March 24, 2008

The Greatest Prize of All

Notice the rapprochement that is going on between former enemies in the Middle East.

The Sunni royals in Saudi Arabia, who most fear Iranian hegemony in the region, have been maintaining cordial contacts with Nazi President Ahmadinejad since he visited Mecca for the Hajj.

Earlier this month Ahmadinejad went to Baghdad. In the first state visit between the countries for 40 years, Iran’s Shiite despot was warmly welcomed by Iraq’s Kurdish president Jalal Talebani.

Relationships between Iran and Syria have been cemented by Russia which protects them both from any threat of serious sanctions for nuclear weaponisation or state sponsorship of terrorism.

And now we see moves by our supposed “peace partner” Mahmoud Abbas to reconcile his duplicitous and corrupt Fatah organisation with the terrorist leadership of Hamas in Gaza.

Why are all these bitter rivals and previously sworn enemies burying so many old hatchets?

The answer is simple.

For the first time in 60 years, all these people truly and deeply believe that they have something much bigger at stake. The chance to realise their most cherished ambition – to win their most coveted prize. The erasure of the State of Israel and its people.

But, why should our enemies believe this now? At such a time when Israel has never been better armed and equipped to defend itself?

The answer is simple.

They have watched and listened very carefully.

They watched Israel declare war on her own people in surrendering control of Gaza without a single Arab shot being fired.

They listened to Olmert saying he is “tired of fighting and tired of winning” and watched this self-defeating prophecy being played out in the disastrous Lebanon War.

They observe that Israel is not even prepared to retaliate against rocket attacks on her southern cities, and responds simply by moving families further north and upgrading bomb shelters.

And they marvel that even the slaughter of 8 teenage yeshiva students goes unpunished and is quickly forgotten by Israel’s leaders as they revert to their mantra of surrendering ever more land as if this will make any difference.

Everyone has a vested interest in Israel’s defeat.

Iran needs to enact its messianic apocalypse and Russia needs to make up for its humiliation in the region during the 1967 war.

And by showing weakness and appeasement, this misbegotten government of Israel has given our enemies more hope and motivation than ever before that their ultimate prize is now within reach.

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March 23, 2008

A Worried Man

Why is this man worried?

Should we share his concerns?

Click the photo, listen what he has to say, and decide for yourself.


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March 22, 2008

Is Britain Anti-Semitic ?





The British government’s ban on Moshe Feiglin from entering the UK is symptomatic of a deep and institutional prejudice against Israel. Feiglin is best known for running second to Benjamin Netanyahu in the last Likud leadership primary.

The ban is remarkable for a number of reasons. Firstly that it was pre-emptive. Feiglin had not even applied for a visa, nor had any plans to enter the UK. Secondly that it came to light in the week that Hezbollah spokesman Ibrahim Mousawi - already banned in the US and Ireland - was allowed free entry to lecture students in British universities. Mousawi’s visa had been approved despite strong media protests and within weeks of bitter parliamentary exchanges over a repeat visit by London Mayor Livingtone’s favourite Islamic cleric, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, whom Hamas leader Khaled Mesh’al praised for his support of suicide bombers.

Compared to such rabid preachers of the Jihad, Moshe Feiglin comes across more like Mother Teresa. It’s therefore remarkable that the Home Office took the opposite view and considered this man such a danger to public order that they didn’t even risk him turning up at their consulate in Tel Aviv. Instead they located his modest address on a Samarian hilltop and mailed him that personal and pre-emptive ban.

The truth is that Feiglin is just the latest victim of a British boycott movement that leads the free world in the barring of Israeli personalities, academics and products. In April 2005 the Association of British University Teachers voted to boycott Haifa and Bar-Ilan Universities. In April 2006 the National Union of Journalists presumed to censure Israel’s ‘savage, pre-planned attack on Lebanonand called for a boycott of Israeli goods and sanctions by the British government and the UN. Then the University Lecturers Union condemned Israel’s ‘40-year occupation of Palestinian land and the complicity of Israeli academics’. It voted for a ‘comprehensive and consistent boycott’ of all Israeli academic institutions.

With pressure from Jewish advocacy groups and sympathetic parliamentarians, those votes were ultimately overturned. However, in a country replete with unions and NGOs infiltrated by leftists and antiwar campaigners it is only a question of time before the next visceral attack on Israel. One of Britain’s best known relief charities is ‘War on Want’. Its charter states that it was set up ‘to relieve poverty distress and suffering in any part of the world’. However, its website shows an obscenely disproportionate amount of space, campaigning and film footage devoted to Israel. I searched the site for the word ‘Israel’ and came up with 323 entries. The word ‘Darfur’ returned not one single entry.

And it’s not just Israeli academics and products that are singled out for British discrimination. IDF soldiers are also at risk. In September 2005 retired Maj. Gen. Doron Almog came to London to support a handicapped children’s association. He was tipped off that a London magistrate had issued an arrest warrant on trumped-up war crimes charges brought by ‘The Palestinian Center for Human Rights’ (the best oxymoron I’ve heard this year). Almog had to sit tight in the El Al plane until it returned to Tel Aviv.

It is one of life’s ironies that Doron Almog was trapped in a plane on a Heathrow runway simply for being an Israeli soldier. If the British police had looked further than the bogus Palestinian charges, they would have found that Almog was a hero of the 1976 Entebbe rescue mission where he was the first to land and secure the airstrip and control tower.

In his formal reply to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, Moshe Feiglin writes that the order for his exclusion issued by Her Majesty’s Government only confers legitimacy on the British boycott movement and virtually gives it a Royal Warrant.

Natan Sharansky defines this kind of behavior as the "new anti-Semitism". Whereas classical anti-Semitism is aimed at the Jewish people or the Jewish religion, "new anti-Semitism" is aimed at the Jewish state. He diagnoses this malaise by what he calls his "3D" test - to help us distinguish legitimate criticism of Israel from anti-Semitism.

The first "D" is the test of demonization. When the Jewish state is being demonized; when Israel's actions are blown out of all sensible proportion; when comparisons are made between Israelis and Nazis and between Palestinian refugee camps and Auschwitz - this is anti- Semitism, not legitimate criticism of Israel.

The second "D" is the test of double standards. When criticism of Israel is applied selectively; when Israel is singled out by the United Nations for human rights abuses while the behavior of genuine abusers, such as China, Iran, Syria and Sudan are ignored - this is anti-Semitism.

The third "D" is the test of delegitimization: when Israel's fundamental right to exist is denied, alone among all peoples in the world - this too is anti-Semitism.

Britain seems to have passed Natan’s test with flying colors.

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This appeared as an Opinion piece in the Jewish Press & Arutz Sheva

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March 13, 2008

The Jewish Problem - 2008

During WW2, "The Jewish Problem" was about Nazis needing to do away with the Jews.

70 years later "The Jewish Problem" is about Jews helping Nazis to do away with Israel.

What better way to bridge these two eras than with music?

I give you world famous conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim, son of Ashkenazi Jews who married the famous cellist Jacqueline Dupre at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

Now in his sixties, Barenboim is a fierce critic of Israel, calling its policies toward Palestinians 'morally abhorrent'. Remember, he was the guy who refused to be interviewed by Israel Army Radio because he was offended by the interviewer's uniform. He goes out of his way to upset his own people, most notably by playing music by Hitler's beloved composer, Richard Wagner at the Israel Festival in Jerusalem.

A best friend of Palestinian activist Edward Said, this mutation of the Jewish Problem adopted honorary Palestinian citizenship after sneaking into Ramallah to conduct a concert for his Arab friends.

For his latest stunt, Barenboim is taking his Palestinian orchestra to the site of the 1936 Nazi Olympics in Berlin to play more of Hitler's favourite pieces by Wagner. The same strains that were played by the SS as Jews filed into the gas chambers.

And here's the rich bit ... the proceeds of that concert will go to building a new concert hall in Ramallah.

If things run true to form, that concert hall - like most cultural centres, schools and hospitals in the Palestinian territories - will soon be stocked up with weapons and fitted with rocket launchers ready for the next round of Jew killing.

So there you have it. A Jewish boy who was lucky enough to have been born in Argentina in 1942 instead of being gassed in Poland, decides to make his home in Berlin. From there he builds a career which peaks in the playing of Wagner to upset Jewish holocaust survivors and playing it again to raise money for those who wish to wipe out the next generation of Jews.

There you have him.
Daniel Barenboim - icon of the new Jewish Problem.
First citizen of Palestine and frontrunner for president of 'Jews for a Second Holocaust'.

The Furhrer would have laughed heartily.

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March 11, 2008

Obama to the Rescue


Today's news is that Presidential candidate Barack Obama has declared that Israel has every right to defend itself.

Well, that's just great.
All we needed to hear.

Perhaps this has been what Mr Olmert has been waiting for all long.
Which would explain why he has done nothing to defend the people of Sderot and Ashkelon until now.

He just wanted permission.

Which prompts me to ask:
What will there be to celebrate this year on Yom Ha-Atzmaut?
60 years of independence, you say?

I say, what independence?


What kind of independence is there when you need the US, UN or EU's approval to defend your own citizens?

And what kind of independence can you claim when, after 60 years, you are still asking your neighbours (and most members of the UN) to acknowledge your right to exist?

So Mr Obama, much as we appreciate your 'leave to defend ourselves' you may rest assured that as soon as a Likud government is restored to power in Israel, it will provide its enemies with lead-jacketed proof of the existence of the Jewish State and its absolute determination to protect and defend its people and homeland with zero tolerance.



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March 10, 2008

A Rabbi's Grief & Wisdom

Israel TV sent its hardtalk anchorette Ilana Dayan to the bereaved Yeshivat Mercaz Harav for an interview with Rabbi Weiss, five of whose students were slain on Thursday night.

Turning up at the yeshiva in a trouser suit, the secular Dayan's main questions centred on the strength of faith of surviving students. If you can follow basic Hebrew, the interview and the Rabbi's emotional responses are well worth watching on this video

What struck me most was Dayan's final question and the Rabbi's quite poignant reply, as reproduced here from Arutz Sheva:

Q. I would like to ask you, Rabbi Weiss, if despite all, and with all the faith and values that enwrap you, and all that you know and teach, if despite all, perhaps there was a moment that you felt that you might be on the verge of a break.

A. [after reflection:] I will tell you something that comes from a place that you might not expect. I thought [voice breaking, speaking slowly] that, if this place is hit so strongly, then perhaps, it's not right for me to be here at the head of it. Perhaps someone else is needed who is better than me, someone who might not be hit as bad. And if it's because I'm so good that I'm getting hit, then perhaps that also means that I shouldn't be here.

Q. [emotional herself] It still appears to me that the students of this yeshiva have merited to have an outstanding rabbi and educator. Thank you very much.


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March 09, 2008

Nowhere is Safe

I was in Ashkelon at the time of the terrorist attack on Mercaz Harav yeshivah. From a city under rocket fire I drove back to Jerusalem, a city in which these eight defenceless kids had been shot to death in cold blood.

I wondered: Is there anywhere safe in Israel these days outside of the priveleged and impregnable bubble in which Olmert and his lackeys live and work?

The sooner that privelege us taken away from them, the safer our people will be.
In Sderot, Ashkelon, Jerusalem ... and also in the Diaspora, whose Jews have now been marked as a legitimate target by the terrorists who have been empowered by our weakest ever leadership.

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March 02, 2008

A Bitter Irony

Witness the plight of the Jewish evacuees, forced out of their homes and farms in Gaza in a vain attempt to appease world opinion. Many of them are still living in tents more than two years after Ariel Sharon's 'disengagement with reality'.

Those fortunate enough to have a solid roof over their heads, are living in these prefabricated houses in the town of Nitzan, just outside Ashkelon.

Whilst they were farming their plots in Gush Katif, things were relatively peaceful and contacts between Jews and Arabs were in the nature of trade and employment.

Everyone acknowledges that the retreat from Gaza was the most monumental mistake, creating a vaccum for Hamas to quickly fill with terror and despair. It seems that only Mr Olmert fails to recognise this mistake, which - even under Gazan rocket fire - he is still so eager to repeat in the West Bank.

If he fails to acknowledge the truth, perhaps he might accept a bitter irony:

The settlers of Gush Katif never came under rocket fire until they returned to Israel proper.

In Olmert's Israel, it may be safer outside the Green Line than in!


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March 01, 2008

At long last...


After 18 months of restraint since the end of the Second Lebanon War, Israel is finally having to ‘get serious’ about ending a blitzkrieg that no other country would put up with for more than a few days.

The leaders of the Palestinian Authority [kleptocracy] have immediately announced an end to the ‘peace negotiations’ [a process of arming and funding terrorists in the hope they will turn into civilised people that can be trusted to live alongside Israel] which they say are ‘buried under the rubble’ of the Israeli response.

This means that the PA – which has received more billions in foreign aid than the sum total of the Marshall Plan (after adjustment for inflation) is only prepared to talk peace with Israel if they are allowed to continue randomly rocketing Israeli civilians.

And the Israeli ‘left’ continues to buy into this lunacy.

I look forward to seeing some of the ‘Peace Now’ crowd taking their placards down to the Gaza border. That will put them nicely in range for what they justly deserve.

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