Congress & The Jihad

In March 2004 Al Qaeda won its first parliamentary election in Europe.
It installed the trailing candidate José Luis Zapatero as prime minister of Spain.
It clinched this victory just 3 days before the election by exploding 10 bombs causing the death of 191 people and the wounding of 1,700 others.
The grateful prime minister quickly repaid his election backers by withdrawing his country’s 1,300 troops from Iraq.

On November 7th 2006 Al Qaeda looks set to win its first Congressional election.
This time Al Qaeda’s campaign strategy has shown itself somewhat earlier; a steady but deliberate boost in the body count of American casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan as the election approaches. It is daunting to think what peak this may reach by the eve of the election.

In the past, the Muslim Brotherhood and its terrorist agencies have been content to simply scare off foreign troops with dastardly acts of wholesale terror. Like the bombing of the marine barracks in Beirut in October 1983 which left 240 American servicemen dead and 40 others wounded. Despite Vice President Bush’s statement that America ‘would not be cowed by terrorists’ all US troops were pulled out within 6 months.

This time Al Qaeda is gunning for the US congress.
But why fly a plane into the capitol building, if you can defeat Bush through the ballot box?
Why hijack an aircraft in the sky when you can hijack votes on the ground?
Even now, the very fear of a GOP defeat is forcing the Bush administration into seeking some kind of exit strategy in Iraq.

Virtually everyone is agreed that the Iraq policy has failed, in that it is getting nowhere.
My personal view is that it was right for the US to remove Saddam, as a tyrant to his own people and a clear threat to world peace. Being firmly of the view that ‘Arabs don’t do democracy’ I was pleasantly surprised that the coalition managed to organise a free election. But I can’t see this freedom lasting, especially if the coalition withdraws.

The fact that the Iraq policy is stalled does not necessarily mean that the only sensible option is to withdraw. However much enmity there may be for America in the region, such a retreat would betray all those who seek freedom from tyranny. They will never again trust the West.

In particular, such an open abandonment of desperate people on the very cusp of freedom would totally undermine the chances of any popular uprising against the mullahs in Teheran. That remains the best and most risk-free way of restoring freedom to the people of Iran and neutralising its nuclear threat. But when the time comes for Iranian students to stand before the tank-treads they need to be certain that the free world will not abandon them in their hour of need. Nothing will deflate them more than America turning its back on Iraq. And nothing will empower them more than an American president who sticks to his promises and damn the pollsters.

If America beats a hasty retreat, it is almost certain that radical fundamentalists will emerge from the ensuing civil war, in control of Iraq with all its oil wealth. With support from Iran in the East, this new Axis member will quickly overrun its Western neighbour Jordan and finish Abdullah and his Hashemite Kingdom. Then, at last, the Islamists will have Israel completely encircled in an arc of terror stretching from Lebanon, to Syria, to the new Islamic Republic of Jordan and of course Palestinian Gaza.

Yes, the Iraq policy has stalled. And yes, something dramatic needs to be done.
But failure cannot be an option.
The answer is not to bring troops home, but to send out an equal number of fresh troops to double the forces of freedom in the frontline of the war on terror.
And then to win it.
That was of course the original objective.

Writing these lines from London, linked by tunnel and treaty to a continent of appeasement, I find it astonishing that Americans – least of all Jewish Americans - would allow Al Qaeda a congressional victory by empowering a Zapatero platform of retreat and withdrawal in voting Democrat in the coming election.

Americans have just a few precious days left to learn Spanish.
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This first appeared as an Op-Ed on 26 October in The Jewish Press

FOOTNOTE, a few days later ....

US VP Dick Cheney says Iraq violence increased to influence midterm elections

October 31, 2006, 9:34 PM (GMT+02:00)

He blamed al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents for raising the level of violence in Iraq “to break the will of the American people.” They are monitoring US public opinion via the internet, said Cheney, as the US death toll in Iraq passed 101 in October. Iraq is a hot issue in campaigning for the Nov. 7 election, in which the Republicans face the possible loss of their majority in one or both Houses of Congress.

Clear & Present Danger

In response to the appointment of new coalition partner, Avigdor Lieberman, to focus on the Iranian threat, Uzi Arad, says that Iran policy "in all its details" must be kept under Olmert's control.

Arad is director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, and was Binyamin Netanyahu's foreign policy adviser when the latter was prime minister.

"If indeed the Iranian issue is the most profoundly threatening strategic issue for Israel, it is the prime minister who should be in charge of this," he says.

I agree with the recommendation, but not the reasoning.

The clear and present danger facing Israel today is Lebanon II. This will be the resumption of the missile attacks which Hizbulla will commence just as soon as Teheran fires the starting pistol. (In case you are thinking the UN will prevent this, read the history of their flight from Sinai on the orders of President Nasser in 1967.)

Lebanon II will be supported on two other fronts.

The second front will be Gaza, where Hamas have stockpiled hundreds of the same Iranian missiles, imported in full view of Egyptian troops who control the Philadelphi route; a vital interception zone abandoned by Sharon and Mofaz to appease the US state department.

As missiles rain down from the North and South, a third front will activate in the West Bank in random acts of roadside bombing, insurgency and sniper attacks designed to sap IDF resources already strained on the main war fronts.

Compare this scenario to the war of words with Teheran over a future nuclear threat and you can see where the clear and present danger lies. There is a frightening possibility that Olmert is failing to see the wood for the trees. Could all these pronouncements from Teheran be a deliberate ploy by Ahmadinejad as a diversionary tactic?

When it comes to a war of words, there is no question that Olmert has at least some competence. That is why I agree with Uzi Arad’s conclusion that the Teheran issue should be left in the PM’s hands.

This would leave the tougher Mr Lieberman free to focus on the immediate threat, which he is infinitely better capable of addressing in his usual no-nonsense way.

H G Wells comes to Israel

So how will we protect ourselves from Hizballah’s rockets.

I began thinking of that old movie War of the Worlds.

When those green tinged killing machines invaded the earth.

The army and air force threw everything at them, nukes and all.

But nothing could penetrate that protective bubble they had around them.

Wow! If only Israel had that kind of technology!

Well, ye of little faith … take a look at this video

See what your people have brought into being.

Despite the worst efforts of our hopeless leaders … we shall overcome.

Toothless Bulldog

“Recapture the Philadelphi route”.

That’s today’s crie de cour from the endangered citizens of Israel

Sadly that’s not something Mr Olmert is capable of.

Any more than he will bomb Teheran’s nuclear facilities.

Amadinejad, Assad, Abbas, Nasrallah and Haniyeh are all safe with Olmert in office.

And don’t they know it.

.

If only middle-Israelis knew it.

And if they did … would they remember it next polling day?

Man with a nose for hatred

Hamas foreign minister Mahmoud Zahar says Israel is "a cancer in the Middle East and a growth on our land".

Let's hope that's exactly what's on his nose.

May it grow speedily in our days.

Jonathan & Joseph

It’s heartrending to read of the anguish of Jonathan Pollard in his 21^st year of imprisonment in the Land of the Free.

His fellow inmates noted that Prime Minister Olmert forgot to mention Pollard’s name amongst other prisoners of Zion in his opening speech to the winter session of the Knesset.

How this must have made him feel.

Unlike MIA’s Zachary Baumel, Zvi Feldman, Yehuda Katz, Ron Arad and Guy Hever and the three captives of this year’s hostilities Gilad Shalit, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser – the Israeli government knows exactly where Pollard is.

Yet they do nothing.

Like another abandoned brother.

His name is Joseph.

And he lies in Shechem (Nablus), in full view of our army and on territory to which we are legally entitled (even) under the Oslo accords.

Who is more important than all of these heroes of our people?

Apparently only drug dealers like Elchanan Tannenbaum, for whom the Sharon government released over 400 terrorists.

What has become of us?

Katsav

It usually takes several days for the glow of Succot in Jerusalem to wear off.

But shortly after returning ‘home’ to London, I caught the TV news.

“The president of Israel is to be charged for rape.”

What an utterly gut-wrenching thing to hear; not least from a British newsroom.

The highest elected official in the land of ‘the people of the book’ – branded a common rapist!

What kind of light is this unto the nations?

It’s hard to believe that only a few months ago Katsav was being tipped as a future leader and uniter of the right wing parties.

Could there be something more sinister involved here? Just look at all the leaks and misinformation which have been peddled by ‘officials’. It sounds more like character assassination than a genuine interest in natural justice. One wonders what Shimon Peres must be thinking as he watches the destruction of the man who stole the office he so coveted.

Let’s not forget that it was Katsav who first blew the whistle by reporting he was being blackmailed by Miss A. The transcript of Katsav’s recording of their conversation clearly shows $200,000 being demanded.

Let’s also not forget that instead of 10 other complainants rumoured to be coming forward, all the police could trawl up after all these weeks was just 2 other women. That's a total of just 3 accusers from a staff of perhaps dozens of female secretaries and clerks who must have served Katsav in his private and public career.

And bizarrely, all 3 women were quite content to go back to work for their supposed abuser.

Let’s also not forget that blackmail is a criminal offence; not least the blackmail of a state president. But there is no sign the police intend to press such charges against Miss A, despite the damning evidence on tape. Has a deal has been done in exchange for some lurid testimony?

Just a few weeks ago in London, two judges were embroiled in a sex scandal with an illegal immigrant whom they shared as a cleaner and lover. It started when one of the judges reported to the police that the cleaner was blackmailing her. Under English law it seems that the identity of a blackmail victim must be protected and, to this day, her identity is not officially known.

Was Katsav not entitled to at least the same protection until the case was proven?

Maybe so, but Chief Danino's special investigations unit seems to have done its best to hang out the president to dry in the full glare of Israeli public opinion and thereby defame the Jewish state in the world’s media.

My bet is that what started as a rape charge will end up with ‘conduct unbecoming a president’. And there has been no shortage of world leaders who have fallen victim to high levels of testosterone without which I daresay they might never have made it to the top in the first place.

I may be wrong. But even if it turns out that Katsav had sex with all three women against their will, it is nothing compared to what Olmert has been doing to millions of Israelis. This unelected prime minister, at the head of a party elected on a platform of lies, has date-raped the entire country with a hypnotic cocktail of falsehoods about disengagement and the missile threat from the north.

After a month cowering under a hail of missiles, the citizens of Israel emerged from their shelters feeling raped and violated by their leaders and all the ‘yes’ men they had put in control of the nation’s defence.

Let’s hope that the commission investigating the Lebanon debacle goes about its enquiries with at least the same fanatical zeal as the police investigation into Katsav.

The R & D of Bigotry

The World Economic Forum has just ranked Israel as 1st for availability of scientists and engineers, and in 2nd place for venture capital availability. In technological readiness Israel leaped 20 places to rank 3rd in the world.

Pity that French ambassador Bernard is not alive to witness these world-beating triumphs of a ‘shitty little country’.

So how come the Europeans are falling so far behind?

Perhaps their professors and scientists need to change their priorities.

Let them invest more of their time in research and development.

And less in supporting the bigotry of boycott and divestment from Israel.

Golda's Gaza Teach-in

Golda Meir famously said: “There will only be peace when the Arabs love their children more than they hate the Jews”.

Nowhere has this truism been played out more graphically than in Gaza’s present troubles.

The near civil war between Fatah and Hamas is all about recognition of Israel (for what it is worth) and acceptance of its agreements so far signed with the Palestinian Authority (for whatever they are worth).

Arafat found it easy to make those commitments knowing full well he would ultimately renege on them. But Haniyeh won’t even fake those commitments; such is the pathology of his mutant strain of Islam.

And so, the PA’s dream of creating a Palestinian state on the ruins of Gush Katif - along with airports and seaports through which to equip the next assault on the Jewish state - has turned into the nightmare of a civil war. Hamas is content for Arab children to go without schooling and roam the streets at risk of sectarian gunfire rather than even feign acceptance of the Jewish state.

And there endeth Golda’s lesson.