to such a state becoming a failed state in short order (look at Gaza under Hamas, for example). This would not be a good outcome for Israel OR for the people living in such an ill-conceived state!
Our last article is rather long, but it is excellent. It looks in particular at the controversy over Silwan, a neighborhood in Jerusalem that lies just southeast of the Old City. In fact, there's rather strong archeological evidence that THIS is the REALLY old city of Jerusalem, the city of the Jebusites and of the biblical King David. But, as the article points out, the controversy here follows an increasingly familiar pattern: fabrication of "Palestinian" history. The serious problem with this, though, is that it really would be better labeled "denial of any Jewish connection to ANYTHING at all here in the Land of Israel". Take the time to read this well-documented article to learn MANY more details about this process.
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